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

[The Wall]

According to who exactly? Planescape Torment has no physics and is older than Ultima Underworld.

But Avowed ain't Planescape Torment. It ain't TOEE either. Ain't Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Not even Oblivion. It's Avooowed. Smells like shit. Looks like shit. Others call it shit. People who don't eat shit say it tastes awfully, like shit. People who eat shit say mmm, not bad shit. What is it? MYSTERY! Go. Go on. Taste it for yourself. Only 69.99$

 

[Butter]

Planescape Torment has no physics and is older than Ultima Underworld.

This just in: 1999 came before 1992.

 

[Roguey]

I've said it before in this thread: the problem with Avowed is that it lacks any reactivity features, not just that it lacks one specific reactivity feature.

If it had NPCs reacting but no clutter physics, that could be excused. But it has nothing. Nothing and nobody reacts to anything at all.

But they do. They react to you in dialogue. The companions also react to what's going on in the world https://www.reddit.com/r/avowed/comments/1iqnfds/npcs_arent_reactive_they_said_small_spoiler_tag/

They'll also make comments about what you're doing, like when you take their stuff.



Apparently there's some narrative justification for this "laziness": you have envoy authority, so you have the legal authority to take what you want, but I suppose you shouldn't think about it too hard because that brings up "Why do I have to pay merchants?" Maybe there's an explanation for that, can't be bothered to watch a full LP.

 

[d1r]

I've said it before in this thread: the problem with Avowed is that it lacks any reactivity features, not just that it lacks one specific reactivity feature.

If it had NPCs reacting but no clutter physics, that could be excused. But it has nothing. Nothing and nobody reacts to anything at all.

But they do. They react to you in dialogue. The companions also react to what's going on in the world https://www.reddit.com/r/avowed/comments/1iqnfds/npcs_arent_reactive_they_said_small_spoiler_tag/

They'll also make comments about what you're doing, like when you take their stuff.



Apparently there's some narrative justification for this "laziness": you have envoy authority, so you have the legal authority to take what you want, but I suppose you shouldn't think about it too hard because that brings up "Why do I have to pay merchants?" Maybe there's an explanation for that, can't be bothered to watch a full LP.

I am way more worried about that absolutely atrocious weapon design. Jesus christus.

 

[anvi]

simulationism and player reactivity are the ONLY design principles that actually lead to great games,

I don't know, what about like Wizardry and FFT and stuff? Not everything has to be simulation. But I agree this game is trying to be immersive while skipping lots of important stuff. It sounds like crap.

 

[JarlFrank]

People who defend Avowed always latch on to a single argument, missing the forest for the trees.

The problem isn't that it's missing one singular particular feature that another first person RPG from 20 years ago had.
The problem is that it's missing ALL the features that MANY first and third person RPGs from anywhere between 5 and 35 years ago had!

It has less reactivity than:
- Ultima Underworld
- Ultima VII
- Fallout 1 & 2
- Arcanum
- Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim
- all Gothic games
- all Baldur's Gates
- New Vegas
- Outer Worlds

and I could probably keep expanding the list but I think the point should be clear

 

[markec]

I've said it before in this thread: the problem with Avowed is that it lacks any reactivity features, not just that it lacks one specific reactivity feature.

If it had NPCs reacting but no clutter physics, that could be excused. But it has nothing. Nothing and nobody reacts to anything at all.

But they do. They react to you in dialogue. The companions also react to what's going on in the world https://www.reddit.com/r/avowed/comments/1iqnfds/npcs_arent_reactive_they_said_small_spoiler_tag/

They'll also make comments about what you're doing, like when you take their stuff.



Apparently there's some narrative justification for this "laziness": you have envoy authority, so you have the legal authority to take what you want, but I suppose you shouldn't think about it too hard because that brings up "Why do I have to pay merchants?" Maybe there's an explanation for that, can't be bothered to watch a full LP.

Whats the narrative justification for people not reacting to being hit in the head by a sword.

 

[Skinwalker]

18. SayMyName

 

[Sheepherder]

The game is military grade "meh".

Pretty much the entirety of Obsidian's oeuvre summarized.

I wouldn't say that much. Maybe 3/4 or 2/3 of it all. But the recent offering were all meh.

 

[Roguey]

Whats the narrative justification for people not reacting to being hit in the head by a sword.

You're not actually hitting them just like you can throw fireballs around in Dragon Age and it doesn't hurt NPCs.

 

[Raghar]

Apparently there's some narrative justification for this "laziness": you have envoy authority, so you have the legal authority to take what you want, but I suppose you shouldn't think about it too hard because that brings up "Why do I have to pay merchants?" Maybe there's an explanation for that, can't be bothered to watch a full LP.

Whats the narrative justification for people not reacting to being hit in the head by a sword.

Developers are Millennials or zoomers. Ah, you meant in game explanation...

It's power of friendship.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

This could be less obvious than previous comparisons

 

[SayMyName]

"Games like Morrowind and Gothic didn't have physics" neither they had AI routine, and thus they failed to meet the same standards you are setting for Avowed.

I've said it before in this thread: the problem with Avowed is that it lacks any reactivity features, not just that it lacks one specific reactivity feature.

If it had NPCs reacting but no clutter physics, that could be excused. But it has nothing. Nothing and nobody reacts to anything at all.

Again, you conveniently set up some threshold of minimum acceptable reactivity and I'm curious about how you established what level of reactivity and interactivity are enough to pass you criteria.

Not only those are some of my favourite RPGs, but they are all consistently in the top ranking of RPG Codex, yet you

• can't kill or attack neutral NPCs without a scripted interaction that causes hostility.
• can't steal, or better there's no reaction to the player stealing.
• you can't take, drag, drop or move stuff around in any of those.

The idea that Avowed is shit because it doesn't match your oddly specific yet not actually defined requirements of what constitutes as developers giving a shit about the game they are making is laughable.
It's a retard farming negative engagement by baiting a crowd of retards into dogpiling on flavour of the month because none of them gives a shit in the first place and Youtube incentivizes low effort content.

 

[The Wall]

Eat shit. Noone is stopping you. Your choice

 

[SayMyName]

Eat shit. Noone is stopping you. Your choice

You know what's hilarious? You have a portrait of Vernon Roche, a character from Witcher 2, a bad game where NPCs don't react to stealing, you can't drag or throw stuff around, there's no physics and you can't kill or antagonize neutral npcs

 

[JarlFrank]

If Dragon Age is one of your favorite RPGs your taste is shit. Shadowrun Dragonfall is great, but it's a game that gives you a much different framework from Avowed - it's isometric, you only pull out your weapons during combat encounters and have no button to do so outside of them (unlike Avowed), so you wouldn't expect to be able to do it... unlike Avowed.

But Dragon Age? It has the WORST encounter design of ANY RPG I ever played. It had so many shitty copypasted trash mobs it left me feeling drained at the end of it. I don't think I'll ever replay it in my life, it's just so horrendously tedious.

If you think Dragon Age is one of the best RPGs ever, your opinions are invalid.

 

[Ryzer]

Whats the narrative justification for people not reacting to being hit in the head by a sword.

You're not actually hitting them just like you can throw fireballs around in Dragon Age and it doesn't hurt NPCs.

Any explanation about the butt-ugly character design?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Eat shit. Noone is stopping you. Your choice

You know what's hilarious? You have a portrait of Vernon Roche, a character from Witcher 2, a bad game where NPCs don't react to stealing, you can't drag or throw stuff around, there's no physics and you can't kill or antagonize neutral npcs

TW2 wasn't pretending to be a Bethesda style game.

 

[Necrensha]

Interactivity: none whatsoever
Lore: sleep-inducing
Gameplay: Borderlands with swords
Physics: What's that?
Immersion: As immersive as Forspoken.
Story: Do what all these strong woman and the strong female goddess tell you or else you're an asshole.
Visual clarity: as good as lategame Path of Exile.
Roleplaying opportunities: You can... roleplay as an overpowered errand boy or a simp, choose.
What is even this discussion? Even fucking Oblivion destroys Avowed in all departments, it's embarrassing.

 

[SayMyName]

Eat shit. Noone is stopping you. Your choice

You know what's hilarious? You have a portrait of Vernon Roche, a character from Witcher 2, a bad game where NPCs don't react to stealing, you can't drag or throw stuff around, there's no physics and you can't kill or antagonize neutral npcs

TW2 wasn't pretending to be a Bethesda style game.

Avowed isn't either. I don't see why I game would try to be a Bethesda game either. They are soulless busywork for bugmen that are too peabrained for real RPGs

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Eat shit. Noone is stopping you. Your choice

You know what's hilarious? You have a portrait of Vernon Roche, a character from Witcher 2, a bad game where NPCs don't react to stealing, you can't drag or throw stuff around, there's no physics and you can't kill or antagonize neutral npcs

TW2 wasn't pretending to be a Bethesda style game.

Avowed isn't either.

TOW is a copy of a copy (a.i. New Vegas as an, admittedly improved, copy of Bethesda's Fallout 3) and now Avowed is their attempt at a notTES.

 

[Falksi]

"Games like Morrowind and Gothic didn't have physics" neither they had AI routine, and thus they failed to meet the same standards you are setting for Avowed.

I've said it before in this thread: the problem with Avowed is that it lacks any reactivity features, not just that it lacks one specific reactivity feature.

If it had NPCs reacting but no clutter physics, that could be excused. But it has nothing. Nothing and nobody reacts to anything at all.

Again, you conveniently set up some threshold of minimum acceptable reactivity and I'm curious about how you established what level of reactivity and interactivity are enough to pass you criteria.

Not only those are some of my favourite RPGs, but they are all consistently in the top ranking of RPG Codex, yet you

• can't kill or attack neutral NPCs without a scripted interaction that causes hostility.
• can't steal, or better there's no reaction to the player stealing.
• you can't take, drag, drop or move stuff around in any of those.

The idea that Avowed is shit because it doesn't match your oddly specific yet not actually defined requirements of what constitutes as developers giving a shit about the game they are making is laughable.
It's a retard farming negative engagement by baiting a crowd of retards into dogpiling on flavour of the month because none of them gives a shit in the first place and Youtube incentivizes low effort content.

Dude I love all 3 of those games for different reasons, but they're not first-person and the whole idea behind first person games is that they are meant to be immersive.

Ever since the early TES games were released, first person RPGs have all been about immersion and reactivity. It doesn't HAVE to be there, yes you can play 3rd person as an option, but people expect it to be there as it's woven into the genre that is generally made for First Person play.

Deux Ex, Dishonoured etc it goes with the territory.

 

[JarlFrank]

Ever since the early TES games were released

Even earlier: Ultima Underworld!

 

[Nifft Batuff]

According to who exactly? Planescape Torment has no physics and is older than Ultima Underworld.

The IE was decline compared to what was implemented in Fallout or previous RPGs like Ultima. Not specifically because of the lack of physics, but because of the lack of any non pre-scripted interactions with the environment.
Planescape Torment is one of the IE RPGs that resent less of this non-interactivity, because is mainly focused on dialogs.

 

[SayMyName]

If Dragon Age is one of your favorite RPGs your taste is shit.

Whatever you say

Shadowrun Dragonfall is great, but it's a game that gives you a much different framework from Avowed - it's isometric, you only pull out your weapons during combat encounters and have no button to do so outside of them (unlike Avowed), so you wouldn't expect to be able to do it... unlike Avowed.

Autism, they are virtually identical, yours is just petty cherrypicking.
You are conveniently ignoring the other comparisons. You can actually draw guns on npcs on planets in Mass Effect, a legendary RPG beloved by most players. Is it a bad game because shots ghost through npcs?

But Dragon Age? It has the WORST encounter design of ANY RPG I ever played. It had so many shitty copypasted trash mobs it left me feeling drained at the end of it. I don't think I'll ever replay it in my life, it's just so horrendously tedious.

If you think Dragon Age is one of the best RPGs ever, your opinions are invalid.

"muh the FADE"

Eat shit. Noone is stopping you. Your choice

You know what's hilarious? You have a portrait of Vernon Roche, a character from Witcher 2, a bad game where NPCs don't react to stealing, you can't drag or throw stuff around, there's no physics and you can't kill or antagonize neutral npcs

TW2 wasn't pretending to be a Bethesda style game.

Avowed isn't either.

TOW is a copy of a copy (a.i. New Vegas as an, admittedly improved, copy of Bethesda's Fallout 3) and now Avowed is their attempt at a notTES.

New Vegas doesn't copy anything about Fallout 3 and that's exactly why it works so well while Fallout 3 is a bland turd.
It drops level scaling almost entirely, it introduces a quest design not designed by dogs and trusts the player to choose for each playthrough a fitting order of progression and the proper approach to each questline
There's nothing truly special about it that lies in interactivity and Creation Engine nonsense, because New Vegas is made great by other different elements that Bethesda can't replicate.
I doubt Obdisian sat at a table and looked at how Skyrim does quest design, leveling, perks, rpg mechanics, bosses, dungeons and dialogues

I don't know if Avowed is shit or good, but I doubt it will be anywhere as bad as Skyrim where I'll roleplay as the Talos worshipping Dunmner who doesn't know who Boethiah is while being the Archmage of Winterhold who knows only 2 elementary spells, Master of the Thieves Guild, Leader of the Companions and Vampire.
But that's a matter of taste probably, there's players who prefer rpgs and players who prefer sandbox games, just don't complain ot every game gives priority to throwing stuff around