I've been playing it for a few hours. Went in as someone who really enjoys both Pillars games, and expected Avowed to pretty much suck.
-It's reminiscant of Outer Worlds in a lot of ways. There's that same sense of "design by committe", middle-of-the-road medicority present. It's not exactly the same but similar. It's the same boring loot and very "gamey" loot caches hidden away everywhere. It's just very boring and hurts exploration immensely. There's no attempt here to try and create a somewhat believable simulation, or even a simulation of a simulation. It's the most basic of videogames, with big-ass chests in alleyways, that give you crafting supplies and a few pieces of currency. The city and world are basically a facade, like in the Witcher 3 for example.
-The basic gameplay of moving around the world and combat is alright. It's simplistic action-RPG stuff but so far it's kept my attention. Again, it's not memorable or standout in any way but it's ok. It's similar to Outer Worlds in that regard, thankfully I haven't encountered anything like the slog of whatever that planet in that game was that was just a shitload of combat. So far, the combat encounters have been paced pretty well. But it's early in the going.
-The game looks quite a lot better than I expected I must say, I'm a bit surprised by that. The NPCs are the worst part, both in design and the weird sort of clay-like appearance they have. But the world is actually quite beautiful at times and there's been a few nice views to experience. That does help.
-The writing is about what you'd expect. It's basically the same type of character writing as The Outer World except without the focus on humor. That weirdly childish, "quirky" style of writing. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. It's impossible to take it seriously in any way. That can be ok if it can manage to be amusing, but it's also boring and shallow so there's just not much to applaud here. The dialogue choices are often really bad and lacking in nuance, and some of the ability checks are on the level of "[INT] So you fight the good fight on the radio?". City-adventuring is some of my favorite stuff to do in RPGs but the writing makes it a real slog in this one.
The story is uninteresting so far and it's one of those types of games where you just feel like it almost cheapens the prior games in the universe. Full of quaint little "nods" back to the PoE games.
Thus far, a few hours in, comparable to the Outer Worlds. Difference being that in the Outer Worlds I was disappointed because I expected something better. Here, my expectations were way lower, so it just feels meh overall.
-It's reminiscant of Outer Worlds in a lot of ways. There's that same sense of "design by committe", middle-of-the-road medicority present. It's not exactly the same but similar. It's the same boring loot and very "gamey" loot caches hidden away everywhere. It's just very boring and hurts exploration immensely. There's no attempt here to try and create a somewhat believable simulation, or even a simulation of a simulation. It's the most basic of videogames, with big-ass chests in alleyways, that give you crafting supplies and a few pieces of currency. The city and world are basically a facade, like in the Witcher 3 for example.
-The basic gameplay of moving around the world and combat is alright. It's simplistic action-RPG stuff but so far it's kept my attention. Again, it's not memorable or standout in any way but it's ok. It's similar to Outer Worlds in that regard, thankfully I haven't encountered anything like the slog of whatever that planet in that game was that was just a shitload of combat. So far, the combat encounters have been paced pretty well. But it's early in the going.
-The game looks quite a lot better than I expected I must say, I'm a bit surprised by that. The NPCs are the worst part, both in design and the weird sort of clay-like appearance they have. But the world is actually quite beautiful at times and there's been a few nice views to experience. That does help.
-The writing is about what you'd expect. It's basically the same type of character writing as The Outer World except without the focus on humor. That weirdly childish, "quirky" style of writing. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. It's impossible to take it seriously in any way. That can be ok if it can manage to be amusing, but it's also boring and shallow so there's just not much to applaud here. The dialogue choices are often really bad and lacking in nuance, and some of the ability checks are on the level of "[INT] So you fight the good fight on the radio?". City-adventuring is some of my favorite stuff to do in RPGs but the writing makes it a real slog in this one.
The story is uninteresting so far and it's one of those types of games where you just feel like it almost cheapens the prior games in the universe. Full of quaint little "nods" back to the PoE games.
Thus far, a few hours in, comparable to the Outer Worlds. Difference being that in the Outer Worlds I was disappointed because I expected something better. Here, my expectations were way lower, so it just feels meh overall.
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It reminds me of Metro 2033 with such a wonderful backdrop you can only look at but never touch.
