Avowed is Obsidian's new Skyrim-like RPG, check out the first trailer

erek

erek

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""Avowed is an expand first-person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora," head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said. "When Obsidian Entertainment joined Xbox Game Studios, they told us that this epic game is the one they want to make."


Details at this point are scarce, but the trailer itself was grim and dark and ends on a shot that heavily evokes the Balrog fight from Fellowship of the Ring. Eora is the same world that the Pillars of Eternity games are set in, but in the move from isometric to first-person, it's going to look pretty different. After years of making Fallout-style RPGs, I'm excited to see Obsidian's take on a more fantastical setting."



https://www.pcgamer.com/avowed-is-obsidians-new-skyrim-like-rpg-check-out-the-first-trailer/
 
Fantasy? Meh.

Should've done another big budget sci fi game to follow up The Outer Worlds.
 
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I'm going to cut and paste the comments from Youtube I bet everyone is stoked on there =)
 
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Comixbooks said:
I'm going to cut and paste the comments from Youtube I bet everyone is stoked on there =)
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are they? i'm not watching it cause i don't like spoilers... may favorite games came out of nowhere with zero context
 
Nahoj
2 hours ago
THIS LOOKS FOCKING AWESOME


Hylian Ticipated
1 hour ago
Damn it. I can't be this hyped so early. Obsidian <3


Darth Secretus
2 hours ago
FINALLY!!! A Sword game that looks good!!!


Gabriel Dlb
20 minutes ago (edited)
1:00
What is this new devilry ?

... a Balrog.


Isra the black
1 hour ago
Oh snap I'm getting Dark Messiah vibes here.
 
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I'm curious when this game will get released. It'd be kinda fun to see Obsidian out-Elder Scrolls Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls.

Edit: Oh, didn't catch that it takes place in Eora (the world from Pillars of Eternity). That has me feeling a bit more hyped, really enjoyed both Pillars of Eternity games world building.

Hopefully we'll get to see the return of Concelhaut.
 
I was excited about this game, until I took an arrow to the knee.

I mean until obsidian shot an arrow at the knee of this game to keep it from being truely great.
 
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I don't care if it's scifi or fantasy, just make it good. Outer worlds was kind of good but not great, they need to improve a lot over that.
I'm much more excited for TES6, and even DA4 than this.
 
I for one am up for some Skyrim 2. Come on guys, it's like "Fallout 3" #2 aka Fallout New Vegas. If it turns out to be the situation then you're in luck.
 
So because it’s fantasy and first person that automatically makes it Skyrim-like? For fuck’s sake people. First person RPGs existed long before Skyrim. Not everything first person is fucking Skyrim.

Also, what the hell is that second paragraph talking about? “Years of making Fallout”? Outer Worlds was last year. Obsidian spent YEARS releasing fantasy games. Jesus Christ the article is retarded.
 
Flogger23m said:
Fantasy? Meh.

Should've done another big budget sci fi game to follow up The Outer Worlds.
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Ironically it will be Bethesda out with a sci-fi RPG (Starfield) before Obsidian,

and Obsidian will release a fantasy RPG before Bethesda finishes the next Elder Scrolls
 
"After years of making Fallout-style RPGs "

People at Obsidian created the Fallout series. Of course, not the 3D ones, but those ones are bad. People at Obsidian (or who formerly were) made the good Fallout games.


The teaser for Avowed seems super generic and derivative, to me. I'm not saying that means it won't be good, though.

The narration doesn't say much and is tropey.

The scene with the sword in one hand, spell in the other certainly looks like a Skyrim perspective with updated graphics - and I don't think it's any stretch to think that Microsoft wants their own Elder Scrolls series now that they own Obsidian. They have the resources to make it happen, and they might just have told Obsidian, 'make us one of those'.

And the ending, where there's a shaking screen, monster sounds, and a fiery glow and steam increasingly coming from the cave across the narrow rock pathways, with the player lighting up their spell and holding a sword, seems like it's meant to evoke the scene in Lord of the Rings where Gandalf faces-off with the balrog in a similar setting.

So, it looks extremely derivative, to me. But, I guess they're just wanting to tap that stuff to build interest for a new series (the game takes place in the Pillars of Eternity world, though).

Skyrim is a boring, poorly written and designed, and clunky game that isn't even an RPG but is Action-Adventure. Maybe Avowed will be an actual RPG and a good game in a fantasy setting. Obsidian are certainly far better than Bethesda when it comes to stories and dialog and choices.
 
Looks OK, for a launch trailer. Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are both pretty good games set in an interesting world.

With Obsidian behind it it could be pretty good, but I will hold any judgement until there is some actual game play videos out.
 
Delicieuxz said:
Skyrim is a boring, poorly written and designed, and clunky game that isn't even an RPG but is Action-Adventure. Maybe Avowed will be an actual RPG and a good game in a fantasy setting. Obsidian are certainly far better than Bethesda when it comes to stories and dialog and choices.
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Unpopular opinion: I don't want an actual RPG.
 
M76 said:
Unpopular opinion: I don't want an actual RPG.
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Then play one of the umpteen million games that isn't an RPG. I enjoy several different genres of games but I wish they would stop blending together* and trying to be a jack of all trades so I can have some increased variety between games.

*Unless they find a new and interesting way to combine genres. The point being to not focus group the hell out of a game until you get a soulless frankenstein.
 
I'd really like to see that umpteen million fantasy games you talk about.

When I say I don't want an RPG I mean I don't want stats upon stats upon stats and dice rolls deciding the damage. Everything else the character building, the abilities tree, the progression, the exploration is welcome.
 
Here's my bitch about Fantasy RPG's in general: First Person Melee does literally nothing for me when you're just spamming the attack button and hitting back-arrow on your keyboard until your stamina bar returns, it gets old so quickly. 3rd person combat if it isn't turn-based (think VATS) somehow turns into The Witcher 3: A really beautiful adventure game where the key to all of it, the combat, blows utter ass :( Roll, Roll, same swipes with sword. Heck the old CONAN game on the Xbox 360 at least let you pick up new weapons and shields to give you some kind of variation, once I got into combat in Witcher 3 I immediately realized "oh my god...this game......this amazingly beautiful, rich game.....sucks to actually *play*". :(

Unpopular opinion #2 for this thread: I want a game that gives me Batman-style timed-button-press choreographed battles against numerous baddies. 3rd person, shifting camera, let the game choose my attacks depending on what button I press (or button combo I use) and the direction of my dpad and watch the limbs fly.......I played Skyrim almost exclusively via Ranged and Magic, melee was the last resort and the slash/backpedal really got to me after awhile.

Its like you know what they are going for, D&D in your head....dramatic battles...none of which translates into first person, and 3rd person if not done properly devolves into..well...the kind of combat you get in The Witcher 3. IMHO of course....
 
HeadRusch said:
Here's my bitch about Fantasy RPG's in general: First Person Melee does literally nothing for me when you're just spamming the attack button and hitting back-arrow on your keyboard until your stamina bar returns, it gets old so quickly. 3rd person combat if it isn't turn-based (think VATS) somehow turns into The Witcher 3: A really beautiful adventure game where the key to all of it, the combat, blows utter ass :( Roll, Roll, same swipes with sword. Heck the old CONAN game on the Xbox 360 at least let you pick up new weapons and shields to give you some kind of variation, once I got into combat in Witcher 3 I immediately realized "oh my god...this game......this amazingly beautiful, rich game.....sucks to actually *play*". :(

Unpopular opinion #2 for this thread: I want a game that gives me Batman-style timed-button-press choreographed battles against numerous baddies. 3rd person, shifting camera, let the game choose my attacks depending on what button I press (or button combo I use) and the direction of my dpad and watch the limbs fly.......I played Skyrim almost exclusively via Ranged and Magic, melee was the last resort and the slash/backpedal really got to me after awhile.

Its like you know what they are going for, D&D in your head....dramatic battles...none of which translates into first person, and 3rd person if not done properly devolves into..well...the kind of combat you get in The Witcher 3. IMHO of course....
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Totally agree. You can make melee gameplay fun, but it's hard to do and takes a lot of effort. It's disappointing when you have a free moving FPS game and the combat is a super boring where you essentially just trade blows. It may as well be turn based.
I would love an RPG with melee combat like Mordhau has, but the melee combat in Mordhau was 95% of their development effort.
 
HeadRusch said:
Here's my bitch about Fantasy RPG's in general: First Person Melee does literally nothing for me when you're just spamming the attack button and hitting back-arrow on your keyboard until your stamina bar returns, it gets old so quickly. 3rd person combat if it isn't turn-based (think VATS) somehow turns into The Witcher 3: A really beautiful adventure game where the key to all of it, the combat, blows utter ass :( Roll, Roll, same swipes with sword. Heck the old CONAN game on the Xbox 360 at least let you pick up new weapons and shields to give you some kind of variation, once I got into combat in Witcher 3 I immediately realized "oh my god...this game......this amazingly beautiful, rich game.....sucks to actually *play*". :(

Unpopular opinion #2 for this thread: I want a game that gives me Batman-style timed-button-press choreographed battles against numerous baddies. 3rd person, shifting camera, let the game choose my attacks depending on what button I press (or button combo I use) and the direction of my dpad and watch the limbs fly.......I played Skyrim almost exclusively via Ranged and Magic, melee was the last resort and the slash/backpedal really got to me after awhile.

Its like you know what they are going for, D&D in your head....dramatic battles...none of which translates into first person, and 3rd person if not done properly devolves into..well...the kind of combat you get in The Witcher 3. IMHO of course....
Click to expand...

I think one of the big issues that have plagued first person melee-based RPGs from the beginning is a real lack of "impact". It often feels like you're just wildly flailing around a toy sword and lightly poking people with it.
 
Axman said:
That's still an RPG.
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That's an action game with RPG elements. Like DeusEx, System Shock, Mass Effect, etc. Where combat is not overly dependent on stats and there are no bullet sponges. But you can still upgrade your character in some ways.
 
M76 said:
That's an action game with RPG elements.
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Look, you can argue that Doom is an RPG because you can choose which weapons to use if that's your framework. Having numbers with stats isn't an RPG nor is any other game that has X with Y elements; it's about what governs the plot. If it's about player choice in plot and play-style, it's an RPG. If it's a railroad hack-n-slash or shooter with pips to allocate it's an action game.

A good example of an action game with RPG elements is Jedi Knight. Doesn't matter how you play, the story stays the same. Resident Evil and Bioshock are RPGs despite the gameplay, where the players alter the universe in-game.

A game that tells the same story regardless of the path is not an RPG. A game where the player dictates the story within the boundaries of the game is an RPG.

Myst is an RPG, and all it has is click.
 
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M76 said:
That's an action game with RPG elements. Like DeusEx, System Shock, Mass Effect, etc. Where combat is not overly dependent on stats and there are no bullet sponges. But you can still upgrade your character in some ways.
Click to expand...

I agree that those are more mostly Action games with RPG elements.

Axman said:
Look, you can argue that Doom is an RPG because you can choose which weapons to use if that's your framework. Having numbers with stats isn't an RPG nor is any other game that has X with Y elements; it's about what governs the plot. If it's about player choice in plot and play-style, it's an RPG. If it's a railroad hack-n-slash or shooter with pips to allocate it's an action game.

A good example of an action game with RPG elements is Jedi Knight. Doesn't matter how you play, the story stays the same. Mass Effect and Bioshock are RPGs, where the players alter the universe in-game, canon not withstanding.

A game that tells the same story regardless of the path is not an RPG. A game where the player dictates the story within the boundaries of the game is an RPG.

Myst is an RPG, and all it has is click.
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I agree with the general premise here, but I think that having some choices isn't enough to make a game an RPG - the element of player choices influencing on the dynamics of the world around the player has to be a regular thing throughout the game for it to define the game experience to the point of defining its genre.

The few actually meaningful boolean choices presented during dialog of Witcher 3 and Skyrim don't pass the bar of being an RPG, IMO. And Mass Effect 2 is virtually just Action, as far as the player experience goes - but then at the end it shows an ending based on how much of the map had been cleared before doing the final mission, and I'm not sure if anything else is taken into account in that ending. That's not nearly enough to count as an RPG, to me. Action is clearly the dominant experience in the Mass Effect games, though the first ME, which has a much bigger focus on dialog, can qualify as an RPG, IMO.
 
Eh quote before edit, but yeah. Mass Effect had tons of min-maxing but little plot effect.
 
Delicieuxz said:
I agree that those are more mostly Action games with RPG elements.


I agree with the general premise here, but I think that having some choices isn't enough to make a game an RPG - the element of player choices influencing on the dynamics of the world around the player has to be a regular thing throughout the game for it to define the game experience to the point of defining its genre.

The few actually meaningful boolean choices presented during dialog of Witcher 3 and Skyrim don't pass the bar of being an RPG, IMO. And Mass Effect 2 is virtually just Action, as far as the player experience goes - but then at the end it shows an ending based on how much of the map had been cleared before doing the final mission, and I'm not sure if anything else is taken into account in that ending. That's not nearly enough to count as an RPG, to me. Action is clearly the dominant experience in the Mass Effect games, though the first ME, which has a much bigger focus on dialog, can qualify as an RPG, IMO.
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JRPGs also fit in with the "Its a RPG but doesn't offer a lot of player choice". The Soulsborne games are definitely RPGs but the plot is more background and lore than anything directly player lead or directed. Honestly, the whole concept of genres these days is pretty meaningless. Everything has kind of blended together and what used to be strict genre definitions have been borrowed by other genres. What makes a game part of a "genre" these days I think comes down more to "feel" than anything entirely factual.
 
Yeah, it's all really blended these days. Even first person shooters have progression and skill trees (Doom, Far Cry), or cinematic games with real choices that affect the story (Detroit, Until Dawn), and none of those games are really RPGs perse.
 
The blending is what I don't like. It feels like games are designed to tick a bunch of boxes in order to maximize the audience but as a result just end up losing any uniqueness.

Some games do a good job of blending genres and sometimes I enjoy additions that purists of a genre generally dislike so I do see the other side but overall I think it's a negative. I'd rather have fewer games that I enjoy more in than more games that I enjoy but to a much lesser degree.
 
Axman said:
A game that tells the same story regardless of the path is not an RPG. A game where the player dictates the story within the boundaries of the game is an RPG.
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To me a classical RPG is a game where everything is decided by the roll of a dice. It has nothing to do with player choice in the story. I want story options. I don't want dice rolls. But I already clearly stated that.
 
Ebernanut said:
Some games do a good job of blending genres and sometimes I enjoy additions that purists of a genre generally dislike so I do see the other side but overall I think it's a negative. I'd rather have fewer games that I enjoy more in than more games that I enjoy but to a much lesser degree.
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So you think FPS games are made worse by including skill trees and an inventory system? Because I think they are better for it. If they are bad it's not because of that but in spite of that.
First time I started enjoying RPGs was when they started softening them and mixing them with other genres like FPS games. Before SS2, I hated the RPG genre. Mixing of the genres is good, it means you can have the best of both worlds in the same game. If there was only hardcore RPG dungeon crawlers, and hardcore strictly no RPG element FPS games, I'd play neither.
 
M76 said:
So you think FPS games are made worse by including skill trees and an inventory system? Because I think they are better for it. If they are bad it's not because of that but in spite of that.
First time I started enjoying RPGs was when they started softening them and mixing them with other genres like FPS games. Before SS2, I hated the RPG genre. Mixing of the genres is good, it means you can have the best of both worlds in the same game. If there was only hardcore RPG dungeon crawlers, and hardcore strictly no RPG element FPS games, I'd play neither.
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I think if it's done well it can improve the game and I'm not against all hybrids. But to me an FPS is about skill playing the game and that might include proper tool selection which could certainly be improved with a good inventory system but once you add a skill tree it shifts some of the focus from player skill and stops being a true FPS IMO. Similarly I think if you downplay skill progression too much and make it solely about player skill then a game stops being a true RPG.

Like I said I'm not against hybrids I just wish there were less of them. I'm probably just pissing against the wind with my comments though since appealing to a larger demographic is usually a good business plan as long as the larger audience still likes it enough to buy.
 
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