Avowed - Obsidian's new game, like Pillars of Eternity meets Elder Scrolls

[Brap God]

I think that was an attempt to nod at the previous two pillars games. They didn't have a crime system in that either and you could just rummage through people's shit freely unless it was a specific event or you entered a hostile area. Not the best choice for a first person game like this.

If Outer Worlds didn't exist I might've inhaled some of this copium but it seems like this is just their boiler plate for making these first person games. If I had to guess, the reason they're shying away from making more dynamic cities and NPC systems is that they're completely out of their depth in that regard. Just look at CDPR and how they tried to replicate some systems in CP2077 that've existed for decades in Rockstar games, but they're complete newbies at it, so it just looks like a hack job. Even after they rehabilitated that game's image post launch with updates and DLC, some stuff like police instant transmissioning infront of you the second you become wanted is still a thing. Same thing with randomly generated pedestrians despawning before they even leave your field of view. Obsidian just don't even have the technical talent to even try and mimick those systems, so they don't bother.

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

My question is, is it because they're lazy? or they're too scared that additional systems will bug out in unexpected ways?

I'd take a game with a tonne of jank over this sterile flat nonsense any day.

Just watched this. THREE ARROW limit, and third one immediately disappears when you draw another. I knew everything about how Oblivion worked, since it actually teaches you pretty well, and if you completed the Thieves Guild questline you're well aware that arrows bounce off metal and stone. I simply had no idea how much shit was straight up missing from Avowed. It's actually impressive that it loses to fucking Oblivion in nearly every aspect except MAYBE raw graphics, and even that is quesionable after you've seen the lumen atrocities UE5 is capable of.
Anywho, the dude made a sequel.

You know what game had rippling water? MORROWIND.

The only thing I disagree with is praising how you can dive into water just fine in Skyrim regardless of height. Jumping from 30 meters/100 feet is already lethal, like falling on concrete. I don't even know if there is a game with water fall damage. In all Source & idtech games it cancels all momentum, you don't even sink deeper with more speed.

 

[Big Brown Schlub]

The only thing I disagree with is praising how you can dive into water just fine in Skyrim regardless of height. Jumping from 30 meters/100 feet is already lethal, like falling on concrete. I don't even know if there is a game with water fall damage. In all Source & idtech games it cancels all momentum, you don't even sink deeper with more speed.

Of all games, GTA V is the only one I know that has water fall damage, if you fall from too great a height you always die instantly, no matter if it's on pavement or into the open sea.

 

[SpellforceFan]

I don't even know if there is a game with water fall damage.

There shouldn't be, outside of hyper-realistic survival simulators. Water cancelling fall damage is a staple of video games, like caves behind waterfalls and lava hurting you only if you stand in it, but not when you're close to it - you Don't Fuck With The Concept.

 

[Dammit Mandrake!]

There shouldn't be, outside of hyper-realistic survival simulators. Water cancelling fall damage is a staple of video games, like caves behind waterfalls and lava hurting you only if you stand in it, but not when you're close to it - you Don't Fuck With The Concept.

Yeah that is a "Hollywood movie" thing that I am just fine with. Plus it looks cool as long as you don't eat rocks... which is funny.

Cool or funny. That's a win-win.

 

[Logoden]

To continue the nitpicking. When I see that, I can not stop thinking about this :

Not exactly comparable but this was 11 years ago in the first game of the IP, game which is still beautiful to this day. Even with fairness I realy do have difficulties seeing Avowed as an improvment over past games.

 

[ScurvyRat]

Coming back to the thread to report that the graphical issues with this game are making it unplayable.
The Artifacting and blurriness from the forced TAA is disgusting and hard to look at. I can post some screenshots and videos later. The entire game is covered in visual noise. I spent way too much time fucking with settings to try and get a sharper, crisper experience, to no avail.
There's no reason a game in 2025 should look this bad.

 

[Jace on ice]

Coming back to the thread to report that the graphical issues with this game are making it unplayable.
The Artifacting and blurriness from the forced TAA is disgusting and hard to look at. I can post some screenshots and videos later. The entire game is covered in visual noise. I spent way too much time fucking with settings to try and get a sharper, crisper experience, to no avail.
There's no reason a game in 2025 should look this bad.

From what I can tell distant LODS are very very bad. I think the huge amount of blur and post processing effects that you can't turn off is an attempt to hide that.

 

[ScurvyRat]

From what I can tell distant LODS are very very bad. I think the huge amount of blur and post processing effects that you can't turn off is an attempt to hide that.

It's so much more than that. And inconsistent as fuck. Sometimes I boot it up and 80% of the screen is visual noise. Other times I boot it up and its sharp as hecc and I haven't changed any settings. Turning off DLSS induces a MASSIVE ghosting issue.
It's pretty hard to play the game when you literally can't see whats going on.

 

[Jace on ice]

It's so much more than that. And inconsistent as fuck. Sometimes I boot it up and 80% of the screen is visual noise. Other times I boot it up and its sharp as hecc and I haven't changed any settings. Turning off DLSS induces a MASSIVE ghosting issue.
It's pretty hard to play the game when you literally can't see whats going on.

How are shadows for you? I've seen a bunch of reviews saying they're completely broken and look awful.

 

[ScurvyRat]

How are shadows for you? I've seen a bunch of reviews saying they're completely broken and look awful.

Yep. Even at "epic" quality. Even when I override the forced TAA and replace it with NVDIA FXAA. The shadows flicker with grainy artifacts no matter what you do.
Probably gonna drop this game just based on the shit graphics alone. The gameplay is decent, but the awful writing and graphics really just aren't worth my time.

 

[RandomTwitterGuy]

The worst thing is that the game has some amazing-looking vistas, but it has some weird shit with the graphics.

 

[Xev]

Why the fuck did the devs think we wanted to hear garrus vakarian sperg about his stupid dead boyfriend. How hard is it to not be gay? In fact, it takes literally no work to not write dumb gay dialogue. I think I hit my limit on this game.

 

[ihaveelbows]

The game is okay but that's about it. In some ways like the combat I find it much better than Outer Worlds. The story feels like a mid PS2 story and there is so much middling dialogue which is beyond frustrating. When something is outright bad you can call it bad, when it's good..it's good. This dialogue is neither good or bad and there is so much of it for no reason having zero impact.

They should have cut out the idea of 'branching RPG' because of branding and just went with Action Fantasy game and focused on expanding combat to have it become almost like a Doom/Hellsinger/Lichdom Battlemage type game with an overarching story.

 

[SpellforceFan]

The worst thing is that the game has some amazing-looking vistas, but it has some weird shit with the graphics.

Given that it's running on Unreal, it's still a rare W for obsidian that it doesn't just stutter, crash and burn.

 

[marvlouslie]

I know nothing about the "Pillars of Eternity" world, and this game just automatically assumes you should know something about it from everything I've seen. It doesn't introduce players to it gradually. It doesn't give you any reason to actually give a shit. That's the main problem I have with it. It doesn't have another game to turn to for players to to familiarize themselves with the world and its lore.

At least Skyrim had Oblivion and Morrowind to build off of. By the time Skyrim came around you were actually looking forward to jumping back into the Elder Scrolls world again. What the fuck does Avowed have? Literally fucking nothing. It assumes people have played "Pillars of Eternity", and not many people have that I recall. Seemed to be kind of a niche title.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

There shouldn't be, outside of hyper-realistic survival simulators. Water cancelling fall damage is a staple of video games, like caves behind waterfalls and lava hurting you only if you stand in it, but not when you're close to it - you Don't Fuck With The Concept.

You can but you either tell the player outright, or if you are a good designer, give them an example to make them understand that's how things go.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

Seemed to be kind of a niche title.

It's not just a niche title, it's an old school isometric real time with pause crpg. That kind of game caters to a specific kind of sperg (me) and not a lot of other people outside that bubble. They're the kind of games that are best enjoyed if you chew them slow and pay a lot of attention to little details. It's a cool setting but you have to invest some time in it before it clicks.

Maybe obsidian should have made some kind of media to fix that. A comic, a YouTube series, something like that? I can confirm that Avowed is 10 times better if you know what the fuck is going on.

 

[SpellforceFan]

You can but you either tell the player outright, or if you are a good designer, give them an example to make them understand that's how things go.

Nah, when it comes to genre staples, just make people learn by lurking, don't hint at it explicitly. It's like with forum subculture - people have to lurk first before they decide to post, learn to fit in through osmosis, otherwise they'll immediately out themselves as outsiders. You don't have to tell FPS players that in video games red barrels explode when shot, it's something even people who don't play video games know by now.
Worse comes to worst, you'll beat the game without knowing of secret caves, learn of it later, and now you have a reason to replay the title and check every waterfall you stumble upon.

 

[marvlouslie]

It's not just a niche title, it's an old school isometric real time with pause crpg.

Not to mention, the first "Pillars" game is 10+ years old at that point. Jumping into a universe with that long in between titles and was essentially dormant doesn't strike me that people had any fucking clue what they were doing. The Obsidian that made the "Pillars of Eternity" games is very different from the Obsidian that made "Avowed".