Hey there!
Yes, that's totally normal. I guess what you're speaking about is the tutorial of the game, where you find yourself in a huge armor surrounded by an army of your kind. This is the intro to the story and every character play that part with a sword in hand. Once you'll have finished this, you'll be "naked" (understand me there, I mean no armor) and with the weapon you choosed in your hand, plus the according spell to that weapon.

Just to let you know as well, Wolcen is, unlike many others hack'n'slash, very permissive. It encourage you to test builds, try stuffs by yourself and changes anything you need that do not go as wanted. For a cost of X golds, you'll be able to change any points or nodes you have chosen, meaning you can change your build from ranged to melee or mage anytime you want to. Many of my characters started as melee and are now fully into bows, pistols or wizardry.
It also allow you to try that node in Gate of Fates, thinking it will fit your build, and just abandon it if you find it does not, or if you find it not being relevant enough. That's a really cool aspect of the game that encourage creativity and tests ;)

Good luck out there!

Great, thanks! I thought I was overlooking something, I haven't seen a game where you pick a bow and end up with a sword! And yes, I was in the middle of a big army and npc's were yelling, it was a bit confusing.

Thanks again for the help, it's much appreciated!

Yeah, the first part of the game might be a bit confusing. And the fact that you choose between different weapons while creating your char may be confusing as well, thinking it will define your class for the rest of the game while it does not.

Btw, I really advise you to create your char in Online mode. It does not prevent you from playing the game solo if you like to and Online does not mean it has to be played with people, but it allow you to play with people if you want so. If your char is Offline, there's no way to play with people and no way to transfer from Offline to Online. The only positive aspect of Offline is that it allows you to modify game files, to instantly create an item or a fully leveled char for example, but since you're discovering the game it's not really a feature for you yet.

Khirlias, thanks for the help. I bought this game a while back, tried it for a bit and found it confusing so I moved on. Now that I'm coming back any help is greatly appreciated! I did not know about the online - offline thing, thanks for that info. Since I'm just starting I won't lose anything if I start over, so I'll probably do that. I guess what threw me was that this game is different from other games I've played, mainly the diablo series and path of exile.

I do play 100% solo in all the games I play, if that option is available. My internet connection isn't the best, there's disconnects and slow speeds here, not the best for playing games online. I try to make the best of it though.

I have high hopes for this game, I like the art style and from the little I've played, character movements are smooth. I look forward to digging into the tutorial and getting started. Thanks again for the info.