Old Hans
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that def comes off sounding like it was written by an AIObsidian’s Blockbuster Avowed Feels Like The Perfect Combination Of First-Person And Classic RPG
that def comes off sounding like it was written by an AIObsidian’s Blockbuster Avowed Feels Like The Perfect Combination Of First-Person And Classic RPG
You're all acting as if every single character in this godforsaken game will yap like that and I can't understand why. Both PoE games have had a way more serious tone than BG1 and arguably BG2.
First PoE was a Sawyer/Fenstermaker production, then it was a Sawyer/Patel with a noticeable shift towards goofiness. Now it's Patel/Lo. Lo may be a Gen Xer but he's still a clown apparently.
Hands On With Avowed, Xbox's Skyrim-Inspired RPG
The action-packed role-playing game comes to Xbox Series X/S and PC on Feb. 18.
Avowed was originally pitched as Obsidian's take on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and it certainly shows. The magical fantasy vibes are reminiscent of Bethesda’s popular role-playing game, but the real-time combat, humor, and rich game world give it a unique flavor. Avowed is set for PC and Xbox Series X/S release on Feb. 18, 2025, but you can read my early thoughts on the upcoming RPG right now.
Hard-Hitting Combat, Vibrant Environments
Avowed is set in the Living Lands, a part of the world of Eora. It's a spin-off of Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity series, and it primarily uses a first-person perspective (more on that later) instead of the original games' top-down view. In Avowed, you play as an envoy of the Aedyr Empire, and you're tasked with investigating a mysterious plague called the Dreamscourge.
The one-hour Avowed demo kicked things off by asking me to choose a character from three available archetypes: barbarian, mage, and ranger. The barbarian specializes in close combat, while the mage and ranger fight from a distance.
I chose the barbarian, who carried hammer and sword weapons. The melee fighting was surprisingly fluid, and bashing the reptilian enemies with the hammer reminded me of downing enemies with Halo's Gravity Hammer. The weighty weapon also possessed freezing properties that gave it extra utility. After several hits, enemies were immobilized and encrusted with ice, allowing me to score extra blows.
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(Credit: Obsidian Entertainment)
I entered an unfamiliar cave with Kai, a blue-skinned humanoid companion who fulfilled the tank role. As a result, it took many enemy hits to drop Kai. He’s one of four companions who can join your quest (though you can only bring two with you into battle at a time). Avowed Production Director Ryan Warden said Obsidian balances each companion so they pull their own weight in battle.
“We've actually got a combat encounter strike team that's going through the entire game right now, region by region, and taking a look at every single encounter to make sure that it's fun, diverse, and readable, and that includes with our various companions,” he explained.
Besides the combat, I was impressed by Avowed's graphics and color variety. Video game caves are often depicted as dark and gloomy, but Avowed’s caves are well-lit, and the worn-down bookshelves littering the area indicate that it was lived in for some time. Colors are vibrant, and crystals scattered throughout the cave give the location a mystical feel.
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(Credit: Obsidian Entertainment)
Funny Encounters and Perspective Options
I encountered an injured NPC named Caedan deeper in the cave, and the conversation spotlighted Avowed’s dialogue trees. Caedan badly needed a potion, but the situation proved humorous due to his offhand comment about how he didn’t want to die because he hadn't touched a woman. Will that impact the story? That's unknown.
As I headed farther into the cave, I triggered a trap that revealed roughly a dozen skeletons that prevented me from leaving. I couldn’t aimlessly swing my weapon; I had to manage a stamina meter. If I ran out of juice, I couldn’t attack. Plus, whiffing an attack left the barbarian open for a counterattack.
Unfortunately, Avowed's first-person perspective made it difficult to tell when off-screen enemies were about to hit you. Kai offered audio cues, such as yelling, “To your right!” However, they came way too late for me to react to the attack. I longed for God of War-like visual signals.
Art Director Matt Hansen says the game’s user interface is still in development and that combat will incorporate visual cues similar to those in God of War. An optional third-person camera view will also be included as an accessibility feature, he adds.
“A lot of people struggle with motion sickness and can't play games in first-person, so we want to make sure that they still have the opportunity to play the game and enjoy it,” Hansen says.
Testing the Mage and Ranger
After finishing the demo with the barbarian, I replayed it two more times to get a feel for the mage and ranger. The mage was the most consistent damage dealer, being able to continuously fire off magic bullets that tracked enemies. However, when attacked, the mage suffered big damage, so I engaged enemies from a safe distance.
The ranger, though, needed manual aim for its shots. Its two pistols were deadly, able to OHKO many smaller enemies, but they needed to be reloaded after every shot. So if you missed, you’d pay the price of being vulnerable to attacks.
It was fun to experiment with the different builds, and I saw the pros and cons of each. Ryan Warden mentioned that Avowed was built to be a “classless” game, meaning that eventually, players will be able to mix and match different skills and weapons. Want to have a sword in one hand and a grimoire book in the other? A spell blade built like that is certainly possible.
Get Ready for RPG Action Early Next Year
Matt Hansen emphasized that newcomers won’t feel left out of Avowed if they didn’t play the Pillars of Eternity series. However, there are fun Easter eggs to spot throughout the adventure for people familiar with the game series. Avowed launches on Feb. 18 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
Avowed Preview - Gamescom 2024
Obsidian take us dungeon crawling in their upcoming action RPG
Obsidian Entertainment are considered by many to be a top tier studio that delivers great RPG and adventure style games. Their catalog is indeed very impressive, ranging from Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, to Alpha Protocol and Pentiment. Their next project, Avowed, is a first person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora, and we got a chance to see a live demo of the game at Gamescom 2024.
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Our demo was hosted by narrative designer on the game Kate Dollarhyde, and driving the demo was a seasoned member of the QA team. The demo was focused on one of the first dungeons within the game, and the story goes that the player character has ventured down here in search of a missing group of explorers. This expedition was looking for a holy relic, but did not return. Upon entering the dungeon, we quickly encounter an Oracle. This golden-skinned character says he is a devoted follower of an ancient god, who also seeks the relic. However, the path to it has been blocked, and he has not seen the expedition pass by. Using typical plentiful dialogue options, we are able to learn more about the ancient god and the Oracle's traditions and motivations. Avowed will include a helpful tooltip system in the dialogue that highlights key words such as names and locations, and through the historical chat log, it's possible to review some basic background on those keywords. The conversation itself had a familiar RPG flow, with back and forth responses; the camera was static, but did change angles a few times for a bit of dynamism.
Having agreed to help recover the relic, we proceeded deeper into the ruins, which were typical fantasy fare, with lush greenery and partially collapsed rock formations, blocked paths and some bodies of water. The art style of Avowed also leans on the slightly cartoony and magic infused. We broke some wooden boards to open new paths, did some basic first person climbing across vines, and found optional chests that contained new gear such as an accessory that provided passive buffs when equipped. We got a quick glimpse at the inventory screens to manage gear, and the attributes screen where points could be assigned to the expected categories like might, dexterity, perception, and so on. There was also the ability system, where points could be spent to increase the effectiveness of our special attack skills.
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Proceeding through the dungeon, we had to do a bit of swimming and some environmental navigation to find a path into an old library, where the quest indicator was guiding us. After a brief diversion to solve a puzzle to restore power, we entered the library where some enemy spiders spawned, along with a boss, so the player had to do some focused combat. As a caster in this demo, using various ranged spells was the way to handle things, while AI companion Kai was taking on direct aggro. The boss had a big energy bar as well as a stun meter, depleting this allowed for some extra damage while it was recovering. An enemy caster soon appeared, so he had to be prioritized first as he was casting protection spells on other enemies.
Following this battle, the player ventured further in, again doing some traversal and following a quick sidepath to open doors that are blocked by sigils. This time, the player was faced with some skeleton enemies, that also needed some precision casting to eliminate. With the room clear and relic in hand, the player had a choice on how to proceed - just take the relic and return to town, where someone could know better what to do with it; return to the Oracle; or keep going a bit further. The player decided to keep exploring and it wasn't long before we found a workshop, and the dead members of the expedition within it. We spoke to companion Kai to get his thoughts on the situation, and agreed that we should confront the Oracle on what happened.
We returned to the start of the dungeon and spoke to him. He confessed that the expedition members may be dead, but their souls have apparently been transferred into the statue of the god that resides in this cave. Sadly that didn't seem to be enough to activate the statue, so perhaps the artifact was the missing piece. The Oracle asked us to hand over the hardware, and the player chose to do so. But even with the artifact, the statue was not able to get activated - so the Oracle's next wild plan was to sacrifice another soul directly. The response options included a fight, acceptance, or convincing him to self-sacrifice. Based on our demo audience, it was chosen that the player will accept to become the sacrifice of this ritual. Kai tried a few times to make sure our mind was clear and made up, and we persisted. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in the character's death and a game over screen.
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It's clear that Obsidian are working in familiar territory here, as Avowed looks like any other solid modern RPG, with its fantasy setting being well-envisioned, if a bit generic. The combat also didn't look all that engaging, but perhaps to be expected for the genre. The narrative choices are likely to play a key role, and in the demo seemed to be fairly varied. Players looking for their next RPG fix should definitely keep Avowed in mind - it doesn't look like anything groundbreaking, but much like The Outer Worlds, it knows what it does best. Avowed is expected in 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
Sawyer and Fenstermaker were still the leads on The White March. Patel having more of a voice gave us Deadfire and then Peril on Gorgon.Goofiness wasn't because Patel likes to write goofy, in fact Patel wrote Devil of Caroc which is about as dark as it gets with a bleak resolution whatever you do. It was because Sawyer can't read and doesn't understand feedback, he takes it at face value but also doubles down.
Now I understand why the Codex staff love him so.As ever, he is decent at making critique, terrible at finding solutions and too autistic to even parse feedback.
Wat? Witcher 3's combat is nothing like Dark Souls.If it's so easy to replicate, why is there only one person who ever succeeded? (Tanimura, Miyazaki's student)Dark Souls came out in the same year as Skyrim and provided an easy to replicate template for functional fantasy action-RPG combat.
Witcher 3 tried to replicate it, shat the bed, the game's combat is unplayable.
Journos write boring ass canned articles praising the game
You're welcome to try, Bryan.can I short their stock
It's funny to me that literal dollar tree cashier can create an account here and claim superior intelligence compared to literal artist.Sawyer can't read and doesn't understand feedback,
It's funny to me that literal dollar tree cashier can create an account here and claim superior intelligence compared to literal artist.Sawyer can't read and doesn't understand feedback,
Failing reading comprehension. Classic RPG Cuckdexian move.You work at Dollar Tree?
Failing reading comprehension. Classic RPG Cuckdexian move.You work at Dollar Tree?
Of your mental retardation. Yes. Plenty of thing abortion could've fix. I'll tell your mother this the next time I visit the whorehouse.It explains a ton.
He was everywhere, but he's a guy who loves talking about games. Patel's strengths apparently don't involve marketing so they're in an awkward position here.She sounds fatigued. They're putting her front and center for all these things.
Was Josh Sawyer in the public eye as much during Pillars of Eternity 1, or is Avowed getting more marketing? Roguey
It's funny to me that literal dollar tree cashier can create an account here and claim superior intelligence compared to literal artist.
"I agree" =/= Opinion Correct.It's funnier that he's correct.
Fwiw, Peril of Gorgon isn't sillier than base TOW and is bleak at times.Sawyer and Fenstermaker were still the leads on The White March. Patel having more of a voice gave us Deadfire and then Peril on Gorgon.Goofiness wasn't because Patel likes to write goofy, in fact Patel wrote Devil of Caroc which is about as dark as it gets with a bleak resolution whatever you do. It was because Sawyer can't read and doesn't understand feedback, he takes it at face value but also doubles down.
How would you know? You don't play RPGs.Fwiw, Peril of Gorgon isn't sillier than base TOW and is bleak at times.Sawyer and Fenstermaker were still the leads on The White March. Patel having more of a voice gave us Deadfire and then Peril on Gorgon.Goofiness wasn't because Patel likes to write goofy, in fact Patel wrote Devil of Caroc which is about as dark as it gets with a bleak resolution whatever you do. It was because Sawyer can't read and doesn't understand feedback, he takes it at face value but also doubles down.
Tone-wise, Peril on Gorgon was head and shoulders above the base game.Fwiw, Peril of Gorgon isn't sillier than base TOW and is bleak at times.Sawyer and Fenstermaker were still the leads on The White March. Patel having more of a voice gave us Deadfire and then Peril on Gorgon.Goofiness wasn't because Patel likes to write goofy, in fact Patel wrote Devil of Caroc which is about as dark as it gets with a bleak resolution whatever you do. It was because Sawyer can't read and doesn't understand feedback, he takes it at face value but also doubles down.
Avowed Hands-On Preview: A Feast for Lore Fans
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Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed takes the beloved world of Pillars of Eternity and transforms the isometric franchise into a full-blown action RPG. Players, as an envoy from the Aedyr Empire, travel to the wild frontiers of The Living Lands to investigate the Dream Scourge.
At Gamescom, Game Rant was able to play an hour of Avowed. The demo itself lasted around 30-40 minutes, and once it was complete, we were able to play it again utilizing a different build. We were presented with three possible builds for the demo—Barbarian, Mage, and Ranger—but it's worth mentioning that these were archetypes instead of in-game classes. Avowed features a classless leveling system so that players can build and fulfill whatever fantasy they want, mixing and matching a variety of melee, magical, and ranged weaponry. The demo gave us a good feel for the combat but also gave a bonafide feast when it comes to lore.
Avowed's Demo and Gameplay Are Solid
Avowed's demo limited us to a single cave-like structure where we had to search for some missing explorers. As we made our wave into the cave system, we were met with some fantastical creatures to get our first taste of combat. One of the first things we realized when we were playing is that Avowed's first-person perspective feels a bit "floaty," more akin to games like Dying Light than more grounded first-person perspectives like Skyrim. This gives a little more freedom to the movement, but it also creates this odd, loose feeling. If this perspective and its feel is off-putting, it's worth noting that Avowed also features a third-person mode.
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As we fought our way through (with Avowed companion Kai alongside us), we eventually came across a dying explorer. In good Obsidian humor, his biggest complaint before his pending death is dying a virgin. We could save him with one of our potions or we could refuse and let him die, and we tried both options during our demo runs. Nothing major seemed to change from either choice, but having the power of life or death over a virgin elicited a laugh each time. As we moved through the demo, we noticed some mechanical devices on nearby walls that, when 2-3 were lit up, would open doors to secret paths or treasure. This exact puzzle type was a roadblock later in the demo, but we were able to solve all of them by finding all the devices and throwing an electric fruit at them. This was sometimes straightforward, while other times required us to do one device before finding another.
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About halfway through the cave system, we came across an "Oracle" named Sargamis who, like the main character, is Godlike. He is completely gold and incredibly old, and exhausting his dialogue options was a real treat. He talked about his relationship with his god, talked to us about our Godlike status (since we are hearing voices and have never communicated with our unknown god before), and how all the godlike died—minus an apparent handful. He also referenced the events of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, with this dialogue and other factors making sure this game felt like it took place in PoE's Eora despite finding its home in a different genre. Finally, he tasked us with retrieving something deeper in the cave system but supposedly had no idea what became of our explorers. We doubted him, but we moved ahead.
Completing his task saw us face off with a horde of enemies before a mini-boss, and it was interesting that we could have returned to him without finding the explorers because it was marked optional. We intended to do that on our second run of the demo, but we didn't get that far before time was up. Nonetheless, returning to him and knowing he had to be the one to kill the explorers led to a boss battle with him, bringing our demo to an end afterward.
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Avowed Barbarian
For our first demo run, we chose the "Barbarian" archetype since it seemed likely to be the simplest form of Avowed's combat. This build saw us dual-wielding two one-handed weapons, but we could also swap to a secondary, which was a heavy two-handed weapon. When dual-wielding, it's impossible to block because the same button controls that secondary weapon; we could only block with the two-handed weapon. In both loadouts, we were able to charge both our light attacks and heavy attacks. It also came complete with two abilities, one of which was the classic crowd-pushing yell and the other was a forward slam.
We also had access to some throwables to engage enemies at a range, and as we suspected, it proved to be simple enough to pick up and learn. However, it was engaging in every way one would expect a "Barbarian" build to be. While crowd control usually meant separating enemies and moving around the battlefield, it was easy enough to be a physically-dominating force smashing our way through this cave. Mechanically, stylistically, and immersively, Avowed fulfills that fantasy archetype easily.
Avowed Mage
Although we were enticed by the premise of Avowed's guns in the "Ranger" build, we wanted to get a feel for how magic works in Avowed. We chose the "Mage" archetype, which saw us have a primary loadout as well. Both had a wand and a grimoire, but each one operated differently. One Grimoire would summon weapons for us to engage in magical melee combat, while another had a wider selection of ranged spells. Our wands, of course, would dish out ranged magic damage, and our abilities relied on our magic too. Fueling our spells was a limited magic resource, but the demo provided us with plenty of magic potions to replenish it. Notably, this combat was a lot more complex than the "Barbarian" build, but it fulfilled the fantasy archetype all the same. Because of the short time with the "Mage," we were still trying to learn all the exact controls and spells, which is both exciting and, to some degree, overwhelming.
Those who go all in the magic fantasy are going to have plenty of options, and that's great. That said, it does seem like the learning curve to master Avowed's magic is going to be higher than, say, a melee-focused character. Players will want to know what they have spell-wise on each loadout, and when that includes several spells as shortcuts, in the radial menu, and wand options, it's quite a lot. The good news is that the full game will let players mix and match as they choose. An enemy dropped a pistol during our gameplay, and we swapped one of our wands for it. Not only was it just as satisfying combat-wise, but a pistol and a grimoire simplified the combat to be more immediately digestible.
Avowed's Kai Comes In Like a Wrecking Ball
Joining us on this adventure was Kai, a coastal aumaua who prefers skill and speed over bulky defenses. That doesn't stop him from hitting hard, however. In addition to all of the above companions, we could open the radial menu to issue him direct commands. Sometimes this was to use an ability made to solve puzzles, other times this was to hit enemies with an elemental attack, and our favorite was an ability that saw him jump and slam down in a small AOE. It was a great way to break up hordes of enemies and enjoyable to watch visually. He also made for a great distraction when fighting enemies directly, though there was a time or two where Kai just stood around. This is a common bug in any companion-based game, however, and hopefully something that will be sorted out by Avowed's February release date.
Avowed's Treatment of Lore Is Pitch Perfect
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The quest was engaging, the humor was solid, the puzzles were straightforward and understandable, and the overall combat did a great job of fulfilling fantasy archetypes. The true kicker for Avowed's demo though was its treatment of lore. Pillars of Eternity as a franchise and Eora as a fantasy world have so much to them that the shift to action RPG and to the previously unexplored Living Lands could easily be excuse enough for this new installment to be ultimately disconnected. That was not the case. Sargamis was a great way to get a look into the lore of Avowed and how things have changed since Pillars of Eternity 2, but more than that, fans don't have to rely on their memory alone to get their lore fix.
It's worth mentioning that Avowed is entirely playable without having an in-depth Pillars of Eternity knowledge, but for those who want that lore and for those who need brushing up, there is a fantastic tooltip feature. Not unlike Final Fantasy 16's Active Lore System, this tooltip feature highlights keywords and allows players to learn more about them should they so choose. This was as simple as explaining who a god was to more complex lore elements like explaining references to key events. It was admitted a bit bloaty to access and read, simply because there is so much, but it scratched that same itch as diving through wikis to learn everything you can about a specific piece of lore. It's basically an in-game wiki, and we easily found ourselves reading through them for the pleasure of reading them.
Ultimately, Avowed is an Obsidian RPG through and through. It clearly carries that internal DNA that has always made Obsidian RPGs special, and while this was only a taste of what it offers, we're ready for that full meal.
Sawyer needs to make PoE3. Fact.