Humdinger
Member
Yeah, I edited my post when I realized it was probably intentional. Nm.
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Avowed announced for PS5
- Thread starter Wastelander92
- Start date
Yeah, I edited my post when I realized it was probably intentional. Nm.
splattered
Member
People here dont play games for the story though.. they play it for the symmetrical joysticks and boot screen console logo. I'm sure people all of a sudden say its a good game now that its on their warrior system of choice.
Topher
Identifies as young
People here dont play games for the story though.. they play it for the symmetrical joysticks and boot screen console logo. I'm sure people all of a sudden say its a good game now that its on their warrior system of choice.
I have yet to see a PlayStation "warrior" turn around and start praising an Xbox game once it is on PlayStation. That's a bullshit narrative.
And since when does story not matter in an RPG like this?
Just a bad take.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Truly a masterpiece indeed.
Lmao but is that someone's fucking gay ass made character?
Skifi28
Member
Did you manage to miss all the threads about how Hellblade 2 is suddenly a masterpiece and GOTY once it hit Playstation? I'd have
Punished Miku
show you the truth.
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
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No its an Aumaua. They've beeen around since Pillars of Eternity 1. Godlike as well.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
I'm talking about the broccoli headed fuck on the left dawgNo its an Aumaua. They've beeen around since Pillars of Eternity 1. Godlike as well.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Yes.
Tried telling people this who were struggling with the game and they ignored me a lot lol
I actually think they've made them more OP with latest balance patches. I play on the highest difficulty and managed to get a fine pistol to drop early game and paired it with just a cheap non-upgraded pistol and was just mopping up.
Always knew it.
Punished Miku
Gaslighter Pro: 16.7 Fireflops
Its one of the only fantasy games that's not just another ripoff of Tolkien. There's other races, including fish people. Art influence is more varied with some Caribbean and Asian influence. Its still a AA game made by a small team. Graphics are uneven at times. Some parts look a little off, particularly NPCs who have to be auto-animated at this budget. But other parts look fantastic and it is an Unreal 5 game. If you aren't out to hate the game I suspect it will be zero problem for you.
Speaking of broccoli head, I put all my points into hair and it was glorious.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Punished Miku
Gaslighter Pro: 16.7 Fireflops
Ranger is sick as fuck. That's what I played. Nothing like spacing for sword hits while charging up a pistol to the face in your other hand. Or double guns. Or rifle. Or bow.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I remember seeing the videos of people using those OP spells to yeet those giant mammoth elephants out of existence, shit like that always seems fascinating to me in games like this, lol. Though I personally never do that.
Punished Miku
Gaslighter Pro: 16.7 Fireflops
Yeah I can only speak to ranger, but its clear the game has one of the best magic systems ever. Two hand melee and sword and shield also seemed fun. Going to play this multiple times for sure. Eventually.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
I actually played pillars so long ago didn't really remember the races etc. A ton but I'm fine with it all I just want to explore more Obsidian worlds despite the flaws they just make decent games that hit the marks.. Even if it isn't the greatest game ever it's an experience, and an rpg and I like to be more of an enthusiast that plays games for myself when I'm interested to really get the feel.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Speaking of broccoli head, I put all my points into hair and it was glorious.
For all the shit the game got otherwise, I really liked Veilguard's hair implementation.
Punished Miku
Gaslighter Pro: 16.7 Fireflops
I still have to play that one of these days. Got the deluxe edition for $9.For all the shit the game got otherwise, I really liked Veilguard's hair implementation.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
It's a somewhat disappointing but fitting end to the Solas story Inquisition ends with.
Mayar
Member
We are too good to admit it.
(And no, you won't get any praise from me on the Avowed side - I won't forgive and I won't forget )I must admit, even I had this reaction:
You can argue about the quality and presentation of the story, especially against of Pillars of Eternity, but this statement left even me stunned.
splattered
Member
I wasnt serious man lmao just poking
CLW
Gold Member
Yeah I went double gun flipping back and forth and it became way to OP by mid game I pretty much ran roughshod over everything
ByWatterson
Member
More like Disavowed amuhrite
CLW
Gold Member
Yeah mine was a pistol and some shotgun of some type and it was just shoot flip shoot flip stay far enough back and mow em down
TheThreadsThatBindUs
Member
Your own statement:
Implies you haven't played it. No?
Or what else did you mean by this...?
Badlucktroll
Member
i do not wish to play avowed again but this time on ps5
SnipeyMcGee
Member
As a fan of Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2, I thought Avowed was a miserable and disapppointing experience. It has an awful cast, weak central plot and pretentious writing throughout. There was almost nothing redeeming in it. If I wasn't such a fan of the original games I'd have stopped playing less than halfway through and maybe I should have, as it has had a corrosive effect on my memories of POE, similar to how DA: Veilguard tarnished that series.
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Gojiira
Member
And this is exactly why I cringe every time Obsidian uses the 'The studio behind Fallout New Vegas' Looool noooo, noooo you are not, that Obsidian is long gone.
Do not give these weird freaks money.
archangelmorph
Gold Member
archangelmorph
Gold Member
CowboyLou
Member
Avowed. Jesus, this game, man. Following their 2010 peak of New Vegas and Alpha Protocol, Obsidian had already been on a decline for the next decade, releasing several pretentious, word-vomit cRPGs that failed to recapture the glories of their direct influences. Still, I wasn't prepared for just how frivolous and embarrassing The Outer Worlds writing and direction was. Fortunately for Obsidian, I'm a total slut for any Bethesda-style FPSRPG I can get my hands on, so I liked TOW regardless and bought Avowed right at launch. Did I enjoy it? Yeah. Do I regret it? Nah. Is it a hard game to actually recommend? Yeah.
You'll either love or hate the art direction, but it never really captures the Pillars of Eternity feel it's based on. It's missing so many of the races, classes, abilities etc. that PoE did actually do pretty well. For a while I was hoping for a post-launch class (cipher, anyone??), but it doesn't seem like they're up for it. You got your standard warrior, ranger, wizard options but not much more. The complaints about a static, non-interactive world are 100% valid. In that regard it's Morrowind (2002), not Oblivion (2006). Combat's fun, but quite repetitive with low enemy variety etc. by the halfway point. The density of the maps and the fun of exploration were a definite high point, though.
The writing is deeply steeped in Californian therapy culture through-and-through. Nothing as crazy as Veilguard, but that game did take some of the heat off Avowed. If Veilguard wasn't so fresh in peoples' minds, Avowed would have taken more flack for its flaccid yet pretentious tone, care-bear companions, and general feel of 2020s Californians LARPing a fantasy world, rather than being an actual fantasy world. It's all really gay, man. Not homosexual (well, sometimes it is), but just gay. Do you enjoy engaging companion quests such as helping your friend with his anxiety attacks? Do you want to smuggle abortion pills? Do you want to help people with their assisted suicides? If so, this might be the game for you.
Yeah, I liked it, but it kinda sucks.
You'll either love or hate the art direction, but it never really captures the Pillars of Eternity feel it's based on. It's missing so many of the races, classes, abilities etc. that PoE did actually do pretty well. For a while I was hoping for a post-launch class (cipher, anyone??), but it doesn't seem like they're up for it. You got your standard warrior, ranger, wizard options but not much more. The complaints about a static, non-interactive world are 100% valid. In that regard it's Morrowind (2002), not Oblivion (2006). Combat's fun, but quite repetitive with low enemy variety etc. by the halfway point. The density of the maps and the fun of exploration were a definite high point, though.
The writing is deeply steeped in Californian therapy culture through-and-through. Nothing as crazy as Veilguard, but that game did take some of the heat off Avowed. If Veilguard wasn't so fresh in peoples' minds, Avowed would have taken more flack for its flaccid yet pretentious tone, care-bear companions, and general feel of 2020s Californians LARPing a fantasy world, rather than being an actual fantasy world. It's all really gay, man. Not homosexual (well, sometimes it is), but just gay. Do you enjoy engaging companion quests such as helping your friend with his anxiety attacks? Do you want to smuggle abortion pills? Do you want to help people with their assisted suicides? If so, this might be the game for you.
Yeah, I liked it, but it kinda sucks.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
CowboyLou
Member
My man, in the sea of low-quality posts that is GAF, my effortposting stands as a bulwark against the tide.
Isa
Member
I appreciate the write-up. I'm considering picking it up eventually as I did have some fun with Outer Worlds 2. I definitely agree with Veilguard taking the heat for it and probably quite a few other release window games as well. But man those quests sound freaking awful. Its wild how people like that can't see how its so unappealing and damaging to any brand/IP to build products that way. I guess for deranged narcissists it can be immersive but for the rest of us its so immersion breaking that there was never any to begin with.
CowboyLou
Member
Let me at least add that those quests I brought up usually have alternate options etc. as you'd expect, you don't have to do them that way. But the problem, in my humble opinion, is the material doesn't belong in a fantasy RPG to begin with. I want fantasy, not a reskin of contemporary America.
Isa
Member
That's good to hear, the options helped make OW2 more pleasant to deal with.
Froggo
Member
Can you give an example because this sounds funny and I can't be bothered to play it myself
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Day 1, I generally agree with many opinions on the board but I know many that really enjoyed avowed despite the hate here , so I'll be pumped for the 17th to get here next month.
CowboyLou
Member
I'm gonna copy+paste a long post I saw elsewhere and really enjoyed (plot spoilers, obviously):
The plot is by-the-numbers garbage until the end of the third map. The player has very little, if any, control over the plot. The story focuses around a conflict between the natives of the Living Lands (who are in touch with nature and such), and the Steel Garrotte, a brutal group of colonial fascists who are going around hanging people and razing places. It's incredibly boring.
At the end of the third act, a few things happen:
- Sapadal, the god entity in your head (that the writers desperately want you to sympathise with, often forcing you to pick dialogue options that express your love and support for it), turns out to be the cause of the plague you're trying to fix.
- Inquisitor Lodwyn, the villain who until now has been an entirely one-dimensional cardboard cutout, tries to reason with you by telling you the truth about your god and asking you to destroy it.
- There's the game's one and only impressive piece of long-term reactivity here - Lodwyn will ally with you or attack you depending on your previous actions, and judges you on your response to three previous incidents.
The fourth map is then mostly pointless busywork, until:
- You enter the Garden, where Sapadal is trapped. Here, the world design and encounter design goes completely to shit and you're forced to fight a number of spongey bosses.
- You are given the choice to destroy Sapdal or let it live. Like the rest of the game, this choice feels quite awkwardly implemented, and characters seem to have largely the same responses whatever you do. Destroying it grants you one special power. I think Sapadal's dialogue might change depending on your own actions, but obviously I can't be sure.
- After this, you return to the starting city to find out that, for no real reason at all, Lodwyn has set it on fire in the name of the Empire. This doesn't really follow on from anything else - the real plot ends in the Garden, but since that was boring, this is here to give the game a big dramatic final setpiece. This situation appears to happen totally regardless of what you've done in the entire game so far; again you'd have to ask someone who played very differently to me if it went differently for them.
- Regardless of everything you've done up to this point, the game gives you the basic choice of "side with Lodywn and the Steel Garrotte" or "side with the natives". This choice is totally void of meaning because:
a) you've been forced to side against Lodwyn for the entire game up until the end of the third act (up to and including killing a large number of Steel Garrotte, who tend to attack on sight)
b) all your companions tell you not to do this, and you're not given any in-character or in-universe reason to do it
c) the choice comes down to a single binary dialogue option. You can suddenly and inexplicably swear fealty to the cartoon villains you've been slaughtering up to this point, or you can decide to be a cool rebel and push the empire you represent out of the mystical nature island they're trying to massacre. Both options come despite everything you've said and done up in the preceding 18 hours.
It's hard to get across how dumb this scenario is without showing you the whole game leading up to it, but suffice to say - there is absolutely no motivation whatsoever for you to do anything other than side against the Steel Garrotte, as you already necessarily have about fifteen times before.
- For context, I kept spiting the game by picking the most pro-Steel Garrotte dialogue options throughout, on the scant few occasions they were available. The devs didn't really expect you to do this because it leads to some very funny dialogue with your companions in this scene - one who had her city burned down by the Steel Garrotte earlier says "I never thought you'd do this! I guess I never really knew you after all!" This is despite the fact that I looked her dead in the eye as her home burned and said "I think the Steel Garrotte have a point here"*. Yeah no shit you didn't know me mate, you never listened to a word I fucking said.
*they didn't have a point at all, for the record - they were being Skeletor-tier comedy villains as usual
- Regardless of who you side with, you have to fight through the same map filled with the same enemies, only their faction is different depending on who you have sided with. If you chose Lodwyn, your companions all abandon you, meaning you have to do it alone (which is a bit more exciting, I suppose). This is, oddly, easier and shorter than the combat in the Garden, even if you're doing it alone.
- Lodwyn is waiting for you on either route, and immediately prepares to attack you, again entirely regardless of your previous actions up to this point. You can say you want to join her, or you can kill her; either route ends the game. You then get ending slides because, of course, New Vegas had them so this needs them too. Like the rest of the game, the ending slides end up a bit confused if you didn't do what the devs wanted you to do - I became Lodwyn's second-in-command and we "ruled the colony with an iron fist" and hanged dissidents or something, but also the colony simultaneously flourished and became a utopia because I did enough sidequests for merchants during the game.
At the end of the third act, a few things happen:
- Sapadal, the god entity in your head (that the writers desperately want you to sympathise with, often forcing you to pick dialogue options that express your love and support for it), turns out to be the cause of the plague you're trying to fix.
- Inquisitor Lodwyn, the villain who until now has been an entirely one-dimensional cardboard cutout, tries to reason with you by telling you the truth about your god and asking you to destroy it.
- There's the game's one and only impressive piece of long-term reactivity here - Lodwyn will ally with you or attack you depending on your previous actions, and judges you on your response to three previous incidents.
The fourth map is then mostly pointless busywork, until:
- You enter the Garden, where Sapadal is trapped. Here, the world design and encounter design goes completely to shit and you're forced to fight a number of spongey bosses.
- You are given the choice to destroy Sapdal or let it live. Like the rest of the game, this choice feels quite awkwardly implemented, and characters seem to have largely the same responses whatever you do. Destroying it grants you one special power. I think Sapadal's dialogue might change depending on your own actions, but obviously I can't be sure.
- After this, you return to the starting city to find out that, for no real reason at all, Lodwyn has set it on fire in the name of the Empire. This doesn't really follow on from anything else - the real plot ends in the Garden, but since that was boring, this is here to give the game a big dramatic final setpiece. This situation appears to happen totally regardless of what you've done in the entire game so far; again you'd have to ask someone who played very differently to me if it went differently for them.
- Regardless of everything you've done up to this point, the game gives you the basic choice of "side with Lodywn and the Steel Garrotte" or "side with the natives". This choice is totally void of meaning because:
a) you've been forced to side against Lodwyn for the entire game up until the end of the third act (up to and including killing a large number of Steel Garrotte, who tend to attack on sight)
b) all your companions tell you not to do this, and you're not given any in-character or in-universe reason to do it
c) the choice comes down to a single binary dialogue option. You can suddenly and inexplicably swear fealty to the cartoon villains you've been slaughtering up to this point, or you can decide to be a cool rebel and push the empire you represent out of the mystical nature island they're trying to massacre. Both options come despite everything you've said and done up in the preceding 18 hours.
It's hard to get across how dumb this scenario is without showing you the whole game leading up to it, but suffice to say - there is absolutely no motivation whatsoever for you to do anything other than side against the Steel Garrotte, as you already necessarily have about fifteen times before.
- For context, I kept spiting the game by picking the most pro-Steel Garrotte dialogue options throughout, on the scant few occasions they were available. The devs didn't really expect you to do this because it leads to some very funny dialogue with your companions in this scene - one who had her city burned down by the Steel Garrotte earlier says "I never thought you'd do this! I guess I never really knew you after all!" This is despite the fact that I looked her dead in the eye as her home burned and said "I think the Steel Garrotte have a point here"*. Yeah no shit you didn't know me mate, you never listened to a word I fucking said.
*they didn't have a point at all, for the record - they were being Skeletor-tier comedy villains as usual
- Regardless of who you side with, you have to fight through the same map filled with the same enemies, only their faction is different depending on who you have sided with. If you chose Lodwyn, your companions all abandon you, meaning you have to do it alone (which is a bit more exciting, I suppose). This is, oddly, easier and shorter than the combat in the Garden, even if you're doing it alone.
- Lodwyn is waiting for you on either route, and immediately prepares to attack you, again entirely regardless of your previous actions up to this point. You can say you want to join her, or you can kill her; either route ends the game. You then get ending slides because, of course, New Vegas had them so this needs them too. Like the rest of the game, the ending slides end up a bit confused if you didn't do what the devs wanted you to do - I became Lodwyn's second-in-command and we "ruled the colony with an iron fist" and hanged dissidents or something, but also the colony simultaneously flourished and became a utopia because I did enough sidequests for merchants during the game.
The writers are so mentally crippled by the mindset of COLONIALISM = BAD they can't tell even a coherent plot within the fictional world they've created. There's ZERO reason for the player to oppose Lodwyn, you're both on the same side and enforcing the exact same authority. If the developers wanted the player to side with the rebels maybe not make the player part of the faction that the rebels are directly opposing? The way the game is set up, joining the rebellion should be the alt, non-standard choice. Classic hallmarks of bad Current Year writing.
New Vegas it ain't.
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Humdinger
Member
Ugh, that's the kind of stuff I hate to hear. I wouldn't mind assisting with a suicide -- in fact, I just did that in Shivering Isles, which was from 2009 -- but the other characterizations you make ("Californian therapy culture") make it sound very shallow. Not that I was expecting the writing to be good. I've heard multiple times that it is flat and boring.
Good to hear about the "fun of exploration," though. That's definitely something I look for.