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The game was certainly sold on nostalgia first. That happened right with the first Kickstarter trailer and all its callbacks to BG, IWD, PS:T et all. However, in terms of reception, it's not as clear-cut. Both Pillars games see better press reviews as well as user recommendations (Metacritic, Open Critic, Steam...) than any Owlcat Game, for instance. Yet, all of 'em Owlcat games did well. So well that it allowed them to massively grow and now they're even self-publishing games, all the whilte reportedly working on multiple projects at once. However, Owlcat Games have another thing going for them, rather than just aping Infinity Engine game aesthetics and controls: They're based on popular tabletops that hadn't yet seen a proper RPG video gaming adaptation yet. And the Pathfinder adapatations are based on some of the most popular adventure paths of the Pathfinder tabletop. In other words, a D&D licensed game telling another standard fantasy yarn may have hold a bit more of an appeal. I mean, people voiced their distaste for the naval setting of Deadfire too. Which also makes RPGs the only genre left standing in which even a game set in WW2 or the zombie apocalypse would be seen as a radical and completely risky idea -- dwarves, elves and dragons first!

Re lore/info dumps: I found it intriguing that one of the most common criticisms re: PoE were about the lore dump kind of dialogue. And then recently they'd turned lore dumping into an entire series of trailers...

Oh yeah, definitely a lack of skill games way back. By the way, I don't consider KCD as such. Warhorse claimed they attracted totally non-gamers with the first game already. And those adapted far better to the unusual design decisions than the gamers: E.g. the saving system, eating, drinking, sleeping, fighting... It's all about conditioning. I mean, back in the day, we used to play games without markers, auto-maps and with actual puzzles when we were kids. And had no problem whatsoever with that. Every game was kinda like that. But since a large part of it is simply conditioning: There's market opportunity for (almost) anything. With so many games in that space playing increasingly alike, perhaps moreso than ever. It needs to be packaged properly, naturally... Plus, if you're not fully committing to something, you risk making completely bland product that may try hard to please everyone, but doesn't really wow anybody. Eventually, you're going to alienate a few people anyhow no matter what you're doing. For all the talk about how much of a hardcore sim KCD would be, at the core it's actually quite a cinematic Hollywood type of affair full of drama and even genuine laughs -- the survival/sim elements are fairly light. Think Mafia, Vavra's first gig as a writer / director. There's quite a lot of that in there still. I was actually underwhelmed initially when I went into the first game kinda blind back then. I expected something way different. Only when I'd finished the long prologue and the game opened up, did I start to really warm up to it.

Given how conservative Obsidian have become, it'd probably take a fully explanation (and a fix) as to why Deadfire initially underperformed so much. (Pentiment and Grounded don't count -- the first was a passion project Josh Sawyer had to fight for, the latter started as a small experimental kinda thing). Personally, I'd take a "Watcher trilogy" ending proper even if it wasn't an isometric party game. After Paradox' colossal f*ck*p, make it the Bloodlines II proper for all I care -- Pillars Of Eternity III: Fampyres Rising. Avowed seems pretty action, combat, parcours and looting heavy and light on RPG, at least by Obsidian trademark standards. Then again, there was a time where they commited to making another sequel to Uwe Boll's favorite screen saver. Tactical party-based isometric RPGs may largely be a niche. However, the action RPG-like space is also crowded as hell. Even Ubisoft want some of that looting and leveling juice in their games. Will be interesting how that pans out... for now.

That's two million in two weeks. Even Ubisoft would have been pretty happy with that on some of their more recent underperformers. Doubly so if they had the comparably modest budget of KCD II... Embracer aren't minors either, after all. As said, to me this only confirms what's been happening for the past+ decade. The model of ever infusing more simple action into RPGs and simplifying RPG elements down has been pushed to its limits -- the Bioware/Bethesda school, basically. By now these games are competing with all the action/adventure type of games that have been including RPG-lite elements since The Witcher 3 hit it big. That doesn't mean similar projects are destined to underperform. That only means you need an absolutely stellar game and/or a wholly unique take on the form to still stand out from the crowd. Bluntly put, Veilguard would have had it even harder had it neither had a Bioware nor a Dragon Age logo attached. Meanwhile, studios such as FromSoft, Larian or Warhorse first thrived in their own niches. The games they started making were considered too risky for any of the industry players. "We're an industry about instant gratification", they would have told FromSoftware. "Well there's dungeons, kinda. But where are the dragons?" That's what they would have asked Warhorse. "Turn-based tactical combat? Table-top simulations? In the 2000s? Go make this more like Diablo", they'd actually told Larian since their early days. "All of you guys don't fit in, sorry." Then all of these grew, both in studio size and target audiences. In parts because there's far more people playing video games now than ever, which also means a broader range in taste. And then they all could offer experiences that, on their levels of production, see no direct competition whatsoever. (Well, Soulslikes are a thing, mind you. But From are still considered the "Originals". And what better promotion is it to have an entire genre tag named after your own product? Jackpot, baby!)

If only they'd made a live service game. Or a Diablo / God Of War / Whatever Action's Currently Hot clone. Or a buggy mess that tanks even the most expensive gaming rigs out there. ANYTHING but a proper RPG, optimized for RPG'ing. They'd have totally smashed it for sure. Silly Czech mates!* *Beware, internet. There be irony.

The only good 3D one.

Outside of bad ports: If you have a decent one, it should last until the PS6 generation (and the first exclusive games for it, which considering modern dev cycles takes another couple years). Consoles are running the show. And since AMD are behind in terms of GPU power, it will be interesting how those PS6 generations and their APUs are gonna look like... There's people still running Pascal series GPUs to this day. Wouldn't surprise me if Ada L. + Blackwell are gonna last even longer. That is, for those who don't need to be on the cutting edge of hardware. After all, Nvidia is also promoting those shiny new 1,000 Hz screens for probably reason. A thousand FPS, lol! UltimaIX-StartSave_1024x768x16bpp.png (660×871)

Thief was always minimalist on purpose. These guys approached VR from a software perspective -- including rudimentary physics, (guard) AI states communicated entirelly by audio alone etc. (Maybe somebody remembers the ill-fated Jurassic Park Trespasser, where Looking Glass alumni took it all a step further, including no ammo or health bars to speak of). Btw, it's funny how graphics are getting ever more realistic -- and then a thousand blinking arrows are there to remind you that you're just playing a damn game either way.

Yeah, you can turn the HUD off entirely (GameStar says also). Question of course is: Was the game designed that way? I mean, you can do all that in Witcher 3 too. And then you don't know anymore what to do right in the tutorial already, as the clearly mandatory text prompts are missing what to do next. E.g. Vesemir is just standing and idling his animation there, not shouting anything, just expecting you to say, throw a bomb at him. And the quests that follow would be much the same... That aside: Looking Glass Studios died for all of your future sins, Gaming Industry! Thief, 1998. vs

What I totally dig visually for sure re Avowed: Its (box) cover art. Could almost see that as the artwork of a Converge record. Which rules. Germany's GameStar made an interesting comparison: oldschool Dungeon Crawlers (including Westwood's Lands Of Lore and Wiz7, games with an overworld..). Their chief editor was reminded of 'em. Reasons: - primary focus on exploration and discovery - similar sense of accomplishment when having finally uncovered the last "square" of a "map" - comparably "static" world (like in most oldschool games, NPCs not reacting to theft, etc.) - combat The guy means that in a positive way though. They all like the game and say the level design focused on all of this would be fantastic and unlike anything they'd seen from Obsidian. I mean, there is even vertical exploration, almost Dishonored-style, which is unusual for the type in general, isn't it. They argue too though that there would be quite a bit of filler combat. Probably not the kind of game that is gonna draw Deadfire's kind of feedback . I personally liked that -- Deadfire may be comparably tame in terms of the overall amount of combat -- FOR ITS TYPE OF GAME. But as it collects stats, by the end of the game you're gonna check and see that you were still a bloody murder hobo, having slain hundreds.

Well, as soon as they said The Outer Worlds is the reference point... at one point it was even supposed to be a multiplayer game. With a few exceptions (Witcher 3 maybe, as a simpler game than the original Witcher) European studios put more trust into players than American ones these days. They take more risk. And they seem rewarded -- as "streamlined" RPGs immediately move more towards more typical action-adventure kind of stuff. And that type of experience is all over the place ever since even Ubisoft implemented RPG elements post ca. Witcher 3. Even Square is struggling with their their plans to move much larger units by simply going more action into Final Fantasy -- they're losing what still makes FF distinct in their own way, even according to fans. I'm curious as to how many straight action and combat Avowed actually has, and how much of a focus is on that. I still don't know. Obviously, in terms of RPG mechanics, it's also not quite Pillars. KCD2 is also "streamlined" from the first game -- usually industry euphemism for throwing everything out that's not as immediately approachable as a Big Mac. The combat system is simpler. There is more "happening" when you are traveling around (random encounters, etc.). And Henry levels up a good deal faster (and his skills really govern how hard everything is, from sneaking to fighting to getting women undressed). But they didn't suddenly turn it into an action game or anything and changed the core of the experience -- in 30-40 hours so far, I've encountered few scenarios where combat was mandatory to begin with. And the quests are as delightfully "mundane" as in the original. Rather than "go kill epic stuff" it's visiting a marriage, helping the local grave digger out (this gets real dirty), that sorta stuff, "authentic" to the setting. Avowed puts you into the role of an envoy. Lots of opportunity here as well, without going "hardcore medieval anything". Gonna play Avowed... but PoE3, make it also happen. Doesn't need to have a huge budget, really.

The one thing NWN2 has always needed is a decent camera.... just one. I think with the popularity of the tabletop, a NWN3 (or similar project) could be a real winner... during Covid it may have even hit pretty HARD. Everybody creating and/or playing D&D adventures from home, with their group or alone. Re: Avowed, looking decent. Performance on entry level GPUs looks alright also (GTX 1650 ist below minimum specs and doesn't count). I'm firmly in the "Outer World's is alright, but fairly vanilla" camp (except for Monarch, which was... almost like an MMO grind, until I decided to just run past the gazillion of copypaste enemies and NEVER looked back). As such, a PoE3 would have hyped me more.

Yes! Personally, I liked the "predecessor" (Ambermoon) more though. Really impressed me technically back then though. It had Ultima Underworld 3d-style dungeons... on an Amiga 500.

I'll be there! Only finished the last story DLC Palace Of Ice, last year. The overall project reminded me of SSI D&D games of yore: Nothing to too fancy story wise, just a simple adventure, and off ya roll. Sometimes, that's all that's needed! The combat could have been a bit harder though... and with that I mean the AI. I finished it on I think a higher (but not highest) setting, as I'm not a fan of enemies simply having inflated stats. But outside a few optional encounters, and I think a boss or two, never really struggled. After all, Solasta is pretty focused on the combat. Thumbs up though for going with a quality over quality approach. Rather than spamming dungeons with a couple dozen copypaste encounters, you oft faced maybe 2-3 handcrafted at best. For a game that's sold on the combat and the combat system, that's rare. I think the last that did it was Troika's Temple Of Elemental Evil -- but even that later on had you hacking through uninspired hordes of bugbears later on. IIRC after a while I just opened the doors, cast a couple of fireballs and be done with it. Oh, and those dudes over here like quite a few decent games. No wonder that Kangdom Kang kangs!

But how many more Orders, Survivors, Horizons, God Of Wars, Assassin's Creeds, Kingdoms Of Amalurs, Witchers, Hogwarts, ...... does one need? What does it take to get actually noticed as something special in such a busy space? Square Enix seem hell-bend on going that same route as well. The entire "secret sauce" of these companies amounts to copying whatever's currently hot in the action/adventure/RPG-like space. Only that this space is totally cannibalizing itself. That it's not like 2005 anymore. And that there's far more people playing games today than young male adrenaline junkies big publishers used to target first way back. Meanwhile, a Belgian dude in shining armor can walk into the room and turn heads as people know by now that what he's gonna offer isn't quite offered by anybody else -- certainly not on his budgets+levels of production. Ditto Warhorse. Ditto From Software.

Then again, who asked for a fairly "standard" cinematic action adventure in the Dragon Age universe? Those type of games are dime a dozen. Unlike say, a D&D type of game... Ever since the Witcher 3 hit it big, almost every other action type of game has incorporated RPG elements. This is a crowded space. If Veilguard didn't have the Bioware nor Dragon Age label attached -- would it have gotten much attention in the first place? In terms of gameplay, tone, visuals (considering the reactions to the first trailers already?) And even then, the Bioware brand has seen better times itself... people don't buy into Bioware games blindly anymore after an odd ten years without a truly hit. To me, that's also why the likes of From Software, Larian or now Warhorse are hitting it bigg/er: They came out of niches uncatered to, each in their own way. Gradually builded a (loyal) core audience -- and then managed to expand that without changing the core of their games, possibly alienating the core PLUS losing their edge. Which means that, unlike most, they don't see direct competition on their level of production. Companies like Bioware have been like: "We want Call Of Duty's audience" from the go. I mean, if Obsidian's Feargus hadn't been around back then, even what eventually became Baldur's Gate would have been an RTS/MMO-ish type of affair, two of the largest trends to chase in the mid to late 1990s. It was he who saw the D&D in the demo the doctors had pitched to Interplay... and suggested the change in direction. Despite RPGs being considered deader than dead at that point, and even parts of Interplay marketing having serious doubts. The rest, as the say, was history. And miniature giant space hamsters.

I wish hardcore mode was included already, by the way. There's a misconception that KCD was a "skill game". Well, it is.... but it's Henry's skill. Now, there's these mini games for everything: lockpicking, stealing, what have you. But how easy they are is big time influenced by your stats... (same as combat, really). It seems you're advancing a good deal faster than in KCD1 to me. Need to check again though. Another win for single-player RPGs anyway, hooray! Not that this'd keep the usual suspects from pushing for live service games and all the crap. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Now One Of Steam's Most Played Single-Player Games

Really curious about performance benchmarks re: Avowed. Requirements aren't ultra steep, but a good notch above Outer Worlds prior. Nowadays you can't tell anymore what those requirements are for anyway unless specifically stated (which Obsidian don't do). 720p/30fps? 4K/144 fps? Upscaled? Native? With FrameGen or without? And even then..... I mean, Stalker 2 obviously runs worse than "advertised". Whereas KCD2 runs massively better, with even a GTX 1060 still able to churn out 50-60ish FPS in 1080P native, rather than the 30fps that was advertised (on lower settings, mind). I wish there were more projects like this, btw: Taking established tech that may not be the absolute most cutting edge anymore (OH NO! NO HARDWARE BASED RAYTRACING IN THIS ONE!). But that by now is understood and mastered by a dev team. That's how some decent and optimized sequels got made: Underworld 2, Thief 2, Shock 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Pillars 2, Police Academy 2 (no wait!)... It being easier to follow and manage, mainly. Unlike Owlcat, Obsidian seems to have realized that the Infinity Engine was, after all, an (A)D&D 2e game affair. That means only mages had a bigger arsenal of tools at their disposal. Whereas in newer systems, even fighters tend to be kinda non-mages that throw non-spells left and right (28:20 in).

Well in this case, it's actually quite a systemic thing. In the morning, NPCs get up, get to their box of stuff™ and take out their clothes to put on.... and so this happened. They also notice if something was stolen from them, calling the guards (in a settlement). It's proper NPC scheduling, which makes me remember Ultima VII (and Gothic!). Various NPC dialogue even suggests you should take NPC behavior into account, like when planning to rob someone. "Watch people's behavior. When they go to work, when they go to bed." Reckon I could rob all the village guards off their weapons and armor whilst asleep (they are actually taking shifts, so that the place is guarded all day). In fact, I may just try that. What are they gonna use against me if they catch me thiefing then? Harsh language? Some stuff doesn't work though. For instance, there is a big event coming in the area. And the NPC involved in that, you can only choke her, not kill her. Obviously for plot reasons, then. I actually tried to do that, trying if I could "cancel" the event. But the game wouldn't let you. All I could do was to KO her. Of course, I did so, carrying her body a couple hundred metres, dumping it into the field. Took the keys to her house from her. Then I sneaked around in her and her father's place (which is guarded by guards). I almost forgot about her when all of a sudden she came back, bursted into the place screamed that she was KO'd. The guards got alerted, spotted me and I was forced to run the **** away. edit: Yeah, works. Guarding barefoot and with only their shirts and pants on. Now only gotta clear the guards' weapon chamber (which seems separate, found it though). editedit: Damn, they caught me.

My playthrough of KCD2 turns more and more into the REAL THIAF 4. First, I assassinated another bunch of bad guys in their camp one by one with a stab of the knife. Then I stole something valuable from the landlady of the tavern at night -- she just wouldn't give it to me. Whilst I was at it, I decided to play a prank on her and also stole all of her clothes. Now she's actually REALLY running around in her nightgown all day, barefoot serving customers. This game.

Well you could do and abuse the system anway, since every time you hit Escape and exit the game makes a save. But there be mods. Unlimited Saving II at Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Nexus - Mods and community I personally don't use it, as it would make the entire crime system kinda pointless... every time you are caught with something, you simply load. But as long as people are having fun, fire away!

I found it interesting that they had attracted non-gamers with the first game. But in a way, that makes sense. In my proper story playthrough, I had hardly mastered nor deeply engaged with the melee combat system at all at that point (as said, it's also attribute dependend though and gets progressivey easier the higher you level up). Despite there being one or two occasions where there is what you could call a 1vs1 "boss fight". One of which I ended by shooting an arrow in the head of the dude (took a few reloads and luck though). Still, interesting. And some of it makes perfect sense... and not only because it's actually quite a chill game, overall. "In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, we attracted quite a lot of people who never play games, which is sort of unique," senior game designer Ondřej Bittner says. "It's sort of like Euro Truck Simulator – a lot of people who play Euro Truck Simulator don't play other games. So we interact with a lot of people who love history, or fencing, or historical martial arts, or whatever, and they didn't have a problem with most of the mechanics." So we interact with a lot of people who love history, or fencing, or historical martial arts, or whatever, and they didn't have a problem with most of the mechanics. It was usually the gamers – like [controversial save item] Saviour Schnapps! People who never played games would be like 'It makes sense to have to eat or sleep', while people who play games are like 'I can't just press F5 to quicksave?" "We can't really repeat the Eurojank situation" – How Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 found its Witcher 3 moment | GamesRadar+ Completely agree with this sentiment though. Which is why it's good that recently games such as KCD2, Stalker 2 et all saw success. "Instant gratification in games has become a problem where, to sustain dopamine for people, you have to constantly bombard [players] with stuff," says Bittner. "One day they wake up and go 'oh, this is all really obnoxious' and they shut it all down. So we kind of go back to the roots of RPGs where it's sort of like: well, you can do whatever you want, and maybe go and do the main story. Bittner describes the approach as "going back to the [genre's] roots with less hand-holding," but acknowledges that it can cause friction. "We don't really tell you what to do exactly, and sometimes this can clash with players from a younger generation," he explains. "They can be like 'I don't know where to go' – well, have you thought about where to go? If I tell you where to go, it's not really as fun, is it?" "Instant gratification in gaming has become a problem" – Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 dev says the RPG is meant to feel like a spiritual successor to Oblivion and Morrowind | GamesRadar+ KCD2 found a solution to the "problem" that seems much better than what Bethesda, Bioware, CD Projekt (and recently Obsidian) came up with in my book. For instance, the moment you're let go into the open world of the game, you start out with nothing but your pants. You're gonna have to work some to change that, as nothing's gifted to you. However, there's immediately an NPC that asks you to have a chat. And that NPC is gonna give players some directions for their first step -- if they want to. It feels natural, rather than being treated like a toddler wherever you go. I actually WANTED to listen to her. In particular as that NPC is written like anybody else: Like another character that has a reason to be where she is. Rather than an obnoxious TUTORIAL NPC and a dozen arrows in the middle of the screen going like: "GO PRECISELY HERE AND DO EXACTLY THAT." People who get stuck will get stuck anyway. No need to sour the experience for everybody else. Hollywood also doesn't rearrange Nolan movies just because a segment of the testscreening audience found them to be confusing -- that'd only lessen the experience. The save system is a non-issue. First, you can buy the items just down the road. Then every other corner of the map has an optional permanent bed, and using bed = saving game. Then the game saves whenever you quit the game too. Then there's auto saves.... Personally still wish the "hardcore mode" also in the first game would have been in the release version of KCD2 straight out of the Trosky gates -- it's gonna be patched in later on. You can easily navigate the game world just by visual cues rather than the map always showing your position.... Trosky Castle, the region's big landmark is visible from almost wherever you go... and it's also sitting right next to the starting village, where shops, a tavern and people are. Both the living. And possibly, the dead.

I'd definitely recommend checking out a few "Kingdom Come 2 + combat" videos, on say, YouTube. Apparently IGN made one as well. It's different even for first person combat... Me I'm gonna check out the brunette in the bath houses now. Friday night fever! All dressed up for it -- not that I had the coin for these fancy cloth, mind you. Robbed most of it off a rich guy's body left behind by bandits. No idea why they didn't take that hat -- has an extremely high value for "charisma" as well.

Still busy getting the more basic needs fulfilled. Like a permanent resting place (fixed), food (fixed) and of course money (it's complicated). But Sir Hans got slapped on his butt cheeks when we were sentenced to a day on the pillory in Downtown Troskovice -- and our reputation is way down, so who knows. PS: What a place, what a lovely place! Gotta go there for real. Hope the pillory isn't still standing tho... By the way, the game already has broke even. Surprised by the budget though... it was apparently in the 1 billion Kronen = 40 million Euros range. Witcher 3 was over 70 million ten years ago. And Warhorse are a studio of 250 all the same now too. I mean, KCD2 is HUGE. Maybe that is without marketing? Daniel Vávra o úspěchu Kingdom Come: Deliverance II