Avowed is Obsidian's latest RPG adventure and Xbox's next big hope.
That's a shame.
Avowed is best described as mid. It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but it also doesn't really do anything right either. It's just a functioning game where everything works but nothing about it stands out. It plays like Skyrim, and I mean that quite literally, it plays like SKyrim from 2011. While the game is prettier, it doesn't do anything modern with the first person RPG formula.
The story goes, you were born touched by the Gods, typical chosen one stuff. However the Gods give you hideous mushroom face which you can customize to turn yourself into a clicker from Last of Us. It's a very strange character design choice because you are forced to exist within the world marred by mushroom taint. You can turn off the mushroom face stuff in the options but the game will treat you like all the NPC's can see it because they're written to react to your godhood.
So in being the chosen one you are sent by the Emperor to find and destroy the source of something called the Dreamplague which makes people and animals go nuts and become monsters. Along the way companions will join you like any other western RPG. I will say part of what made me want to try this game despite the mid reviews, was the voice of Garius returning as a companion. I was hoping to relive the magic of Mass Effect or something. But no.
I think there are a lot of issues with the game that are pretty obvious almost from the moment you start the game up. Namely being the combat, and the leveling system. It's an RPG so the standard leveling system is there and each level you get a perk to put into whatever skill tree the game presents to you. As per my normal tactic I picked a warrior and when I leveled up I couldn't believe how stupid the skill system was. A Charge....okay basic, but okay. Then just more health. Then an aura where you just regenerate HP which at max level (3) basically removes all need for health items form the game forever, due to how fast the regen was. And the magic trees weren't much better, fire spell, fire spell burns people over time, ice, ice builds up freeze, etc. It's not to say that the skills themselves are wrong or bad on principle, it's that the game exhibits no creativity with any of it.
Swinging your weapon feels very floaty and there doesn't even feel like there is any impact when you hit things. And there are moments in the tutorial that force you to use magic or bow an arrow to progress, which I am totally against and feel like making a class choice at the character creation screen isn't something that even matters. Why pick a class if your class can be dynamic during gameplay? It reaks of a design choice where the team wasn't on the same page for the vision of the game.
Speaking of vision, my god is the game gross to look at. Character models are rough more often than not, (Garius the fishman is great looking but normal humans look rough). The enivronment isn't graphically bad, none of the game is graphically bad, but there is so much color it looks like rainbow vomit everywhere and it's weirdly saturated. I found it hard on the eyes to look at, and because there is so much vibrant color, finding items to loot is kind of difficult because the interactable items have a glowing outline on them, but it's not much different than all the other glowing garbage just around the world.
Conversations with characters and NPCs feel so video gamey that I couldn't find the main story interesting because it just reaks of video game plot. "Hey player we should let this person out of the jail cell because they might be useful later, even though they are a race of people that are normally piece of shit this one might not be a piece of shit. But it's up to you to decide what to do." I know im playing a game, you don't have to tell me that I'm playing a game and try to contextualize it. Jesus.
Anyway Steam refund number 2 this week.
That's a shame.
Avowed is best described as mid. It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but it also doesn't really do anything right either. It's just a functioning game where everything works but nothing about it stands out. It plays like Skyrim, and I mean that quite literally, it plays like SKyrim from 2011. While the game is prettier, it doesn't do anything modern with the first person RPG formula.
The story goes, you were born touched by the Gods, typical chosen one stuff. However the Gods give you hideous mushroom face which you can customize to turn yourself into a clicker from Last of Us. It's a very strange character design choice because you are forced to exist within the world marred by mushroom taint. You can turn off the mushroom face stuff in the options but the game will treat you like all the NPC's can see it because they're written to react to your godhood.
So in being the chosen one you are sent by the Emperor to find and destroy the source of something called the Dreamplague which makes people and animals go nuts and become monsters. Along the way companions will join you like any other western RPG. I will say part of what made me want to try this game despite the mid reviews, was the voice of Garius returning as a companion. I was hoping to relive the magic of Mass Effect or something. But no.
I think there are a lot of issues with the game that are pretty obvious almost from the moment you start the game up. Namely being the combat, and the leveling system. It's an RPG so the standard leveling system is there and each level you get a perk to put into whatever skill tree the game presents to you. As per my normal tactic I picked a warrior and when I leveled up I couldn't believe how stupid the skill system was. A Charge....okay basic, but okay. Then just more health. Then an aura where you just regenerate HP which at max level (3) basically removes all need for health items form the game forever, due to how fast the regen was. And the magic trees weren't much better, fire spell, fire spell burns people over time, ice, ice builds up freeze, etc. It's not to say that the skills themselves are wrong or bad on principle, it's that the game exhibits no creativity with any of it.
Swinging your weapon feels very floaty and there doesn't even feel like there is any impact when you hit things. And there are moments in the tutorial that force you to use magic or bow an arrow to progress, which I am totally against and feel like making a class choice at the character creation screen isn't something that even matters. Why pick a class if your class can be dynamic during gameplay? It reaks of a design choice where the team wasn't on the same page for the vision of the game.
Speaking of vision, my god is the game gross to look at. Character models are rough more often than not, (Garius the fishman is great looking but normal humans look rough). The enivronment isn't graphically bad, none of the game is graphically bad, but there is so much color it looks like rainbow vomit everywhere and it's weirdly saturated. I found it hard on the eyes to look at, and because there is so much vibrant color, finding items to loot is kind of difficult because the interactable items have a glowing outline on them, but it's not much different than all the other glowing garbage just around the world.
Conversations with characters and NPCs feel so video gamey that I couldn't find the main story interesting because it just reaks of video game plot. "Hey player we should let this person out of the jail cell because they might be useful later, even though they are a race of people that are normally piece of shit this one might not be a piece of shit. But it's up to you to decide what to do." I know im playing a game, you don't have to tell me that I'm playing a game and try to contextualize it. Jesus.
Anyway Steam refund number 2 this week.
