The game does not reward experience points for killing enemies, only for completing quests and discovering new areas. This means that non-violent approaches such as stealth are just as rewarding.
The game starts with a character creation screen where the player can choose items for their playable character, such as their physical appearance, race, and creed. The player can choose to play as one of eleven classes: fighter, rogue, ranger, barbarian, monk, paladin, wizard, druid, priest, chanter, and cipher. Each of them make the gameplay different; for example, the cipher can use the soul of an enemy in order to attack them, and druids can shapeshift into a beast and cast spells. The protagonist's class can also influence the number of available dialogue options. The player may adventure with up to five other characters out of a total of eight that they can pick up on their travels. These are fleshed out characters with unique personalities and appearances. Additionally, the protagonist can hire party members which the player creates in local taverns, but at a monetary cost.
The game has optional side quests that do not advance the main plot, which feature fleshed out supporting characters and multiple outcomes. According to a writer for Digital Spy, most of these are not "fetch quests". During the game, the protagonist can build up a reputation depending on their actions. Non-playable characters will react differently to him or her depending on this, and it can also affect the outcome of certain events in the game. The game features a scouting mode in which the party can sneak, which allows the player to avoid being seen by enemies. During scouting, the party can spot hidden items and traps, which the player can disarm and use against enemies.
Damage from enemies to the player's characters affect an endurance and health pool. While endurance regenerates after combat, health can only be restored by resting. The party can either set up camp, or rest in an inn. If a character in the party has their endurance drained, they are knocked out until the end of combat. If a companion has their health reduced to zero they die permanently.
The player can choose from five skills to overcome situations: Stealth, Athletics, Lore, Mechanics and Survival. As the player fights more creatures, more information is added to their bestiary. This helps the player collect information about how to attack them effectively. Early in the game, the protagonist will take over a stronghold, which acts as the party's fortress. This can be upgraded.
Story
Setting
The story takes place in the world of Eora, in a region placed in the southern hemisphere called the Eastern Reach, an area roughly the size of Spain. The Eastern Reach contains several nations, including the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood, a former colony of the mighty Aedyr Empire that won its independence through a revolutionary war; the Vailian Republics, a confederation of sovereign city-states; and the Penitential Regency of Readceras, a quasi-theocratic state ruled by priests of the god Eothas.
Technologically and socially, most of the civilizations in Eora are in what roughly corresponds to the early stages of the Renaissance. Firearms are still a relatively new invention and are quite cumbersome to use; as a result, their use is not widespread. They have, however, proven quite effective against magic users.
A factor of great conflict all over Eora is the recent scientific discovery that souls are not mere metaphysical abstractions, but quantifiable, measurable objects that can be transferred, stored, or molded. Souls are the basis of magic, as accessing their power is what allows certain people to use it. Souls leave the body upon death, and go through a largely unknown process before reincarnating into a newborn body. Every soul does, however, have embedded memories from their previous lives, and through certain processes a person's soul can be "Awakened," meaning they gain awareness of these past lives. There are also people in the world who have the supernatural ability to perceive people's souls, which allows them to access past memories, among other things; these individuals are called "Watchers." Though the study of souls, called animancy, is still a young field of science, the implications for society at large has been vast, led to rapid advances in technology, and caused several rifts and clashes in the different religious communities, which has marked the era as a time of great turmoil.
Characters
The player character can be male or female and one of six available races, and the game typically refers to him or her as "The Watcher." Over the course of the adventure, the player can recruit up to eight secondary characters as companions. Available companions include: Edér, a fighter and worshiper of one of the game's gods, Eothas; Aloth, a wizard and child of parents who served nobility; Durance, a disillusioned priest and follower of Magran, a goddess of war and fire; Sagani, a ranger who is on a quest to search for an elder from her village; Grieving Mother, a strange cipher who can not normally be fully seen by other people, and has a personal connection to the hollowborn problem; Pallegina, a paladin who works for the Vailian Republics; Kana Rua, a chanter who was sent by his people to recover a book of sacred text; and Hiravias, a druid who has been banished from his tribe.
Plot
The player is a foreigner who arrives in the Dyrwood. Their caravan is hit by a mysterious storm that kills everyone but them. Taking refuge in a cave, the player character witnesses some cultists perform a ritual on a machine that can strip souls from their bodies. Exposed to these energies, the player character becomes a Watcher, a person able to read souls. The player character also becomes Awakened, able to access memories of their past lives. This curses the Watcher with waking visions and an inability to sleep. In time, the Watcher will go insane from this, so they must track down the cultists and reverse the curse.
Dyrwood is cursed by the Hollowborn Plague: children are being born without souls, leaving them totally unresponsive, in a way similar to a permanent vegetative state. Many people blame animancers, the scientists who study and manipulate souls. Investigating the curse, the Watcher discovers that the Hollowborns' souls have in fact been stolen by a cult known as the Leaden Key, led by a priest named Thaos, and that Thaos is framing animancers for the Plague. This eventually leads to a riot in the capital city where animancers are lynched and their college is destroyed.
