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

[Dishonoredbr]

Would be interesting if choices we make and faction that we interact along the game made us into certain godlikes. Of course moon godlike are the but death like are neat too

 

[ADL]

I don't know what this thing is but I kinda want to fuck it.

 

[Morgoth]

Obsidian might have just invented a new fantasy sub-genre: California Fantasy.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I don't know what this thing is but I kinda want to fuck it.

t.

 

[Elttharion]

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.

Its true. You should touch my abdominal muscles. They ripple.

 

[Fedora Master]

Haha horny baiting and that FUCKING consoleshit UI. You know exactly who the target audience is.

Retards.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Those ears make no sense anatomically.

 

[Old Hans]

Avowed skill trees:

oh god no. Not the "damage goes up X%" skill tree.

 

[Fedora Master]

Avowed skill trees:

Hahaha holy shit it's garbage
Hardcore RPG by industry veterans
Hahaha

 

[Infinitron]

I don't know what this thing is but I kinda want to fuck it.

You've forgotten what Orlans are, huh?

 

[Ivan]

"Touch my abs...they ripple."
DISGUSTING

 

[Fedora Master]

GUYS WOW I JUST LEVELED UP
DO I GET THE 25% FART DAMAGE BONUS OR THE 2% CHANCE TO CRIT ON A MOONLESS NIGHT AT SEA? IM SO EXCITED!!

 

[lukaszek]

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).

you can be a female elf with a special godlike mutation - glorious mustache

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Presumably you can mix skills from different branches, but yeah that does not look good.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Avowed bethesda-esque skill trees:

Sheeesh.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Every bit of footage and news i feel like this.
s

 

[Roguey]

Watched the video. There are flirtation lines, but you get shot down.

The four companions are the aumaua guy, the oceanfolk woman, the orlan gal, and a bearded dwarf guy. Predicting the orlan's going to be popular.

There's visual feedback for whether or not you're using level-appropriate equipment.

The Delemgan Queen gets mad at you for killing her people and attacks, but if you sneak up there, she greets you warmly and gives you what you want without hassle. C&C.

The Outer Pillars is looking pretty okay to me.

 

[Fedora Master]

The Outer Pillars is looking pretty okay to me.

Yea but it's you.

 

[Infinitron]

? Was anybody expecting something non-popamole?

This game might tell an interesting story in the Eora setting and give you pretty environments to explore. It's not going to be good for anything else.

 

[Fedora Master]

? Was anybody expecting something non-popamole?

This game might tell an interesting story in the Eora setting and give you pretty environments to explore. It's not going to be good for anything else.

You must have or you'd spare us from this dreck.

 

[Jenkem]

it's no less popamole than deadfire

 

[Dishonoredbr]

? Was anybody expecting something non-popamole?

I mean, i was expecting Obsidian learning from TOW shitty leveling system. Not double down.

 

[Gargaune]

I'm really looking forward to Dragon Cringe 4's gameplay footage tomorrow, it's hard to imagine it might look shittier than Avoid, but if anyone can pull it off...

 

[Old Hans]

Presumably you can mix skills from different branches, but yeah that does not look good.

guys hows this for a build idea. 50% more damage with 1-handed weapons followed up by a wizard dip so I can get 30% fire spell damage

 

[Roguey]

I mean, i was expecting Obsidian learning from TOW shitty leveling system. Not double down.

Miss him yet?