Weird to see a veteran of PB games struggling with it to be honest. But I guess just stick with it. At the 157 hour mark currently on Steam I think I like the game a little bit.
The progression is very slow and I love that about it. Eventually you gain great amounts of power, and small changes add up huge over the course of the game. A few points in armor or a well-placed Learning Point can make all the difference, and it's a difference you will feel the longer you play the game. The game rewards you for sticking with it and makes you work to get the rewards. I love it.
Quest markers help but I only turn them on for "logical" situations, i.e. an NPC says "this person is supposed to be at the ruins at the bottom of the lift", so I pretend they just mark that spot on the map (they know where the ruins are, after all.) But not sure what you mean when you say the game provides no direction. I'd say 90% of the quests I've found so far can be done fine without quest markers. The clues on where to go are often subtle (i.e. if someone mentions a person is stationed on the road between Xacor and Abessa, you might hear that in conversation and completely miss it, etc..)
That's another thing, pay attention when NPCs talk. There are clues, hints, subtle cues and more in the dialogue, the way they speak, tone of voice and more. If you sleepwalk through those parts you'll make mistakes. Same goes for your dialogue responses in quests. You have to carefully read between the lines.
And you have to pay attention when challenging enemies, too. Some enemies should just be avoided, but when you slowly increase your power (maybe a new weapon, a simple upgrade in the Ability tree, or a few grenades or spells you found, etc.), you can start slaughtering wildlife for fun, profit and advancement.
And the game is balanced in a way in that the runts you are fighting now, giving you a measly 5 or 10 xp, well, by the time you are strong enough to kill decent enemies, they start giving 50+ xp. By the time you can kill rotboars you'll be giddy when each kill gives you 125 xp. So at the start you are discouraged from grinding on weak enemies and have to play the game they want you to, i.e. work to make friends (companion at first, faction later), make money to get better equipment and develop your Abilities before you can really tackle the hard combat in the game. Stick to quests because you need better equipment, skills and friends to survive in Magalan, as Duras explains to you at the start.
When exploring you always have to calculate your odds of success before attempting combat. Or, you can be like me, get the Friend of Beast skill and not have to worry about weaker enemies bothering you.
It becomes very natural as you explore and get to know the enemy types in the game, which areas and enemies to avoid and so on. And survival skills can help you there, too.
Otherwise, yeah, it's a typical PB game, but taken to a very high level. It's really amazing stuff. Sort of like Gothic Super Advanced Edition.
