Ken Folletts The Pillars of the Earth

Adapting a sprawling historical novel into a point-and-click adventure isn’t a small task, yet Daedalic took on Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth and delivered something that’s both reverent to the source material and surprisingly engaging in its own right. Rather than focusing on inventory puzzles and contrived logic, the game leans heavily on character, story and atmosphere; essentially a narrative adventure dressed in the skin of a classic genre.
The setting, 12th century England, is rarely explored in games, and the adaptation makes the most of it. Hand-painted backdrops bring medieval towns, cloisters and cathedrals to life with painterly detail, while the orchestral score swells with a sense of reverence. The atmosphere is immersive and grounded, evoking the hardship and hope of the period without tipping into caricature.
Characters are the real draw. You step into the lives of Tom Builder, Philip the monk, Aliena and Jack, each portrayed with warmth and nuance. Dialogue choices shape interactions and relationships, giving you some agency in how the story unfolds. While the overall framework draws from Follett’s novel, the developers take creative liberties in how events progress, reimagining key moments to suit an interactive format. For fans of the book, it’s fascinating to see familiar beats reframed with new possibilities; for newcomers, it stands as a character-driven tale strong enough to work on its own.
Gameplay, however, is pared down. The puzzles are simple, often little more than contextual choices or light interactions, which may disappoint players looking for traditional adventure game challenge. The pacing can also feel slow, as the game prefers long stretches of dialogue and reflection over constant activity. But this restraint works in its favor if you’re here for storytelling rather than brain teasers.
Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth succeeds not by reinventing adventure games, but by embracing narrative sincerity. It’s a meditative, emotional experience - part interactive novel, part visual drama - that captures the human struggles at the heart of Follett’s work.

Overall:
Story: 9/10 – Story is actually very good
Music: 9/10 – Good for an indie game
Voice Acting: 10/10
Gameplay: 8/10 – Not too difficult; QTE's are hard to fail, almost baby like
Character Design/Visuals: 10/10
I bought this game on sale, I was looking for something fresh, and was surprised, as it turned out to be a hidden gem. I heard this is based on a book too, so I might grab that as well.

This was a great adaptation of a compelling story, and I feel like I should have paid a lot more for it than I did. It was a fairly long game and a labor of love, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-based games and/or quality historical fiction. The characters were complex and memorable, the voice acting was great, and somehow your decisions felt like they had weight even though the outcomes are obviously predetermined. If you can scoop this gem up on sale, definitely do, but imo it's worth whatever the original cost to support the studio and the folks who adapted this so well and lovingly.

I am speecless, such amazing experience, story is just substantial, in my completely blind playtrough i got amazing ending, i dont knw what to say, i almoust cryed multiple times, better then any TV show 10/10

A quite solid and entertaining game! The gameplay is very interactive, yet doesn't include any difficult puzzles or mechanisms (with the exception of a few tricky QTEs), hence it's pretty chill altogether. I really like the medieval setting and find the world-building to be very well-done; it made it simple for me to get immersed in the setting.
The plot itself is certainly decent too, it includes a variety of story-aspects that get beautifully connected with each other. I especially loved the main reveal, as well as the epic & brutal moments and honestly wish that the game showed more of the horror and anguish. Meanwhile I perceived the less serious scenes to be frequently too long in comparison to scenes of high plot relevance, I still liked to get more insight into the daily life and such (though that whole romance arc was actually incredibly unnecessary, in my opinion).
Another thing I'd like to mention is that the game is straight-up hilarious like 80% of the time, I admittedly couldn't take plenty of scenes seriously because they got that hyperbolic drama element, however I was captivated by the story regardless, additionally the actual comedy scenes were simply extra funny to me.
Overall this was a very pleasant experience and I had plenty of fun exploring the worldsetting and watching the events unfold. I personally perceived some pacing issues, due to some events/chapters being either too brief or too extensive, but besides that the plot is great!

Recommended, with some caveats.
The tl;dr: if you're looking for a narrative driven game, and don't mind mostly watching events unfold, with some occasional decision making, this might be for you. The voice acting is great, the story engaging, and it's not a typical setting for a computer game. I have no idea how closely this game sticks to the story in the books, nor whether your actions have more than just cosmetic impact, but I don't expect much in the way of replayability. The game is not without flaws; there are numerous little bugs and spots where you can see corners were cut for budgetary reasons, but nothing that spoils the enjoyment. Perhaps not worth picking up at full price, but pick it up in a sale and you won't regret it.
The long and rambly, mostly dealing with the game's flaws:
The game is linear. Maybe choices you make have a real effect on how the story develops, but apart from some immediate failure states that produce a "game over" and force you to retry the last section, I don't think they do. There are numerous clues to that effect, e.g. failure to perform certain good deeds to curry favour with the monks having no effect on the outcome of the chapter meeting, or how it doesn't matter how good or bad of a midwife you are, the baby still gets born and the story still unfolds the same. You get a summary of your choices after each chapter, and they get mentioned later in the story, but have no impact beyond that. It feels more like watching an interactive movie, where you have to occasionally select which "alternative scene" plays before going back to the main track.
It's also very much an experience on rails; it may look like a point and click adventure, but it's a succession of scenes that each play out in a limited environment, with a clear goal, and very little in the way of actual puzzle work. You don't gradually open up more of the game world to roam freely from then on. It borrows some game mechanics from point n' click adventures, such as an inventory (so small it's not even a separate screen), left-click to walk or interact and right-click to describe things, the ability to use inventory items on things in the game world, but that's where the comparison ends.
There are some minor nitpicks w.r.t. the game design. For starters, while the game offers "documents" that offer insight into the happenings in the broader world, it completely lacks a story log. If you've been away from the game for a while, there's no convenient way to refresh your mind about what happened so far. You're not stuck, as your next objective is always displayed on screen, but it might make it harder to get back into the story. Then there's the overuse of the word "take". At regular intervals, the game offers you some insights into things, or questions, which get stored in your "clue inventory", and which you can use on people to talk about that subject. So it will display a text such as "Where is Jack?", and underneath there's a button labeled "take", as if it were an object you pick up that goes into your inventory. This may be a minor nitpick, but how exactly does one "take" a "where's jack"? Then there's some minor audio design issues. At the beginning of the game, you find yourself standing outside a door from which you hear a muffled sermon being delivered. When you open the door to enter, the sound of the sermon abruptly cuts off as soon as you touch the door handle, utter silence while the door opening animation plays, utter silence as the animation from inside the room with you walking in plays, and suddenly the sermon starts again while the camera pans over to the priest. This was the most jarring example, but it shows a lack of attention to detail. And some inconsistent interactions, e.g. when using an item on something where it's not applicable, sometimes you'll get a remark to that effect, sometimes you'll just initiate the default "left-click" interaction. And some things evoke a reaction when interacting with them, whereas others have you walk over and just stand there.
There's also the map. In this game, you can "collect" maps to areas you visit. This happens automatically. They probably meant to do something more substantial with it, but as far as I can tell, you only ever get to "collect" one map: that of Kingsbridge. It doesn't allow you to fast-travel, only to see where locations are in relation to the other locations. Given how small the town is, it's rather pointless. It looks as if this feature has been cut down for budgetary reasons, but instead of removing it altogether, they left it in in an unfinished state. Similar budget cuts are evident in the "cutscenes": they consist of minimally animated conversations, bookended by black screens where people enter/exit the room, to save on animation budget. There are also some typos and grammatical errors in the subtitles, and near the end, some instances where the subtitles don't match the spoken dialogue/narrative. Nothing serious, and it happened rarely, but shows limited testing budget.
But the worst offenders for me are the "challenges" and the stupid "bible mechanic". At random points in the game, you need to interact with something in a way that shows some prowess. E.g. using your hammer and chisel to chisel some stonework. Instead of just assuming that the person doing the work is indeed proficient with the tools he has been using for years, the game forces this stupid minigame on you where a white dot does the "knight rider" animation inside a rectangle, some parts of which are coloured green. And you have to click exactly when the dot is over the green areas, clearing them all out, while a timer counts down to put you under time pressure. This kind of minigame has absolutely no place in a narrative driven game like this. It's just busywork designed as gameplay, and shows an utter lack of understanding of what makes games fun. In a game like this, it only serves to break immersion. Similarly, the "bible mechanic". One of your characters carries a bible around. You can use it on people to discuss matters of faith, but also on objects to offer insight from a religious perspective. The game explicitly tells you this, so in the beginning you try this mechanism out on anything and anyone you meet. And it's just a third way of interacting with things. You have the left-click for direct interaction, but now the bible also serves a similar purpose when used on people. You have the right-click to describe things, but now you also have the bible to "describe from a religious perspective" when used on objects. And at no point is this mechanism actually useful. Except for one very specific scene, where you must use the bible on someone to lecture them, so you can convince them to do what you asked.
Finally, some minor bugs: when highlighting interactive objects and exits, the exits are not always marked. In the documents screen, the scrollwheel sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. The map of Kingsbridge becomes randomly inaccessible at times, only to show up again if you move to another screen. The interaction icons at the bottom randomly disappeared on me once, only to return after I moved one screen over and back again. The mouse "locks up" when the game is "busy". I had one lock-up when interacting with an object, forcing me to stop the game from the Steam client. But worst of all: the game minimises when it loses focus (e.g. when you move your mouse off-screen), and doesn't restore to the same screen in my multi monitor setup.
That last bug was quite annoying; the others are just things I noticed, but which weren't bad enough to ruin my fun. All in all, despite feeling somewhat "unfinished" and despite the bugs, the game had me coming back for more, to see how the story would unfold. If it hadn't been for the story, I probably would've been a lot less lenient in my review, but the story is what redeemed the game in my opinion.

If you enjoyed Pentiment, you'll likely enjoy this. Follow multiple people on their fragmented perspectives of an intertwined story. Point-and-click controls. Choices matter but it's largely on rails. Kind of a slow burn but interesting enough to keep people who enjoy this genre going. Only half-way through at a little over 9 hours and looking forward to the remaining half.
EDIT: Just finished and the second half is even better than the first.