There are so many hints though, but well hidden. I'm on my third playthrough and I am still discovering pieces of information I hadn't even glimpse before. Act 1 is so multilayered depending of what type of experience you want that it is necessary to be long. If it was shorter, by the end of it, you would have no clue whatsoever about what's going on.
Such as? I have no idea what the Absolute is and all of the clues I have found come from this forum or from datamining. The evil path might give you less information about the Absolute, even. People like Halsin treat it as some upstart cult and frankly it comes across as such for the player as well.
