Decline Obsidian's Creative-Bankruptcy compared to Other Non-Obsidian Upcoming large CRPGs... Is there any hope for Obsidian to ever make it big?

[cyborgboy95]

Of all the large CRPGs that are about to come out, Obsidian's RPGs (Avowed, The Outer World 2) are the least interesting imo. Most of other upcoming large crpgs have some unique twists up their sleeve or really unusual settings or at least an excellent art style to make them stand out. Let's check out a few of Non-Obsidian large CRPGs:

1. Clockwork Revolution (steampunk setting, time travel)
2. EXODUS (time dilation)
3. Wyrdsong (historical fantasy Portgual setting)
4. No Rest For The Wicked (art style, verticality)
5. Dragon's Dogma 2 (pawns, combat with climb mechanic, etc...)
6. The Thaumaturge (historical Warsaw setting, Persona-like combat in a western CRPG)

... and probably many more.

Meanwhile, what is Obsidian doing? As far as I know, Obsidian is just trying to copy Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls and Fallout (with a less impressive open world and more focus on story/companion/choices & consequences). Judging from their recent output (The Outer World - one of the most bland game I have ever played), it's hard to be excited for the sequel. Say what you will about Inxile, at least they managed to restore my faith in them somewhat with Wasteland 3, so I'm actually looking forward to Clockwork Revolution and the inevitable Wasteland 4 as well.

Even as an avid crpg player, my free time is still limited, and when combine that with the fact that there are so many CRPGs to play nowadays, I have to prioritize playing which crpg stands out the most to me, and it saddens me to report that Obsidian's upcoming RPGs are currently below the bottom of the barrel of my to-play list (it means that Avowed and The Outer World 2 are not even on my radar/wishlist anymore).

Unless I'm alone in feeling this way or Obsidian somehow manage to step up their game creative-wise (and maybe writing-wise too), I seriously doubt Obsidian will ever leave an impact like Fallout New Vegas in the gaming scene again.

What about you? What do you think??

 

[HoboForEternity]

They are chasing for the next fallout: new vegas and they dont even scratch the base of new vegas' impact, cultural relevancy and timelessness.

I say this as someone who enjoyed their isometric kickstarter era games. New vegas is lightning in THE bottle.


On technical side, brain drain from inept management like avellone, fernstermaker, and countless others. I think josh himself is a great director, and occasionally, writer but he is not creatively adequate in the conceptual level. As a director, i think he excel at execution, and management, but it was always others that did the creative works.

As for the new writer, they are a mixed bag. I really like pentiment's style of writing and they did make a relatable, and relatively realistic medieval era characters along with portraying the worldview and community of the era, but then again you have something like outer worlds, which the satire completely misses and everything feels very flat and lifeless.

 

[NecroLord]

Don't worry, bro.
Obsidian gonna release the CRUSHING sequel to the CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED RPG - The Outer Worlds.
It's gonna be a HUGE success and put Obsidian back on the map.







Right?...

 

[InD_ImaginE]

If they can't shit out a competent game when they have to during time when they are independent (and thus each failure might means closure) they won't produce jackshit under Microsoft bosom

They will just meet the same fate like Bioware and get increasingly irrelevant after the last big names leave the studio/retire

 

[JarlFrank]

Obsidian was always creatively bankrupt, with the exception of a few good individual writers... all of whom left the company at this point.

Most of their games were mediocre and even their good ones were flawed gems at best.

 

[luj1]

No

Obsidian had one good game, it was SWKotOR 2, or maybe two good games, if you count FNV in (I don't)

Just forget about Obsidian. You are not Infinitron who is eternally in love with Soyer

 

[Infinitron]

They are chasing for the next fallout: new vegas and they dont even scratch the base of new vegas' impact, cultural relevancy and timelessness.

That's an ironic statement in the context of this thread, since New Vegas itself was considered at first glance to be an uninspired "phoning it in" title by the gamejourno and Bethesda fanboy crowd. And if you take a step back, try to unlearn what you know about the game and think about it, you can kind of understand why.

But as for OP's point, lol who cares, play other games.

 

[luj1]

lol who cares, play other games.

But preferably made by Obsidian ex-employees or someone who worked as a janitor there

 

[Lemming42]

Tim Cain put out a video not long ago about his experience working on TOW. He described how he was essentially chastised for being too excited about the project, and told not to speak too loudly or get out of his chair suddenly or something. It was hilarious.

Obsidian have long had trouble writing characters. New Vegas succeeds on the setting but all the individual characters are fucking boring as hell, barring a rather small handful you could pick out (Boone, Cass, Vulpes, Fantastic, maybe Boyd, and now I'm running out). The majority of the people you interact with are monotone jackasses who just drone a load of bland exposition about the place they're stood next to.

I like New Vegas a lot but it owes a good chunk of its success to the other Fallout games (including 3); people enjoyed seeing another glimpse into a world they already liked. For fans of the first two games it was a refreshing course-correction after Fo3, and for people who'd only played 3, it was a great flip-side to what they'd already seen, offering a more coherent and """deep""" version of the setting. If Obsidian had come out with the exact same game but in an original new setting - if the Mojave was some desert planet, the NCR were Earth authorities, the Legion were native tribal aliens, and House was some ambitious colonial governor - people would have totally slept on the game like they did with TOW.

 

[JarlFrank]

While I like New Vegas and think it's a great game despite its flaws, it was a spinoff of an established franchise, made in an existing engine given to them by a bigger publisher, and a sequel to a game many Obsidian employees worked on before.
So the foundations were already established.

KotoR2, too, was made in an established engine and based on an established franchise. Its laurels rest entirely on Avellone's unique take on Star Wars lore.

NWN2 was a sequel to a Bioware game, just like KotoR2 (those two games gave Obsidian the reputation of being Bioware's "little brother" who makes sequels and spinoffs).
MotB was better than vanilla NWN2 but that also rested solely on the writing. All of their good games are good because of writing and quest design, the rest of the games are shit (combat, encounter design, etc).

Then they made Dungeon Siege 3, which was again a sequel to an established series, but this time nobody liked their "unique spin" on the Dungeon Siege formula. It flopped hard.

The only new IP they made was Alpha Protocol. Good for what it is, but not a major commercial success.

Then during the Kickstarter era they tried to make a BG-like with Pillars. Notice a pattern? They had their chance to make their own IP, and their first instinct is to make a spiritual successor to something established. Of course, it failed spectacularly and ended up being the most boring RPG ever made.

Obsidian don't have a single original thought in their entire team. All they can do is sequels and spiritual successors and spinoffs set in established franchises.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Counterpoint: Tranny

 

[Infinitron]

Historically, Obsidian as a company had two things going for them.

First, they had Chris Avellone, who was in a league of his own. But primarily, their thing was being the company that makes BioWare/Bethesda-style games for an audience with an average IQ score about 10 points higher.

But Chris Avellone is long gone and in 2023, BioWare/Bethesda are no longer the standard in RPG development. Which has left Obsidian in an uncertain position, after they failed to establish themselves in the isometric RPG space when Deadfire underperformed.

My advice? Don't remain stuck in the past. Support Larian, support Owlcat. Those are the new standard bearers of the genre and they've achieved great things.

And if Obsidian manage to make a fun popamole RPG that expands the lore of Eora in an interesting way, or if Microsoft inject enough funding into them to compete with CD Projekt or make a BG3 clone, hey, that'll be nice too. But don't count on it.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Obsidian/MS have made more dosh with Grounded than all their previous games combined. Probably. They have no reason to act like some standard-bearer of the CRPG genre. It's just a nice extra now.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Obsidian already "made it big" with Grounded. That game has been a smashing financial success for them. As of this moment Grounded has been on steam for about a year and has almost 51k positive reviews. Pillars of Eternity 2 came out in 2018 and has 12.3k reviews. I don't think they're ever going back to making RPGs, at least not for a while. We'll get more watered down action games like TOW / Avowed.

 

[Yoomazir]

tl,dr:

no

 

[JarlFrank]

lore of Eora

interesting

lol
lmao

 

[Roguey]

Obsidian will always be Obsidian as long as Feargus Urquhart and Chris Parker are in charge.

 

[Jaesun]

Obsidian has always been that one dev studio I always was rooting for, that might one day surprise us with another surprising hit. But I think it may be their time is over....

For now, Larian and Owlcat continue to march forward in glorious and prestigious Turn-Based RPGs.

 

[0sacred]

AA and AAA is dead /thread

 

[Sherry]

Hi.

Roguey. Rogue. *hides in shadows*

If you only knew ... and it's not because of Chris Parker.

Thanks,
Sherry

 

[Tyranicon]

What do you mean make it big? Outer Worlds already sold/pushed over 5 million copies and Grounded has 50k reviews on Steam alone.

They're arguably already pushing the term "AA."

It's just not the games codex cares about, or anybody else really.

If Obsidian switched entirely to making The Forest-style crafting survival adventures, and break billions of dollars, they'll finally be "big."

Very few people ever lose money underestimating the intelligence of the general public.

 

[Gargaune]

That's a long title, bro.

Obsidian had one good game, it was SWKotOR 2, or maybe two good games, if you count FNV in (I don't)

MotB.

All they can do is sequels and spiritual successors and spinoffs set in established franchises.

That does seem to track historically, most of their reputation is built playing in other people's sandboxes. I don't think that's necessarily a problem, I used to like Obsidian, but it did look like their "cred" outpaced their credentials in recent years. I think it was The Otter Worlds that was getting promoted with "from legendary RPG developer Obsidian?"

 

[gurugeorge]

As far as I'm concerned the only things from Obsidian I haven't liked have been Dungeon Siege 3 (after being a fan of the first two in that series and annoyed by the gameplay changes) and The Outer Worlds (which is dull as dishwater), everything else they've made I've enjoyed, including the Pillows games. They had a rep for making buggy and unfinished games for a long time, but nobody doubted that they made games that were essentially pretty good, if a bit flawed.

Deadfire in particular is an excellent game and completely kills their rep for making unfinished, unpolished games stone dead - and I think it's had a pretty good afterlife beyond the disappointing release, as people kind of discover it when they're at a loose end - they might be casting about for something to play and there it is, a gigantic, well made RPG, waiting to be enjoyed.

 

[Haba]

No.

There is absolutely nothing of value left at "Obsidian". The only way they could make something good if they fired everyone they currently have in the roster and hired new people.

Mainly the game design, writing and management.

 

[NecroLord]

Way I see it, they are gonna have to release a Baldur's Gate 3 similar type of game. Nothing overly complex, filler story, some current thing degeneracy and LGBT grovelling, you know the drill...