The meres
MRY did write, plus the exceptional encounter and characterization of Inifere, are outstanding, not alone because of its prose poetry which you find too rarely in mature games. A lot of the places and stories, like the glimpses of the past or the Mere in the underwater city are excellent.
BUT the one thing the game is not, is a Torment game. InXile should have had the balls to say crowdfunding is one thing, but marketing and presentation of the game must have an entirely different focus. If that would have been clearly communicated, a lot of expectations and disappointments could have been avoided.
InXile is definitely guilty of mismarketing, with claims like a new take on combat, spiritual successor to PST and other nonsense. It's sad to the point it's almost absurd. Their Ninth World trailer is one of the best video game trailers ever made, and yet they had Techland produce a lot more that simply mischaracterized the focus of the game. Here lies the root of the commercial flop. The marketing didn't convince the mainstream, and alienated its true audience. The cover for the game, which is fantastic art in its own right, is simply not suited for marketing a sci-fi game to an audience that is not interested in horror. I'd even go as far as saying Brian Fargo missed the biggest opportunity of his career by his ineptitude for proper marketing. This is a theme that goes back to games like PST and Soulbringer, games that were great but underperformed.
