As we anticipated, today several international newspapers have published their (extremely positive) impressions of Obsidian's RPG, also revealing interesting information about the game. The insider Shinobi602 has now made a summary of the most important information that has emerged about the game. Enjoy the reading!

• You play as the "Envoy", a fully customizable character who travels to the "Living Lands" (the game's setting) on the orders of the leader of the Empire of Aedyr, a nation of humans and elves.
• The Living Lands have a sort of Wild West frontier vibe, where people head in search of a better life, with "rough and tumultuous" type of inhabitants.
• As the Emperor's Envoy, most people immediately look on with slight distrust or outright hostility when they see that the Empire of Aedyr is trying to establish a foothold there.
• We were sent there to investigate the "Scourge of Dreams", a plague of the soul that is infecting everything and you must learn to stop it.
• The game is not completely open world, but is made up of large and interconnected "open zones", as in The Outer Worlds.
• Obsidian has made sure that each area is completely handcrafted and has interesting things to do, bandit camps, ruins to explore, half-destroyed hovels, undead soldiers, etc.
• Features an open-class approach to combat, where your story (war hero, arcana scholar, etc.) determines your starting weapon, but you can find other options as you play, such as spears, swords, shields, guns, and you can wield them freely
• You can store two weapons at a time and switch between them instantly, even mid-attack.
• Hitting enemies damages health and also builds up a stun meter that leaves them stunned when it's maxed out, allowing you to perform weapon-specific special moves for a ton of damage
• We can move stealthily and hit enemies from behind or use the environment to your advantage (such as shooting flaming berries to start a fire).
• Some encounters can be bypassed completely thanks to stealth or dialogue conversations if you have the right statistics.
• Combat is described as fast and fluid, with stamina meter management determining attacks, dodging unblockable enemy attacks, reloading weapons for stronger blows, and the ability to use the dual sword, spear, and pistol, etc.
• Some previews felt that the fight was "undeniably easy," however.
• Eurogamer fears that the Living Earths may not be as strange as Obsidian hopes, as there is nothing that is unique or wildly original.
• Structured leveling system, spend skill points in skill trees named as "Fighter" or "Ranger".
• Unlock special abilities that have a cooldown time, mix and match different abilities such as the fighter's dash-tackle and the ranger's magic vines that imprison enemies
• There are many choices to make in the game, such as running into a caged smuggler in the first outpost you encounter: the woman is immediately wary of you and it is up to you to decide whether to free her or not.
• One of the first places you will visit is "Paradis", the main center/civilization point of the Living Lands, and you will have to find the "clavager", essentially the mayor of the city who has left to investigate some reports of the Dreaming Scourge
• After that you will be free to explore wherever you want, the side quests will become immediately available and will impact the main story and vice versa.
• The choices in the side quests "heavily affect individual characters, groups of characters and entire settlements, factions of people and the states of the regions you pass through". They will also have an impact on the choices available. Later in the game, you will be locked or excluded or presented with new choices based on the choices you made much earlier in the game."
• Exploring off the beaten path can often be rewarding, such as coming across a ruined tower that doesn't appear as an icon on the map. Investigating it triggered wire traps with swinging blades, inviting ghost enemies, and climbing to the end revealed a chest with high-quality armor.
• You can camp in different areas and talk to your companions, learn about their stories, etc.
• The writing is more concrete than the "relentless lightness of The Outer Worlds", while retaining Obsidian's signature humor, but with more naturalness in dialogue and less pressure to be witty and whimsical.
• Kai, the bluish-green "Aumaua" companion from past cutscenes, accompanies you from the very beginning. Comrades are a "constant presence", they comment on the landmarks you meet, during the fights and "in general they feel like a fellow traveler, instead of silently following behind you".