Wormerine

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.

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.

It does sound great, but I am keeping my expectations low due to Wolfeye's modest budget. There is also Ken Levine's Judas which's early previews made me far more curious about the title, and InXile's Clockwork Revolution. And Gloodwood which is in early access and is shaping up really nicely.

I hope it is not Josh's address and phone number. 🫣 Edit. Nah, it's Obsidian's headquarters. Makes more sense I suppose.

Aye, unique weapon enchantments tend to be pretty uninteresting. The biggest use for them I found so far are enviromental interactions during exploration.

With Skyrim shipping 60 million units to date, that is a very fair assumption. It happens in every genre. Well, BG3 is top down. Get ready for swarm of review bashing top down cRPG, because they don't play exactly like BG3 (assuming anyone will have courage to put one out).

Depth and variety I say. First thing that comes to mind is loot - I wish unique weapons had more impactful modifiers. And in case it isn't clear I think Obsidian build a fantastic foundation in Avowed, and I hope they get to build on it in the future - be it in a sequel or just repurpose tech and design from Avowed in another project. I suspect we agree on many things, we just disagree where Avowed lands on an arbitrary, personal bad-excellent scale. Which is fine, and I happily admit that Avowed is at a disadvantage here due to some of it's core designs not being to my taste, even if they are not objectively flawed.

FromSoft comes to mind that did actionRPG combat far far better. Also Arcane be with with Messiah of Dark and Magic, or Dishonored/Prey (I wouldn't call none of those games RPGs, but neither would I Avowed. The issue I have with "combat is better than Skyrim" is that Skyrim (and other RPGs) offer much much more beyond combat. You don't play those games FOR combat, while you have to play Avowed combat. So to me the question isn't "is Avowed combat better than those games that offer a wider range of experiences", but "is Avowed combat good enough to carry what seems like a very long game". And I think it is just ok. If you want a game to be carried by a single gameplay loop it can't be just good - it has to be exceptional. Avowed combat would be amazing if it was a smaller part of a more rounded game. As a main feature though? It's ok. The games need variety or depth to remain compelling. You either create a simple system and a lot of variety (FromSoft games) or you create a very deep system that can be interacted with and mastered to a high degree (fighting games, DMC, Dooms etc.). Avowed is none of those, and that's fine. But that also limits how engaging the system is in the long run. Progression system is just not very compelling. You gather materials and upgrade your weapons by exploring and killing Xourips, to be able to explore area and kill Xourips of a higher level. As far as I am concerned the progression might as well not be there - except that in this case Avowed would need to have more of actually compelling things to find, rather than scattering chests in random locations around the map and calling it a day. I am sounding very negative right now, and I don't mean to. Avowed is fine. It's a gamepass game. Pay couple quid, download it, play it every couple few days when I don't have brain power to play something more demanding. It's a time killer rather than an experience. edit. When I say “fine” I mean American fine. I am happy with it. Not British “it’s fine” which is quite often has derogatory connotations.

Yes, Third Person is the "accessibility mode" here. The game was designed with First Person in mind, and third person is made to match First Person Movement - as such it is more clunky, and game wasn't designed with it in mind. I wish there was a seperate button for dodge (and perhaps that we could dodge if we are close to the ground). As it is I find dodging a bit clunky, and it doesn't always fire - though often due to me not letting "forward" go in time. I don't have issue with jumping - ledge climbing is perhaps a bit too generous and feels goofy at times, but otherwise I think the game feels great to control. That said I don't find it "immersive" to begin with. It's very arcady experience, so to me jump doesn't stick out as unusual.

On RTX3070 it run fine enough for me to not investigate things further. It is a demo, so I am also not worried about optimisation at this point. If it used upscaling, I wouldn't mind anyway. I always turn it on anyway. I didn't finish the demo - couldn't figure out where to fine an NPC necessary to progress the story, and went back to playing Avowed. It... Well, from what I tried it plays how I remember Gothic playing. I certainly like it more than the pitch demo a while back, but I also wouldn't be opposed if they took some hinds from more modern action RPGs, like Dark Souls - afterall it's meant to be a remake not a remaster. As it is I am not sure how appealing Gothic Remake will be to new audiences. But hey, we will see once the game comes out.

Yeah, but I mean... none of those are not true. Avowed is fine. If you walk into it expecting the "Obsidian RPG" you will be disappointed. The world is static and uninteractive. Writing is... well, I wouldn't call it bad, but it is uneven and I don't think it's game's strength. The tricky thing is that while Avowed combat is surprisingly satisfying it is good compared to... what? Highly systemic Bethesda RPG? Previous more story rich Obsidian games? Sure, Avowed combat system is far more robust than Outer Worlds - but would I necessarily recommend Avowed over Outer Worlds as a package? If you argue that Avowed is actually just open world action adventure, focusing on combat and exploration - from that standpoint I also think the game isn't delivering on all cylinders . I am not very deep into 2nd area and combat already looses its luster - loot isn't interesting nor transformative, enemy variety starts running a bit thin. So yeah Avowed is fine. It is exceeding my expectations in some areas, but misses in others. It is enjoyable enough romp through Eora, but as PoE fan, I also bring investment with me, which others players might not have. At this moment I am not sure if I will ever want to return to it - the game feels to be spread a bit thin. Still, there is stuff one can appreciate and praise, which most reviews I looked at did.

I don't know, didn't try - even if it does might be tricky to use. Breaks grated just fine though. Edit. @Hurlshort I tried it and it works great actually. You can just walk on water while swinging the axe in front of you.