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

Lets not forget the art director...
asshat.jpg
 
Lets not forget the art director...
View attachment 6906012
Someone is going to feel the sting once the game comes out to the same dull thud as Outer Worlds. If they're lucky, otherwise it will be yet another Dragon Age: Veilguard or Kingdom Come 2(both games might as well be the same thing at this point)
Three medieval RPGs people were looking forward to and all of them are about to bomb for one reason or another. Industry is truly well and dead.
 
Avowed has some of the most cringe character design i have ever seen :story:

View attachment 6899688
Wait, why make a race that allows you to toggle not looking like the race? Maybe just make a better looking race.

I've seen this a lot in the fantasy/sci-fi sphere, where authors try to make something "Unique" and it just ends up being people with goofy shit glued to their head. It's part of the "anti-Tolkien" Mentality.
 
Avowed feels like a game no one wants. The first Pillars was one of the first big Kickstarters, and it ended up as a bloated mess. Pillars 2 was a better game, but no one was interested in it. So, here we have the third game in the Pillars of Eternity universe, and the name must be so toxic that they've not even putting it on the box. Pillars was a turn-based Infinity Engine style homage, and this is Pillars Skyrim which really makes me wonder who the audience is. I think the first Pillars made it clear that the unusual fan narrative at the time, that Obsidian were geniuses who were always hobbled by nasty publishers, was bull. Obsidian just don't know how to plan a game from beginning to end, even years later. All the interesting parts of Pillars are in about the last ten minutes and some developers have said they never had any idea of the whole story. Pillars 2 still had the feeling of running out of development time towards the end, as did Tyranny.
Outer Worlds was supposed to have romance options in it but were removed late in development. I always figured Ellie and Felix were the options given how anemic their dialogue trees are and how small their personal quests are. Ellie's lack of content in particular is weird given how heavily she was featured in the promotional materials, even early stuff. Always wondered if the vocal disappointment of how romances were implemented in PoE2: Deadfire was the driving force behind cutting them from OW.
Obsidian has never liked including romances, and they always do it begrudgingly that never makes anyone happen. In the second Pillars, they brought back two fan favorite characters, but made it clear you couldn't romance them in favor of some new randoms. The times they talk about it make it sound like Obsidian just thinks the concept is really stupid.
 
lars was a turn-based Infinity Engine style homage, and this is Pillars Skyrim which really makes me wonder who the audience is
They made Outer Worlds and now they want to make a fantasy game in the same engine and style, just like how Bethesda made Elder Scrolls and then added guns to it to make modern 3D Fallout entries. Easy money made on a cheap asset flip, except that modern Obsidian is talentless and full of diversity hires so the project turned into a disaster.
 
Obsidian has never liked including romances, and they always do it begrudgingly that never makes anyone happen. In the second Pillars, they brought back two fan favorite characters, but made it clear you couldn't romance them in favor of some new randoms. The times they talk about it make it sound like Obsidian just thinks the concept is really stupid.
They've done romances decently before. KotOR 2, Mask of the Betrayer, Alpha Protocol. Incidentally, they all involved Avellone.
 
Avowed feels like a game no one wants. The first Pillars was one of the first big Kickstarters, and it ended up as a bloated mess. Pillars 2 was a better game, but no one was interested in it. So, here we have the third game in the Pillars of Eternity universe, and the name must be so toxic that they've not even putting it on the box. Pillars was a turn-based Infinity Engine style homage, and this is Pillars Skyrim which really makes me wonder who the audience is. I think the first Pillars made it clear that the unusual fan narrative at the time, that Obsidian were geniuses who were always hobbled by nasty publishers, was bull. Obsidian just don't know how to plan a game from beginning to end, even years later. All the interesting parts of Pillars are in about the last ten minutes and some developers have said they never had any idea of the whole story. Pillars 2 still had the feeling of running out of development time towards the end, as did Tyranny.

Obsidian has never liked including romances, and they always do it begrudgingly that never makes anyone happen. In the second Pillars, they brought back two fan favorite characters, but made it clear you couldn't romance them in favor of some new randoms. The times they talk about it make it sound like Obsidian just thinks the concept is really stupid.
Pillars was clearly for a niche audience, aka the fans of the genre and the kind who can have a blast even with a nice but clunky little game as long as you can do your own little cooking in a corner.
I have forgiven many of POE and Tyranny's mistakes for this reason.
I share the same perplexity about who is Awoved for. It's obviously not for the pre-existing fanbase and they try to make it casual friendly when absolutely no one care about the game anyway.

Also romances in this type of game sucks, good on them for not being 100% on board with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheGuntinator
They've done romances decently before. KotOR 2, Mask of the Betrayer, Alpha Protocol. Incidentally, they all involved Avellone.
The "romance" in alpha protocol was just your standard Bond fling where he charms a lady then have her throw herself at him.

Kotor 2 confused 11 year old me because there were no Bioware style kiss and cut to black.
It took years until I picked up on why the female companions were being extremely catty to one another or the Exile being annoyed at Kreia for implying he spared Visas only so he could "charge up her cargo ramp"
 
The "romance" in alpha protocol was just your standard Bond fling where he charms a lady then have her throw herself at him.

Kotor 2 confused 11 year old me because there were no Bioware style kiss and cut to black.
It took years until I picked up on why the female companions were being extremely catty to one another or the Exile being annoyed at Kreia for implying he spared Visas only so he could "charge up her cargo ramp"
The Exile being magnetic and kind of distant at the same time I think is one of the most important things to pick up on in the game. If they had an out and out romance, it would have lost that element. Rather having these young women intrigued by this mysterious older man (remember that the Exile is older than Revan was and it's years after KotOR I at that) but he's just too traumatized, aloof and distant to act or reciprocate sells that dimension.
 
The "romance" in alpha protocol was just your standard Bond fling where he charms a lady then have her throw herself at him.

Kotor 2 confused 11 year old me because there were no Bioware style kiss and cut to black.
It took years until I picked up on why the female companions were being extremely catty to one another or the Exile being annoyed at Kreia for implying he spared Visas only so he could "charge up her cargo ramp"
God, Alpha Protocol was so damn based.
You could end up laying with all of the ladies in it (except the mute girl) and still be a total bastard.
 
Alpha Protocol was an incredibly memorable fun buggy mess while Outer Worlds was just mediocre and boring.
Now I didn't play it at launch, but I barely experienced any bugs.
Compared to a lot of modern titles it seemed tame in comparison
 
Avowed feels like a game no one wants. The first Pillars was one of the first big Kickstarters, and it ended up as a bloated mess. Pillars 2 was a better game, but no one was interested in it. So, here we have the third game in the Pillars of Eternity universe, and the name must be so toxic that they've not even putting it on the box. Pillars was a turn-based Infinity Engine style homage, and this is Pillars Skyrim which really makes me wonder who the audience is. I think the first Pillars made it clear that the unusual fan narrative at the time, that Obsidian were geniuses who were always hobbled by nasty publishers, was bull. Obsidian just don't know how to plan a game from beginning to end, even years later. All the interesting parts of Pillars are in about the last ten minutes and some developers have said they never had any idea of the whole story. Pillars 2 still had the feeling of running out of development time towards the end, as did Tyranny.

Obsidian has never liked including romances, and they always do it begrudgingly that never makes anyone happen. In the second Pillars, they brought back two fan favorite characters, but made it clear you couldn't romance them in favor of some new randoms. The times they talk about it make it sound like Obsidian just thinks the concept is really stupid.
I played the first Pillars and for the life of me, couldn't muster up a single fuck to give about the setting even after I finished it. Probably because the third act was pretty shockingly amateur and out of the left-field, and reeking of militant atheism that was in vogue at the time. Even the companions was so-so, the only one that sticks out are the ornery old man, and Eder for some reason.

So yeah, I really don't know who would even be excited about this. Even Dragon Age had its die-hard adherents, even if they were fujoshis or tumblr uwu Solasmancers. Pillars? What the fuck is a Pillars?
 
Most people who worked on any of the really good shit from Obsidian's past are long gone. Especially the big names: No Tim Cain or Josh Sawyer, and absolutely not Chris "Fuck Machine" Avellone.
The game itself just looks like a standard modern game built from a template, where you gather color coded loot and level up a talent tree so you can engage in the same anemic combat but with +5% fire resistance.
 
Back