Not really.... at no point did I not know where to go in Cyseal or what to do..... everything can be deduced by map markers and hints or plain monster level. (Maybe that you have to confront
Evelyn Esmeralda to have the quest advance properly is convoluted though.. or maybe it's just plain odd scripting) look my topics for help here and you notice the first time I had a problem was when the game triggered the homestead invasion before giving me access to tenebrium weapons (Kinda huge flaw, wouldn't you say?) and simply because I explored the bridge map change to see where it leads. And that you can find the skill book for this in geomancers office in a city with no quests on a shelf that doesn't highlight unless you stand directly underneath it.... ;P
I dunno how to say this, but while I love D:OS for what it is, hardcore CRPG and all, it is also the weakest in terms of story/writing and simple "purpose" (compared to Torment/BG2). Even if it has a interesting story, but thinking more about it it doesn't really offer a lot of depth. (It's always a bad sign when you can sum it up in 1 sentence and end up describing the entire plot)
Act 1 is most definitely convoluted but it is not nearly as confusing and simply purposeless than act 2. You are not given a direct purpose, you just kinda wade through the forest because you are done in cyseal. Maybe that is your point with "no handholding" but to me this is bad writing. Good writing gives you a purpose, and lets you figure out things in-between.
And let me tell you, but if you don't free the white witch as first thing, then NOTHING in act 2 and act3 makes any sense at all. Now that's not the bad thing, the bad thing is that you are not given proper purpose to free her. Instead that's told to you as a "thing you may wanna do at some point" like washing behind the ears, or picking up mushrooms.
I wonder, % wise, how many considered the white witch to be a major plot point when entering the forest? Because I didn't until I freed her, way way later ;P
