Here’s a question for you to stew over: if a game comes across heralding little, if any, unique traits to help it stand out, but is something you still find yourself enjoying through ample bursts of emergent/moment-to-moment gameplay, does the former still cancel out the latter? To what extent does a game’s repeated traits you’ve experienced in prior titles become not so much an overruling issue, but the catalyst by which these kinds of questions start to get asked. Throughout my brief time sampling Obsidian’s latest fantasy-themed RPG Avowed, I can say that what was experienced felt more accustomed to a fond reminder as to why this studio’s brand of role-playing, world-building and eventual unraveling of emergent systems has become such a personal favorite of mine.
Yet in the past, Obsidian have always found a way to have their craft in the RPG genre wound around a key, defining trait or choice with tone. Be thatPentiment’s smaller-scale direction or The Outer Worlds' black comedy-tinted take on far future society. By contrast,Avowedvery much feels like an Obsidian “greatest hits” collection – a packaging-together of all those traits we’ve come to know, love and acknowledge Obsidian as demonstrating such panache at executing on. Which, as an enthusiast of a good Obsidian adventure myself, is by no means a bad thing – it’s a great thing.
That even after all these years (and no doubt many a personnel change) Obsidian’s DNA and key philosophies, with RPG design persist. Of the four-or-so hours spent exploringAvowed’s opening sections, Obsidian look to have crafted a game with plenty to discover and in all likelihood get distracted by in that uncannily Obsidian-like way: a five-minute investment quickly turning into a full-blown hour of activity. But here’s the thing: this is precisely the kind of experience I found (and sought prior to its own release five years ago) withThe Outer Worlds. History then repeating itself as those same desires look to be covered.
Side distractions that beg to draw you in: check. Quest design that involves doing odd-job for some NPC, whom (through optional detective work of your own choosing) may or may not be telling you the whole truth: check. Random encounters that put you on a brief back-foot as you carefully navigate dialogue choices in an attempt to avoid a full-blown fight: check. At the risk of sounding like one is accusing the team of simply copy+pasting these past enjoyments, a lot ofAvowed’sbest moments could very well be showered on the studio’s past works.Avowedis in many ways as “Obsidian-like” an RPG as you can get. An easy sell for those already enamored with what the team have crafted prior, but perhaps a harder sell for those whose affinity for speech checks, off-the-beaten-path detours and most significantly, combat that may fall a smidgen on the janky side, is significantly lower.
By this very definition, you could argue the game falls into the realm of being “nothing special,” but neither is it something that should be so easily dismissed because of it. To refer back to that prior comparison: a greatest hits compilation may not hold much on pure, stand-alone originality, but is it not a reminder as to why you fell in love with such a musician or artist to begin with? So then, if you’re someone who isn’t looking for that “one thing that no other RPG is doing” aspect – or at the very least, don’t consider that priority one –Avowedlooks to be well on its way to delivering on that baseline Obsidian check-list. Even with a few minor concerns around technical performance and a [brief] rolling-of-the-eye that, shall we say, personal customization in some respects goes too far on the character-creator screen, Obsidian are clearly playing mostly to their strengths. Strengths that throughout one’s time are on splendid display and while the mention of a “checklist” may inspire negative connotations, it’s by no means a bad thing.
Review: The Outer Worlds
Even with these unfortunate and evident shortcomings on the technical side, The Outer Worlds is a rewarding and ultimately intriguing adventure.
Would it surprise you to hear that one of my best moments, even in so brief a spell as this, is taking a passing glance at a lone lighthouse in that aforementioned familiar pattern of distraction via peripheral curiosities? That’s all it took forAvowedto have me going from a state of momentary distraction to outright learning a tad more of the mechanics and the possible utilization of such at my own voluntary leisure. Soon enough, these warranted detours beyond simply where the main plot demanded had me bumping into local farmers, sparring with an army chief whose reward for besting them was a free weapon of my choosing. And best of all, in a somewhat more comical turn, seeing Obsidian abiding by that most unofficial law/trope of waterfalls in RPGs to net a useful item that helped regenerate health.
All this without even touching upon the core of the progression and the added benefit that, regardless of one’s affinity of the world of Pillars of Eternity – the series with whichAvowedshares some in-world connection to – the game is very much its own beast, divorced enough from the shackles of continuity. Taking the role of an envoy from the Aedyr Empire, you’re tasked with traveling to the Living Lands – a kind of isolationist island settlement of varied races and factions – to investigate a mysterious plague referred to as the “DreamScourge.” The added, crucial detail is that the player-character is not human, but in fact a Godlike; for those unfamiliar with the Pillars lore, Godlike are beings said to be blessed by the gods themselves. As a consequence, it means your presence in the Living Lands is met with a combination of hope, suspicion and flat-out hatred at points. And more pressingly, questions as to which specific God you’ve found yourself blessed by.
It’s arguably one of Obsidian’s more blatant attempts to bill your avatar as something other than the usual “right-place-wrong-time” average joe. A characteristic that can even be tailored via the background you give yourself at the start of the game, on top of the usual distribution of trait points. Depending on your choice of affiliation – in my case, my character’s background was that of a Scholar – characters in the world will openly acknowledge and remark upon it, but for the most part, the interactions during such conversations in gameplay terms follows the usual pattern. Situations arise where certain responses may or may not be accessible, depending on how strong certain skills and traits are at the time. You can role-play the hot-headed brute and go straight to attacking someone. By contrast, you can try talking it out when things do go a touch awry.
Avowed is, in many ways, as “Obsidian-like” an RPG as you’re able to get. An easy sell for those already enamored with what the team have crafted prior, but perhaps a harder sell for those whose affinity for speech checks, off-the-beaten-path detours and most significantly, combat that may fall a smidgen on the janky side, is significantly lower.
Naturally, that same satisfaction is present and effective inAvowedwhen, to give one example, you succeed at convincing an individual to renounce the gang he’s strung to. Or to talk a little more of the main plot: one’s proficiency in Science allowing access to an entirely separate, standalone conversation with an ethereal-like voice and entity. An entity of whom may or may not be (once again) reserving certain truths and one you, perhaps unwittingly or against better judgment, enter into an agreement and “deal” with. But even at its least-tense, when conversations are treated more as an optional nicety as opposed to that mandatory divergence of paths,Avowedstill finds time to imbue its world (Living Lands and further afield in the Pillars-verse) and more importantly its side-characters/companions with depth. And while the opening segments limit players to just the one companion, Kai, taking the time to set up camp and converse rarely feel wasted.
How critical these more story-specific scenarios actually stand when looking at the eventual breadth of dialog possibilities inAvowedremains unclear, but even in the early hours, Obsidian are once again demonstrating how well they can draw you into the stakes on display and of the intrigue at just where this all could possibly lead. A narrative that come the preview’s cut-off point, ends with an intriguing-enough cliffhanger to at least suggest there’s more meat to the internal politics and struggles at what the Living Lands have in store. A fond reminder and flash-back to howThe Outer Worldssimilarly kicked off its own tale and just how strong an opening the team’s prior 2019 outing ended up becoming in that specific case.
It’s in combat whereAvowedexpresses arguably its biggest case for some unique identity amid its Obsidian-developed brethren. Even if – welcome flexibility in build aside –Avowed’s way with technical execution and long-term progression draws up more questions than answers. At a surface glance, the ease with which players can switch between a multitude of combinations is commendable. Standard-fair sword-and-shield, two-handed focus on brute strength at the cost of defense. Maybe even a hybrid of melee and magic, perhaps going all-in on magic with close-range Grimoire-powered blasts of fire/ice/lightning to accompany longer-range projectiles blasted from out one’s wand. While it shouldn’t be surprising that a fantasy RPG is dabbling with melee and magic arsenals, what is surprising is the flexibility with which these multitudes of playstyles can be applied.
Review: Pentiment
Pentiment is a short but sweet adventure from Obsidian, one that plays to their strengths when it comes to dialogue.
As distracting from the natural pace of combat it can get to hop in and out of menus to equip/unequip different weapons,Avowedin its early period doesn’t feel like a combat system wherein players feel forced or required to commit to one particular lane. To go full-on magic would be to lock you out from dabbling in swords/axes/great-swords or vice versa. A tad button-mashing and visually chaotic segments can get when multiple foes are present and all sense of tactical push-and-pull flies right out of the window. Even with the incentive to whittle a foe’s poise down by depleting a corresponding guard meter,Avowed’s added complexities, while not outright unconvincing, will need more time (and ideally, higher-leveled foes out in the field) to demonstrate that they’re an apt fit.
The same goes for what feels, with the more back-end systems, like a general progression dictated by the gear equipped and the invisible numbers consequently attached to the tier of weapons you have employed. Stumbling, unbeknownst as I did, into an overworld mini-boss at one point (with a horde of underlings to suit), the sight of my weapons only doing slithers-worth of damage on the main target whom easily eat into my own pool of health. Couple this with the fact gear inAvowedhas five separate tiers of rarity, with each tier split into three additional sub-levels to upgrade and/or build towards – it’s another case, albeit minor, whereAvowed’s overall direction and choice with combat sparks reservations on what exactly a player’s in-game time, in later stages, will look like: partaking in the main story…or inevitably grinding/scavenging for resources just to get the numbers up.
Even with these small concerns – concerns that may likely only rear their head after ample hours invested –Avowedlooks to be a solid-enough entrant, meticulously tailored first and foremost to please fans of Obsidian’s prior knack for curiosity, distraction and split-second decisions lasting long in the memory. Far from the most-polished experience on a technical level, as much a far-from-convincing early grappling with combat and the numbers-based progression it initially seems to be invoking –Avowed’s minor lack of polish in some parts is more than made up for (and then some) by an equally-measured tailoring of color and environment design in making its setting one you’d happily spend hours traversing through.
Cautious optimism is the way I’d describe one’s feelings going into Obsidian’s latest. The sentiment has admittedly remained and while there’s a strong sense of the team sticking to what they know, thatAvowedhas – in the space of just a few hours – already landed with plenty of small-burst, emergent moments to cherish is by no means a bad thing. Should this stretch out across another multi-region, multi-choice experience and suffice it to say the near-five year wait will be sufficiently worth it.Avowedreleases for Xbox Series X/S and PC, on February 18.
