[...] Genius: at the beginning of the adventure only question marks are indicated for each opponent, and only through fighting more and more specimens of a particular type of adversary do one's characters learn its the strengths and weaknesses and fill out the omitted information. There is also an extensive bestiary, in which more details about monsters and human adversaries may with time be found.
[...]
Through these scripted interactions, Obsidian kills two birds with one stone: the story is enriched with more roleplaying atmosphere, more decisions and more branches in quest design, and simultaneously, the budget does not need to be stretched for the inclusion of costly scripted in-engine moments or pre-rendered interludes. Instead, a text window is displayed at certain points of the game, sometimes adorned with sparingly animated drawings, through which a narrator describes events almost like a dungeon master in a pen-and-paper game: accompanied by appropriate environmental sounds, such as wind in the branches or the creaking of a door, one reads what is happening to one's characters and decides between several choices of actions. All of this happens in a text window, removed from normal gameplay, but with the same freedom of choice, consequences to one's reputation, and attribute checks as in dialogue.
On one occasion, an ally totters from the forest with a spear in his back, and one must choose what actions to take against his murderers. Or one squeezes with one's group through a narrow cave and an monster snatches one's companion by the leg. Then one must choose whether to leave him behind, to strike at the adversary, or to cast a spell. All these choices have consequences, some of them dramatic - players of The Banner Saga will know something of this. In the tutorial, for example, the rogue Heodan becomes incapacitated. Upon reaching a wider part of the cave, we may rest for Heodan's benefit. The fighter Calisca, however, would like to make her way out of the caves as quickly as possible. If we decide to rest, we will find in the morning that Calisca has stolen away into the night.
The risk of permanent loss of companions accompanies every fight and every quest in Project Eternity. Thus it is good that one may create and recruit replacement companions with a donation of gold in the Hall of Adventurers. The class, race and attributes of these companions can be chosen entirely according to one's taste, but they are not nearly as talkative as the NPCs provided by Obsidian with their own motivations and elaborate biographies. At E3 Josh Sawyer spoke, for example, of an exotic lady named Pallegina, a so-called "Godlike" with dark skin, golden bird eyes, and colourful feathers growing on her head.
An unusual scenario, mysterious events
Fragments of text adventure, in similar fashion to the aforementioned scripted interactions, are also used between chapter transitions of the main story, over the latter of which Obsidian has still cast a veil of silence. The narrated text and artworks are immediately reminiscent of the chapter changes in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, but the setting is starkly different from the Dungeons & Dragons world of Faerûn: Eora is a world in upheaval, in which technology (called "Animancy") and magic exist equally, and monsters and dungeons beside steam engines and muskets. Fascinating: reincarnation is not a matter of faith in Eora, but rather fact; souls take on new bodies after death.
At the beginning of the game, the hero is traveling as part of a caravan, which is naturally ambushed just as it stops at the ruins of a forgotten civilization. In the middle of the fight, there breaks a dreaded soul storm which utterly unmakes the souls of its victims. The protagonist and her companions seek shelter in an ancient system of caves and come across a mysterious cult that apparently has something to do with the soul storms. A classical but interesting prelude to a plot that is certain to be given one interesting turn or another by the masterful storytellers of Obsidian. As far as characterization and narrative are concerned, Obsidian now belong to the best in their field - the scenes shown at E3 underline this.
:
