Remember when Oblivion tier was an insult? Now games are sub Oblivion tier. Thanks diversity hiring and ESG...
What strikes me the most here is something I noticed about modern games in general, not just Avowed, compared to games from the mid to late 00s: a lack of physics, or just response from the environment.
The mid to late 00s had a lot of decline, sure, but at least they experimented with physics and it looked like the future of gaming would become more and more interactive.
Half Life 2 started the trend, where almost every prop object in the environment reacts to physical forces. Shoot a barrel, it falls over. Throw a grenade on a table, it will launch everything on the table through the air.
I started replaying some games of that era recently, and it's insane how much better physics were at the time. Started Stranglehold yesterday, its core gameplay is a pretty mediocre third person shooter, but its environmental destruction is still unmatched. Almost EVERYTHING you shoot at will react. Most things will break apart, some things - like metal pots and pans - will simply move when shot. Nothing is static, everything reacts.
Not even gonna mention games that relied big time on destruction physics, like Red Faction Guerilla, or Crysis, or Silent Storm where you could blow up an entire ground floor and then the top floors of the building would collapse due to lack of support. Groundbreaking (pun not intended).
Play any game from the mid-late 00s, and you'll notice that a lot of environment objects will react to being hit. There's stuff on a table? Punch it or shoot it, and it will scatter.
Nowadays, many games have the average clutter items be completely static. They won't react to anything. Shoot an apple? It won't burst into juices like it did in Stranglehold, a game from 2007. Nor will it fly away like it did in Oblivion, a game from 2006. No, in 2025, your average big budget game's apples will simply remain in place, no matter how much you punch and kick and stab and shoot at it.
This laziness when it comes to world interactivity is the most glaring sign that the modern gaming industry has failed, and it's about time for it to collapse so devs who actually care can take their place.
This shit should be standard. It doesn't even take any effort, modern engines all come with physics engines incorporated. Fucking Thief, from 1998, managed to have most clutter items be pickupable and throwable and they'd react to being shot with arrows.
1998!!!
And before someone like Roguey comes in and says "But Obsidian never cared about a simulationist approach to game worlds, this isn't their focus" SHUT THE FUCK UP this should be standard, particularly in a first person game with relatively realistic-looking visuals. If Obsidian's devs aren't capable of simulating the most basic environmental interactions, maybe they shouldn't make first person RPGs.
New Vegas, which they also made, had more environmental reactivity than this. There is no excuse.
Perhaps if every side-quest had such thought put toward it, they would be much more memorable. Searching Shantytown for items the seagulls flew off with and tucked away in their nests was an interesting fetch quest because you had to move around along the rooftops, wooden walkways, and ladders to find your way. Sadly there are no rats in anyone's cellar to clear because there are no rat creatures.
