Avowed

Vorph

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This would NOT just be modern politics being inserted.
It might be relevant to the game world, but the dialogue absolutely comes across as having been written by a leftist cult member injecting their personal politics into the game.
 
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Caliane

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yeah, I'm not even DL'd this woke racist trash to even see. it could be pure insert. the emphasis probably should have been on "just" there.

ideally the conversation would have been immersive and fully within the context of the world. but yeah. modern DEI writers? lol. good luck at that.
 
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pwe

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Level 7 and much better than expected. Maybe it's downhill from here, but it's great so far. Good to great visuals, great exploration, great combat. Zero woke bullshit so far. Movement is just like Dying Light, which is awesome. I really have no complaints. Except maybe the story haven't sucked me in at all, so I only partially know what's going on. But just headshotting stuff my bow is fun.
 
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TheBeagle

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It might be relevant to the game world, but the dialogue absolutely comes across as having been written by a leftist cult member injecting their personal politics into the game.
I watched a couple hours of gameplay and all of the dialogue sounded like zoomers having a conversation. I thought it looked terrible too, colors were washed out or something. Skyrim slop.
 
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rhinohelix

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The fuck...

I do wonder though. Did you play Pillars 1 or 2?

Abortion, and the like would actually be a complex topic in this setting. and a very relevant one. This would NOT just be modern politics being inserted. it would actually be a very mandatory discussion that needs to be had.

plot relevant details:

Pillars 1. Waidwens legacy. Children are being born without souls. empty husks. the reason is unknown.
Animancy, aka soul magic is in its infancy. Attaching souls to golems, attaching souls to souless infants, and the like. Animancy and its legally is a massive topic. wars, assassinations over it.

There is a cycle of reincarnation. Beraths wheel. a soul incarnates, dies, goes into the Arda stone network. may break down a little. and is reborn. as a different person, race, and even species. you can reincarnate as a dog. over centuries souls are breaking down. getting smaller and smaller..

Animancers tried injecting animal souls into the souless children. it seemed to work at first. but they mutated and went feral. wicht.

problem 1. Souls are wearing thing and running out.
problem 2. the souless children were not even from problem 1. they were from another issue.

Gods. The gods of Pillars of E are constructed. The elder race, Engwithians explored the world, and heavens, searching for meaning. and found none. no gods, no nothing. and then had the bright idea to make some, to structure the universe. to do this, they willing, and forcefully sacrificed the lives and souls of entire civilizations. They would build a machine in a population center and turn it on. it would suck out the souls of everyone in a 200m radius, chaining those souls together to form a soul A.I. A god. (just like Eldari in 40k)
The gods then feed on the souls of people. Beraths wheel was created. it intentionally reincarnates people, while also grinding down their souls, so the gods can feed on the soul residue.

but souls were getting thin, and the wheel was not enough. so, the machines were reactivated on a limited basis, allowing them to steal more souls. 20% or so.

Pillars 2.
the God Eothas who was "dead". reincarnates, and immediately says, "this isn't working, we need to change this"
goes off and breaks the wheel.

no reincarnation. souls will run out within 20 years. a solution needs to be found.

so, we are back. souls are running out. Children are being born without souls. so the point, if children are being as souless husks, the question of abortion HAS to be brought up..

animancy to build souls up from dust, or merge, or attach in general is an option as well. they could literally skip the dieing part... have a baby.. go to the doctor/animancy to check. do they have a soul? yes/no? if no... go to grandparents.. are you ready to start over? taking a soul from a living body, and placing it into another IS something they can do, and works, without much downsides.

its insane, but yeah, this is a setting where you would need to discuss this.

And there would be questions of 400 souls, 1000 babies.. yes, the rich would pay the whores, to transfer the infant souls into THEIR children. or if abortion, puts the soul back into the pool to be born, yes, again the poor, etc would be encouraged to abort, so the few children that ARE Born, are born with souls. so, if you abort 600 babies in that case, all 400 that are born, are born with souls. yes, you would do that.
I never played Pillars 1 or 2, so I never knew the backstory for those games or the world.
Good News, this is original in an era in which originality is sorely lacking. Bad News: From your description, it's absolutely fucking terrible dreck and I am no longer regretful I didn't play them, and never will.

The games must have been blow your balls off AMAZING because the games are revered and that world building is horrid.
 
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Caliane

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I never played Pillars 1 or 2, so I never knew the backstory for those games or the world.
Good News, this is original in an era in which originality is sorely lacking. Bad News: From your description, it's absolutely fucking terrible dreck and I am no longer regretful I didn't play them, and never will.

The games must have been blow your balls off AMAZING because the games are revered and that world building is horrid.
I mean, I reduced the entirety of pillars 2 down to 2 sentences. I don't think you can really judge the world building on that. its ok. pillars 1 did start of well with the world. 2's direct interaction with the gods lessened them for sure. much of the draw of Avowed for fans was absolutely the cliffhanger of Pillars 2. the world is fucked at the end of Pillars 2.

it was dark fantasy right from the start.

they aren't that revered. I mean, they got their asses handed to them by Divinity :OS 1 and 2. and then Owlcat and Pathfinder.

Amusingly, Tyranny is without question, their best crpg, followed by south park. Tyranny is a janky, half finished masterpiece. the Kotor2 of obsidian.

Pillars 1 and 2's biggest claim to fame is simply picking up the torch. When crpgs were "Dead" due to consolitis. Bethesda was making TES for consoles first, Bioware followed suit and Also, went all in for consoles with mass effect and Dragonage, Obsidian did keep the torch going on CRPGS. specifically it was inexile first. Wasteland 2, in the style of.. wasteland..(fallout1/2), Then Larian with Divinity:OS in the style of Ultima, and then obsidian followed suit with Pillars 1 in the style of infinity engine.
 
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spronk

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sorta explains why the game feels kinda basic i guess, musta rebooted it 2-3 years ago
 
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Kharzette

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I watched a couple hours of gameplay and all of the dialogue sounded like zoomers having a conversation. I thought it looked terrible too, colors were washed out or something. Skyrim slop.
I noticed a few grammatical errors in the trailer.

My friends are enjoying it though.
 

Edaw

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Ambiturner

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The fuck...

I do wonder though. Did you play Pillars 1 or 2?

Abortion, and the like would actually be a complex topic in this setting. and a very relevant one. This would NOT just be modern politics being inserted. it would actually be a very mandatory discussion that needs to be had.

plot relevant details:

Pillars 1. Waidwens legacy. Children are being born without souls. empty husks. the reason is unknown.
Animancy, aka soul magic is in its infancy. Attaching souls to golems, attaching souls to souless infants, and the like. Animancy and its legally is a massive topic. wars, assassinations over it.

There is a cycle of reincarnation. Beraths wheel. a soul incarnates, dies, goes into the Arda stone network. may break down a little. and is reborn. as a different person, race, and even species. you can reincarnate as a dog. over centuries souls are breaking down. getting smaller and smaller..

Animancers tried injecting animal souls into the souless children. it seemed to work at first. but they mutated and went feral. wicht.

problem 1. Souls are wearing thing and running out.
problem 2. the souless children were not even from problem 1. they were from another issue.

Gods. The gods of Pillars of E are constructed. The elder race, Engwithians explored the world, and heavens, searching for meaning. and found none. no gods, no nothing. and then had the bright idea to make some, to structure the universe. to do this, they willing, and forcefully sacrificed the lives and souls of entire civilizations. They would build a machine in a population center and turn it on. it would suck out the souls of everyone in a 200m radius, chaining those souls together to form a soul A.I. A god. (just like Eldari in 40k)
The gods then feed on the souls of people. Beraths wheel was created. it intentionally reincarnates people, while also grinding down their souls, so the gods can feed on the soul residue.

but souls were getting thin, and the wheel was not enough. so, the machines were reactivated on a limited basis, allowing them to steal more souls. 20% or so.

Pillars 2.
the God Eothas who was "dead". reincarnates, and immediately says, "this isn't working, we need to change this"
goes off and breaks the wheel.

no reincarnation. souls will run out within 20 years. a solution needs to be found.

so, we are back. souls are running out. Children are being born without souls. so the point, if children are being as souless husks, the question of abortion HAS to be brought up..

animancy to build souls up from dust, or merge, or attach in general is an option as well. they could literally skip the dieing part... have a baby.. go to the doctor/animancy to check. do they have a soul? yes/no? if no... go to grandparents.. are you ready to start over? taking a soul from a living body, and placing it into another IS something they can do, and works, without much downsides.

its insane, but yeah, this is a setting where you would need to discuss this.

And there would be questions of 400 souls, 1000 babies.. yes, the rich would pay the whores, to transfer the infant souls into THEIR children. or if abortion, puts the soul back into the pool to be born, yes, again the poor, etc would be encouraged to abort, so the few children that ARE Born, are born with souls. so, if you abort 600 babies in that case, all 400 that are born, are born with souls. yes, you would do that.

Wouldn't make sense for there to be a law against it then, and they did absolutely nothing with any of that lore accurate nonsense and went full Roe V Wade bitching.

The lady says something to the affect of:

The women have no other choice but to come to me for help.

And your options are something like:

A. I know, and I would never turn you in for that.
B. You only broke a law that was unjust in the first place, in order to protect the innocent
C. Most don't agree with the ban, me included
D. Something about midwives being killed

and the closest thing that goes against the narrative is something to the affect of

E. Sorry, but I'm only following orders

Nothing about souls, nothing about nuance. You're either for a woman's right to choose or you're a nazi bigot
 
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Vorph

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Yeah, even if you are siding with Steel Garotte the worst thing you can do in this quest is blackmail her for more money. No option to actually turn her in, no way to just destroy her contraband, etc.

And if you do push back against their "I ♥ abortion" struggle session, you miss out on the best amulet available in the early stages of the game. The dialogue about midwives is really weird too. She just calls you naive or some shit and doesn't actually elaborate on that part at all.

Easily the most hamfisted quest in the game, but it's also the only one where I thought, "this would have fit perfectly in Failguard". There's really nothing else on that level so I guess whatever degenerate wrote it was kept on a leash the rest of the time. Probably the same person who wrote all the cringy ass dialogue for the fourth companion.
 
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rhinohelix

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I've spent more time playing Avowed, and all I can say is: Its a shame that they rebooted this game 2 twice or whatever they did. It's clear the people making this are typical California Progressive crazies, the writing is Zoomer mid, I continue to read the enemy variety is poor/the same as you go on through the game, all the things we have said relentlessly. What this game more reminds of as I play though, is Anthem. It's the wasted potential that's the biggest shame here. It's not just the ideological agenda stuff, which everyone is on guard for given the ton of shit they have tried to serve up over the past decade-ish. It's also the Live-Service Corporatist Garbage design choices that weren't revised after they game stopped being a Destiny-esque multiplayer game.

In the first area still, this is what jumps out of me now: How rare and required some upgrade materials are; How you were obviously intended to grind some areas but that changed when the focus of the game changed but they didn't adapt the game systems to focus change enough. It's not real open world at all but its rather just an almost linear theme park choice of when to ride the rides. You have a wide open "classless" system but not enough skill points to really diversify to make a hybrid class and not enough materials to upgrade more than a couple weapons/armor pieces. I as a always do vacillated between a two handed hammer fighter/wizard and a gun mage build but there aren't enough materials/skill points to try those things out early before deciding which path to take.

The music/ambient sound track is great, the more I engage with combat, the more I like it. There are a ton of QoL features built into the game that people would be raving about if it wasn't for the Ideological Agenda stuff. Those encounters can be further and further apart, and as Caliane and I discussed previously, I am not overly thrilled with the world. Much of what is wrong with Avowed, though, is the child of two fathers, at least.
 

Vorph

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Upgrade materials are limited (wood is the real bitch since it's used for all the best weapon types) but you can game the system if you know how it all works. When a unique weapon drops it will be the tier of your best weapon. Same goes for armor. So you just want to focus on one of each until you upgrade as much as you possibly can. I was at Fine within a couple hours of leaving the tutorial area, Exceptional towards the end of Dawnshore, Superb about halfway through Emerald Stair. Legendary armor was easy early on in Shatterscarp, but lack of wood and top tier adra prevented me from upgrading my first pistol until I'd done about 75% of the zone's sidequests. At that point you're done, everything you get from that point on will just drop as legendary and you can continue breaking down everything you don't need for materials to upgrade your other weapons to legendary. Adra and wood will continue to be a huge pain in the ass though.
 
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krismunich

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The whole queerness discussion aside it still amazes me that games like Ultima VII (released 1992...) had more content, NPC schedules, dynamic interaction with objects, 200 different NPCs with unique portraits and dialogues and came on a handful of 3.5 floppies. How a company with all those tools, capacities and manpower in 2025 manages to release such a boring and sterile RPG is beyond me.
I played through the MSQ (took me 15 hours on normal) and nothing is exciting, remarkable or worth to experience, sadly. Also if you are going to have tiring companions let the player choose to venture alone, please.
.
 
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