Eternity Avowed Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Baron Tahn]

Havent really seen too much detail myself. Just a bunch of hype about companions I probably woouldnt use but at least it isnt the weird thing they tried to do with Outer Worlds...I wouldnt mind a more focused game with a polished selection of spells and items. Arx or Ultima Underworld or something a bit more dungeon crawly like them keeps coming to mind but thats fabulously optimistic I know.

 

[Haplo]

Havent really seen too much detail myself. Just a bunch of hype about companions I probably woouldnt use but at least it isnt the weird thing they tried to do with Outer Worlds...I wouldnt mind a more focused game with a polished selection of spells and items. Arx or Ultima Underworld or something a bit more dungeon crawly like them keeps coming to mind but thats fabulously optimistic I know.

Yeah, that'd be something... one can dream...

 

[Haplo]

Durance and especially Grieving Mother are poorly executed characters that were created by stitching together walls of text written by Chris Avellone after he overscoped their companion quests. Avellone himself basically disavowed their state in the final game.

Some of those walls of text were cool, though.

Well, this really hit Grieving Mother badly.
Regarding Durance, enough meat was kept on, to make him a very interesting, original character.

 

[Yosharian]

Durance and especially Grieving Mother are poorly executed characters that were created by stitching together walls of text written by Chris Avellone after he overscoped their companion quests. Avellone himself basically disavowed their state in the final game.

Some of those walls of text were cool, though.

Wait he said that about Durance? That's surprising.

 

[Roguey]

Wait he said that about Durance? That's surprising.

Avellone hasn't actually played the finished game, he's just seething over how the project went. He claims that he would have preferred if Fenstermaker had told him to rewrite them to spec instead of trying to implement them as is, giving up when it proved impossible, then making cuts himself.

 

[Yosharian]

Durance doesn't strike me as a half-finished character, I don't particularly like him in fact I find him quite obnoxious and uninteresting, but not unfinished

 

[Infinitron]

Durance doesn't strike me as a half-finished character, I don't particularly like him in fact I find him quite obnoxious and uninteresting, but not unfinished

What is Durance's companion quest? Does he take you to any particular locations? Does it interact with any characters?

 

[Roguey]

What is Durance's companion quest? Does he take you to any particular locations? Does it interact with any characters?

Even a finished Durance wouldn't have taken you to a particular location or interact with other NPCs.

At a specific level, in Eternity, the original premise of the companions I wrote (Durance and the Grieving Mother) was unpeeling the layers and discovering what they were at the core – unpeeling these layers involved slipping stealthily into their unconscious, a dungeon made out of their memories. There, the player could go through an adventure game-like series of interactions, exploring their memories using psychological items important to both your character and to them as emotional keys to thread your way through the memories – but carefully, without revealing your presence. The memory dungeon was to uncover their shared history, how it impacted you, and the core of who they were as people.

Instead that was turned into a series of dialogue interactions and a multiple choice quiz.

 

[Yosharian]

Durance doesn't strike me as a half-finished character, I don't particularly like him in fact I find him quite obnoxious and uninteresting, but not unfinished

What is Durance's companion quest? Does he take you to any particular locations? Does it interact with any characters?

I can't remember any of the companion quests for POE1 so I couldn't tell you

 

[Aarwolf]

What is Durance's companion quest? Does he take you to any particular locations? Does it interact with any characters?

No, he doesn't take you anywhere. It's a series of dialogues and you slowly unravel facts about St. Waidwen, Magran, role of other gods in killing him and so on. That's why I said that his story is more interesting than the watcher's story, because death of Waidwen is crucial point that puts all things in motion in current era.

You can see snippets of this in second game and meet Waidwen for a moment iirc, but I don't remember it very well.

 

[Beans00]

The only companion quest I remember from POE(I did them all, for some bizarre reason) was the ranger girls and following some trail and finding a deer or something.
I also remember the rusty shackleford guy being a crybaby something about his brother.


Looking at the POE companions, do people really have fond memories over these guys? They were boring as hell. Less personality than Katja and Tycho from fallout 1.

 

[NJClaw]

I think PoE companions are great, but you have to be invested in the game's setting to fully appreciate their stories and facets. If you don't care about the faiths, gods, and events of Eora, companions will probably only be a nuisance.

 

[Roguey]

Looking at the POE companions, do people really have fond memories over these guys?

I like normal adults, refreshing change of pace from the Bioware-style pouty whiners and other assorted childishness.

Of course the Biodrone audience seethed over it, so they reintroduced the childishness with all the new Deadfire companions, added some to the old (Eder's goofiness was made more prominent, Pallegina became a massive bitch who complains about everything)

 

[Vulpes]

I liked Durance, but that's about it. It's a shame that he didn't return in the sequel, while the fag elf mage did just to satisfy someone's fetish. I would've preferred having fantasy Rasputin dunk on the gods over one of the writers trying to insert their gay fanfic smut into the game and almost make it official:



tl;dr Deadfire nearly had a party romance in which the ghost of a retarded horny farmgirl (dead for several centuries BTW) hooks up with a slightly less retarded horny farmboy by possessing an aristocratic twink elf's body and using it as a collection of holes.

 

[Beans00]

Looking at the POE companions, do people really have fond memories over these guys?

I like normal adults, refreshing change of pace from the Bioware-style pouty whiners and other assorted childishness.

I don't completely disagree with that. There's a happy medium though, and PoE companions had basically zero personality outside of Durance(who I didn't care for). IMO

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.obsidian.net/news/avowed-rtx-trailer

Avowed Launching With DLSS 3, Reflex & Ray Tracing - Watch A New RTX Trailer​

Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment’s highly anticipated first-person fantasy role-playing game, will feature day-one support for DLSS 3 and Reflex, with additional enhancements brought by Unreal Engine 5's Lumen lighting and ray-traced reflections.

Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed sends players to investigate rumors of a plague spreading throughout the Living Lands - an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, choices and consequences, and untamed wilderness. You soon discover a personal connection to the Living Lands, and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything. Can you save this unknown frontier and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them asunder?

Wishlist today!

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Durance and GM would have been great characters in a fantasy novel or something. Game characters need to have something else to offer beyond just spewing walls of text at the player. So that was never going to work. And it clearly didn't help that, in typical Obsidianate fashion, devs instead of unfucking the situation were too busy pointing fingers at each other.

 

[Haplo]

Eh, I enjoyed Durance's company regardless.
Grieving mother was indeed too much.

 

[LizardWizard]

Zahua was low key the best companion and also had the most interesting/memorable companion quest.

 

[Cryomancer]

I watched the gameplay and did they really made every ability cooldown based? And removed tier based progression for abilities?

I was not expecting much, the unique first person open world game that I'm hyped for is Tainted Grail " The fall of avalon, but seriously.

 

[FreeKaner]

What is Durance's companion quest? Does he take you to any particular locations? Does it interact with any characters?

No, he doesn't take you anywhere. It's a series of dialogues and you slowly unravel facts about St. Waidwen, Magran, role of other gods in killing him and so on. That's why I said that his story is more interesting than the watcher's story, because death of Waidwen is crucial point that puts all things in motion in current era.

You can see snippets of this in second game and meet Waidwen for a moment iirc, but I don't remember it very well.

A protagonist is not made narratively better by having the most interesting backstory. It's opposite really in PoE1 the protagonist is too relevant and present at multiple layers to the story that it makes it hard to parse what's going on. Watcher alone (Which is a lot of things, seeing into people's souls including spirits, dead people's memories) can be confusing alone, but you are also dealing with "awakening" of past soul and how that all relates to Thaos and Leaden Key.

I am recently replaying PoE1, and because I know what's going on beforehand I can split the layers but it made for a confusing and overreaching story before. It's really such an overstretched game narrative wise, trying to be BG, IWD and PST all the same time. Writers themselves also seem confused and overwhelmed by it, which is why the game is at its best in White March where it's scaled down to only be about being a watcher and exploring dead past instead of also your past's personal relationship with the main antagonist and the politics of soul science and soulless babies alike.

Not that I don't think there aren't good moments to this interesting past, I think it is a very interesting narrative choice, to recover your "interesting" past and come to terms with it one way or another. It's just overwhelming enough I don't think the game would benefit from protagonist being as "interesting" as Durance at the same time.

 

[Infinitron]

Avowed, the long-awaited fantasy RPG from Obsidian (and Xbox console exclusive) finally arrives on February 15th, 2025. Game Director Carrie Patel sets the stage for us.

I think they got the date wrong.

 

[luj1]

Durance doesn't strike me as a half-finished character

It's because the rest of the game is even less finished

 

[Sweeper]

They threw out MCA and made the tattowed hipster with autism lead designer

I failed the lore check, how did Chadellone piss of Roguey?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I liked Durance best, and Grieving Mother second. I thought Eder was good. Aloth had a few funny lines and was decent, but not as good as Eder. The rest were forgettable, but not offensive. Less obnoxious than your average Owlcat companion but not as good as even bare bones BG1 NPCs.