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

[0sacred]

Competitive genres are better for everyone.

this is not a scenario where I can see the customer winning

 

[KIss My Ass]

Reminder to Black artists out there who are looking for portfolio reviews or job advice: my DMs are open, and you will always have my priority. We got too many crusty white dudes in this field, please let me help you replace me one day - I want to go back to living in the woods.

And this is why we get served shit 99.99% of the time. Lord, plz strike these people down in the most agonizing way imaginable. Amen.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

They should combine summerfest xbox show and sony direct into one single "Asset Flex Show" to compete who's got the most vomit-inducing asset renderer out of ue5. So far Obs is the winner, with inxile close second.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

this is not a scenario where I can see the customer winning

The customer is not competing. The companies are. If all this does is achieve a modest success, then at least it's a smallish studio producing a TES clone with some success.

Market evidence that the next Dark Messiah is a viable project.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh, there was another PC Gamer article: https://www.pcgamer.com/avowed-open-world-skyrim-rpg-size/

Exclusive: Avowed started as Obsidian's Skyrim, but evolved to focus on depth over breadth, 'where Obsidian really shines'​

"We backed up and said again: What are we good at? What's our lane?"

When Avowed was first announced with a CGI trailer back in 2020, the headlines and discussions that it sparked all pointed to one specific game: Skyrim. Even though the teaser didn't give away much, the similarities were clear. First-person view; a sword in the right hand, a spell in the left. Surely this was Obsidian's take on an enormous Bethesda-style RPG?

And yes, it turns out that was the plan—at least at first. "Originally we were pitching, in essence, our Skyrim," confirms Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart in an exclusive interview with PC Gamer.

But that is not what Avowed, as it currently exists, is going to be. "I think over the course of time as we worked on it… Bethesda makes an awesome Skyrim. Mojang makes an awesome Minecraft, and Turn10 makes awesome racing games," says Urquhart, referencing a handful of Obsidian's sister studios at Microsoft. "What we do is we make our awesome RPGs, right?"

The feeling, then, was that Obsidian were better served not following Bethesda's example of a grand, open world, but instead staying true to what an Obsidian game should be. "That's when we backed up and said again: What are we good at? What's our lane?" That core, for Urquhart, is Obsidian's dedication to storytelling. "Outer Worlds is the greatest, latest example of that, and even Pillars. Pillars is less linear than Outer Worlds, but it's still a game that has you go through a story. And [Pillars of Eternity] 2 was even less linear, but still again you have this core story as you're going."

For Avowed, the focus is going to be specifically on your companions, and how their story relates to the driving narrative of the game. "We could go off and create an 8km x 8km open world and then deal with all the consequences of that—because that makes it a different style game. But we want to tell more confined stories that the player can experience with their companions, and then move from part of the world to part of the world. And, like I said, in the end, that's us."

"Every game development process for every title is this chain of ideation, iteration and polish," says Avowed director Carrie Patel, reflecting on how the scope of Avowed has changed over the years. "Sometimes you realize the way you're building, it is not quite living up to the experience you want to create. And so, in iteration and refinement, you say, 'Well, how do we create the experience that we want to deliver to players, and particularly as a studio? How do we deliver on what we're really good at specifically?'

"I think where Obsidian really shines as an RPG maker is with this really evocative nuanced world building, stories that are more focused on depth and breadth, and really thoughtful quest design that rewards experimentation and exploration from players—that gives them a sense of agency. And that gives them a meaningful set of options with how they interact with the world and characters."

The upshot, then, is that Avowed won't be as large, open and freeform as an Elder Scrolls game, but maybe that's for the best? Given the enduring popularity of the studio's RPGs over the years, staying true to that spirit feels like a sensible choice. "As we looked at the Avowed we're building, we wanted to make sure that we were really fulfilling those strengths and creating something that felt like a true Obsidian RPG," says Patel.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The graphics look fucking terrible, completely uninspired and one generation behind everything else.

 

[ItsChon]

Putting aside the fact that first person action cRPGs are complete dog shit, this trailer was absolutely hilarious. Obsidian is a massive multi-million dollar company and they can't release a trailer at a resolution higher than 1080p that's running over twenty four frames a second? The graphics as shown in the trailer are horrendous. It somehow manages to fail both in the graphical fidelity department, and the art style department. People are not exaggerating when they compare this to those shitty Steam games which are just a bunch of Unreal Engine assets thrown together, and the art style is so boring and uninspired that it manages to actually make the transition from bland to shit. Let's forget about the graphics for a second, did anyone see the animations? If I had liquid in my mouth at around 0:38 I would have spit it all over my monitor screen with how bad it looked. What about the kick at 1:17? The animations are all super floaty, and it looks like everything is glitching through one another. The whole thing is pathetic, especially since they handpicked this footage, so one can only imagine how bad it must feel to actually play the game.

Then the combat. Just lol. What did you people expect? Can anyone name a first person cRPG since Dark Messiah that actually had good combat? I don't mean "okay" or "inoffensive", I mean combat that was actually fucking good. Shit, even Dark Messiah barely hits that mark, but I'll give it a pass. The things that make a first person action combat system good are simply incompatible with a cRPG, and I don't know how much more evidence there needs to be so you mongoloids get it through your thick fucking skulls. This game was destined to be shit as soon as it was greenlit, I just didn't think Obsidian would fuck it up this much. I look forward to sitting back and watching the dumpster fire.

 

[Infinitron]

Then the combat. Just lol. What did you people expect? Can anyone name a first person cRPG since Dark Messiah that actually had good combat? I don't mean "okay" or "inoffensive", I mean combat that was actually fucking good. Shit, even Dark Messiah barely hits that mark, but I'll give it a pass. The things that make a first person action combat system good are simply incompatible with a cRPG, and I don't know how much more evidence there needs to be so you mongoloids get it through your thick fucking skulls. This game was destined to be shit as soon as it was greenlit, I just didn't think Obsidian would fuck it up this much. I look forward to sitting back and watching the dumpster fire.

They believe it's pretty good (at least compared to The Elder Scrolls?):

Early in development, when Obsidian decided to prioritize a story "more focused on depth than breadth," the first-person combat ended up benefitting, too. Patel said that it was an example of a piece of Avowed that was surprisingly fun in their first vertical slice, a time when the team has to decide on what to commit more resources to and what to scale back on. Combat became a key focus, which should be music to the ears of every Elder Scrolls player who's always found the sword-swinging a bit wimpy. "Our combat has come along really, really well, and the bones have been there since the beginning," she said.

Also a response here to Perkel:

Patel cited a lot of time spent tuning the feel of swinging a sword vs. a mace vs. an axe to make combat feel right, but the options available to players seem like the more significant element at play here. You're free to dual-wield weapons, wield both magic and melee simultaneously, and as in Pillars of Eternity, there are some old timey guns available. When I brought up how bored I am of game loot with imperceptible stat differences from one sword to another, she said that's been on their mind, too.

"The way we've tried to approach that is erring on the side of fewer but meaningful upgrades. If you're upgrading your weapon from one tier to the next, you should feel the difference. If it's a small number change next to your item name, that's not going to feel as meaningful as going through an upgrade process, trying your weapon again and realizing it's doing a lot more damage. Fewer but more meaningful upgrade tiers."

 

[RegionalHobo]

graphics look exactly like that garbage outer worlds, assets look even worse

obsidian is really going the way of bioware huh

i don t expect anything from this besides the most stale casual bait game possible

 

[Delterius]

to fail in the graphical fidelity department

its a skyrim clone though. its supposed to run on the little computer that regulates my fridge

it wouldn't take a lot for a game's combat to be better than skyrim's at this point so i'm reserving my judgement on that.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Then the combat. Just lol. What did you people expect?

I'm one of the most positive people ITT and I'm not even particularly interested in the game.

I would have thought you could read, since you appear to be typing.

 

[BlackheartXIII]

"I may be getting some times wrong, but back in January 2021 the project was so screwed up that Chris Parker was pulled off as project director and replaced with Carrie Patel, Bobby Null was pulled off as creative lead, and Dan Platt was replaced by Matt Hansen as art director."

In addition there was this warning sign by a former Obsidian senior environment artist back in Feb 2, 2022 (From Glassdoor):

Find art directors who understand the art and technology from the ground up. Your art directors are a joke and really have no idea what makes a AAA look like a AAA.

The art department is kind of a joke and they don't focus on making a game great there. Instead the keep saying that story is everything and really everything should be important. I feel like they are so behind on tech, art and real game-play that they are doomed to fail. I couldn't stay there anymore. The art directors there, I feel, have given up on making great art or are are just extremely toxic.

 

[RatTower]

I saw the trailer and it really got me thinking about what it is, that seems so off about a lot of modern fantasy games.
At first, one might think that it is the designs, but those are actually pretty alright (shape-wise). What's so strange and incoherent to me is the extensive use of neon coloring.
Go through that trailer again and count every shot with neon coloring. It's almost every single one of them and I am really not sure whether that is deliberate or the result of some aesthetic trend.
Compare this to a classic game trailer like the one of Lands of Lore 2:

Spoiler

Now I am of course biased, cause I love that trailer, but both LoL2 and this game have outlandish fantasy designs.
However, one feels like it is rooted in reality, while the other one seems like it's taking hints from Marvel.
It might be about readability, but I gotta be honest: It kinda takes me out.

 

[Roguey]

They believe it's pretty good (at least compared to The Elder Scrolls?):

The trailer had combat footage, it looked just as janky as Skyrim's (if not moreso). Patel is undiscerning.

 

[Jenkem]

Very unspectacular trailer.

I also wasn't expecting dated graphics, to be honest.

I thought maybe it was a case of the game being in development before M$ bought Obsidian but no, that does not appear to be the case. Micro$hit's game division are simply incompetent. It's not surprising if you've watched any Redfall videos. They are managed by literal retards. Say what you want about Sony but they fucking clown on M$ day in, day out when it comes to first party managment.

But Phil Spencer basically confirmed that to be the case. In speaking about Redfall he said that they let the developers do whatever they wanted with games they were already working on when the merger happened. He also said that maybe Microsoft should have been more involved considering the state of the game at launch. He said this during that big interview that went viral a few weeks ago.

Also LOL about Sony's first party management.. The same Sony that basically got rid of its entire internal Japanese devteams and now rely on westoid slop? How many Sony developed games have come out recently?

 

[Gahbreeil]

The graphics look fucking terrible, completely uninspired and one generation behind everything else.

Three years ago they started working on it. Guess what? I guess they started with the engine and the graphics. Once they are done, they'll polish it..

And the Codex will receive.

 

[0sacred]

this is not a scenario where I can see the customer winning

The customer is not competing. The companies are.

Competitive genres are better for everyone.

1. why would I care about companies producing shitty FPS RPG-lites and
2. why would Microsoft be interested in products that compete heavily, i.e. sharing the same feature set?

 

[gabe1010]

The things that make a first person action combat system good are simply incompatible with a cRPG, and I don't know how much more evidence there needs to be so you mongoloids get it through your thick fucking skulls.

Agreed, but I'm wondering what all your reasons are? cRPG being about character based stats and not player skill? First Person action combat being fun because of a given set of abilities mixing melee/fists/shooting and magic and not about picking one?

 

[gabe1010]

I saw the trailer and it really got me thinking about what it is, that seems so off about a lot of modern fantasy games.
At first, one might think that it is the designs, but those are actually pretty alright (shape-wise). What's so strange and incoherent to me is the extensive use of neon coloring.
Go through that trailer again and count every shot with neon coloring. It's almost every single one of them and I am really not sure whether that is deliberate or the result of some aesthetic trend.
Compare this to a classic game trailer like the one of Lands of Lore 2:
...

Agreed, the neon stuff is just awful. Sharply contrasts with and doesn't fit in the rest of the environment, and just makes it look like a student project with asset store plants. The foliage is just awful.

Edit: I had to do an edit to include these quotes from another forum:

it's like Godfall & Immortals of Aveum had an illegitimate child in terms of visual palette...Way too garish.

The mushroom garden posted in the OP is straight kitsch in a way that would fit an aesthetic modelled after 1950s sci fi but not a quasi-historical fantasy setting

 

[gabe1010]

You can only be an elf or a human.

There are no classes.

The art style looks like a mobile game with the post-processing of their shitty sci-fi Outer Worlds game.

The gameplay has stiff, janky, cheap looking animations, and the trailer refused to show more than 1 or 2 moves in a single shot, often even cutting those just before you can get a good look at the impact to hide how shit the combat is.

And then you have the above tweets and glassdoor reviews and this thing is just covered in red flags.

The last few seconds of the original teaser trailer two years ago were so promising.

Obsidian is just a name on a building. Whoever made their previous games great doesn't work there anymore.

 

[bobocrunch]

honestly hope this flops so obshitian can get decimated and josh shipped off to direct slav code monkeys

 

[gabe1010]

from glassdoor:

Employee promotion is almost nonexistent. The leads and directors are entrenched, even with other employees who could do a better job. If it were a bigger company this wouldn't be that big of a deal. At its current size this stifles the studio's overall growth.All of this contributes to a feeling of, "don't rock the boat." When you're hired, you'll probably stay at the position for the rest of your time at Obsidian. Owners will dangle promotion promises for years until people either threaten to quit or just straight up leave. The company has lost A LOT of good employees this way.

Company has been around 15 years, run by people who've been around 10 more. You'd think they'd know how to run a business by now, but you'd be wrong. Leadership is completely entrenched in old ideas and micromanagement. Despite several close calls in the past, the company has not structured deals in a timely & effective manner to prevent massive layoffs. Any sense of "open" structure is an utter farce - leadership has no time for you on a personal level (despite the facade of an 'open-door policy) meanwhile getting involved on a microscopic level on projects and not allowing the talent they have to shine. Pay is below average, no bonuses. Zero career progression/promotions, spare in-the-trench or if you're a friend or family of an owner. Massive nepotism. HR is utterly incompetent. Owners have explicitly said they don't read reviews and decide raises based on their opinion of you. Due to micromanagement, leadership causes massive delays in projects due to midnight hour decisions or pivoting. Company strategy is to do the same thing for the next 5+ years with little innovation. Executive producer holds all the power.

Games tend to be way over scoped and under staffed leaving a lot of game to be cut back at the end of production.

The don't focus on anything other than story. The art department is kind of a joke and they don't focus on making a game great there. Instead the keep saying that story is everything and really everything should be important. I feel like they are so behind on tech, art and real game-play that they are doomed to fail. I couldn't stay there anymore. The art directors there, I feel, have given up on making great art or are are just extremely toxic.

Vastly overscoped projects. Gaslighting when backpedaling on overscoped requests. Embarrassingly limited understanding of what makes a "AAA" game. Almost nonexistent understanding of modern sustainable production. The review titled "subsistence-level game development" is sadly still true. Much of the practices stem from a game dev philosophy of 20+ years ago and many leads and directors cling to ideals from that era. Upper management reacts at a glacial pace to team pleas for help.

TLDR: they overscope, they don't promote or even recognize talented people, they suffer from nepotism, they don't keep up to date with advances in game design and tech, they focus on story to the detriment of everything else (which is a bigger deal for a 3D first person game than their old isometric stuff), and have very little experience with genuine AAA titles (basically 2D iso stuff and mediocre AA Unreal semi-open hub games).

 

[luj1]

You can only be an elf or a human.

There are no classes.

The art style looks like a mobile game with the post-processing of their shitty sci-fi Outer Worlds game.

The gameplay has stiff, janky, cheap looking animations, and the trailer refused to show more than 1 or 2 moves in a single shot, often even cutting those just before you can get a good look at the impact to hide how shit the combat is.

lmao

 

[sosmoflux]

They're going for the Underworld Ascendant audience

 

[Jenkem]

imagine playing as a fucking elf