Obsidian New RPG Avowed

maybe the issue is none of us are 13 years old. has anyone got a 13 year old spare that they could ask their thoughts? because it's likely they enjoy this much more than we do. sometimes you only have to look at the colour palette to see which age group the game is designed for.

Younger members of my family are all obsessed with Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox and nothing else.

Even the slightly older mid teens to twenties are showing zero interest despite playing a wider range of titles, it's not a lack of interest in RPG's either tbh as they were well into Dragons Dogma 2 and Like a Dragon 1 + 2, Elden Ring etc according to those that do game.
 
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started this, just a few hours in and enjoying it a lot. feels a lot like skyrim to me. its very pretty too, i love the art style and the fantasy characters are nicely unique and not just your D&D tropes endlessly reused. Loads of dialogue options which helps with the rpg immersion. I can see myself losing a lot of time to this game.
That's my expectation so good to hear from someone who's playing it, thanks :)
 
That's my expectation so good to hear from someone who's playing it, thanks :)

I'd rein in your expectations a bit depending on how you play Skyrim, I'm a big fan of stealth builds and sneaking around to steal stuff/assassinate targets without getting caught. That gameplay style is pretty much impossible in Avowed, most buildings can't be entered and when you do steal things the NPC's don't react whatsoever, there's no potential penalty to it. You can't pickpocket people either, and even if you could 90% of NPC's don't even move, they just stand in place entirely static, so it would hardly be a challenge. Lock picking is in the game to a degree, but you literally just hold down a button in front of a chest, there's no mini-game or anything attached to the process and again no consequences if you get seen doing it.

If you mainly like exploring and fighting you may well enjoy it, I will say that magic builds feel rather fun compared to how they're often implemented in other games. Archery felt clunky to me, melee was fun but didn't grab my interest for long. Your in game strength is very much tied to your equipment also, while you can diversify your builds and level up doing so doesn't feel as impactful as I would personally like. If your gear isn't up to snuff it doesn't always make much difference in my experience. That leads into the diversity of equipment, there's not a lot of it par a handful of uniques, chances are you'll keep the same items for a large chunk of the game and use resources you can find/get from breaking down other kit to upgrade it. I found that a bit of a let down personally, but some seem to enjoy the more streamlined approach, different courses and all that.

It's worth a shot if you have games pass tbh, if not there might be a £1 offer or something going on if you check.
 
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I'd rein in your expectations a bit depending on how you play Skyrim, I'm a big fan of stealth builds and sneaking around to steal stuff/assassinate targets without getting caught. That gameplay style is pretty much impossible in Avowed, most buildings can't be entered and when you do steal things the NPC's don't react whatsoever, there's no potential penalty to it. You can't pickpocket people either, and even if you could 90% of NPC's don't even move, they just stand in place entirely static, so it would hardly be a challenge. Lock picking is in the game to a degree, but you literally just hold down a button in front of a chest, there's no mini-game or anything attached to the process and again no consequences if you get seen doing it.

If you mainly like exploring and fighting you may well enjoy it, I will say that magic builds feel rather fun compared to how they're often implemented in other games. Archery felt clunky to me, melee was fun but didn't grab my interest for long. Your in game strength is very much tied to your equipment also, while you can diversify your builds and level up doing so doesn't feel as impactful as I would personally like. If your gear isn't up to snuff it doesn't always make much difference in my experience. That leads into the diversity of equipment, there's not a lot of it par a handful of uniques, chances are you'll keep the same items for a large chunk of the game and use resources you can find/get from breaking down other kit to upgrade it. I found that a bit of a let down personally, but some seem to enjoy the more streamlined approach, different courses and all that.

It's worth a shot if you have games pass tbh, if not there might be a £1 offer or something going on if you check.
Thanks very much for the detailed review! Yeah I do prefer magic builds most of the time but given what you've said about the stealth (which I do enjoy a well) yeah I think I'll wait for a sale l. Cheers!
 
I'd rein in your expectations a bit depending on how you play Skyrim, I'm a big fan of stealth builds and sneaking around to steal stuff/assassinate targets without getting caught. That gameplay style is pretty much impossible in Avowed, most buildings can't be entered and when you do steal things the NPC's don't react whatsoever, there's no potential penalty to it. You can't pickpocket people either, and even if you could 90% of NPC's don't even move, they just stand in place entirely static, so it would hardly be a challenge. Lock picking is in the game to a degree, but you literally just hold down a button in front of a chest, there's no mini-game or anything attached to the process and again no consequences if you get seen doing it.

If you mainly like exploring and fighting you may well enjoy it, I will say that magic builds feel rather fun compared to how they're often implemented in other games. Archery felt clunky to me, melee was fun but didn't grab my interest for long. Your in game strength is very much tied to your equipment also, while you can diversify your builds and level up doing so doesn't feel as impactful as I would personally like. If your gear isn't up to snuff it doesn't always make much difference in my experience. That leads into the diversity of equipment, there's not a lot of it par a handful of uniques, chances are you'll keep the same items for a large chunk of the game and use resources you can find/get from breaking down other kit to upgrade it. I found that a bit of a let down personally, but some seem to enjoy the more streamlined approach, different courses and all that.

It's worth a shot if you have games pass tbh, if not there might be a £1 offer or something going on if you check.
This is totally fair.
 
I'd rein in your expectations a bit depending on how you play Skyrim, I'm a big fan of stealth builds and sneaking around to steal stuff/assassinate targets without getting caught. That gameplay style is pretty much impossible in Avowed, most buildings can't be entered and when you do steal things the NPC's don't react whatsoever, there's no potential penalty to it. You can't pickpocket people either, and even if you could 90% of NPC's don't even move, they just stand in place entirely static, so it would hardly be a challenge. Lock picking is in the game to a degree, but you literally just hold down a button in front of a chest, there's no mini-game or anything attached to the process and again no consequences if you get seen doing it.

If you mainly like exploring and fighting you may well enjoy it, I will say that magic builds feel rather fun compared to how they're often implemented in other games. Archery felt clunky to me, melee was fun but didn't grab my interest for long. Your in game strength is very much tied to your equipment also, while you can diversify your builds and level up doing so doesn't feel as impactful as I would personally like. If your gear isn't up to snuff it doesn't always make much difference in my experience. That leads into the diversity of equipment, there's not a lot of it par a handful of uniques, chances are you'll keep the same items for a large chunk of the game and use resources you can find/get from breaking down other kit to upgrade it. I found that a bit of a let down personally, but some seem to enjoy the more streamlined approach, different courses and all that.

It's worth a shot if you have games pass tbh, if not there might be a £1 offer or something going on if you check.
Well that helped me make my decision, ta mate :D
 
Just finished this in 48hrs. Overall I liked the game play and thought the map design and dungeon areas was nicely done which all looked different and the dungeons where not just copy and paste jobs like most seem to be these days. Story was ok but I did skip a lot of it as it was rather long winded but I did get enough to get what was going on. I would give this a solid 8/10 and I actually encountered no bugs also, bonus
 
I loved this for around 15hrs, then... I didn't. Don't know why, something just clicked, or unclicked. I'm done.
Hope The Outer Worlds 2 grabs me a little longer. Enjoyed the first one, shallow as it was.
 
Play kingdom come deliverance 2. It’s incredible if you don’t mind no magic.

This is next on my list, it's just finding the time to play it.

I will say that look into some gameplay vids, try a demo if there is one, or play a bit of the first game. I love the combat in KCD1 and I hear it's similar in 2, but a lot of people struggle with it to the point I'd say it borders on marmite.
 
honestly. Both of you should deffo try it ! I’m 116 hours in the story and totally loving it ! If you guys don’t want to play the first here’s a video


Honestly it's not so much a matter of trying it or not, I definitely want to play it but I've been busy as hell lately. :(

The first game was fantastic and genre wise it's exactly my sort of thing, it's just a hell of a time investment to balance right now.
 
Honestly it's not so much a matter of trying it or not, I definitely want to play it but I've been busy as hell lately. :(

The first game was fantastic and genre wise it's exactly my sort of thing, it's just a hell of a time investment to balance right now.
If you liked the first game, Man.. when you finally find time to play it. I think you’ll enjoy it.. :D
 
Honestly it's not so much a matter of trying it or not, I definitely want to play it but I've been busy as hell lately. :(

The first game was fantastic and genre wise it's exactly my sort of thing, it's just a hell of a time investment to balance right now.
with a newborn sleeping beside me, i know this exact feeling. i'm making a list of games to finally play once he turns 18 and moves out. it's all good having 30 minutes here and there, but some games require at least a solid 3 hours if not more sessions i find to really enjoy that time and lose yourself, so i am not bothering with anything lengthy until i get that time again.
 
with a newborn sleeping beside me, i know this exact feeling. i'm making a list of games to finally play once he turns 18 and moves out. it's all good having 30 minutes here and there, but some games require at least a solid 3 hours if not more sessions i find to really enjoy that time and lose yourself, so i am not bothering with anything lengthy until i get that time again.
If it helps, you'll get a BIT of time once they sleep through/like a "normal person". Give it 18 months.
 
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