Oh, so this is the "crusty white dudes" guy?! I remember the post but not the poster. Well, I hope he and the game are erased from the world and from history. They deserve nothing more.
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Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
Keep up guys, I told you the same as soon as the video was out:
So, any chance that what we saw in the videos were unrefined graphics? Like... half of the shaders still not in place, hues to be re-calibrated, fog, lightning, and shadows to be trimmed or added, stuff like that?
And the magic wands hitting through shields without sort of providing a visual explanation, that is to be corrected, right?
And...
Oh man, I can't do this in good spirit.
And the magic wands hitting through shields without sort of providing a visual explanation, that is to be corrected, right?
And...
Oh man, I can't do this in good spirit.
I don't really give a shit about any of that, but the glaring lack of hit reactions and kinesthetic feedback in combat honestly made it seem like a half-baked mess. Not that I expected more from Obsidian. Guess the existance of good quest design and faction mechanics is what's going to carry this one if it's going to have any chance.
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Skyrim got plenty of textures, reshaders and post-processing graphics improvements via mods, but the core lack of kinesthetic feedback and response remained, and melee combat continues to feel like shit, unless its over in 3 swings.
Yoomazir
Educated
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She didn't look particularly happy in the extended gameplay video, almost as if she knows it's going to suck and she'll be the one to take all the blame.Why does it look like a game for pre-teens?
DOA
Some speculations from me, and some indications given by the "extended gameplay breakdown" video. They've taken the technology from TOW and are building on it, adapting it to PoE's ruleset, hopefully adding lockpicking and other stuff that was missing in TOW. Their "gameplay director" is as clueless about RPGs as anyone you can meet on the street who has played Skyrim. He lacks the vocabulary and theoretical framework when describing a game of that genre. His presence in the project might be related to Tim Cain's "semi-retirement" status, and Tim's clashes with Carrie Patel, of which we've seen hints. In other words, Patel must be very happy to be working with him. She is just as clueless about RPGs in their "game" component. Writing CYOA is more her domain.
In terms of structure, I wager Avowed is planned to repeat Deadfire note for note, but attempting to stick closer to the scope limitations. The player's character is a new arrival in the land, but unlike the Watcher, the player is a representative of one of the factions interested in that region. The factions are easy to glean - Aedyr, Rauatai, some "pseudo-Huana" faction represented by the Kai companion NPC (who is an obligatory companion, as was revealed earlier), likely also the Vailian Republics, because we saw a companion NPC from that region as well. She was named Giatta, btw, is this the Vailian for "gata",
? Carrie Patel also mentioned "a couple of more" companion NPCs, likely one from Rauatai and one from Aedyr. This is Josh' principle of companions being spokesmen for their factions, or at least it was described by him once, in relation to FNV. This approach has become pretty boring if you ask me, but by now this makes it all the more reason for Obsidian to be sticking to it.
Although the player character is sent to the Living Lands by one of the big powers, he will be free to act against their interest. In other words - the player gets to be put in the shoes of Pallegina from PoE1. Also in typical Obsidian fashion, the player is playing judge, where he arrives in a new land, explores it and its conflicts and chooses which faction to aid. This structure, combined with the early-modern colonial age setting, gives good opportunity to the writers for their shit takes on colonial history, so brace yourselves.
Just as in Deadfire, you have colonial powers' bickering on one hand and a "local region's mystery", in this instance a "mysterious soul plague" on the other hand. Since the word plague is getting thrown around so much, and since this is "the living lands" (that was supposed to be lush jungles btw), I'm willing to bet the "big reveal" in the story's midpoint will be some conflict involving Galawain.
So far, this all sounds like something Obsidian can pull off successfully. Whether you'll enjoy the game or not depends on how much you care about the PoE setting. I would have a fun time exploring the place in first person, with the downside that I'll have to listen to the companion NPCs' bullshit. Much like I felt about Deadfire.
I'm much more pessimistic about the state of Avowed as an RPG though. With someone who makes a presentation of elemental interactions, dual wielding wands, and "mixing and matching weapons and abilities" it seems nearly certain that all the "mixing and matching" will mean nothing because the game will be piss easy anyway. It will be curious to see how they've ported the isometric games' abilities and spells to first-person action gameplay, but it's clear at this stage that no one gives a rat's ass about the systems, and that combat will be completely superficial and neglected as a mechanic. I don't expect them to come up with something at the level of say FNV's balance by fall this year. Not that FNV is a shining example, but it's better than average for a first person RPG, I think.
So, "good for what it is/10". Another Obsidian mediocrity.
In terms of structure, I wager Avowed is planned to repeat Deadfire note for note, but attempting to stick closer to the scope limitations. The player's character is a new arrival in the land, but unlike the Watcher, the player is a representative of one of the factions interested in that region. The factions are easy to glean - Aedyr, Rauatai, some "pseudo-Huana" faction represented by the Kai companion NPC (who is an obligatory companion, as was revealed earlier), likely also the Vailian Republics, because we saw a companion NPC from that region as well. She was named Giatta, btw, is this the Vailian for "gata",
? Carrie Patel also mentioned "a couple of more" companion NPCs, likely one from Rauatai and one from Aedyr. This is Josh' principle of companions being spokesmen for their factions, or at least it was described by him once, in relation to FNV. This approach has become pretty boring if you ask me, but by now this makes it all the more reason for Obsidian to be sticking to it.Although the player character is sent to the Living Lands by one of the big powers, he will be free to act against their interest. In other words - the player gets to be put in the shoes of Pallegina from PoE1. Also in typical Obsidian fashion, the player is playing judge, where he arrives in a new land, explores it and its conflicts and chooses which faction to aid. This structure, combined with the early-modern colonial age setting, gives good opportunity to the writers for their shit takes on colonial history, so brace yourselves.
Just as in Deadfire, you have colonial powers' bickering on one hand and a "local region's mystery", in this instance a "mysterious soul plague" on the other hand. Since the word plague is getting thrown around so much, and since this is "the living lands" (that was supposed to be lush jungles btw), I'm willing to bet the "big reveal" in the story's midpoint will be some conflict involving Galawain.
So far, this all sounds like something Obsidian can pull off successfully. Whether you'll enjoy the game or not depends on how much you care about the PoE setting. I would have a fun time exploring the place in first person, with the downside that I'll have to listen to the companion NPCs' bullshit. Much like I felt about Deadfire.
I'm much more pessimistic about the state of Avowed as an RPG though. With someone who makes a presentation of elemental interactions, dual wielding wands, and "mixing and matching weapons and abilities" it seems nearly certain that all the "mixing and matching" will mean nothing because the game will be piss easy anyway. It will be curious to see how they've ported the isometric games' abilities and spells to first-person action gameplay, but it's clear at this stage that no one gives a rat's ass about the systems, and that combat will be completely superficial and neglected as a mechanic. I don't expect them to come up with something at the level of say FNV's balance by fall this year. Not that FNV is a shining example, but it's better than average for a first person RPG, I think.
So, "good for what it is/10". Another Obsidian mediocrity.
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The story of that crew, man. Make good games, company goes bankrupt. Start new company, make good games, company goes bankrupt. Start new company, make mediocrity, stay in business.
It's notable that after the habit of swapping publishers for every new release, driven by Feargus' business acumen*, the company is now swapping project leads for every new project. It's like the rot is slowly getting to the core.
* But at least Feargus and Parker must be happy after selling the company, right.
Certainly better than closing the company, which is what they are used to.
Going through the history, I wonder which will be the truly last RPG? I mean Patel's generation doesn't come from PnP background, has no idea of the RPG genre as "approximating the PnP experience on a computer", which was the assumed goal of the first "mainstream" RPGs in the 90s. So when the last people who witnessed and took part in the original Fallout and IE games leave the scene, the horizon of expectation for an RPG within the RPG designers' circle will unanimously reset to "something like Skyrim". In other words, RPG will mean a lame action game, with some dialogue. Like Avowed. Eventually, there will be no one to design RPGs in the way we understood them, even in the twisted half-assed compromise form that are PoE and Owlcat's Pathfinders. It's going to be a funny world. Makes you feel like Arthur walking through the streets of Saint Denis.
We just had a D&D system game win all of the Game Awards. And yeah, it wasn't the tabletop stuff that sold it, but its very obviously wearing that cloak. Fucking huge dice being rolled in the middle of your screen, golden dice if you beat it on hard mode, etc. Its both a tabletop system, and screaming the pop-culture tabletop aesthetic.
I think this is returning, not going away. If Obsidian weren't so deep into Avowed, they'd be announcing something new to ride the wave. Sawyer might do that soon, he is currently not working on anything else irrc. And he is saying in interviews he'd do it if he got "BG3 type money".
What I was somewhat vaguely referring to was the bland, plastic feel. I mean, it's okay if the graphics are simple, dated, or schematic and the heart of the game is good. However, it's insulting and generates disgust, if the graphics pose for 'great 3D' but portray stuff in the plastic-ish way we could've seen in the videos so far.
Other than that, I agree.
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Cancer
Literate
Trash. "Gameplay trailer" with 80% cutscenes, and what they do show is nothing but Sony-doing-Bethesda hackenslash. People in the comments section are genuinely praising the pretty spell effects.
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I think they might be building on Grounded as well. Something about the pace of melee combat reminded me more of that than TOW. I could be wrong though.
TheDarkUrge
Educated
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Will probably end up like outer worlds where the gameplay was good enough, but the boring plot makes me drop it. Being set in the PoE universe makes me doubt it will have a compelling reason to play. Can't be worse than starfield though, so they've got that going for them. I mean really, a space game with no aliens?
I was wondering if other people sensed this as well! I'd say it's something along those line. What you say, or perhaps it could also mean that she's actually honest to herself—knowing that she lacks the understanding of how a good RPG should look and feel—but she is part of the team now, and the team tells her it's great, all the superficial hype nonsense, and yeaaay, and we need to act as if we are selling great stuff on the camera! And thus, the conflict is visible in her eyes.
...the American way
...
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https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/01/22/avowed-developer-direct-side-quest-deep-dive/
Diving Deeper into the World of Avowed
At the recent Xbox Developer_Direct 2024 broadcast, Obsidian Entertainment shared its most comprehensive look yet at its upcoming fantasy-action RPG, Avowed.
But even that only scratched at the surface of what’s coming your way this fall. On today’s special episode of The Official Xbox Podcast, Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel and Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo shared an extended look at the quest showcased during Developer_Direct, providing more detail on the moment-to-moment experience of the flexible combat system, and where this side quest fits in the larger narrative of Avowed.
This latest look at Avowed gives us a good idea of what to expect from Shatterscarp, one part of the ecologically diverse island of The Living Lands, all in the same universe as Obsidian’s CRPG series Pillars of Eternity. But what makes Avowed a very ‘Obsidian game’ goes far beyond the commonality of setting in the world of Eora.
“It’s really about our player-centric approach to role play,” Patel shared during this week’s Podcast. “The way we really approach consequence and choice is giving players the opportunities to define who they are in this world, how they want to behave – what fantasy, what challenges they want to undertake.”
It’s all part of Obsidian’s “your worlds, your way” approach, and players will feel the weight of their choices moment-to-moment with every slash, parry, and spell cast.
What stands out is not just the variety of ways you can tackle combat – examples include the classic ‘sword and board [shield]’, samurai-esque sword and gun, and dual-wielding wands like a wizard in the Old West – but also how you’ll frequently want to (or need to) change your loadout to best suit what you find yourself up against. These loadouts are also complemented by skills, and Obsidian had a deep well of moves to pull from out of the Pillars of Eternity universe.
“We wanted to be able to grab as many abilities from the trees as possible – and categorize them a little bit differently so that the player doesn‘t feel locked into a single choice at the start of the game,” said Gabe Paramo, Gameplay Director. “They can mix and match between different abilities to get some variety. You can commit to being a fighter, but it’s not an enforced class setup.” And if you want to try out a new suite of abilities, you can always respec your character.
We saw great examples of this in the Developer_Direct: dual-wielding wands served as effective crowd control when a group of smaller Xaurips swarmed the player. But in a more one-on-one encounter with a slightly larger enemy, using an ice-imbued wand to freeze an enemy, then shattering the newly-frozen block with a charged power attack of an off-hand sword was supremely effective.
Paramo cited another devious combo: “With ‘Into the Fray,’ you can use a fireball ability that creates an AOE [area of effect] ability on the ground, and then pull the enemy into the fire.”
It’s all part of a comprehensive elemental system that comes into play both in and out of combat. Paramo continues, “you can light guys on fire, you can freeze them, you can shock them, you have objects in the environment you can interact with. They’re not just on weapons, on wands – you might find it on swords, certain abilities might cause elemental damage. And your companions [can] as well.”
Patel shared more about those companions – your hero won’t be wandering the Living Lands alone. “They all have deep ties to different regions of the Living Lands, and they all have their own personal reasons for wanting to ally with the player and help them resolve the big conflicts that you’re encountering over the course of the game. They’re your allies – in some ways your advisors, your local guides. They provide a lot of additional commentary and context that reveals something about their character, but also about the corner of the world you’re exploring.”
They’re also your allies in battle; Kai, who we saw in the Developer_Direct, played a tanky role, drawing aggro, while Giatta, who also makes an appearance, keeps the party healed up. Expect to meet more in your journeys across the Living Lands.
‘Playing your way’ expands beyond moment-to-moment action; as demonstrated in the Developer_Direct, you’ll be making meaningful decisions that affect the story.
“For us, creating these choices, like the big ones that affect the outcome of a quest, or the wellbeing of certain characters or communities are just as important as the smaller choices that you make in navigating a dialogue and, in subtle ways, influencing your relationship with another character,” said Patel. “All of it is really centered around letting the player be the main character in this setting.”
It’s important to note that for all we’ve now seen of Avowed, there’s much, much more to explore throughout the Living Lands. In fact, the specific quest in Shatterscarp we covered “is entirely discoverable, which means it’s also entirely missable.” In terms of scope of the game, Paramo compares with another recent Obsidian title, “it’s open-zone, size comparable to The Outer Worlds areas on the larger side, and [with] multiple paths essentially to tackle combat situations, or avoid them.”
According to Patel, sharp-eyed players will have much more to seek out throughout their time with Avowed: “One of the big delights of being a developer on a game like this is creating so much for players to find, and knowing that not everybody’s going to seek it out, and not everybody’s gonna find it, but knowing that the players who do are really going to enjoy the secrets they discover.”
Some speculations from me, and some indications given by the "extended gameplay breakdown" video. They've taken the technology from TOW and are building on it, adapting it to PoE's ruleset, hopefully adding lockpicking and other stuff that was missing in TOW. Their "gameplay director" is as clueless about RPGs as anyone you can meet on the street who has played Skyrim. He lacks the vocabulary and theoretical framework when describing a game of that genre. His presence in the project might be related to Tim Cain's "semi-retirement" status, and Tim's clashes with Carrie Patel, of which we've seen hints. In other words, Patel must be very happy to be working with him. She is just as clueless about RPGs in their "game" component. Writing CYOA is more her domain.
In terms of structure, I wager Avowed is planned to repeat Deadfire note for note, but attempting to stick closer to the scope limitations. The player's character is a new arrival in the land, but unlike the Watcher, the player is a representative of one of the factions interested in that region. The factions are easy to glean - Aedyr, Rauatai, some "pseudo-Huana" faction represented by the Kai companion NPC (who is an obligatory companion, as was revealed earlier), likely also the Vailian Republics, because we saw a companion NPC from that region as well. She was named Giatta, btw, is this the Vailian for "gata",
Although the player character is sent to the Living Lands by one of the big powers, he will be free to act against their interest. In other words - the player gets to be put in the shoes of Pallegina from PoE1. Also in typical Obsidian fashion, the player is playing judge, where he arrives in a new land, explores it and its conflicts and chooses which faction to aid. This structure, combined with the early-modern colonial age setting, gives good opportunity to the writers for their shit takes on colonial history, so brace yourselves.
Just as in Deadfire, you have colonial powers' bickering on one hand and a "local region's mystery", in this instance a "mysterious soul plague" on the other hand. Since the word plague is getting thrown around so much, and since this is "the living lands" (that was supposed to be lush jungles btw), I'm willing to bet the "big reveal" in the story's midpoint will be some conflict involving Galawain.
So far, this all sounds like something Obsidian can pull off successfully. Whether you'll enjoy the game or not depends on how much you care about the PoE setting. I would have a fun time exploring the place in first person, with the downside that I'll have to listen to the companion NPCs' bullshit. Much like I felt about Deadfire.
I'm much more pessimistic about the state of Avowed as an RPG though. With someone who makes a presentation of elemental interactions, dual wielding wands, and "mixing and matching weapons and abilities" it seems nearly certain that all the "mixing and matching" will mean nothing because the game will be piss easy anyway. It will be curious to see how they've ported the isometric games' abilities and spells to first-person action gameplay, but it's clear at this stage that no one gives a rat's ass about the systems, and that combat will be completely superficial and neglected as a mechanic. I don't expect them to come up with something at the level of say FNV's balance by fall this year. Not that FNV is a shining example, but it's better than average for a first person RPG, I think.
So, "good for what it is/10". Another Obsidian mediocrity.
Excellent summary, except you barely mention expectations about faction states and quest design. I won't enjoy the game you describe, since game systems is about all I care about these days *unless* you have some sort of extraordinarily well-designed redeeming factor. In FNV, faction interconnectivity and quest design was that factor.
I doubt this game will have that - Outer Worlds certainly did not - but it could be enough to carry the game if it does.
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Yep, I was expecting that argument. But what you have there is Swen Vincke. Another dinosaur.
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Brennecke, Sawyer, and Boyarsky were all busy or didn't want it. They need to foster new talent rather than relying on the same old people, plus they're Californian so they likely cringe at having all White guys directing games.
Swen is old meat, but BG3 is new money. Other money will chase after it. Probably in a cargo cult way, without getting what made it good, but even cargo culting BG3 will result in tabletop system and tabletop pop-culture aesthetics. Its too on the nose to get it wrong.
I think the success of that game will move capital to release another dozen tabletop system games, with varying funding and quality. So, right in this moment, its looking on the up, not dying, as you suggested. Your argument would've been solid a year ago, though. And hopefully it won't be solid in 5 years, when the diadochi come out and maybe fail.
It's an ARPG, so are we going to pretend to have standards?
Seriously though, Bethesda's minigames I found to get boring after some time. I liked Splinter Cell Chaos Theory's lockpicking, though I don't remember the specifics. My best memories (which I have preserved) of any lockpicking have been in Thief though. Just for immersion, timed hold key, switch lockpick, hold again, no minigame involved. Gives immersion, gives tension (because 1st person sneaker), gives the feeling you're doing something like a real pro thief.
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