I'd call things like Rekke's dialogue, the question of what existed before the Wheel as we know it, and what other gods might be out there intentional breadcrumbs pointing towards a third game rather than "criminal" writing.
And as much as I enjoy his work, I think this hero-worshippy idea that Avellone is the only good games writer out there is a little weird.
@marimo
No hero worship here. I am comparing the first game to the second. Honestly, if I was not told that they were made by the same studio I would assume this one was some crappy knock-off cash grab by a studio they outsourced it to.
As far as I know, we should be seeing similar talent in the writing, world design, and role playing elements. For it to have fallen so far.... Who else left, got kicked out, etc? Did they purge the department? If none of that happened then the question comes back what happened to this game?
As to Rekke, let's first separate him from the criminal writing comment, I never put those together.
Rekke is a huge hanging thread that only has connection to the weird tablets you find in, I think, Neketaka to join him to anything else in the game. So the tablet shows he isn't a one off and that we should take his story seriously. However, the subject matter of the tablet almost undercuts the character as anything other than a gag. But his story undercuts the PoE story in some big ways...
Can you say it is bad writing? I don't know. He was funny, I would have liked to know more about him and where he came from. I don't have those options though. He was strange in that you could have serious dialog with him beyond what you get from the sidekicks normally. Maybe he was a cut character and story line that they put in for fun?
But he doesn't seem to be from the past. (where did you draw that conclusion from?)
If he is breadcrumbs to a third game, where the gods have failed; I have a fear of that game. It will barter away the central premise of these games for a basic swords & sorcery with steampunk. There won't be much to build off of. Everything from the past 2 games will be meaningless, and the ending of this game will be overwritten or subjugated to no impact. That would be bad writing.
My final conclusion: Rekke should have been a major player or not at all. Honestly, I find him more interesting then some of our companions so I'm confused by him.
But this is par for the course in this game.