Is anyone else playing Avowed? What are your thoughts so far?
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kinda sounds like The Outer Worlds, in a way. Which is kinda the feel I got from some youtube videos I watched about the game. Got to wonder how on earth the current 70€ pricetag is in any way justified.
Oh well, wishlistforgotten, maybe some sale notification at some point comes a long
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I guess it depends on what kind of depth youre looking for. Depth of lore, attributes and upgrades? Skyrim has plenty. Depth of gameplay? Things get a little more murky.
I will agree that Elder Scrolls games have never had combat be their strongest feature and that is definitely what Obsidian focused on with Avowed to make it stand out.
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I think attributes and upgrades tie back into gameplay, but we also all ended up playing stealth archers, and even if you never put stats into something that made things like lockpicking easier, it kind of didn't matter, because the minigame wasn't difficult and lockpicks are cheap. I think Bethesda's games at least up to Skyrim have been great evolutions of the medium, but it also feels like, for all the work they put into their systems, they never got anywhere close to what Larian has built since Skyrim's release.
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Outer Worlds was so try hard I couldn’t get past 5-6hrs of play
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I mean, yeah, the systems in skyrim werent deep, but at least they were there and somewhat entertaining. You just hold a button to "lockpick" in Avowed. Personally I never used bows in skyrim, always enchanted weapons and destruction.
Larian Should have built more intricate rpg systems since then and they have, Skyrim is a decade and a half old. The caveat is that they have done so by abandoning active combat gameplay. Theyre combat systems are fun, they just arent engaging like Avowed or even Skyrim. Again to each their own, im sure many rpg players dont care one bit about active/realistic combat simulation.
Again with Avowed, it is a brand new game and compared to its only direct competitor(14yo skyrim) it feels lacking in every way except when you hit something with a weapon.
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I think what I'm getting at is that, from my perspective, the only thing that's really in Skyrim's favor compared to Avowed is how big it is, because if I wanted satisfying RPG systems or such, I'd find them elsewhere. I enjoy both real time and turn based games, and nothing about Larian's RPG systems require them to be turn based, so it would be nice to see more of those kinds of systems in games like Bethesda's going forward, but given how Starfield turned out, I doubt we will. Bethesda gives all of their NPCs schedules, there's physics at play, and NPCs will care if you steal their stuff, but those systems never seem to manifest in anything more interesting than putting a bucket on someone's head so they can't see you thieving, so I'm not really missing anything in Avowed when those systems are absent.
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I thought it was okay, though not without it's issues. The itemization (everything being "standard -> better -> betterer -> best") and the size of the playable areas were kinda weak.
IIRC Finished the main game twice, couldn't be arsed with the dlc though.
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I played it for about 4 hours and dropped it, there just isn't anything interesting to it.
NPCs are probably the worst part, they couldn't even make them move around despite Morrowind pulling that off over 20 years ago.
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Ok i understand that.
I am of the mind that in Elder Scrolls games, the world is more than its physical size. The books, consistent lore in exposition and npc interactions, the many unique side quests that contribute to the lore, stumbling into a 2-3 hour dungeon that expands on a race you havent heard of and now get to learn about that lore...None of that natural and self paced experience of a diverse world with rich lore happens in Avowed. It happens in Larian's games and that is another thing that makes them great.
Starfield was definitely a sign that Bethesda isnt what it used to be, and it doesnt give me hope for the next Elder Scrolls. Starfield had alot of lore, it just wasnt very interesting because the galaxy was so dull. I loved the gameplay actually, but it didnt matter when exploring felt like raiding the same 3 structures on different shades of the same planet. There was too little to unique to find while exploring.
I guess thats what i meed from an rpg, rewarding exploration. Avowed has enjoyable platforming, but youre reward for it in the end usually only amounts to a backpack full of weightless items you dont need to care about, and maybe a few sentences on a note.
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I do find the exploration in Avowed to be rewarding, and those items you pick up and a few sentences on a note are exactly the same as what I tend to find in Skyrim, with lore that's marginally more interesting; I'm kind of surprised that you find them to be meaningfully different and better in Skyrim. The thing that Avowed solves by being a smaller game is that when I find a dungeon, it doesn't feel like the last three dungeons I explored, because they didn't need to make as many of them, so they could spend more time making that one dungeon.
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I am reading those comments and I feel good with $90 bucks in my pocket.
I could get almost 3 good games with that. What a time to be a gamer with all those indies.
Let's go Songs of Syx, X4 foundations to support the devs, and a little bit of Caves of Qud with that?
You still have some change remaining to buy a snack.
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Yeah Avowed definitely boils it down, i guess it all depends on what hooks you. I never got tired of exploring dungeons in skyrim, the variation in them was enough for me, and i feel like there isnt nearly enough in avowed to keep me interested.
The benefit to the added time making less dungeons in avowed was the depth of platforming and yes better level design. Probably my favorite part of avowed actually. It all just left me wanting though. My rewards for platforming were never more than a few inconsequential items i didnt care about. Thats how the game lost me.
Yeah you didnt often find much in skyrim dungeons, but the sheer amount of them, no 2 the same, with the majority of them corresponding with some lore or quest... That made me feel like i was in a real, fully fleshed out world.
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Ya know, it also might be that the lore of avowed just seems too bubly and colorful for me.
I enjoyed obsidians other recent rpg, the outer worlds, enough to finish it, i just thought it was too short.
So yeah there definitely are too many variables here to pinpoint exactly why a game resonates with someone or not.
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Fair enough. The Outer Worlds definitely felt to me like it was as long as it needed to be and no longer, and that's pretty rare these days, as so many games are ballooning in runtime.
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Don't have it although I am loosely interested in it, but not enough to spend the nearly $100 (after tax) asking price. Maybe when it's $10 on sale or something.
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I'm liking it. I'm big on exploration, and I hate when games have difficult but reachable places, but when you get there, there's nothing. That is not the case with Avowed. Just about every hard to reach place I've managed to BS my way to has had something. It's usually just money and some mats, but occasionally I've found some unique equipment or accessories.
Combat is just a slightly better Skyrim combat but with a dodge. I will say the dodge has fucked me multiple times because it's just the jump button, but if you press any direction other than forward when you press it, you dodge in that direction. So no jumping sideways or backwards. I've accidentally dashed to my death off a cliff more than a few times.
I personally don't think the story and characters are as bad as everyone is saying, but I'm easy to please. It doesn't seem any worse than Skyrim story-wise. I like that the companions actually have personalities and banter with each other. They feel more like Dragon Age or Mass Effect companions, granted not nearly as deep. But I've already laughed several times from their ambient camp banter, and I only have two companions and less than 15 hours of play time.
The beginning tutorial area is weak, and character creation wasn't very good. I honestly expected to quit after my first short 2ish hour session, but when I finally got set loose in the first real area and started exploring and climbing around on rooftops and finding underwater caves, and finding loot left and right, I got hooked.
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I am really enjoying it so far. I'm almost finished with the second map.
So many people seem to hate it for reasons I don't quite understand. I also really liked Outer Worlds, though.
I'm enjoying the story, the characters, the inventory system - everything everyone else seems to hate. I really don't understand why other people say the world feels dead. I guess I enjoy not having to run around to find NPCs who are always on the move? (Looking at you, Skyrim.)
Sure, most weapons in the game are exactly the same. But that makes the "unique" ones so much more interesting. I like that I can upgrade those unique weapons, so that they always stay useful. No more quest rewards that are already underleveled when I receive them! (Looking at you, Skyrim.)
I'm enjoying the Balder's Gate 3 camping system, but I'm glad you don't need to "spend" food for every night in camp.
My only "problem" is that it feels a little unoptimized. I get low frame rates sometimes that don't go away even at the lowest settings, especially inside cities. But, it's relatively minor. I can (and do) live with it.
It feels like a full game with no glitches on release, which is nice.
Although, if your glass textures all look frosted and weird, then turn "global Illumination" up to at least medium.
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Nearly beat it, not a great game 5/10.
The environments are nice and fun to explore.
Story is mediocre. Dialog is tiresome, I started button spamming to get through a lot of the conversations that didn't matter. Combat is nothing remarkable, no matter the weapon combos, and the enemies are just damage sponges with no real tactics necessary to defeat a given enemy. Magic is kind of cool but you have to really spec into mage to get there. The immersion is about as deep as a puddle on flat concrete.
It is one of the games of all time, a game you could not play and miss out on nothing.
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Any diehard pillars fans who have played it? For the most part it doesn't seem super well received but I wonder how much of a bump it gets for being in the pillars franchise. I loved the first two and would love to continue my time in eora. Haven't dived in yet mostly because of the price tag, waiting for it to get to at least $60
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Diehard might be pushing it, but I liked PoE1 and loved 2, even playing through the second game twice so I could try it out in turn-based mode. I'm really enjoying it but for different reasons than I enjoy Pillars. Sometimes games are worth $70, and I'm personally finding this one to be.
