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Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | 18 February 2025) - update (08/25): gameplay demo featuring all three classes


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7 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

The "worst" part of The Outer Worlds was the corporate humor they slather you with every step of your journey. This looks nothing like that. 🤷‍♀️

The ranged combat was mid. Like 3 of 5 weapon were ranged. Bow, Gun, and Wand. NPC dialogue still comes across as garbage lame and boring.

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3 hours ago, Dre801 said:

Looks better than the last time we saw it, at least.

 

Does it?  Maybe the lighting was tweaked?

 

The combat breakdown didn't do it any favors, IMO.  But it's an RPG, so its more important it holds up hours in than just snap appearances.  I would have liked to see the towns and settlements.

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I’m not sure I’m feeling the current art style. Something about the visuals in the latest video just seems off putting to me. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was a lack luster amount of environmental detail. Maybe it’s the FOV. Maybe it is the art style itself of trying to be something like Elder Scrolls with a color pallet closer to Sea of Thieves. 

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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world, Fall 2024) - "Extended Gameplay Breakdown with Obsidian" video

That video does offer a little bit more insight into the game. Perhaps it was hinted at but never explicitly said (although Wade said it) it is set in the Pillars of Eternity world.

 

tl;dw

 

- The area they showed off, Shatterskarp, is considered a sidequest and the player could miss it

- Tyler McCombs designed the area and it's open zone like Sonic Frontiers or The Outer Worlds (but bigger) and there are multiple paths to combat encounters

- You can use magic on the environment to get to other places, like burning vines and stuff

- You can swim

- You get two loadouts, you have a power attack, a parry. Dual wands can mix and match magic.

- There is a skill tree and it's easy to respec

- You have companions.

 

there is slightly more footage in the video than what they showed but not like a super amount. But those are the main points of the video. She talked about the story which the gameplay guy said she said too much but maybe that's a big deal for POE people or something.

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The official Xbox Wire blog post for the Deeper Dive video:

 

NEWS.XBOX.COM

Avowed's appearance in Developer_Direct was our most in-depth look at the game yet - but Obsidian just told us a lot more about the game in an exclusive interview.

 

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At the recent Xbox Developer_Direct 2024 broadcast, Obsidian Entertainment shared its most comprehensive look yet at its upcoming fantasy-action RPG, Avowed.  

 

But even that only scratched at the surface of what’s coming your way this fall. On today’s special episode of The Official Xbox Podcast, Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel and Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo shared an extended look at the quest showcased during Developer_Direct, providing more detail on the moment-to-moment experience of the flexible combat system, and where this side quest fits in the larger narrative of Avowed. 

 

 

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Interviews with game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo

 

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

Last week, we finally got a proper look at Obsidian's new role-playing game Avowed. It was one of the handful of exclus…

 

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Last week, we finally got a proper look at Obsidian's new role-playing game Avowed. It was one of the handful of exclusive Xbox games at the Developer Direct, so the spotlight was searingly on it. But while there were things I was encouraged by - I really liked the otherworldly, colourful setting - there were other things I was less convinced about, and a bit confused about. Because for all it was billed as a deep dive, this showing, I didn't come away with a solid sense of what we'll do in the game besides fight, so when Obsidian offered me a chance to talk to Avowed game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo afterwards, to clear a few things up, I took it.

 

 

WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM

Interview | In combat, in questing, and in everything between, Avowed puts you at the heart of everything it does

 

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Avowed could change the face of the RPG genre. That's not to heap undue pressure on Obsidian Entertainment, the studio now lining up its latest venture under the Xbox Games Studios umbrella following 2018's high-profile acquisition. But if recent history has taught us anything in this space, it's that role-playing games can, and often do, make a splash when mixing the right ingredients. 

 

2023 alone delivered some of the most unforgettable, genre-defining experiences we've seen in some time, with games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Sea of Stars helping to push the boundaries of what RPGs can, could, and maybe even should be moving forward. Player choice, in combat and narrative terms, was a driving force in last year's biggest success stories – and so with a studio so well-versed on both fronts at the helm of Avowed, the fantasy-with-firearms role-player already has a lot going for it. From Fallout: New Vegas to South Park: The Stick of Truth, The Outer Worlds, and the Pillars of Eternity series, after all, Obsidian is no stranger to leaving its mark on a tried and tested formula.

 

"Player choice is really key to all of our games at Obsidian," says Avowed game director Carrie Patel. "And for us, that is really about letting the player build and express their character. It's about who they want to be in the fantastical worlds we build, and the dilemmas and challenges we put in front of the player. I personally find that to be really effective in games where you have some sort of starting premise that prompts roleplay and gives you something to make difficult choices around."

 

 

 

 

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Avowed, the upcoming first-person RPG from Obsidian, mixes and matches a few RPG standards in its approach to companion characters and their stories. Before we get into details, some basics—in an interview with game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo this week, we learned the following about Avowed's companions and party management:

  • We'll meet multiple companion characters throughout Avowed (Obsidian isn't revealing how many there are yet), and they'll hang out at a "party camp"
  • Two companions can come with you on adventures at a time
  • There are "a few cases" where you must include a particular companion in your party because their knowledge or expertise is relevant to the situation, otherwise it's up to you
  • It sounds like you can issue some basic orders to companions, but you won't "micromanage" your party in combat
  • There's no "approval system," but conversations may influence our companions' decisions and stories

Avowed takes place in the same world as the Pillars of Eternity CRPGs, but its approach to companions and party management is much more like that of a Mass Effect game, or Obsidian's own Fallout: New Vegas. We might rely on their help in combat, but we won't be giving them granular instructions or controlling them directly.

 

 

 

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Discovering just how many pacifist choices you could make in the original Fallout was a delight, because not only were you allowed to talk or sneak your way out of problems, but the game recognized you were doing that and rewarded you for it. Subsequent RPGs and immersive sims sprinkled peaceful options in, but an entirely pacifist playthrough often ends up being a masochistic challenge that feels more like you're breaking the game than playing it. Just have a look how much of a hassle it is beating The Outer Worlds as a pacifist.

 

Given that Avowed is drawing inspiration from Vermintide's best-in-class first-person combat, it's no surprise that Obsidian's upcoming RPG won't let you go 100% nonviolent. Speaking to PC Gamer this week, game director Carrie Patel said, "This isn't a game where you're gonna have a pure pacifist run."

 

 

 

 

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Obsidian (the studio behind Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, and The Outer Worlds) released an extended gameplay trailer diving into its first-person RPG Avowed last week. PC Gamer's own Ted Litchfield sat down with both the game's director Carrie Patel and the gameplay director Gabe Paramo to talk shop.

 

First-person melee combat is hard to design. In any third-person action game, you have all kinds of tools at your disposal—bespoke animations, the situational awareness of bird's-eye view, cool flips—things that are much harder to execute on when you're in your protagonist's skull. Especially the cool flips thing, that'll just get you motion sick. 

 

Luckily, Obsidian is looking to a dev studio that's basically perfected it over the years: Fatshark, developer of Warhammer's Vermintide and 40k's Darktide.

 

 

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

I suppose classlessness is the logical next step for a studio so keen on historical materialism.

 

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I was downright gleeful when I learnt that Avowed—Obsidian's upcoming first-person fantasy RPG—was set in the Pillars of Eternity world of Eora. If there's one thing I'm perpetually a bit mad about, it's that the Pillars games didn't do much, much better than they did (If there's a second, it's that Tyranny somehow managed to do even worse). To my eyes, Avowed is the series' second shot at mainstream success.

 

But just because Avowed is returning to the Pillarsverse™ doesn't mean we're merely getting those isometric CRPGs in a swanky first-person wrapper. In a recent chat with PC Gamer's Ted Litchfield, Avowed's game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo mentioned that the new game is going a bit Skyrim with it, leaving behind the Pillars games' class system in favour of a set of ability trees you can sample from as you level up.

 

"There's multiple ability trees," Paramo told PCG, "it is a classless game. The player will be able to kind of pick and choose their abilities as they level up and progress, and you will be able to respec." You will choose between different background archetypes at the game's start, but those "don't bind the player to particular choices or builds," said Patel, and instead "provide kind of a starting point for building your character, your headcanon."

 

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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world, Fall 2024) - interviews with game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo
  • 4 months later...
  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | Fall 2024) - update (06/09): "Story" trailer
  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | 12 November 2024) - update (06/09): "Story" trailer
NEWS.XBOX.COM

Xbox Games Showcase 2024 brought a new trailer for Avowed featuring three sides to the mysterious story – the developers shared more about how players can shape the fate of the Living Lands.

 

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Watching our newest trailer, you’ll hear three distinct voices speaking to you. First is your emperor, who believes the Dreamscourge could develop, if unchecked, into a dire threat to Aedyr. He sends you into this wild frontier to uncover the source of the plague and put an end to it. Inquisitor Lödwyn, the leader of the Steel Garrote – an extremist paladin order from Aedyr – believes there’s something more sinister at play and calls on you not only to eradicate the Dreamscourge, but also to bring the island’s unruly factions to heel. Meanwhile, your companion Giatta perceives a larger and more mysterious force at work in the land and urges you to embrace it in all of its awe and chaos. As a stranger to these shores, you’ll need to navigate your relationship with all three of these factions, work to uncover the source of the Dreamscourge and prevent it from plunging the Living Lands into madness.

 

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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | 12 November 2024) - update (06/10): Xbox Games Showcase Deep Dive video (27 minutes)

Cliff notes for the tl;dw people

 

  • They showed off a 3rd person view (Standard feature for these kinds of games but there is an option for those who prefer it)
  • There are multiple ways to get around environmental barriers (alternate routes or a variety of abilities or companions can knock them down)
  • If your gear is underleveled the combat animations are different to convey you're weak and should upgrade your gear
  • You play as a Godlike and you can customize the godlike manifestation that's on your face
  • You can respec at any time with a cost
  • They showed off stealth
  • They showed off multiple outcomes to a quest. Killing a bunch of Delemgans on the way to the queen will make her hostile but if you find a peaceful way to reach her she will be nice to you.

 

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they really need to put out like 2 hours of pure gameplay, like invite some random, have them play the game, and when they are about halfway thru the game, start recording for two hours and then upload that to youtube

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49 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

They showed off multiple outcomes to a quest. Killing a bunch of Delemgans on the way to the queen will make her hostile but if you find a peaceful way to reach her she will be nice to you.

This is what Obsidian tends to do best in this space. Outer Worlds was underwhelming to me but I'm cautiously optimistic about this.

  • True 1
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  • 1 month later...
WWW.IGN.COM

Xbox has announced that it is delaying Avowed from later in 2024 to February 18, 2025, to "give players' backlogs some breathing room."

 

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Xbox has announced that it is delaying Avowed from later in 2024 to February 18, 2025, to "give players' backlogs some breathing room."

 

Xbox shared the news on X/Twitter alongside a graphic showing all of its currently announced first party Xbox games.

 

"So many games coming! As such, we're moving Avowed to Feb 18, 2025, to give players' backlogs some breathing room," Xbox wrote. "Stay tuned for more from our games across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda & Xbox Game Studios at gamescom, including our Aug 23 livestream for a look at Avowed."

 

 

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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | 18 February 2025) - update (08/02): release postponed to February 2025 to give you more time to play your backlog
  • 3 weeks later...
  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | 18 February 2025) - update (08/20): " NVIDIA DLSS 3 & Ray Tracing Premiere" trailer
NEWS.XBOX.COM

In the first playable preview of Avowed, Xbox Wire took two very different approaches to the same quest to explore player choice and consequence.

 

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Avowed, as with all Obsidian Entertainment games, has been designed with player choice at the forefront – your gear, your playstyle, your dialogue, your approaches to quests are all up to you. Xbox Wire had the chance to experience this for ourselves with the first playable preview with the game, which sent us on a journey to retrieve a lost relic.  

 

To get a sense of the freedom that Avowed presents, Wire editors Danielle and Mike both played, and took two very different approaches to the demo. Here’s what we found.  

 

 

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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Avowed (first-person RPG set in Pillars of Eternity world | 18 February 2025) - update (08/21): "Hands On: Playing One Quest in Two Very Different Ways" (Xbox Wire)

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