Obsidian Entertainment: My Thoughts on most of their games

[Helz]

There's a thread at Obsidian Entertainment that stretches all the way back to Black Isle and Troika Games, and I'll always tie them together. They have long been some of my favorite studios, and I admire them for maintaining such a high level of craft and creativity.

Obsidian games I play:

KotoR 2: I loved the first game and the sequel is at least as good. I didn't delve much into the gray and stuck to killing Sith. There are some nice UI improvements that make it hard to go back to the original.

NWN2: NWN was not for me, so this was a nice surprise. It's a solid, party-based RTWP RPG, hampered by the early years of 3D graphics. The camera and UI are aggravating. I restarted several times but never finished it or even tried the expansions. I'm thinking about starting again.

Alpha Protocol: This is a great game and I'm glad it's available on GOG. Severely underrated, partially because of release day bugs. Bugs were part of their reputation back then, but I'll give Obsidian credit for patching their games into a good state.

Fallout NV: One of my favorite games ever. I love Fallout 1 and 2 and I thought Fallout 3 was incredibly immersive. Fallout NV added good writing and a better setting. I can breathe under the desert skies so much easier than down in DC's subway system.

Pillars of Eternity: Kickstarted and happy about it. Isometric, party-based RTWP RPGs are my favorite style of games. I like a lot of turn-based games, but RTWP feels more alive to me. I was hooked with the promise of 2D painted backgrounds and the extensive spell list (the best since Baldur's Gate). I badly wanted this game to succeed, and it did. I also credit Obsidian with helping to reignite an interest in crunchier RPGs.

PoE 2: I waited for the complete edition to come out before I played it, and it's a masterpiece. The first game was really good, but also felt a little limited by its budget. This one takes the good from the first and makes everything bigger and better.

The Outer Worlds: I was really into this for a while, but something weird threw me off about the level design. I'd run right by doors and stairways and not see them. I'd wander through the same building and keep discovering important stuff that I'd already walked past over and over. Now I'm wondering if the FoV was set too low for me... It was great that the companions had unlimited ammo. It was so freeing that I could give them giant machine guns and not go broke in 2 minutes, that I went back and played FO:NV with a mod that does that and its hilarious fun.

Obsidian games I've missed:

Dungeon Siege 3: Not Obsidian's fault, I didn't like its predecessors either.

South Park: I didn't have the console at release, and by the time it was on PC I was over South Park.

Tyranny: Don't want to play the bad guys.

Grounded: Great concept, but too resource collection/crafting heavy for my taste.

Pentiment: I planned to buy on day 1, but then I read a Josh Sawyer interview describing how the murder can't be solved and you pin it on whomever you choose. Something like 'the truth is what you make it', and I thought, "that is bull****". It's possible I misinterpreted this badly, but it killed my interest. Feel free to correct me.

Edited March 31 by Helz

[sorophx]

I'd argue, that the real problem with Alpha Protocol wasn't bugs as much as the friggin' minigames, the underwhelming shooting mechanics and the ease with which you could cheese a lot of missions/bosses. I am certain that if a game with that kind of reactivity and better puzzles (something similar to The Witness or something) were to come out on, say, MW3's engine, it would be a masterpiece

[mkreku]

Reading this thread I just realised something: I only really like one Obsidian game, Fallout: New Vegas. I do like it a lot though.

I've played a few others but only South Park: Stick of Truth and Outer Worlds held my interest for very long, and none of them are memorable. Alpha Protocol was a fantastic idea, but the jank killed it for me.

I have no idea why I'm here. Maybe I'm still waiting for another one-hit-wonder from them. Maybe nostalgia. Who knows.

[Wormerine]

On 6/16/2024 at 9:21 PM, mkreku said:

Reading this thread I just realised something: I only really like one Obsidian game, Fallout: New Vegas. I do like it a lot though.

Well, I do think New Vegas is easily Obsidian best game to date. It is a shame you don't find as much joy as I do in their more flawed titles.

[BruceVC]

On 6/16/2024 at 10:21 PM, mkreku said:

Reading this thread I just realised something: I only really like one Obsidian game, Fallout: New Vegas. I do like it a lot though.

I've played a few others but only South Park: Stick of Truth and Outer Worlds held my interest for very long, and none of them are memorable. Alpha Protocol was a fantastic idea, but the jank killed it for me.

I have no idea why I'm here. Maybe I'm still waiting for another one-hit-wonder from them. Maybe nostalgia. Who knows.

What about NWN2? Didnt you enjoy that

[Hurlshort]

15 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Well, I do think New Vegas is easily Obsidian best game to date. It is a shame you don't find as much joy as I do in their more flawed titles.

I find that, even if the gameplay or setting don't appeal to me, I still appreciate the writing and character development that goes into most Obsidian titles. I've seen enough of my favorite developers go under that I figure I'll do what I can to support their art.

[Humanoid]

I'm not sure there is an Obsidian game where the gameplay (mostly thinking about combat here, although that's obviously not true for Pentiment) is strong enough to stand on its own. Closest might be South Park of all things.

Hopefully Avowed has a more fleshed out stealth system than Outer Worlds. If it does it'd probably become my favourite Obsidian title mechanically as is. Not necessarily asking for Looking Glass level implementation, though something like Cyberpunk would be appreciated. But I'll settle for a marginal improvement over Skyrim.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, Humanoid said:

I'm not sure there is an Obsidian game where the gameplay (mostly thinking about combat here, although that's obviously not true for Pentiment) is strong enough to stand on its own. Closest might be South Park of all things.

I tend to think that in Roleplaying games act of choosing is gameplay, not individual systems. It is where Outer Worlds was weaker for me than many of previous Obsidian titles - I didn't care how I solve the problem presented to me, rather than having an issue with individuals systems. On the other hand, all 3 of my characters in PoE1 infiltrated Raedtrick's fortress a bit differently for roleplaying reasons.

Naturally, it would be better if individual systems were somewhat satisfying in their own right, but in an RPG I am more interested in them being used to build a narratively interesting scenario.