Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Cross]

Key to this are "loadouts", which was a word we heard multiple times throughout the presentation. The idea is you'll be able to quickly switch between sets of weapons in order to overcome the different enemy-based challenges. Need a sword and shield for these enemies? No problem. Need a two-hander to break this one's guard? You got it. Need a pair of wands to pelt these enemies with magical attacks? Fine. It's that kind of thing.

Their most hyped feature is being able to switch equipment, a feature every RPG has had since 1974.

I ask gameplay director Gabe Paramo and he gives me a slightly mystifying answer; he says spells are "on their own button". "There's a single button to use an ability, in terms of the ones that you have on your talent tree." This immediately makes me think of the one-button approach Fable 2 used, but I don't know if that's what's going on here. We didn't see a UI, he tells me, because one hasn't been definitively decided on.

Then there's more player-driven abilities that the player can access as well. And [they're] somewhat like an extension of the player in terms of how we wanted to present that - it's still tied to that singular ability button."

It's, again, a slightly unclear answer, and it's another mention of that intriguing singular ability button. Is it a context-sensitive thing? "Yeah, exactly," Paramo answers, but that's as much explanation as I get.

Oh and perhaps on that note: if you're wondering whether Pillars co-creator Josh Sawyer is involved with Avowed in any way, he is, albeit tangentially. "Josh is the studio design director so at some point he tends to have some involvement with most of the projects going on in the studio," Patel says, "to some degree or other. Since Pentiment released, he has been helping us out a little more directly on the gameplay side, and occasionally pinch-hitting in a few other areas as we all tend to do in medium-sized [projects/teams]."

It's over.

 

[Roguey]

Tim and Leonard put The Outer Worlds together with an 80-person team in a little over 3 years.

And it's terrible. I wish there was some senior developer to tell upper management that Obsidian is better off producing isometric games on this size of budget and teams, than producing cutdown versions of first-person RPGs.

Bloodlines was made by a team of roughly 50 (and that was in total; the core team was 32) and a lot of people here regard that as a classic.

 

[Viata]

50 is already too much, imo.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Bloodlines was made by a team of roughly 50 (and that was in total; the core team was 32) and a lot of people here regard that as a classic.

Of course there are counter examples. Talking about current times and current people, who can't and won't work like that, who don't really care about the game on the same level, I'm trying to be a realist. Maybe even this way I'm still overestimating them.

 

[Roguey]

Of course there are counter examples. Talking about current times and current people, who can't and won't work like that, who don't really care about the game on the same level, I'm trying to be a realist. Maybe even this way I'm still overestimating them.

Frankly Bloodlines's gameplay was terrible and it was carried heavily by the setting, the writing, and the art. Unfortunately for poor Obsidian, while TOW and probably-Avowed have less jank than Bloodlines, they are severely lacking in the setting, writing, and art departments.

 

[Delterius]

Do you think it's some kind of a coded form of protest against the constraints on development, or they just don't realize they shouldn't talk like that?

turns out most dorks in game development haven't been through media training

 

[Butter]

Of course there are counter examples. Talking about current times and current people, who can't and won't work like that, who don't really care about the game on the same level, I'm trying to be a realist. Maybe even this way I'm still overestimating them.

Frankly Bloodlines's gameplay was terrible and it was carried heavily by the setting, the writing, and the art. Unfortunately for poor Obsidian, while TOW and probably-Avowed have less jank than Bloodlines, they are severely lacking in the setting, writing, and art departments.

This is basically every soulless product game produced nowadays. "At least it's better polished than those other games" meanwhile everything about it is bland and uninteresting.

 

[Quillon]

Tim and Leonard put The Outer Worlds together with an 80-person team in a little over 3 years.

And it's terrible. I wish there was some senior developer to tell upper management that Obsidian is better off producing isometric games on this size of budget and teams, than producing cutdown versions of first-person RPGs.

Bloodlines was made by a team of roughly 50 (and that was in total; the core team was 32) and a lot of people here regard that as a classic.

And NV was 70 or so. Tho we can't really directly compare team sizes for a game made 20 years ago vs today, some aspects of gamedev got more complex, requires more people. There was quote from Boyarsky about how simple it was making a character in Bloodlines vs how more complex it was for TOW for instance.

So if 100 people isn't enough utilize the other 180 devs the studio got. Its not like everybody's dying for a TOW sequel or whatever else, people want the best game you can make not your self-inflicted comprimised shit.

 

[Roguey]

So if 100 people isn't enough utilize the other 180 devs the studio got. Its not like everybody's dying for a TOW sequel or whatever else, people want the best game you can make not your self-inflicted comprimised shit.

This sounds like an "Obsidian got punished for fucking up the first two years" deal to me. The money MS gives them for TOW 2 is supposed to be spent on TOW 2, not Avowed. That team actually delivered the first time around.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I kind of half watched some of the footage shown on the Mortismal video linked above and some of it looks slightly less dog shit than I would've figured. I'll wait and see.

I still expect it to be a dumpster fire, but if it looks janky because it actually has an RPG system running under the hood more like something like Morrowind or Mass Effect 1, it might be alright. If it looks like that but is a pure action driven thing with dialogues, then this is going to be the clusterfuck we've all expected.

This is probably the most favourable that I've viewed this thing in years, so that's something I guess.

 

[Tyranicon]

TBH, this is looking worse and worse as they release more information about it.

 

[Old Hans]

I kind of half watched some of the footage shown on the Mortismal video linked above and some of it looks slightly less dog shit than I would've figured. I'll wait and see.

I still expect it to be a dumpster fire, but if it looks janky because it actually has an RPG system running under the hood more like something like Morrowind or Mass Effect 1, it might be alright. If it looks like that but is a pure action driven thing with dialogues, then this is going to be the clusterfuck we've all expected.

This is probably the most favourable that I've viewed this thing in years, so that's something I guess.

putting graphics aside, It just looks like something that could have come out in 2010.

 

[mediocrepoet]

TBH, this is looking worse and worse as they release more information about it.

I haven't been following it all that closely because I expect it to be a complete trainwreck that may cause MS to blow up Obsidian or parts of it. Just saying, this is as positive as I've been since the first teaser because otherwise I completely agree with your assessment.

 

[Roguey]

putting graphics aside, It just looks like something that could have come out in 2010.

This is every game. 360/ps3 generation was the peak and everything since has been that with more ram and graphics.

 

[Peachcurl]

TBH, this is looking worse and worse as they release more information about it.

Indeed, it's promising to be a very entertaining release.

 

[mediocrepoet]

TBH, this is looking worse and worse as they release more information about it.

Indeed, it's promising to be a very entertaining release.

I just hope that if it's the dumpster fire we generally expect, they put a bunch of the studio to the sword like they started cleaning house in nuBlizz.

 

[Peachcurl]

TBH, this is looking worse and worse as they release more information about it.

Indeed, it's promising to be a very entertaining release.

I just hope that if it's the dumpster fire we generally expect, they put a bunch of the studio to the sword like they started cleaning house in nuBlizz.

For added entertainment value, I presume? It's not like nuBlizz got any better from that.

 

[mediocrepoet]

TBH, this is looking worse and worse as they release more information about it.

Indeed, it's promising to be a very entertaining release.

I just hope that if it's the dumpster fire we generally expect, they put a bunch of the studio to the sword like they started cleaning house in nuBlizz.

For added entertainment value, I presume? It's not like nuBlizz got any better from that.

It just happened, who knows what will come of that. I'm talking about MS culling their staff, cancelling projects, etc.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Tbh you're too negative on some stuff. It's going to just be meh. TOW tier, where the writing is stupid and everything else is mediocre.

 

[Delterius]

I for one am happy that Obsidian will be able to focus on things that matter. Like Grounded.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I for one am happy that Obsidian will be able to focus on things that matter. Like Grounded.

If only they could start work on more classics like a spiritual successor to World of Tanks.

 

[cyborgboy95]

So they are looking at Mass Effect as inspiration for tough moral choices now.

Obsidian wants Avowed to be a "challenging" RPG that's more complex than "black-and-white, good-versus-evil morality"​

Breaking away from the moral binary
Obsidian Entertainment is hammering away at its fantasy-with-firearms roleplaying game Avowed, due this year, which the developers hope can surpass the "black-and-white" moral binary.


"Our approach to choice and consequences is to eschew a black-and-white, good-versus-evil morality scale, where the moral balance of your decision is very obvious," director Carrie Patel explains in an interview with Gamesradar, "but rather something that feels closer to life, where sometimes it's not obvious or sometimes the right choice feels obvious, but the outcome can be surprising; justified but surprising."

Patel explains that she enjoys that moral challenge as both a player and a designer because it allows people to "chew on something complicated and kind of make and explore those decisions in the relatively safe environment of a game." Where else could you accidentally fly your own ship into the sun, if it weren't for Obsidian games, right?
Patel then points to Mass Effect 2 - despite its pulpy paragon and renegade binary - and the incredible Legion loyalty quest as an example of a dilemma that players were "talking about years later." She believes that those kinds of headscratchers "bind" players to their in-game counterparts. "And also the characters and companions that they're sharing this journey with."

 

[Rhobar121]

I don't understand at all what Obidian is trying to do.
I don't even know who this game is intended for.

It will neither be a game with strong RPG elements, nor will it be a game focusing on gameplay (Elden Ring).
The game will not provide a lot of freedom (like BG3, Fallout)
The game will not have an open world like the games it was based on (Skyrim).
They didn't even try to appeal to the Bioware crowd with romance.

What is the focus of this game?
The game literally doesn't have a single element to attract anyone to the game. It seems like they just took the worst elements from every popular game and combined them together.

 

[Roguey]

Patel then points to Mass Effect 2 - despite its pulpy paragon and renegade binary - and the incredible Legion loyalty quest as an example of a dilemma that players were "talking about years later."

I don't even remember this. I just chose the paragon option for my paragon playthrough and renegade for the renegade, what is there to think about?

 

[Rhobar121]

Patel then points to Mass Effect 2 - despite its pulpy paragon and renegade binary - and the incredible Legion loyalty quest as an example of a dilemma that players were "talking about years later."

I don't even remember this. I just chose the paragon option for my paragon playthrough and renegade for the renegade, what is there to think about?

It only mattered in ME3 and even then there was one correct choice, which was to blow them to pieces