Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Honestly, it's a bit strange that this studio tried to make TOW, and that they are now trying to make a game like Avowed. It would have made more sense for Microsoft to have founded or purchased an existing studio with experience in AAA, 3D, First Person, Unreal, Open World Games, and just sent them a few of Obsidian's writers (they could have even still called it an Obsidian game for marketing purposes if they wanted to I guess?). There's not really that much overlap in skillset between Unity/C#/2D/writing/narrative focused games and Unreal/C++/3D action/combat focused games.

Obsidian developed their own in house game engine, with it's own renderer, input system, etc, AFAIK.

It was called Onyx.. and it was only used for two games.. Stick of Truth and Dungeon Seige III

This company knows how to burn cash / waste velocity on worthless blackholes of nothing.. but unless they fired their entire engine development team I assume they have at least 2 or 3 people who can write optimized C++ code.

Alpha Protocol was also done in Unreal. (Unreal 3 though)

So they've developed like two engines while still depending on the goodwill of major publishers?

Is Feargus fucking insane?

 

[Immortal]

Honestly, it's a bit strange that this studio tried to make TOW, and that they are now trying to make a game like Avowed. It would have made more sense for Microsoft to have founded or purchased an existing studio with experience in AAA, 3D, First Person, Unreal, Open World Games, and just sent them a few of Obsidian's writers (they could have even still called it an Obsidian game for marketing purposes if they wanted to I guess?). There's not really that much overlap in skillset between Unity/C#/2D/writing/narrative focused games and Unreal/C++/3D action/combat focused games.

Obsidian developed their own in house game engine, with it's own renderer, input system, etc, AFAIK.

It was called Onyx.. and it was only used for two games.. Stick of Truth and Dungeon Seige III

This company knows how to burn cash / waste velocity on worthless blackholes of nothing.. but unless they fired their entire engine development team I assume they have at least 2 or 3 people who can write optimized C++ code.

Alpha Protocol was also done in Unreal. (Unreal 3 though)

So they've developed like two engines while still depending on the goodwill of major publishers?

Is Feargus fucking insane?

Obsidian has developed games in:

Electron (In-House Modification / Partial Rewrite of Aurora Engine)
Creation Engine / GameBryo
Unreal
Unity
Onyx (In-House Engine)
Odyssey Engine (Spinoff of Aurora Engine)
CryEngine

---

We can excuse a few of these since they were basically licensed to make one-off sequels.. but JFC.. any engine they HAVEN'T used / rewrote / extended??

This is development suicide.. the amount of tech stacks they need expertise in and the amount of time they waste ramping up on new engines. (Many of these engines were used ONCE for one shipped game.. then on to the next shiny ball)
It looks like they are finally settling down to just extending Unity / Unreal.. but talk about mismanagement.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Indeed, any reference to Outer Worlds by Obsidian is a massive red flag. It's their worst rpg by a wide margin.

I'll concur because dungeon siege 3, alpha protocol and nwn2(all of them) exist, but I think this is not really them talking about it's TOW with swords but rather that its scale is similar to TOW and one thing you can't say about TOW is that it tried to do too much and ended up too buggy or unfinished.

 

[Immortal]

Indeed, any reference to Outer Worlds by Obsidian is a massive red flag. It's their worst rpg by a wide margin.

I'll concur because dungeon siege 3, alpha protocol and nwn2(all of them) exist, but I think this is not really them talking about it's TOW with swords but rather that its scale is similar to TOW and one thing you can't say about TOW is that it tried to do too much and ended up too buggy or unfinished.

If there's a hell.. and bad people go there for endless suffering.. I bet they are forced to play Dungeon Siege 3.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

tried to do too much and ended up too buggy or unfinished.

That's the trademark of an Obsidian game, tbh

 

[AwesomeButton]

So, I gather Obsidian is transforming from a game development company into an "artistic collective". No wonder Josh was so enthusiastic about Za/um and Disco Elysium.

 

[santino27]

tried to do too much and ended up too buggy or unfinished.

That's the trademark of an Obsidian game, tbh

Agreed, and it's when they scale back their ambitions that they deliver mediocrity like Outer Worlds. It's a real catch-22.

 

[Cyberarmy]

If there's a hell.. and bad people go there for endless suffering.. I bet they are forced to play Dungeon Siege 3.

Everyone creates their own hell while living... And they are forced to play Gothic 3 release edition.

 

[Reinhardt]

I wonder if this will be the game Obsidian finally gives a full Pale elf companion.

hi, i'm tyrone and this is shaneekwa. we wuz pale elves.

 

[Star Citizen]

The funniest part of this reveal trailer was me joining the stream midway through while it was showing, having no idea what it was/who the dev was and thinking to myself "how the fuck am I getting Outer Worlds vibes from this" and then it all made sense.

 

[Delterius]

I wonder if this will be the game Obsidian finally gives a full Pale elf companion.

Ydwin herself probably fits this one's plot to be honest.

I'm not that concerned about a lower scale, never seen an open world game that kept consistent quality and good graphix is always an excuse for shit gameplay but the comparisons with Outer Worlds are concerning not in terms of size but in the assumption that the Outer Worlds is a good game.

If I said "You look like Outer Worlds, Greta.", she would probably say: "How dare you?!"

That's the problem, right? 'We scaled back from Skyrim' is not problematic, the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Ydwin herself probably fits this one's plot to be honest.

He probably meant "Pale elf full companion" not "full Pale elf companion". But when you think about it, maybe it's better that Obsidian spared us from adding more of their characterization to Ydwin.

 

[Roguey]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

 

[Maxie]

Indeed, any reference to Outer Worlds by Obsidian is a massive red flag. It's their worst rpg by a wide margin.

Obsidian being the grifters that they are, they sold Microsoft on next gen Skyrim, got bought out on that promise, will fail to deliver it in a spectacular way, because as soon as they started development they realized that they are not Bethesda.

almost as if any and all gamedev endeavour of tim cain was a pile of shit only a few of them were somewhat salvaged by his more talented associates

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think they probably started out wanting to do a genuine open world comparable in scope to Skyrim, but they got a ways into the project, realized they were over their heads, and that they also didn't want to start over on their quest/LOD/optimization/level/lighting/AI etc...tech they built out for the semi-open hub world of separate levels in TOW, and just decided instead to make a medieval mod of TOW. Maybe after a reboot they decided that anyway.

It's a shame, but from a tech perspective it's understandable. There is a significant gulf between even quite large levels connected with loading screens, and a genuine open world that cleverly hides all the loading in and out in a seamless and performant way.

There are a few AA-AAA quality, Unreal engine, open world (and sometimes content-dense) Unreal Engine games that have released and done well:

Ark
Hogwarts Legacy
PUBG
Sea of Thieves
Days Gone
Conan Exiles
Fortnite

And more in development, so Unreal is not the limitation. I suspect those studios just had/have more experience with AAA, 3D, open world dev. Obsidian's claim to fame is mostly using either the Creation Engine to make what amounts to a mod of an existing game (ie FNV) where they could just focus on the writing + making a few new assets, or in using Unity for 2D/Isometric games (POE/Tyranny/Pentiment) where, again, the writing is front, and center and all the minutiae of 3D animations and graphics, and gameplay in first person up close, were not relevant. They did of course also make Grounded, but it seems like that game has a cartoony art style, restricted vistas, not that large or open of a world, is not an RPG, does not have complex combat, is AA at most in its production values (14 person team?), and was also not made by the same TOW/Avowed team anyway.

Honestly, it's a bit strange that this studio tried to make TOW, and that they are now trying to make a game like Avowed. It would have made more sense for Microsoft to have founded or purchased an existing studio with experience in AAA, 3D, First Person, Unreal, Open World Games, and just sent them a few of Obsidian's writers (they could have even still called it an Obsidian game for marketing purposes if they wanted to I guess?). There's not really that much overlap in skillset between Unity/C#/2D/writing/narrative focused games and Unreal/C++/3D action/combat focused games.

That is to say, TOW wasn't, and Avowed won't be, a genuine open world game, because Obsidian couldn't figure it out. They just aren't capable of making Skyrim.

Oh well, I guess the gap in the market for a non-TES Skyrim-like game remains empty.

Obsidian, inxile and doublefine purchases made no sense. None of those studios are marquee signings, none of them are capable of releasing system sellers or big sales commercial successes. It's the gamepass Netflix model in effect, releasing a lot of filler content to keep sub numbers up.

The ID, Zenimax, Activision purchases are top quality business, especially if the later goes through. Those are the kind of AAA developers worth their money, because they have established ips, work flows, development tools and talent.

Out of all of those, Blizzard is seen as the weakest link, but even so still manages to maintain one of the biggest MMOs, trading card games, heroe shooters, in the world, with Diablo iv being a gigantic success.

Obsidian, inxile and doublefine are spiders tier developers that don't even move the market needle.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Obsidian, inxile and doublefine purchases made no sense. None of those studios are marquee signings, none of them are capable of releasing system sellers or big sales commercial successes. It's the gamepass Netflix model in effect, releasing a lot of filler content to keep sub numbers up.

The ID, Zenimax, Activision purchases are top quality business, especially if the later goes through. Those are the kind of AAA developers worth their money, because they have established ips, work flows, development tools and talent.

Out of all of those, Blizzard is seen as the weakest link, but even so still manages to maintain one of the biggest MMOs, trading card games, heroe shooters, in the world, with Diablo iv being a gigantic success.

Obsidian, inxile and doublefine are spiders tier developers that don't even move the market needle.

Game pass needs AA titles for their catalogue. And that's what Obsidian and inXile do, sometimes with pretty fine results (Wasteland 3).

Game pass can't rely solely on AAA blockbusters, because they are quite rare and represent only limited number of genres. To have a fine catalogue you need to spice it up with medium budget games and indies.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

I refunded the outer worlds after 10 minutes.

 

[Van-d-all]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

There's a major difference between sales & steam reviews being binary, and people rating a 5/10 game a 9+ though.

 

[Fedora Master]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

Millions of flies.

 

[Maxie]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

Millions of flies.

yeah, fuck no mutants allowed

 

[ArchAngel]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

This score is more realistic:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-outer-worlds/user-reviews

 

[Delterius]

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

I don't disagree with what you're saying. I'd add that even if Obsidian internally believe that they have to do better with TOW2, they should still publicly treat TOW1 as more than 'just' a financial success. But the discourse does worry me still. One thing is having a smaller scale than Skyrim, another is having as much scale as TOW1. I also don't think a corporate structure is ever gonna consider the possibility that there's a silent majority that didn't like their financially successful product. There's something else though:

I like that Patel talks about wanting to add some physicality and weight to Skyrimesque combat, which is long overdue. But if TOW1 is worth 5 million sales one wonders how far they'll actually go with stuff like that.

 

[Cyberarmy]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

This score is more realistic:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-outer-worlds/user-reviews

Still too positive, this is a mediocre game at best.

 

[normie]

didn't anyone at Obsidian say "avowed" out loud? sounds like shit

 

[ArchAngel]

the problem is this marketted insistence that Outer Worlds was worth its price and not a severe disappointment. Yeah I guess they are making a sequel, but PoE1 also got that far.

The Codex bubble. TOW sold over 5 million received critical acclaim

and buyer acclaim (84% rating on Steam).

Is there some sort of silent majority of people who were dissatisfied with it? Maybe. But how would they know? It's a success on paper so it makes sense to treat it like one.

This score is more realistic:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-outer-worlds/user-reviews

Still too positive, this is a mediocre game at best.

7.3 is top range of mediocre.