Obsidian Entertainment's "Avowed" Previewed During Developer_Direct

[T0@st]

It's going to be a good year for Xbox players. At this week's Developer_Direct show, we provided deep-dives into five new games launching across Xbox Series X|S, PC, Game Pass and/or cloud—all of which will arrive later in 2024. Development teams at Xbox, Bethesda, and even one of our third-party partners invited you into their studios to showcase extended gameplay, reveal key information, and more. Members of each development team gave us a look into their creation, with new information, and offered a tantalizing glimpse of what's to come this year. All four of these games will arrive on day one with Game Pass, and will contribute to what's going to be another huge year for members, delivering incredible games throughout 2024.

Avowed—Launching Fall 2024
Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel gave us a first deep-dive into the gameplay in Obsidian's upcoming fantasy action RPG, from its dynamic combat, to its thoughtful reactivity, to its "colorful, vibrant, strange" world set in the Living Lands. Avowed continues Obsidian's signature style of creating games with deep themes and player choice at the forefront. Not only will you make narrative decisions that can impact changes in the game down the line, but Avowed is also looking to offer choice in combat. Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo discussed not only how varied your weaponry will be - with melee weapons, ranged guns and bows, and magic-based wands (even dual-wielded wands!) to name a few—but how flexible combat can be, allowing you to quickly change loadouts for enemy encounters. Swappable loadouts mean you can approach combat however feels right to you.




Art Director Matt Hansen then explained how the Living Lands is a mysterious island made up of wildly varied regions offering visually diverse backdrops and intriguing settings to explore. With secrets hidden throughout the regions, you'll take in barren deserts, verdant forests, blighted wastes, volcanic biomes, and more.

That's not all for Avowed, however—make sure to tune in to the Xbox Podcast on Monday, January 22 for an exclusive interview with some of Obsidian's developers, offering even more information on the gameplay reveal. Get ready to carve your own path through Avowed when it launches this fall for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud - and arrives with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on day one. For more information, please visit the Avowed website.

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[Event Horizon]

I don't know why the melee combat looks floaty, awkward, and lacking in impact. Everything else looks okay.

 

[Vayra86]

Somehow the cringe level rises here, I doubt this will get gud. They have this slow-down whenever you hit an enemy, its terrible, because the overall animations aren't exactly quick either. Combat slowed down to console-30 FPS pace clearly. Floaty as fck. And then the graphical style. Feels like World of Warcraft with a graphical upgrade, I don't feel the magic tbh.

 

[EatingDirt]

Somehow the cringe level rises here, I doubt this will get gud. They have this slow-down whenever you hit an enemy, its terrible, because the overall animations aren't exactly quick either. Combat slowed down to console-30 FPS pace clearly. Floaty as fck. And then the graphical style. Feels like World of Warcraft with a graphical upgrade, I don't feel the magic tbh.

Agreed about basically everything. Combat looks terrible and the animations aren't smooth and except for 2 clearly handcrafted detailed showcase areas, the world that they have show looks fairly dull, mostly a bunch of rocks of the grey and brown variety. RPG elements, like all Obsidian games, will probably be the strong point, but I'm not sure that can uplift it past the negatives we're seeing. If it was coming out in another 1.5 years, maybe, but ~8 months("Fall") doesn't seem like enough time tighten up the combat & refine the animations.

 

[THU31]

I loved The Outer Worlds, but I'm not really feeling this one. Maybe they will change my mind, but right now I'm definitely looking forward to TOW2 a lot more.