Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming Fall 2024

[Drakortha]

Considering Bethesda is busy making content for star field and full production of the next elder scrolls, we won't see a new fallout for 15 years.

I really doubt Microsoft's gonna sit on such a valuable IP and twiddle their thumbs just to humour Bethesda.

They are probably in the early concept stages right now. One can only speculate what the next Fallout will bring. Super Mutants? Power Armors? Nuka Cola? Vaults? It's anyone's guess.

 

[Cohesion]

Fuck FNV, give me F1-F2 remasters on Deadfire engine with Boyarsky and Cain supervising.

You are trolling, right? Right???. jpg

 

[Butter]

Considering Bethesda is busy making content for star field and full production of the next elder scrolls, we won't see a new fallout for 15 years.

Best news I've heard in a while.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Fuck FNV, give me F1-F2 remasters on Deadfire engine with Boyarsky and Cain supervising.

That engine has too much latte running through it to ever support Fallout's open world gameplay and travel.

 

[DemonKing]

New Interview:

https://press-start.com.au/features...-reactions-and-a-surprise-sci-fi-inspiration/

WE SPOKE TO OBSIDIAN ABOUT AVOWED, INTERNET REACTIONS, AND A SURPRISE SCI-FI INSPIRATION​

Avowed directors Carrie Patel and Gabe Paramo open up about the game’s development.

Avowed has a lot of eyes on it. The latest fantasy-action RPG from legendary studio Obsidian Entertainment, the first-person adventure had barely a 90 second reveal trailer to its name before the Skyrim comparisons started flowing. This was in some way inevitable given the eternal dance between Obsidian and Bethesda Softworks, the two studios having circled each other in the zeitgeist thanks to the duology that was Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Each studio’s ravenous fanbases celebrating, or decrying, one approach or the other. The grand irony of course is that both developers would wind up umbrellaed by Microsoft in the coming years after its extensive acquisition sweep through the industry. This, in turn, brought even more pressure to Avowed, the latest game (after the likes of Redfall and Starfield) to be saddled with the expectation of being the one to define Xbox’s seventh console generation.

All of this before Obsidian even begins to consider how its die-hard fanbase will react to the studio’s return to fantasy and to a pre-existing IP, Pillars of Eternity. When I asked Avowed’s game director Carrie Patel about how it felt to be marching back into the Living Lands with decades of player expectations at their back. “It’s very exciting,” Patel says, “I worked on the first two Pillars games and the DLCs… Pillars 1 was actually my first game with Obsidian! So it definitely feels really special to be returning here, taking a slightly different approach to combat and gameplay and I think building an experience that’s going to welcome in a lot of new players.”

As we unpack the strange balancing act of emotions working within a studio as storied as Obsidian brings with it, Patel reflects on the simultaneous pressure and comfort such history brings. “I mean, honestly, it’s a bit of both. It is so heartening to know that we have people who love our games, are familiar with them, and are always interested and ready to check out what we’re doing next. But obviously you want to make sure that you’re delivering on those expectations. But it’s definitely been gratifying to see with games like Grounded and Pentiment, where we’ve done something that’s a little bit outside of our normal mould, to see those games still finding their audience, finding a lot of love, even again, when they’re doing something that is not in the same vein of RPGS that we’re necessarily known for.”

Both Grounded and Pentiment, two smaller-scale releases from Obsidian since its time with Xbox, have been met with critical acclaim and a fairly positive audience reaction. Patel is right of course, neither are what you would consider typical Obsidian outings, one being a co-op survival experience and the other… well, I’m still not sure how one describes the brilliance of Pentiment. But Avowed Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo talks about how, while different, these games kept the Obsidian spirit alive. “Our mantra is kind of ‘Your world, Your way.’ Even though they seem very different, their core is Your World, Your Way. So even though they might feel to the players ‘experimental’, they are still not far off from where we’re trying to have that nugget of giving the player the freedom and choice to kind of play the game and do the things they want to do, just maybe in slightly different contexts.”

Obsidian fans who have been craving a more recognisable experience from the studio don’t have much longer to wait though as Patel explains how Avowed’s storytelling and quest design stems from the studio’s lauded narrative skills. “Players who are familiar with our RPGs will feel right at home in Avowed and in its quest structure and the cast of characters we’re creating,” she says, “Quests are primarily how we reveal the world to the player, how we immerse them in the themes and the conflicts and the personalities and factions that play in the world. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with Avowed as well. We’re not pursuing the structure of having factions where you have sort of tracked and metered formal relationships with them like we did in, you know, New Vegas. This is kind of a more organic approach to choice and consequences and letting the player set their alliances, make their decisions, sort of push the world in one way or another as they go through and see those consequences play out in their interactions with other characters further on down the line.”

Paramo chimes in as we discuss the shift to first-person magical combat and how Avowed’s take on it came to be. “The challenges with first-person, and again, because it’s a fantasy action RPG, we really wanted to focus on that momentum and trying to make sure that we’re not slowing the player down, making sure they’re feeling kinetic, immersive,” he says, thinking on how this differs from previous Obsidian titles, “So I think on kind of a top down perspective, you get a little bit of a higher view, whereas you’re now embodying the character. And so the animation requirements and then as well as the dual wielding system, you can put something in your offhand, in your primary hand, and trying to kick up the fidelity a bit, but while trying to just make the player feel, again, immersive but also flexible.”

Avowed’s marketing kicked into high gear just weeks ago at the Xbox Developer Direct event, a showcase of upcoming titles for the system that gave us our first extended look at the world and systems of Avowed. The reaction was largely positive, though some viewers found themselves wary of the first-person combat, but for veterans like Paramo, this has become somewhat old hat. Toward the end of our chat we were openly discussing how development had been tracking with Avowed and Paramo opened up about how it felt on his side of the fence to see the internet talk about the project.

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“You’re going to get feedback on a lot of things, right? The gameplay that we showed was alpha. We’ve shown gameplay in the past where you’ve also gotten comments and then you’ve gotten the new comments that are like, wow, that looks better than what the previous one,” he explains, “So anything that we can do to just keep showing these incremental improvements to the player, I think is all positive. Whether or not the feedback might come back as maybe not so positive. But it’s just to say that even the pieces of feedback that we’ve gotten on the internet already, like through forum posts, we’ve already been addressing those things and we’re going to continue to improve those things between now and when we release. So again, it’s exciting. We’re happy to show it again. The more the player can kind of see the game in the current state and then see that there’s been changes is, to me, always a positive thing.”

Patel agrees, “One thing that we don’t always get to talk about and show as much love and appreciation for is just how much iterative work goes into a game and how much of the team’s process is trying something, finding the fun, and then building more and more on that. I was actually really pleased to get to talk about this a little bit in the Xbox podcast segment on Monday. But the dungeon that you see, the little adventure space, the grotto that Tyler McCombs built out and that Peter Wayne and Seth May did the interior and exterior art for, was originally a much smaller space.

“And every once in a while, you end up in that wonderful situation as a dev, where you actually are a little bit ahead of something and you have a little more time than you thought. Usually it’s the opposite, and all three of those guys had been super on the ball. With the work they were doing… And so I think a lot of times it’s easy to sort of see pre-production and then see the end product and everything in between is just sort of this steady path up. But I think what gets lost and what’s hard to see if you’re not in the process is just the trial and error and the lessons you’re learning and the way you’re building on what you’ve done before and just how much progress comes from that process, even though it’s certainly a lot of work in the moment.”

Sitting (even virtually) across from Patel and Paramo as they unpack these thoughts, the energy in the room tangibly changes. Launching a new game must be a complicated thrill of feelings, and while our brief discussions of the game’s size (think The Outer Worlds) and immersive-sim-light elements (players can use elemental magic to change the landscape and access new areas) were certainly enjoyable, it’s the look at the studio and its emotional makeup that brings the three of us to life. Likewise, as Patel and I unpack the thematic elements of Avowed, a surprising connection is formed.

“I think that’s something that we’ll get into probably in a few months when we get closer to talking a bit more about the story. But I mean, being said, in the Living Lands, there’s definitely a theme of exploration and discovery. You’re coming to understand this very big, mysterious, dangerous land, and also, as the player character, some very important things about yourself…there is a mix of conflicts and challenges that you’re going to face that are both enmeshed in the political world and the different factions of characters you’ll meet, but also in the metaphysical world, in the realm of the divine.”

This is my shot, and I’m glad I take it. As part of the Developer Direct marketing blast for Avowed, the game’s key art was unleashed upon the world. The art is a stunning work depicting a skeletal warrior with sword in hand, its flesh and internal systems exposed as creeping, fantastical vines, coral, and other naturally forming substances. It’s striking, evocative, and immediately reminded me of Jeff VanderMeer’s sci-fi novel Annihilation (the Alex Garland film adaptation is equally brilliant). In Annihilation, a strange metaphysical occurrence engulfs a portion of the United States, warping anything trapped in its boundaries at a horrific, but beautiful, cellular level.

Given that Avowed’s plot synopsis hints at a strange virus running rampant through the lands, I had to know if I was reading too much into things or not. “So again, without getting into story details, I will say you are not reading too much into things!” Patel practically beams at me, “I am so glad you’ve made that connection. I had perhaps heard that that one was a little too esoteric.”

It is the single most exciting thing I personally could have heard about Avowed, and it skyrockets the game up my list of things to look forward to in 2024.

Avowed is slated to launch on Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2024.

("Surprise" inspiration is Natalie Portman "Annhilation" film)

 

[Tyranicon]

“You’re going to get feedback on a lot of things, right? The gameplay that we showed was alpha. We’ve shown gameplay in the past where you’ve also gotten comments and then you’ve gotten the new comments that are like, wow, that looks better than what the previous one,” he explains, “So anything that we can do to just keep showing these incremental improvements to the player, I think is all positive. Whether or not the feedback might come back as maybe not so positive. But it’s just to say that even the pieces of feedback that we’ve gotten on the internet already, like through forum posts, we’ve already been addressing those things and we’re going to continue to improve those things between now and when we release. So again, it’s exciting. We’re happy to show it again. The more the player can kind of see the game in the current state and then see that there’s been changes is, to me, always a positive thing.”

I hope they're earnest about this. At least it's better than burying your head in the ground and pretending nothing's wrong, a la Starfield or Redfall.

Speaking of which,

[...]brought even more pressure to Avowed, the latest game (after the likes of Redfall and Starfield) to be saddled with the expectation of being the one to define Xbox’s seventh console generation.

Bro, in no world is that happening.

 

[Rhobar121]

The entire marketing team should be fired. So far, they are doing everything they can to discourage players from playing or lower expectations as low as possible (which is equivalent in practice).
What the fuck are they on drugs if they think they're encouraging anyone to play this game? Have they really forgotten what marketing is or is what they show really the best they have?

Does M$ really give a damn what happens to their money? Someone should have stood over these morons a long time ago and kept an eye on them so that they didn't do anything stupid.
It seems that the more freedom you give, the more Western developers create shit. It was the same with Bioware/EA.
I think they should introduce regular whippings to keep some order.

 

[scytheavatar]

The entire marketing team should be fired. So far, they are doing everything they can to discourage players from playing or lower expectations as low as possible (which is equivalent in practice).
What the fuck are they on drugs if they think they're encouraging anyone to play this game? Have they really forgotten what marketing is or is what they show really the best they have?

Does M$ really give a damn what happens to their money? Someone should have stood over these morons a long time ago and kept an eye on them so that they didn't do anything stupid.
It seems that the more freedom you give, the more Western developers create shit. It was the same with Bioware/EA.
I think they should introduce regular whippings to keep some order.

There's only so much you can do to market a turd............ if you are in charge of marketing this game how would you have sold it? What's the selling point that you want to emphasis? Remember that this game is nowhere close to Skyrim's scope so you are inviting backlash by comparing the game to Skyrim. And any links to the POE setting is not something to be proud of when POE 2 was a flop sales wise and only a niche audience cares about the setting.

 

[Vyvian]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

 

[Quillon]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

LOADOUTS(tm) will redefine the RPG as we know it, things will never be the same again. True story.

 

[AwesomeButton]

“You’re going to get feedback on a lot of things, right? The gameplay that we showed was alpha. We’ve shown gameplay in the past where you’ve also gotten comments and then you’ve gotten the new comments that are like, wow, that looks better than what the previous one,” he explains, “So anything that we can do to just keep showing these incremental improvements to the player, I think is all positive. Whether or not the feedback might come back as maybe not so positive. But it’s just to say that even the pieces of feedback that we’ve gotten on the internet already, like through forum posts, we’ve already been addressing those things and we’re going to continue to improve those things between now and when we release. So again, it’s exciting. We’re happy to show it again. The more the player can kind of see the game in the current state and then see that there’s been changes is, to me, always a positive thing.”

I hope they're earnest about this. At least it's better than burying your head in the ground and pretending nothing's wrong, a la Starfield or Redfall.

Speaking of which,

[...]brought even more pressure to Avowed, the latest game (after the likes of Redfall and Starfield) to be saddled with the expectation of being the one to define Xbox’s seventh console generation.

Bro, in no world is that happening.

I was here in 2015 when they were getting free QA on Pillars, better than their own QA could be, and regardless what happened was we watched a turd being shat out in slow motion as we warned and pleaded. But that's ok, because it sold a million copies in a year and a half as far as I remember. Then everyone was coming up with theories why the sequel to Pillars got bad reception.

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

The more I watch and listen to her, the more I think Carrie isn't "stupid", but merely very scared because she knows they have nothing to show. There used to be a meme about Deadfire not existing, but in the case of Avowid, this might really be a game that doesn't exist, except as a long list of features it doesn't have and a very short list of features it supposedly does.

Some months before release Pillars had the backer "beta" alpha out, and that was being done from scratch on a new technology stack. Here we get a prerecorded demo and some descriptions of systems which may or may not be implemented, most likely will get a barebones implementation as late as possible. But that's fine too because no one really planned them to have a perceptible effect in combat. They are just needed because we have to look "RPG-esque". All that matters is we have CYOA quest reactivity, because that's what Obsidian RPGs were always about, yeah, sure.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Fuck FNV, give me F1-F2 remasters on Deadfire engine with Boyarsky and Cain supervising.

That engine has too much latte running through it to ever support Fallout's open world gameplay and travel.

The overworld travel in poe2 is about the same as in fallouts so they would have worked, the problem is more about the fact that fallouts environmental design is either grid based or it was prerendered but the renders weren't individually sculpted but rather built on some kind of grid out of "prefabs", I don't know which.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

Obsidian must be targeting Drizzt fanboys as the audience for Avowed.

 

[mediocrepoet]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

Obsidian must be targeting Drizzt fanboys as the audience for Avowed.

Disgusting creatures. I avoid them when I can.

Also RA Salvatore should be burned in effigy for his crimes against the fantasy genre as a whole and D&D specifically.

 

[ciox]

give me F1-F2 remasters on Deadfire engine with Boyarsky and Cain supervising.

game actually comes out..

it's Fallout Fixt with AI Upscaling.

 

[Cyberarmy]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

Obsidian must be targeting Drizzt fanboys as the audience for Avowed.

Disgusting creatures. I avoid them when I can.

Also RA Salvatore should be burned in effigy for his crimes against the fantasy genre as a whole and D&D specifically.

HEY!

I love Artemis Entreri!

 

[Silverfish]

Also RA Salvatore should be burned in effigy for his crimes against the fantasy genre as a whole and D&D specifically.

You didn't like the race of super elves in Amalur who reenacted historical battles as elaborate stage plays but also somehow for real?

 

[mediocrepoet]

Also RA Salvatore should be burned in effigy for his crimes against the fantasy genre as a whole and D&D specifically.

You didn't like the race of super elves in Amalur who reenacted historical battles as elaborate stage plays but also somehow for real?

Look. Are you trying to get me to burst a blood vessel?

 

[whydoibother]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

LOADOUTS(tm) will redefine the RPG as we know it, things will never be the same again. True story.

Bro, imagine your favorite RPG, but you can change what weapons the characters have equipped! Insane!

 

[Peachcurl]

They are really obsessed with pushing dual-wielding as some incredible discovery.

LOADOUTS(tm) will redefine the RPG as we know it, things will never be the same again. True story.

Bro, imagine your favorite RPG, but you can change what weapons the characters have equipped! Insane!

What will they think up next? Changing armor?

 

[Roguey]

Also RA Salvatore should be burned in effigy for his crimes against the fantasy genre as a whole and D&D specifically.

You didn't like the race of super elves in Amalur who reenacted historical battles as elaborate stage plays but also somehow for real?

The House of Ballads was the most interesting part of Amalur.

 

[Artyoan]

Maybe they thought it would come together like bioware obsidian magic.

My opinion on it remains the same. I'll leave it in my wishlist and maybe pick it up on a deep discount if it has some praise far down the line. But the ambition of this game hinted at greater things with that first trailer long ago and now it is just kinda there. Either they couldn't do what they were wanting to or never really knew where they were going.

 

[whydoibother]

Maybe they thought it would come together like bioware obsidian magic.

The newly released Suicide Squad kills the Justice League game seems to have a similar development to this game, and Anthem.
What they ended up releasing is comic book villains shooting guns at each other, rather than use their in-character weapons and abilities. I don't think its developer Rocksteady managed to "find the game" during the development process. But maybe Obsidian will.
After all, there's a reason we talk about Bioware magic: it failed with Anthem, popularizing mockery of the term; but it succeeded with Mass Effect and Dragon Age. They did manage to find the fun there, and both series supported trilogies that reviewed and sold well.
Arguably Baldur's Gate 3 as well, given how much was cut from that game, based on the earliest marketing and leaks for it, and early access changes. Though of course that game was bookended by the tabletop system rules, so it had a spine to build around.

 

[Butter]

Maybe they thought it would come together like bioware obsidian magic.

My opinion on it remains the same. I'll leave it in my wishlist and maybe pick it up on a deep discount if it has some praise far down the line. But the ambition of this game hinted at greater things with that first trailer long ago and now it is just kinda there. Either they couldn't do what they were wanting to or never really knew where they were going.

There's no Obsidian Magic, and there's no Obsidian Ambition. If they were an FPS studio, they'd be churning out bi-annual Call of Duty games, just glad to be getting a paycheck and hopefully not working too hard.

 

[Silverfish]

The House of Ballads was the most interesting part of Amalur.

That's not a high bar to clear.