Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting

[CanadianCorndog]

I haven't played the game, but what puts me off is the Star Trek style of non-human races in the game. I watched someone play on a stream, and all of the non-human races were just humans in makeup, like old Star Trek episodes. There is no effort to create anything that doesn't allow re-use of the motion-captured animations and default human skeletons in these games. I can see them designing everything around these budget decisions without creative solutions. If they can't figure that out, I doubt they are creative enough to make an interesting game world.

 

[soulburner]

So no, the Ryzen 3600 is not a good CPU. It was a good entry level CPU 5,5 years ago.

Is 5080 also entry level gpu for you ?



You don't have a clue what entry level means. With 3600 you could achieve 95% in gaming of what best CPU at the time could do. 5xxx ryzens weren't even that huge upgrade over 3xxx series to begin with. Only X3D was the one that stood out with transformative performance (if game supported it). Since then we got 7 series which was definitely an 10-20% upgrade over 5000 series and 9xxx which is eve smaller upgrade than going from 5000 to 7000 and that one is like few months old recent.

Again. We are not talking here about some amazing looking game that pushes simulation up to 11.

We are talking here about 520p gaming on low in game that doesn't look better than 2015 game like Witcher 3 and isn't even open world game.

And it can't do 60fps lololol.

You are retaRd.

The 5080 paired with a Ryzen 3600 CPU will work like a low end machine, yes. Pairing such a GPU with this kind of CPU, aside from scientific purposes like testing CPU scaling of an engine/game, is absolute bonkers and has no right of working properly.

Here is a good example of CPU scaling with an RTX 4090 (don't mind the game title, it's pretty much the same scaling in all games):

The 3600 was always an entry level CPU which could achieve full GPU utilization when paired with an RX580, a GTX 1060, maybe an RTX 2060. An RTX3060 or a Radeon 6600XT would be underfed by the CPU in quite a few games, the newer the more substantial. It was cheap, it had 6 cores and 12 threads, worked great will the then middle end graphics card.

By today's standards the 3600 can be considered a sub low end processor.

Avowed is using a modern version of a commercially available engine. It uses Nanite and uses it well. It uses both software or hardware ray tracing, depending on settings. Does not support baked lighting or any other non ray traced method for its lighting. You may not like the style of the graphics, but no pop-in on distant objects is beautiful, the lighting and shadowing look natural (aside from a few issues with the denoiser shutting itself down occasionally).

Unreal Engine 5 will murder any CPU it is given. With that in mind, Avowed is well optimized. Again, we aren't talking about the game itself, just the rendering tech. Veilguard is also a wonderfully optimized game

PS: take a look at the graph and see how much of an upgrade the 5600 was over 3600.
PS2: there is no way to support or not support an X3D processor. It depends on which type of calculations a game uses for its logic - some stuff will rely on cache, others will be based solely around raw frequency.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

 

[jackofshadows]

Gosh does anyone know how to CLEAR your quickslot?! I have potion in 1, 2, and 3 and want to clear 2, and 3 but cannot figure it out.

There might be no such feature. Try to replace it with something else, then throw it away.

 

[Mortmal]

So no, the Ryzen 3600 is not a good CPU. It was a good entry level CPU 5,5 years ago.

Is 5080 also entry level gpu for you ?



You don't have a clue what entry level means. With 3600 you could achieve 95% in gaming of what best CPU at the time could do. 5xxx ryzens weren't even that huge upgrade over 3xxx series to begin with. Only X3D was the one that stood out with transformative performance (if game supported it). Since then we got 7 series which was definitely an 10-20% upgrade over 5000 series and 9xxx which is eve smaller upgrade than going from 5000 to 7000 and that one is like few months old recent.

Again. We are not talking here about some amazing looking game that pushes simulation up to 11.

We are talking here about 520p gaming on low in game that doesn't look better than 2015 game like Witcher 3 and isn't even open world game.

And it can't do 60fps lololol.

You are retaRd.

The 5080 paired with a Ryzen 3600 CPU will work like a low end machine, yes. Pairing such a GPU with this kind of CPU, aside from scientific purposes like testing CPU scaling of an engine/game, is absolute bonkers and has no right of working properly.

Here is a good example of CPU scaling with an RTX 4090 (don't mind the game title, it's pretty much the same scaling in all games):

The 3600 was always an entry level CPU which could achieve full GPU utilization when paired with an RX580, a GTX 1060, maybe an RTX 2060. An RTX3060 or a Radeon 6600XT would be underfed by the CPU in quite a few games, the newer the more substantial. It was cheap, it had 6 cores and 12 threads, worked great will the then middle end graphics card.

By today's standards the 3600 can be considered a sub low end processor.

Avowed is using a modern version of a commercially available engine. It uses Nanite and uses it well. It uses both software or hardware ray tracing, depending on settings. Does not support baked lighting or any other non ray traced method for its lighting. You may not like the style of the graphics, but no pop-in on distant objects is beautiful, the lighting and shadowing look natural (aside from a few issues with the denoiser shutting itself down occasionally).

Unreal Engine 5 will murder any CPU it is given. With that in mind, Avowed is well optimized. Again, we aren't talking about the game itself, just the rendering tech. Veilguard is also a wonderfully optimized game

PS: take a look at the graph and see how much of an upgrade the 5600 was over 3600.
PS2: there is no way to support or not support an X3D processor. It depends on which type of calculations a game uses for its logic - some stuff will rely on cache, others will be based solely around raw frequency.

The 3600 would pair well with a 5700XT, certainly would not bottleneck a 6600XT. I'd love to see a benchmark with a game that's actually worth playing—not one made by an incompetent DEI bethesda team , which also ran terribly on Nvidia cards at launch. And really, what does it even matter when we end up with games that, besides being completely uninteresting, don't look any better than what we played 15 years ago?

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Despite possible redeeming aspects that the game might have, we might already have a design defeat.

That inventory is significantly better than the in game UI to be fair to the designer.

Is it a new Veilguard, boys?! I'm so excited.

Descriptive parentheses to the hilt, flawless fan fiction victory!

Going to take a long time to wash the stains off the sheets post BG3, not sure we'll ever get rid of the smell. 10+ years I reckon though I'd love to be wrong.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Pronouns toggleable

but that only delay the inevitable

 

[Ryzer]

I would instantly buy a first person RPG with Planescape Torment quality of writing and originality but apparently the issue is me having expectations and not enjoying the next goyslop like a mindless consumer.

 

[Tyranicon]

This review score is from people hyperfans who paid 20 extra USD just to play it early.

This game is gonna get slaughtered on full release.

 

[Infinitron]

View attachment 61504

This review score is from people hyperfans who paid 20 extra USD just to play it early.

This game is gonna get slaughtered on full release.

Will it? It's a test for my theory of the "Obsidian fanboy advantage" in Steam ratings:

It's adorable to read pages upon pages of people talking about some vicious, widespread backlash against PoE1, and yet never showing any evidence that it actually exists.

What's interesting is that Tyranny, which is widely and less controversially considered to be a second-rate/meh game, also has excellent Steam reviews.

Basically, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. Nobody has the heart to review bomb them. They're really lucky to have that.

There always seemed to be an undercurrent of discontent about the quality of Obsidian's isometric RPGs - Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Deadfire. On all the forums (not just RPG Codex but also Something Awful etc) there seemed to be significant numbers of people who thought they were bad and boring. But it just never showed up on Steam. Games get review bombed on Steam all the time - inXile's Torment and Bard's Tale IV got killed - but Obsidian has always managed to avoid this. They shrugged off the Firedorn culture war incident with ease, an event the likes of which would have destroyed lesser companies.

As I've said before, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. They can't bring themselves to review bomb their games. You could argue that this is actually hurting Obsidian because it hides necessary criticism from them.

 

[Ryzer]

View attachment 61504

This review score is from people hyperfans who paid 20 extra USD just to play it early.

This game is gonna get slaughtered on full release.

Will it? It's a test for my theory of the "Obsidian fanboy advantage" in Steam ratings:

What's interesting is that Tyranny, which is widely and less controversially considered to be a second-rate/meh game, also has excellent Steam reviews.

Basically, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. Nobody has the heart to review bomb them. They're really lucky to have that.

There always seemed to be an undercurrent of discontent about the quality of Obsidian's isometric RPGs - Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Deadfire. On all the forums (not just RPG Codex but also Something Awful etc) there seemed to be significant numbers of people who thought they were bad and boring. But it just never showed up on Steam. Games get review bombed on Steam all the time - inXile's Torment and Bard's Tale IV got killed - but Obsidian has always managed to avoid this. They shrugged off the Firedorn culture war incident with ease, an event the likes of which would have destroyed lesser companies.

As I've said before, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. They can't bring themselves to review bomb their games. You could argue that this is actually hurting Obsidian because it hides necessary criticism from them.

Pillars 1 and 2 were saved by their pretty graphics and stylistic interface. This game won't.

 

[Tyrr]

People who payed for early access are either Obsidian fanboys or stupid (not that there is a big difference).
Either way I would ignore their opinion about the game.

 

[Tyranicon]

As I've said before, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. They can't bring themselves to review bomb their games. You could argue that this is actually hurting Obsidian because it hides necessary criticism from them.

The 81% review score is from hyper fans. This is the core longterm community, the diehards. This will be the most friendly audience for reviews, the one most likely to overlook flaws.

The casual audience will almost certainly rate the game lower. How much lower is anybody's guess. I anticipate the game will drop into mostly positive and remain there. More than likely it won't dip into mixed (Veilguard took months to finally get there), unless there's actually a "review bomb."

Most people who would hate this game (90% of codex regulars) won't buy it.

The real entertainment just comes from watching the shit show.

 

[Infinitron]

Sure, you could be right. Though I'm not sure how "casual" you can call people who will D1P this game for $70 on February 18th.

 

[Grunker]

I usually like exploration-based loot, but here in this game they treat you like some parkour monkey, you are jumping all the time to collect some materials, which are necessary to progress. They made upgrading weapon/armor way too mandatory. You found some nice unique weapon? Great, but it's just normal grade for now, so you have to invest so many resources to make it even viable.

Funny, that was one of my gripes with PoE2 as well. That game has some of the best itemization in the genre with tons of unique weapons that are build defining… but it discourages experimentation to an extreme degree by limiting upgrade materials so much that you can’t really afford to play around with different options.

The trick is to be a pirate and board all the ships you see then you get a lot of gold to upgrade everything.

Gold isn't what blocks PoE2 upgrades. The rare adra is. And you only get that from boss drops.

 

[Skinwalker]

Obshitian has diehard fans?

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm not sure how "casual" you can call people who will D1P this game for $70 on February 18th.

There's a significant market segment that will D1P any media, regardless of preference for genre, simply because it's been marketed to them.

"Life is a meaningless hellscape, I must consoom because it is my only escape."

There is no real opportunity cost on Steam. You could always refund the game and get your money back. I would wager a good % of negative reviews on any game are from these people, some of which don't even bother refunding.

Longterm fans have a sentimental relationship with Obsidian. These people don't.

 

[Gargaune]

The 81% review score is from hyper fans. [...] Most people who would hate this game (90% of codex regulars) won't buy it.

Which is why the Steam review score won't mean much without factoring in concurrent player metrics. Microsoft's Game Pass complicates things but I guess you'll just have have to ballpark it against other titles on the service, maybe it's time to introduce "the Starfield" in the SI. Ultimately, it's a guessing game - even more so than before - and that suits publishers just fine.

 

[huntsmann]

My review after about 8 hours. (Gamepass so just paid 22 bucks for early access cause I was bored):

Proof that pretty graphics do not equal immersion. Story, writing, character-wise I feel like I'm floating above the world and its current situation instead of being a part of it. Every character is the same. I can give zero shits about my companions or the looming threat. I haven't made a meaningful choice yet. I'm roleplaying about as much as I could in a damn MMO. Everything is surface level. The game seems afraid to be a bother so everything is streamlined (just like the latest Dragon Age) and it's so "safe" in every way it lacks any sort of memorable moment.

It all feels like an MMO with fun exploration and combat. I'll give it points for being able to freeze water to make a bridge, etc. That's fun but not very creatively exploited. I HATE how enemies can just appear out of thin air for no reason. Just spawn in more dudes right beside you - and it's not like they were conjured or teleported magically in context of the world, literally just appear like an MMO.

It is pretty at times. At least the environments. The enemies and characters have a sort of cartoon style that further sucks the stakes out of the whole affair. Treasure maps are fun and rewarding. Exploration and traversal is also fun but I miss the days of athletic skills or acrobatics governing jump height. I think raising Dexterity makes you mantle faster?? That's about it. As it is now, everyone can parkour like Jackie Chan. There's no thievery or law system, no perks, no roleplaying based skills at all. Even though I choose Scout dialog options, I never feel like I'm roleplaying a ranger or thief AT ALL. It's all just flat.

It winds up feeling like a colorful first person Diablo. Click through dialog to get back to the combat and loot and exploration. And definite Dragon Age 3 and 4 vibes of just being overly safe and streamlined. It actually has me considering going back to Outer Worlds (which i hated) just because I saw a screen from it that showed perks and actual thievery.

Also like an MMO there isn't really a connectton to the environment besides the aforementioned ice, fire effects. You can't pick anything up as in Elder Scrolls. Also of course folks just stand around all hours of day and night. Just give me a damn quest board at this point, it would feel about the same.

So to sum up, you might get some dumb fun out of fighting and treasure hunting for a while, but that's about it. The writing and systems just don't support anything deeper than that and did I mention how little I care about anyone or anything in this fantasy world? It's funny how this came out so close the KCD2 - a game all about earned fun, grounded experience, options galore for roleplaying, good writing, etc.

 

[Brickfrog]

From my first impressions I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped to mostly positive. It feels competently made but it's not breaking any ground. The combat is the only unique mechanic going for it but its not good enough to blow anyone's mind or anything.

It feels like something that would be high 70s to low 80s.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Never underestimate the appeal of semi generic open-ish world fantasy adventure games. Skyrim left a deep hunger that no game has every really satisfied.

Consider there were dozens of GTA and Dark Souls clones, but how many games even tried to appeal to Skyrim's market?

-DA Inquisition: bunch of small maps with fetch quests, not really open world
-Kingdoms of Amalur: open world but still felt like small interconnected maps. Did okay.
-Witcher 3: sells a zillion copies
-KCD: Non-magic Skyrim, considered a national treasure of czech culture
-AC Origins/Oddysey/Valhalla: sold well
-Breath of the Wild: mega seller
-Elden Ring: 20 gojillion sales

FYI I knew Veilguard was cooked the moment they said it was a linear mission-based game. That's just not what the market wants (no matter how much game journos complain otherwise). Being Modern Audience'd didn't help but people would have put up with it if it were an open-world RPG.

Before I'm done writing this post there will be another 20 metroidvania soulslikes released, but hardly any game has ever tried to out-skyrim Skryim. I feel like these games are harder to make than most codexers realize, and developers don't like making them as much as players want to buy them.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Yea there is some interesting mechanics hidden there. The freeze of water to be used as surface to climb on is nice, I don't think this mechanic was used anywhere else as far as I can tell.

The parkour in the game is smooth, but is not based on stats or skills or anything. It is kind of fun jumping around in the first few hours, but I think it will become boring later on because there is nothing to do but loot craftable materials.

Combat is a hit or miss, very few skills and the most iconic classes from PoE are missing. You can become a jack of all trades and master most skills by the end of the game. No identity or different playerstyle because you will be forced to use all skills anyway if you want efficiency. Thus no replayability. Spells are woefully lacking and are missing the most interesting and powerful spells from PoE and deadfire. 99% are just straight firebolt/ ice bolt and its upgrades.

To add to the no replayability point, there is very minor branching paths and all answers sound identical in tone. Everything feels safe text generated dialogue from a program or machine. You cannot roleplay as anything other than different shades of good.

 

[Brickfrog]

If people are expecting this to be Skyrim they will be disappointed. This is a much leaner and focused experience.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I think Obsidian has made it clear they prefer hub and spoke design vs open world, but again there's not many other options. If they can just provide enough of that kind of experience it may still pay off well for them.

 

[huntsmann]

If people are expecting this to be Skyrim they will be disappointed. This is a much leaner and focused experience.

I knew going in it wasn't going to be Skyrim. They made it clear it wasn't true open world and smaller in scope. But I'm still let down that dialog and choices are so boring and the writing is so plain. I honestly think AI could have generated better characters and dialog. You don't need Skyrim scope to make someone care about characters and story. But yes as a mindless lean and focused action game with RPG elements it can be fun. I expect I'll get tired of it pretty quickly as there's just not enough meat on the bones to keep me going and the enemy variety is lacking.

Also while exploration is fun in that you'll usually find a chest, the items in the chest aren't all that great. Mostly crafting (upgrading) supplies. I've found a couple of magical weapons and armor though. And enchanting items lets you choose between two new properties for that item so that's fun. A found a dagger that can apply fire everytime you successfully parry for instance.