15 Likes
Awesome review! Can’t wait to play it. I just wish there was companion romance, but you can’t win 'em all. 
3 Likes
Nice. I’ve been looking forward to one of these even if it’s a more modest scope / product.
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I swear, reviews make me feel like such a grumpy old man sometimes. I was reading the Eurogamer review (which is overall very positive) and it begins by saying that the game doesn’t push any boundaries, it feels like an Xbox 360 RPG. And I’m like, I guess you mean that as a negative, but… SOLD.
12 Likes
Glad to see some folks who I was not expecting to like it be so dang positive (Grubb, Schreier, Ryckert).
I guess there’s just a partial critical push to really only like finely aged steaks. But I’d like a really good cheeseburger every now and then.
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“Innovation” is overrated IMO. Know what it is you do, and do that thing well.
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I mean technically, Space Marine 2 was old school gameplay, yet that was beloved.
2 Likes
Incredible work on the layout for the review.
Edit : and there’s Klobrille’s verdict too !
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Excellent review. Over 20 minutes too!
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Great review.
When I get around to sit down for this it sounds like I will be going for 40fps. This sounds like it’s the best. So glad to see more Xbox studios implementing this.
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Is their any option to have attributes and skills auto selected ? I just find i dont want this anymore, i just want to play away from menu screens !
not that I saw, but it’s a streamlined system that I didn’t find overwhelming in the least.
4 Likes
Bought the premium upgrade(I’ll buy the game on CD keys when it’s at a more agreeable price for me if I end up liking the game), installion just finished and I’m just about to start!
Wish me luck!
Edit: Also going to focus on a meele character for first playthrough.
On the menus and given an option to turn off head bobbing
Animated camera strength is a accessibility option that says turning it down may help with motion sickness.
Aim assist can be turned off as well! We can also just decrease it’s strength, I’m turning it off though and lowering magnetism to zero. Because I noticed that in Starfield even with it off, some part of it still exist. So it may be similar in Avowed if I leave the magnetism on.
2 Likes
This game is really fun and smooth to play. Reminds me a little of Might and Magic Daek Messiah. This is a top notch 1st party title.
Its been a killer 6 months for xbox and gamepass
8 Likes
Grubb loves it too.
Interestingly friend of the podcast Rand al’Thor in his review said he was going to dump and uninstall the game after a few hours. He persisted, and after 5 or 6 hours it clicked for him.
Who reviewed it for IGN? They only gave it 7.
Yeah. I mean if people can accept ten or so hours of a game like Persona that aren’t all that great, until it truly becomes great (their own words) surely they can for this too.
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4 Likes
Excellent review and very nice layout!
I’m deep into Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire atm so I’ll probably let this get a patch or two before jumping in. Obsidian is so damn good!
Great review. My impressions thus far -
My impressions after 6+ hours -
- Playing on Xbox Series X
- Playing in Performance Mode 60FPS
Through the tutorial and through 1/3rd of the first main area you’re in, the game has been really good performance wise. Haven’t had any slowdown or lag. I did have one aspect where I was “stuck” on a boat in the water as I was exploring and couldn’t get out of it at first but I then dodged in the opposite direction and was able to get out of the situation without having to load a previous checkpoint. Other than that, runs really smooth. No freezes or crashes.
- Playing as a War Hero (background)
- Playing on Normal Difficulty
- Playing fully in first person (I have the third person option turned off which prevents me from switching during gameplay)
- Turned off damage numbers, aim assist and warnings of incoming enemy attacks. Would like to turn off the detection indicator but there doesn’t appear to be an on/off option for this. Also turned off all the camera sway/head bobbing crap.
Positives
- Avowed looks great. Vibrant and colorful. Music is really good as are the sound effects and the voice acting. No issues with the visuals or the audio thus far. I’m loving the look of the world and im definitely immersed. Character models look good for the most part especially the main characters.
- Combat/gameplay. I can honestly say that the game isn’t clunky/janky at all. In fact, Avowed has the second best melee combat this generation after Dying Light 2 for me. Game plays great. The long ranged weapons feel good, the book spells feel good from the two I have used and stealth is decent but is your normal hide in grass, sneak up behind an enemy and press the RT button the prompt appears. Platforming feels really good as well mainly due to how the game itself just feels when playing. It’s way more fluid and responsive than I was expecting it to be.
- Different Play Styles. I have gone from a bow and arrow setup to a sword and shield setup to a wand (Hogwarts Legacy baby!!! lol) and axe setup. I used the book spells but at least early on, you have to be close to your enemy to do damage and you definitely do a good amount of damage but isn’t my preferred play style. Blocking/dodging in really good as well but like with attacks, you must make sure that you have stamina. If you don’t, you kinda get staggered/dazed for a second or two and the enemy will get a few hits in especially if they do a combo attack on you.
- Enemy variety. I have fought at least 5 or 6 different enemies. And I don’t mean different variations of the same enemy. They all seem to have their different attacks and combos.
- Exploration. I have done a lot of exploring as im just wandering around the first main area and just seeing what’s around. Sometimes I will find a chest or an area with enemies. While I haven’t come across any actual puzzles in the traditional sense, there’s been a few times where I couldn’t get into a locked room and whatnot so you have to explore the area to find/figure out your way in.
Negatives
- Character Creation. Let me be clear, the actual character creation is pretty deep but im someone that will always prefer a preset character. Reason being is that I either A) can never get the character to look the way I want or B) it has too much depth and becomes overwhelming as I just don’t want to waste the time setting up the character. This is more of a personal pet peeve as it’s a negative for me in general. With that said, I used a preset build and gave him long hair and a full beard. Reason why I mention this is that one of first minor no name NPC’s I run into when I get to the first main area looks pretty much like me. lol
- In addition to the above, I don’t have any scars, tattoos or weird “godlike” mushrooms sticking out of head/face or whatever the fuck. I’m a normal male human being. lol. Reason I mention this is that main NPC’s do refer to you as if your head/face looks fucked up and whatnot. It’s weird. Perhaps Obsidian thought that no one would create a character that is just “plain” so it kinda takes you out of the moment but I also find it funny at the same time.
- No Lock On. This is kinda surprising because vast majority of games have a lock on system. While I haven’t needed it, I am used to locking on enemies in melee combat games so I can be more accurate with the attacks.
- Corners of the screen go dark when crouched. This was in The Outer Worlds and Sekiro. When you crouch, the corners of the screen go dark and I literally hate this. Wish I could turn it off.
- Lockpicking. While I personally don’t mind it, there are chests that are locked and require lockpicks. When you have the lockpicks, you simply hold down the button to unlock the chest. There’s no actual lockpicking mini-game or anything like that.
- Notes/documents/letters. In all honesty, I never read any of these in games but that’s not my complaint. Majority of them can’t be “collected” so even after reading them, they stay in the world which is just another pet peeve of mine. This is just annoying to me.
- Party Camp. There are certain areas where you can setup your camp to talk to the companions that you have but it’s not a static thing. You activate this big crystal which sets up the camp where you can talk to the companions and upgrade your weapons, etc. but once you go out of this area, you get a prompt asking if you want to leave. When you choose yes to go back to exploring and whatnot, the camp setup disappears. The crystal is there and you can setup the camp again but for it to “fold up shop” is just weird to me.
- Another negative with the above is that I only have one companion thus far and when talking to him, he asks me if I want to train and im like, yeah, I want to learn a little bit of everything. Instead of training combat wise, it just fades to back and boom, it’s completed and you get a reward for doing this even though you didn’t actually do anything. It’s just weird because what’s the point in “training” if I don’t fight the guy?
- Dialogue Choices. In games with dialogue choices, the game usually tells you what will end that “round” of choices but in Avowed, it doesn’t really tell you. Even picking a choice with a question mark at the end of it will still lead at times to the next “set” of choices. This should have been a lot clearer. A perfect example is a side quest I did in the main area. I completed the side quest objective and went back to the NPC that I got the quest from. I had an item that I could have given her but went with asking questions instead and next thing I know, the quest ends and I can’t give her the item. I completed the quest and she gave me a reward but this is where my complaint is. I didn’t want to end the conversation or anything. Wanted to gain more info, ask questions and then give her the item before leaving the conversation.
- Treasure Maps. You can buy/find treasure maps in the game but they’re setup to where it’s a drawing and you literally have to find the location. I fucking hate this BOTW shit in games. Just give me the fucking waypoint so I can go and get the treasure or at least a radius so I can go to the area. This is another one of my pet peeves in games.
That’s pretty much it as of now. As for the story and characters. I have had a few companions with me that I have come across but overall, way too early for me to like or dislike the story/plot and characters. I will say that I haven’t had any issues with the writing or dialogue. The one main issue and this is more connected to the Party Camp. Talking to my companion in the Camp, the entire conversation must have taken 20 minutes or so or at least felt that way. I will say the in this regard, the game is “slow” because you will be in the conversations for a while. Have to see how this plays out overall as I play more of the game.
Through the 6+ hours that I have played, I haven’t died once yet and outside of a mandatory skill upgrade, I haven’t upgraded at all. Currently at level 4. The combat hasn’t been challenging if it’s just a few enemies but if it’s more than three especially if there’s ranged enemies in the group, it definitely becomes more challenging.
Overall, those are my impressions thus far. Definitely enjoying what is truly the first RPG from Obsidian that im playing through. Will definitely be playing the majority of the day tomorow and the week to come. May post more impressions once I get to 30 hours or so as I can see this game being 100+ hours for me easily.
3 Likes