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

[Gandalf]

Reminds me of Skyrim a bit, but as if it were imagined by a kid (girl presumably).

 

[Percy]

Dreamscourge seems so fucking gay.

 

[Roguey]

There is honestly ironically such a fucking around hiking simulator game draught right now because Bethesda ceased to make them that I might play this.

KCD 2 is also out later this year.

This seems on par with Greedfall in terms of scope, not at all what you’d expect from an AAA studio that was given MS money.

Greedfall had five companions.

 

[Morgoth]

"I dont believe in living in fear" - Obsidian talks Avowed release date prospects and Xbox studio closures​

"I do feel a strong sense of security... I really trust in our leadership," director says.

When Avowed was first unveiled back at the Xbox summer showcase of 2021, a dark and moody CGI trailer of burning arrows and fantasy spell-and-sword dual wielding - all from the studio behind the likes of Pillars of Eternity and Fallout: New Vegas - positioned it as something of a first-party Skyrim for Xbox.

In the years since however, it's become increasingly clear that's simply not the game we should now expect from Avowed. It's bright and colourful, it's seemingly dialogue-heavy, and as we learned in further explanations of the game's combat it is, if anything, only quite loosely an RPG. As Avowed's director, Carrie Patel, put it to Eurogamer last year after a slightly unconvincing first demo of its combat, "the reference point we've been trying to point people to is The Outer Worlds."

Since then, things have been a little quiet on the Avowed front, but over the weekend Xbox showed another trailer, this time with emphasis on the game's overarching story - though again it was a little light on anything truly new. Thankfully, we also had a short roundtable interview with Carrie Patel again after the showcase ended, who spoke alongside the game's art director Matt Hansen and was able to outline just a little more of what we can expect.

On the role-playing front, Patel explained that it would likely be felt most prominently in Avowed's dialogue. "We have skill trees that take your traditional fighter flavour, ranger, and wizard, and you can mix and match freely between them," she said. "And you can build a character that either follows one of those vibes very closely or takes the best of what you like from each - and if you decide you don't like your choices, you can pay a small fee and wipe them and build something entirely different."

From a "narrative and dialogue perspective," Patel continued, it'll be "a huge part of the game, and exploring and really defining your role in it is about the choices you make moment-to-moment. There are skills that also have an impact in dialogue that will unlock certain options for you, the player will get to choose a background at the very beginning of the game that kind of flavours, 'Here's who you were before this mission, here's how you came to prominence.'"

The player "can choose to lean into that, when they're playing, or they can say, 'Oh, this is just fun, and I want to use it'. But all of those things give the player different roleplay hooks."

There's still no release date - yet - for Avowed, but its development team seem confident in a launch this year. | Image credit: Microsoft

"The biggest thing for us is always that choice and consequence, in quests, in major critical path moments, letting the player choose how to define the world and how to move the conflicts forward."


A further gameplay update is due, but beyond the areas that are still slightly unclear - in terms of the finer points in just how exactly Avowed's moment-to-moment gameplay works - one stand-out observation from its latest trailer in the Xbox showcase was the continued lack of firm release date, with it still left open as merely "2024" for now. Is the studio confident of hitting that window and the game releasing before the end of the year?

"I'll say, just having come from the studio last week, the game is looking fantastic," answered Patel. "The team is putting a lot of love into the polish. So we feel very good about 2024."

Hansen added that the team was currently "finalising". He continued: "We're in a polish phase. And that's such a satisfing place to be for us - and there's so many little things that we're like 'Oh, yeah, we didn't think we'd be abel to get to that!'" Reassuringly, Patel meanwhile agreed the game was very much in the final stages of development.

One other, somewhat ominous question always lingers in conversations with Xbox's first-party developers at the moment, which is how they're feeling in the face of the publisher's wildly unpopular surprise closures of award-winning studios such as Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. Does that sit in the back of your mind as an Xbox-owned developer? Much of the conversation, meanwhile, has centred on the impact of these closures on creativity - can a first-party studio at Microsoft feel safe to experiment and try new things when studios which have done so - and in many cases, done so extremely well - still get closed?

"As a developer - and as a player - it's always sad and it always sucks to see studios close and devs lose their jobs... I really hope all those people land on their feet, because I know our indusutry is better with them in it," Patel said.

"As for me and how I look at things, I guess first and foremost: I don't believe in living in fear. Especially if you need to be invested in the creative process - you have to be invested in what you're making, and you have to believe in it. And I do feel a strong sense of security in being part of Obsidian and, you know, being a part of a studio that was a successful independent developer for almost 15, 20 years.

Avowed has big RPG competition this year in the shape of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Assassin's Creed: Shadows. | Image credit: Microsoft

"I really trust in our leadership," she added. "I trust in our process for making games and I trust in our players and our fans who believe in what we do. I'm definitely sad to hear about what's happened to some of these other studios - it hasn't diminished my commitment, or my belief in what we're doing."

Hansen, meanwhile, added that these situations are never as simple as the developers taking risks, and paying the price when they don't work out. "These are very complex decisions with so much nuance behind what happens, because they're challenging decisions that need to be made at times, and so I don't find that creatively stifling at all. I feel deeply supported, both internally on the dev side and with fans, but also from Microsoft." The situation was "unfortunate", he added, "but at the same time, I'm not afraid."

"As Matt said," Patel continued, "we've been incredible well supported by Microsoft. We've also had Feargus Urquhart at the helm of the studio since its inception. And before that, when it was Black Isle Studios. He knows games, he loves games, and he's been incredibly successful at hauling Obsidian through all of its various iterations. And again, I do want to emphasise that Microsoft leadership and Xbox leadership have also been incredible supportive of what we do, how we make games, and [are] very communicative with us as well."

"The only side effect that I've personally felt since Microsoft aquired us is just more support," Hansen said. "There's less unknowns, less financial risk, and so we're able to take more creative risk - but to do that in a measured way. It's been a really, really rewarding process."

I wonder if Patel will still feel the same sense of security after the game ships.

 

[Yoomazir]

"I dont believe in living in fear" - Obsidian talks Avowed release date prospects and Xbox studio closures​

"I do feel a strong sense of security... I really trust in our leadership," director says.

I wonder if Patel will still feel the samse sense of security after the game ships.

She's a strong independent woman who needs no man, and also a white woman.
She'll be fine as long as she has a glass of wine close to hand.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

From 7 companions to 4, from 8 races to 2, from 12 classes to 3.

Progress.

 

[Infinitron]

"I really trust in our leadership," she added. "I trust in our process for making games and I trust in our players and our fans who believe in what we do. I'm definitely sad to hear about what's happened to some of these other studios - it hasn't diminished my commitment, or my belief in what we're doing."

Hansen, meanwhile, added that these situations are never as simple as the developers taking risks, and paying the price when they don't work out. "These are very complex decisions with so much nuance behind what happens, because they're challenging decisions that need to be made at times, and so I don't find that creatively stifling at all. I feel deeply supported, both internally on the dev side and with fans, but also from Microsoft." The situation was "unfortunate", he added, "but at the same time, I'm not afraid."

"As Matt said," Patel continued, "we've been incredible well supported by Microsoft. We've also had Feargus Urquhart at the helm of the studio since its inception. And before that, when it was Black Isle Studios. He knows games, he loves games, and he's been incredibly successful at hauling Obsidian through all of its various iterations. And again, I do want to emphasise that Microsoft leadership and Xbox leadership have also been incredible supportive of what we do, how we make games, and [are] very communicative with us as well."

Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the, the mad man

 

[SpaceWizardz]

There is honestly ironically such a fucking around hiking simulator game draught right now because Bethesda ceased to make them that I might play this.

This'll share a release window with Stalker 2 and KCD 2 assuming no delays.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

This'll share a release window with Stalker 2 and KCD 2 assuming no delays.

Yikes.

 

[Roguey]

"I really trust in our leadership," she added.

Blink twice if Feargus and/or Parker coerced you into saying this.

 

[Cross]

as we learned in further explanations of the game's combat it is, if anything, only quite loosely an RPG.

Imagine how bad the game must be for game journalists, who consider shooters with perks to be RPGs, to not consider this to be an RPG.

 

[Poseidon00]

Wow, we're getting a new Pillars of Eternity game, and a new Dragon Age, right after Baldurs Gate 3. It is the new Golden Age of RPGs!

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Wow, we're a new Pillars of Eternity game, and a new Dragon Age, right after Baldurs Gate 3. It is the new Golden Age of RPGs!

And we are being showered with this golden age))

 

[Jacov]

Let's be real. Is there ANY possibility that it will not be just another ToW? ToW sucked for me, started it a few times, never finished. Codex mostly hates it, and I see videos on YT that say that it's a meh game all the time. Wikipedia says that it sold 2m copies in first few months. So was it a commercial success? If it was, and I think the fact that they've pumped a bunch of DLCs, started a sequel and turned PoE into a first-person real time colorbomb is enough evidence that it was. So if it was commercially successful, they will just repeat the same formula over and over again, probably stripping some complexity with each installment. They are literally turning into Bethesda.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

SF was too high concept for current year Obsidian. Harder to fuck up a vanilla fantasy setting, although it'll probably turn out quite bland.

 

[jackofshadows]

Somehow, it'll be even worse than ToW I'm sure.

 

[PlayerEmers]

Somehow, it'll be even worse than ToW I'm sure.

So Awowed will be at max a 3/10 game.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Even if it's a 10/10 game, as far as normies are concerned, it's an unknown IP, launching against some beloved franchises. It's a nasty launch window to compete with.

And they cannot dealy it any longer because visuals already look outdated as shit.

 

[Elttharion]

Ass Creed Shadows launchs November 12th too. As much as I want that game to flop, Avowed would be absolutely slaughtered going against it. Fingers crossed they dont change the release date.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Avowed looks generic and bland, and the thought of playing it feels like work. Contrast that with DA4, where the thought of playing it makes my internal organs cringe out of my body.

 

[Infinitron]

Carrie Patel showing off some gameplay, with full transcript: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/podcast/xbox-games-showcase-deep-dive-avowed/



https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/10/avowed-deep-dive-official-xbox-podcast/

Avowed: Deep-Diving into Quests, Skills, Party Members and More on the Official Xbox Podcast​

Yesterday, Avowed appeared at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 with a brand new trailer, revealing more of the game’s captivating story and giving us further insight into one of your four companions, Giatta. If you came out of that wanting to see more, we have a treat for you; on a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel joined hosts Malik Prince and Tina Amini to dive deeper into the gameplay players can expect from the upcoming fantasy action RPG.

We got to see a lot more of the game – which arrives later this year for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and cloud (and coming day one to Game Pass) – revealing more of the Emerald Stair region, showing us two possible approaches to the same quest, the game’s Party Camp, upgrade systems, an optional 3rd-person viewpoint, and more. You can watch the full episode below, or read on for all the key new details.

Patel started by introducing the Emerald Stair region – which you’ll arrive into fairly early into the game – and showed off the region at night. Avowed’s dynamic day-night cycle will change the atmosphere of each of the game’s fantastical biomes significantly, and Emerald Stair after sunset is particularly gorgeous – the nearby town of Fior is home to an enclave of Animancers, who study the science of souls including the Dreamscourge plague sweeping the game’s Living Lands setting (find out more about that here), and their arcane equipment lights up the sky with a deep purple glow.

Speaking of Animancers, the gameplay we saw showed the player on a quest to help them – but before we got there, we met one of the game’s soon-to-be companions, Yatzli. Patel describes Yatzli as “a little lightning ball with a lot of personality,” pointing out that she can get “a little risqué,” and we see very quickly that her dialogue immediately takes a flirtatious tone. This also shows off Obsidian’s trademark of engaging dialogue and choices – certain attributes or character backgrounds you choose will unlock new options, which can add more personality, or even change the outcomes of your conversations.

Yatzli sends us off to collect a Godless Vase – an artifact of the people she studies – and the player is plunged into combat. Even using a mixture of spells, ranged attacks, and melee, we saw the player struggling to take down even smaller enemies at this point – and it’s here that we saw the game’s Party Camp feature.

“It’s both your narrative hub and also your upgrade hub,” said Patel. “That’s where you’ll get to know your companions better, you can get to know their backstories and get to know them better as individuals – you can also hear them getting to know one another through their banters at camp, which is always super-fun to eavesdrop on.”

“One thing we really wanted to create with Party Camp,” continued Patel, “was the sense that you’re adventuring and exploring together through this big wilderness, all of these different landscapes, and Party Camp is this quiet space where you can all huddle together, share a moment of respite, and the pace and the tone of everything is a lot slower and quieter.” As you travel through the game, you’ll hear your companions discuss their lives, share perspectives on what you’ve done together, and perhaps even come into conflict about the decisions that need to be made.

But it also serves an all-important mechanical function: “It’s also where we can upgrade our gear. So we’ve got our Party Stash where we can stow a lot of extra equipment, we’ve got our upgrade screens […] we’re taking some of our older gear that we’ve picked up in the previous region, and we’re going to upgrade it so that we’re better equipped to fight the enemies here.”

With new upgrades in place, the player took down enemies far more capably – helped along by Obsidian’s choice to reflect how effective your attacks are visually and audibly: “We want to make sure that players are getting clear feedback as to when their gear is effective and when, maybe, they need to go back to camp. It looks, it feels, it sounds different when you’re playing with appropriately leveled gear.”

We also got a good look at the game’s upgrade system for skills and abilities. “You can upgrade your skills and abilities anywhere as you level up throughout the course of the game,” said Patel. “On certain level-up milestones we’ll get to upgrade our attributes […] and on every level-up milestone we’ll get to pick a new ability.”

This quickly bears fruit, as we see the Fan of Flames skill unlocked and used to reduce a previously-blocked path to ashes. But it wasn’t the only option:

“We wanted to try to, as much as possible, give the different abilities that players can pick up solutions in combat, but also solutions in exploration,” explained Patel. “So there’s almost always more than one way through a particular barrier. You’ll have weapons, your own abilities, spells, weapon enchantments, sometimes even your companions who can use their environmental abilities to help you get through barriers.”

That openness to problem-solving is never clearer than in the other quest we saw in the demo. Having recovered the vase for Yatzli – a key part in your journey to unlocking her as a permanent companion – we saw the player set off to recover an Adragan Heart for the Animancers. This mystical object is being held by the Delemgan, a territorial species who don’t take kindly to adventurers passing through their land.

Initially, we saw the player take a heads-on approach, battling through multiple Delemgan and using every combat ability at their disposal to reach their Queen – who immediately attacks the player for killing so many of her followers. This player would have to finish her off in a boss fight to claim the heart. But here’s where we saw some of Obsidian’s trademark of player choice.

The demo was reloaded, and we saw the player utilizing in-game currency to fully respec their character – adding multiple Ranger abilities that allow them to take a stealthy approach. Using the Shadowing Beyond skill – which renders them invisible for as long as their Essence (the game’s mana) intact, and without engaging any enemies – they took multiple passages to reach the Delemgan Queen without any combat. In doing so, they found her in a far better mood, gifting them the Heart and letting them go in peace.

It’s emblematic of how open Avowed will be to interpretation, and how your choices will allow you to take different paths to get what you need. Skills in particular, are totally open to how you choose to use them:

“You can really mix and match freely between them,” said Patel. “If you want to be all-wizard, you can build entirely throughout that skill tree; if you want to mix and match – make a battlemage, or make someone who can be a little stealthy in certain moments and a little more aggressive in others – you have a lot of freedom to do that.”

That openness extends to your cosmetic choices too. We got a glimpse at the game’s optional 3rd person mode – players can choose to play in 1st or 3rd person perspectives – and your choices will be displayed prominently on them too. Your character is a godlike – someone who has been touched by one of the gods that reside in the world of Eora – and it shows, quite literally.

Part of creating your character will be in choosing how your godlike status has manifested. The player-character in the demo has a lichen-like growth across their face or head, but this is part of the character creation process. “With Avowed you can choose exactly what that manifestation looks like,” said Patel. “You will have some that are a lot bigger and more dramatic, and you’ll also have some that are a lot subtler. But either way you have a connection to one of the gods.”

Characters in the world will react to your appearance too: “Some people think that’s very cool, some people think it’s very spooky. Different cultures and individuals have different ways of relating to godlikes, so you’ll get a number of reactions.”

But the key mystery is that, unlike most godlikes, you don’t know which god has put their mark on you. That’s a story point that Patel wouldn’t touch on further – we’ll just have to find out together when Avowed arrives this year.

 

[Quillon]

"I really trust in our leadership," she added.

Blink twice if Feargus and/or Parker coerced you into saying this.

They made her talentless ass a game director, she shoulda praised em more.

 

[Infinitron]

TINA AMINI: And we just saw a quick flash of ourselves, actually, and we are-- actually, if you could explain, too, because we are a Godlike.

CARRIE PATEL: Yes.

TINA AMINI: We are almost the opposite of Yatzli in that way. So what does that mean in the world of-- the universe in general, and why we look the way that we look here.

CARRIE PATEL: Sure, so in the world of Pillars of Eternity, a Godlike is a member of any kith species whose soul has been touched in some way by one of the gods. You can play as a Godlike in Pillars one or Deadfire. In Avowed, you are definitely a Godlike, and being a Godlike will manifest in a number of different ways. But one of them is you usually have a unique physical appearance that manifests in some way on your face and/or head.

Now, with Avowed, you can choose exactly what that manifestation looks like. This lichen-like growth is one of your options, but you will have some that are a lot bigger and more dramatic, and you'll also have some that are a lot subtler.

But either way, you have a connection to one of the gods. The thing that's unique about you is you don't know which one, and most Godlikes of Eora, it's very well known which god they share a lineage with. For you, it is a mystery, and that's one of the things you'll get to explore in your journey through Avowed.

I think this is new information? Earlier this year they said you could only be a human or elf (which I guess is still true in a fashion).

 

[Dishonoredbr]

It looked better than i thought.. Even the dialogue animation aren't 2010 anymore. Got a upgrade to 2012.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Whoa, starting as a secret godlike is an interesting premise.