I have played the demo for a few hours, and my mind is actually blown by how minimalistic it is. It's essentially Avadon stripped down to its bare bones, plus a mediocre outdoor area that might as well not even exist. And Avadon was already pretty dumbed down from past Spiderweb games. There is a crappy base building component too, I honestly don't know why developers need to follow the trend of mindless base building in an exploration themed RPG. It was the least appealing part of NWN 2 and Pillars of Eternity, and is only one step above those annoying card games from KoTOR.
What boggles my mind is how *ugly* the game is. I don't expect good graphics in my RPGs, but how can the graphics in Spiderweb games be getting *worse* over time? And the writing is just cringe-worthy in some places, although I already expected it would be that way from the 'Mom has a job for you' trailer. For example, you read a random book about how your Nation's diplomatic strategy is to conquer a nation by allying with a certain faction within that nation and then play them against each other. Uh, sure, OK, that's pretty standard for any major superpower. But does that need to be explained in some random book you find lying around? Can't that be integrated into the plot or dialogue more subtly than just doing an info dump? Even Avadon did a better job of conveying Pact philosophy with a bit more maturity (eg. by having Redbeard ask you political questions and then provide a 'correct' answer as according to an Avadon loyalist).
Yeah, I'm going to pass on this one.