All Combat is Gameplay But Not All Gameplay is Combat

[the_dog_days]

Does stealth even exist in this game? Lockpicking, crafting, speech checks, running, or jumping? Every second of gameplay shown as been purely combat. They haven't even sprinkled in bits of non-combat gameplay in just to show us it's there. And speaking of combat, does unarmed exist? Classes don't exist, so I can't play a monk, but does unarmed at least exist so I can pretend to be a monk? So far all I know is you can play as a fighter or wizard or a fighter/wizard but how does the game play outside of combat?

[uuuhhii]

when was lockpicking picking herb and crafting ever fun

hope they don't focus on that

does hope level are not air walled by knee high fence

[Wormerine]

Yeah… I think it might be what makes me cautious about Avowed. Even very combat driven titles (like Messiah of Might&Magic) had a bit more scope than what Avowed showed so far. 

My impression so far, may it be right or wrong, is: “we don’t have much to show”. There is a lot of talk, but relatively little shown. I still don’t know what the game really is, and at this point I am getting doubtful if devs know what Avowed really is. And with release meant for this year - I feel like the game has a lot of ground to cover before the release hits. 

Edited January 19 by Wormerine

[Hawke64]

I hope that the pacifist, low-int, and murderhobo play styles will be supported, like it was to some extent* in The Outer Worlds. A fantasy FPS would be much less appealing for me. Dark Messiah had quite a lot of stealth/immersive sim elements and some story branching if I remember correctly.

*Could be better - the enemy placement and items (e.g. ManufacturerName Gun Lvl 30) seemed to be done poorly, but there were also lock-picking, stealth, and dialogue-focused skills.

[the_dog_days]

21 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

I hope that the pacifist, low-int, and murderhobo play styles will be supported, like it was to some extent* in The Outer Worlds. A fantasy FPS would be much less appealing for me. Dark Messiah had quite a lot of stealth/immersive sim elements and some story branching if I remember correctly.

*Could be better - the enemy placement and items (e.g. ManufacturerName Gun Lvl 30) seemed to be done poorly, but there were also lock-picking, stealth, and dialogue-focused skills.

https://www.pcgamer.com/obsidians-next-rpg-avowed-wont-have-the-option-to-do-a-pure-pacifist-run/

[Hawke64]

Thank you for the information.

Quote

players should expect a "focus on combat."

I somehow doubt that Obsidian can do action combat better than, for example, Dragon's Dogma 2, which should be released this year, while first-person rarely works well with open melee combat. Still going to get the game, but the description is disappointing.

[Wormerine]

On 1/24/2024 at 5:26 PM, Hawke64 said:

Thank you for the information.

I somehow doubt that Obsidian can do action combat better than, for example, Dragon's Dogma 2, which should be released this year, while first-person rarely works well with open melee combat. Still going to get the game, but the description is disappointing.

Yes. The narrative since the first gameplay trailer has been "the combat has turned out rather fun, so we decided to focus on that". I am still not seeing what Obsidian is seeing. Maybe hands-on previews at some point in the future will turn things around. It seems that most still expect Avowed to be an RPG first and foremost.