Wormerine

I just did the hunting mission. So far the story felt urgent so I was reluctant to wonder off. So can I safely assume that I can just follow the story for now, and there will be a more natural break for exploration later?

I would just pull a trigger and play it. I am doubtful if anyone will be willing to invest the money to give this game a refresh (though they absolutely should). Unofficial Arcanum patch is a must, like with all Troika releases. If you dealt with old Fallout interface, you will be fine with Arcanum. At least on GOG the game works from a get go. edit: Finally started to getting around to giving Kingdom Come: Deliverance a go. I like it so far, though the game works really hard to reinforce how much of a dufus Henry is. What I like less is how little agency I had so far. Henry seems to get into scrapes and challenges his betters and leaves me to deal with the aftermath. I hope the game will let go of the reins soon. I really enjoy the setting though.

I have been mulling over why Avowed missed a mark for me. 1) Combat - I think Avowed suffers from lack of unique encounters. While combat is satisfying, vast majority of enemies comprise of the same template - be it Xourips, undead or Dreamthralls, they are all essencially the same thing. Than there are couple monster enemies: bears, spiders, Wraths, etc. which are all ok, though they don't exactly shake things up too much. Where Avowed really lacks IMO is lack of proper bosses. Bosses in this game (including the final one), mostly feel like a bit more spongy basic enemies. As such the game really lack spikes in excitement. If you find a dungeon you know there will be no unique enemies to find in there - if you get lucky you will get a bit buffed up generic enemy, and that's about it. Which leads 2) Exploration - like combat exploration is done well. While artificial, finding chests and items usually requires deliberate input from the player - the sound alerts to loots existence, and it is up to the player to analyse surroundings and figure out where it could be hidden. Fun! Rewards, while not too exciting, tend to be also universally helpful. Upgrades are welcome for majority of game's runtime, and ability to scrap/sell spare weapons and armor, means that any old rusty sword is still of some value. Still, I think exploration suffers from the similar issue as combat: lack of surprises. You KNOW more or less what you will find in each chest. You know a quest is likely to reward you with unique item. Generic exploration will grand you upgrade materails, in one form or the other. If you are REALLY lucky, you might run into one of the totem fragments, which while you are unlikely to ever turn on and use, at least will reward you with story tidbit at the end. What this design lacks is an element of surprise. I don't think you need to hide something new and exciting behind every corner, but if every once in a while you allow player to find something surprising they will be more motivated to keep looking for more. And masterful example of that is, of course, the Elden Ring - which while predictable in most cases, occasionally hides a real surprise to treat the players for exploration. While of course it is tough competition, I think Avowed would be better if it had few more cards hidden in it's sleves. Small narrative quests hidden around the map? Perhaps, items that will help you in resolving main story quests in different ways? Unique items to be found by exploration only? Maybe a hidden dungeon or two? Avowed has so little special content, that it feels that game can't efford players to miss it - maps guiding to special items, all dungeons have easily findable quests that lead to it. That unfortunately, in my mind creates a clear distinction between "quality content" and "filler junk" which is not great considering how much more filler there is in Avowed. If core appeal of Avowed is to just walk around collect stuff and kill enemies, I think this core experience would need to be more varied and rewarding. Edit: For a sequel: 3) voiced protagonists - I am a bit fan of silent protagonists, but only if they are highly customisable and definable in-game. Which how it is, Envoy is remains a player Avatar, devoid of connection with the world or personality. Considering how little players can interact with the world and story, I think Avowed would be better of with more defined and compelling protagonist to drive journey. Choices in the game meant little to me as a player, as I barely had an opportunity to interact with the world and characters (beyond slaughtering everything that looked at me, and stealing everything that hasn't been nailed down), but perhaps those choices could mean something to the Envoy.

While I replayed Arcanum handful of times, I am still yet to full tech playthrough. It's such a gem. Troika's RPG triumph. I wish someone would remaster it and tweak few things here and there.

With some weeks left on my GamePass subscription I gave "Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess" a go. I quite like it so far. Art is beautiful, and gameplay is simple but enjoyable. It's top down action-strategy, where you play as samurai spirit thing, as you escort a priestess to purify Torii gates in various villages. You can assign villagers various roles to help you fend of the attackers. It feels like a throwback indie title, but with superb craft and production of Capcom.

Yeah, that really started to bother me as the game went on. Galawain's Tusk, such a hostile and inhospitable place to live! Except it is exactly the same as previous three zones, fill with same enemies. I suppose they are level III now rather than IV. There were also small oddities that just make me curious on how this game came together. World Map is very pretty, but area placement doesn't match with how we progress through them in game. Avowed doesn't have many gameplay systems, but even so, traps seem almost entirely be forgotten about aside from area no.3 in which they are used extensively. Avowed definitely has some "cobbled together" feel to it.

Yeah, I agree on all of the above. I was playing on hard as well, and had similarly 100+ of each potions, and unreasonable amount of food - 100+ mariner's Porridge could keep me going for quite a while. That said my mage was well equipped for regenerating HP and Mana. I actually found Giatta completely redundant gameplay wise, and didn't use her after act2. Not having alternative way of dispelling illusions was rather irritating. Eh, my main gripe with companions is their story content. I just found them one note and underdeveloped. It seemed that Obsidian took a step back from companions well immersed in the universe, and went for a more mainstream approach. A more generic character, with a generic problem, with just little fantasy flavour. It is such a shame to finally have animancer in the party, and have that party member have so little to say about her work, and just run around with what is essentially a magic wand.

Obsidian has been shying from customisable Grimoires in PoE2 as well. However, with how Avowed works I think there is an argument to be made in defence of such idea. In PoE2 we would memorise some spells and use Grimoires to expand our available repertoire. Avowed I think has a similar idea but: 1) switching grimoires is not freely available, unless one wants to dedicate both loadouts for casting, and even with that it's two at most. 2) it seems to me that casting spells from memory doesn't make them benefit from grimoire we are holding making them just less desirable to use. I found a decent balance - I memorised Corrosive Siphon for emergency health regen, and Pull of Eora for crowd control, and rest of the spells were overlapping with my main DPS grimoire. Still, with how current system works, I am not sure I would be interested in doing things much differently. I feel that either permitting customisable grimoire, or having memorised spells benefit from grimoires we hold would allow for better flexibility.

That Avowed doesn't play like PoEs is not an issue in itself, at least not in my opinion. I see little value in a class system in a game where we play and control a single character. Going classless was a good approach IMO, though I must say I am dissatisfied with Avowed skilltrees. Couple things that stood out to me: Progression is gear based. I found that your skill tree choices are mostly irrelevant. You can unlock some spells, unlock extra features but while those makes combat from player side a bit more interesting it doesn't really shape the character build. The only thing that really matters is what weapon player uses and if the weapon is upgraded enough. Late in my playthrough I switched to a bow and I had no perks invested into that skill tree - and I was doing just fine. Sure, I could get perks that would allow me to do even more damage, or make aiming easier - but personally, I felt no need for either. Well timed powershots would barely drain stamina - they would stagger enemies meaning no one could get close. And as weapon was upgraded well enough, enemy HP melted in couple of shots, buff or no buff. Investing in bow perk tree wouldn't alter playstyle, or make it unique. It would just make already available and viable fighting style even more effective. Now, I don't think it is entirely unintentional. It reminds me somewhat of Skyrim - there my impression was that I start being able to do everything, and as I level up my character gets less competent in doing things I don't specialize in. I personally hated it, as it felt like regressions, rather than progression. Now that is not how I felt in Avowed (with progression being mostly driven by gear, you are the most effective if you use the most upgraded weapon), but I also felt little progression in A. It felt like I was upgrading to keep the status quo, not to develop my character in a unique direction, which is what I am looking for in an RPG. Still, with how Avowed is designed, I find it odd that skill points are limited. Cheap and easy to do skill reset already makes any build choices temporary at best, but with how mostly irrelevant skill trees are, I am not sure what's the point of limited skill points are. With how little we can define out character, it seems a more action approach would make more sense - have skill trees be just thing we fill over the playthrough, so switching between weapons is more seamless But coming back to class concept - when I was playing I was thinking that different resource system, could work well with the combat system in Avowed. Monk getting Wounds to spend when he gets hit - or cipher that builds up mana through damage physical damage (there is late game armor that somewhat replicates it. and by somewhat I mean it is so broken, that spells cast return more mana than you spend on them). There is potential there, but I am not sure how well suited the system is for a single player "RPG". My memory if fuzzy as it's been ages since I played it, but I have far fonder memories of Arcane's Messiah of Might & Magic. There skill trees were similarly divided into three trees (Melee, archery, magic), and from what I remember those skill trees had far more transformative effect on a playthrough. For my taste, Avowed makes player character far too competent from a get go, leaving little space to meaningfully grow throughout the playthrough.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Few bugs, some of them rather frustrating (like bugged out NPC making quest progress impossible and having to reroll checkpoint to a previous state). But otherwise I loved this game. They nailed the assignment, and I am impressed by Todd and Co. at Machine games with how they portrayed Indiana experience thorough gameplay, rather than trying to imitate how those films are to watch, the way Uncharted games did. Puzzles, combat and stealth are all uncomplicated, they they blend nicely together. The game is a bit clunky at times, but I thought it was lots of fun, outside of few minor gripes. Setpiece moments where hit and miss for me. Some of them worked very well, some of them didn't. I also didn't enjoy the third zone nearly as much as the previous two - its traversal mechanic felt more cumbersome than fresh, which also lead me to less spontanious exploration and rely more on map markers. In dungeons they tried to make things more gamey, and I think it had negative impact - it underscored how clunky the game can be, and took me out of the experience a bit. One final criticism - it is a shame that the finale of the game is mostly cutscenes. Up to this point they managed to make the game very tactile and the ending being so very hands off felt underwhelming. Surely something more interesting could have been made than a bunch of cutscenes and an awkard fistfight. Still, strong recommendation for any Indy fans.

Yeah, as far as polish Avowed is in a very good state. I encountered one irritating hickup - if I attempted to summon a weapon and got interrupted that spell would become unavailable until a reload (I think what happens is: when you summon it the icon is greyed out, and when weapon summon time ends the icon changes into countdown till is usable again. If you attempt to summon it and get interrupted the skill still is greyed out, but because weapon was never summed the countdown never triggers.). I also felt through the ground and died once or twice, but that's about it. Vast majority of playtime was silky smooth, the game run mostly great (raytracing on), and I had no stutter which is rare for UE5 game. When I mentioned Ubisoft I didn't mean the quality of the story, just playing experience. Running around open world, killing repetitive mobs that don't pose challenge, ticking off boxes by collecting stuff. The pacing - no spikes in difficulty or excitement, just same interactions with same enemies, be it side activities or main story. I am still trying to figure out how I feel about Avowed - because there are quite a few things that I thought were well done. I found it very unimmersive, so I didn't enjoy it the way I am enjoying the Indiana Jones game right now. And combat, crafting, skills trees and items were too shallow for me to be engage with them as gameplay systems. The narrative has a promising outline, but it felt underdeveloped for me to care about character, events or choices. Avowed is consists of story, combat and exploration, I don't think neither of them are strong enough to carry the game alone, and I don't think they combine into a greater whole. I can imagine Avowed being a game that I really love, but it's not there for me.

So, Avowed. It is a game you can play. It had very ubisoft feel to it - all the friction being sanded off to the point that the whole experience becomes just a flat, uneventful romp. Quite a few things that I thought were done great - combat, while shallow and repetitive has very strong fundamentals and outside some small jank is very satisfying. I liked exploration and balance between objective markers and discoverable secrets. Story was uneven and I felt it was underdeveloped. In spite of being relatively light on narrative there were also a few revelations being revealed multiple times - I assume that's becomes side activities and crit path overlap storywise and the game couldn't be asked to track which activities player completed. While story has some potential, it didn't feel like it was up to Obsidian's standard. It felt more like a traditional game story - something done in the later stages of development, trying to add some context to existing gameplay. I don't know if there is any truth in it, but it just didn't feel as cohesive as other Obsidian games. Avowed felt to me like a Disney+ show. A bit stretched out, with some good ideas, awkward on-the-nose fan service. Not a bad time by any means, but also not a strong recommendation.

They didn't have it in THIS game. The project was rebooted twice. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-02-21/new-xbox-game-avowed-took-six-years-two-reboots

Or just the new scores has few callbacks to his work in PoE1&2. I can't recall much aside from Shanty above, but if I recall correctly it is not an original work (aka. actual shanty) and words are by JS.

I can't recall having trouble finding all the badges. According to Wiki it should be on top of Leviathan's Hollow on a table. https://avowed.wiki.fextralife.com/Manu's+Badge

First undead mage Sibelius, now Borodin? Who's next Glinka?

Hey another Styx. Happy to see it, I liked previews two games a lot, though if I remember it correctly the last one felt like it ended short.

Personally, I would just wish for a decent dungeon. I really lost interest in regions (and I still have on more to go), and even if the DLC one is better (like it was with Elden Ring), I am not sure if I can be won over at this point. A nice dungeon would be lovely though - those few lengthier story quests with dedicated areas so far have been highlight of the game for me - and I would prefer more of that. If there is DLC of course.

That said the more I play the more I believe that builds don't matter - whatever weapon is upgraded to the highest rarity matteres. Got bored with my recent set up and switched to the bow in spite of not having any points invested into it, and it works just fine. Sure, there are perks connected to it (more damage, slow time etc.) but I can't say I feel need for those (and I doubt I would feel their impact). Though bows just feel OP if I am being honest. Unlike guns it doesn't seem I have to score headshots with power attacks, and as long as I time it right (and I had plenty of practice in Mount and Blade) and can dishout charged attacks with minimum impact on stamina. It just seems to out DPS any other weapon I used, and charged attacks tend to stagger enemies, which means it is difficult for anyone to get near me.

Started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I wasn't feeling it during the intro where it was recreating the iconic opening from the Raiders of the Lost Arc, but once it was over it really drew me in. I did the opening section of sneaking in into Vatican and I really enjoyed it. Simple but competent stealth system. Satisfying punching and whipping. I think I am gonna have a good time with this one. I will never understand how Indy never sticks with Marian. Still, so far Machine games seem to get the character really well.

Especially PoE1 OST seemed to me to evoke Infinity Engine OST, especially Jeremy Soule's work for Icewind Dale games. PoE OST is one of the few computer game OST I like to out on every once in a while. I also liked his OSTs for Tyranny and Outer Worlds very much. Different vibe every time, well fitting respective games. Just nice writing overall - varied instrumentation, nice long phrases with natural arcs, counter point, harmonic progressions with development and direction. I think Obsidian lost a really great team member.

I had a-ok time with Avowed so far, but my impressions are quite opposite. It's a decent time waster, but I found none of it alive or interesting. I just entered third area, and I think I will be leaving it alone for a while - or at least intertwining it with something else on gamepass - I got quite bored and disengaged with it - and I think it will be better if I wait until smacking Xourips becomes appealing again.

Why would playing with a friend give it a replay value?

Aye, you can combine any lower tier upgrade materials into higher tier upgrade materials. Personally, while I am not fan of the upgrade system, (I find it very contrived and therefore not rewarding), I didn't found it troublesome. I managed to upgrade most of my equipped gear to fine, even before I discovered you can scrap spare items for upgrade materials. I definitely can't upgrade everything I would want to, but I can upgrade all I need and then some - even more so, now when I am scrapping all the spare stuff I find rather than selling it. Some shops also have small amount of crafting materials that can be purchased for little coin (though not much in stock in one go). I usually pick those up whenever I shop.