It's a pity to hear that. I am sure all your problems with PS are solvable rather easily.
I assume you have a CRT screen, I don't know why, but on a CRT the game is always really dark, adjusting the gamma of the screen might help a lot with that (on TFT screens that issue does not seem to exist)
As for the sound I have no idea, I've turned it off most of the time
NPC speech: There's a thread here in the forums where the developers ask for help with improving NPC dialog, altho this is mainly for the normal NPC dialog I think you could even let them know about the quest thing. Getting yourself into a guild might also help you, not by giving direct spoilers, but by giving hints on the correct phrasing.
The Death Realm can be a bit scary and confusing for beginners, it is a bit tricky to find the way at first, but after a few times you'll be able to run blindly through it, however, talking to the player you followed and asking him for guidiance might have helped you too.
Maps, players have wished for a map and compass system since ever, but as far as I know it is not planned on implementing it (correct me if I'm wrong). Yliakum is currently rather small and with some exploring you will be able to walk blindly through all of yliakum one day (except for the sewers

). I know how it is to get lost in the wilderness, I had that problem too at the beginning but eventually managed to find my way back, I am sure you are able to do that too, like everyone else has (a guild can be of great help here too, or IC friends who take you on a trip)
The game is made by volunteers, who work on it in their free time, I really doubt it will go from alpha to beta in a short time, you will probably come back in a few month and only notice a few changes (most changes are invisible for players anyways, but checking the history file of the source repository reveals all the changes on the code base).
Anyway, You say the game looks interesting enough, so maybe rethink your decision?

If not, hope to see you back in a few months
