Avowed

Qhue

Qhue

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I'm playing it as a pure Wizard and, unfortunately, I'm not really able to make much use of the different spells on account of how the combat system works.

Kai is an okay tank for fighting one thing, but even in boss fights you are often swarmed with lots of enemies. The teammates also do dog shit damage so I have to do the lions share of the DPS but also be in a position to keep myself alive since the one healer teammate is fucking awful at this. (Which is hilarious as it's virtually impossible to kill a bad guy that is being healed by a single xaurip healer). I have to have the health drain and the shield self spell so I'm pretty much stuck with that first unique grimoire you find. For a couple bosses the magic-bow is a must use spell so swap it out for that but I haven't even touched some of the cooler looking spells yet and I'm nearly level 20.
 
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Vorph

Vorph

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Qhue said:
I'm playing it as a pure Wizard and, unfortunately, I'm not really able to make much use of the different spells on account of how the combat system works.

Kai is an okay tank for fighting one thing, but even in boss fights you are often swarmed with lots of enemies. The teammates also do dog shit damage so I have to do the lions share of the DPS but also be in a position to keep myself alive since the one healer teammate is fucking awful at this. (Which is hilarious as it's virtually impossible to kill a bad guy that is being healed by a single xaurip healer). I have to have the health drain and the shield self spell so I'm pretty much stuck with that first unique grimoire you find. For a couple bosses the magic-bow is a must use spell so swap it out for that but I haven't even touched some of the cooler looking spells yet and I'm nearly level 20.
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Shouldn't need the health drain even on PotD, and the shield doesn't need the cost/cd reduction from a grimoire so just stick 2 points in it and call it good enough. Greater Elements is the best overall book imo, I'd put Minoletta's Conduit + Gtr Elements in the main set, and then either a melee weapon or a pistol in the offhand with whatever random grimoire you have with spells you like. Best grimoire for offhand in the long run is Eilara's unique but you don't get it until the ass end of the final zone. On the bright side, at least that means it will drop as legendary unless you've gone horribly wrong somewhere along the way. Prior to that I'd use Aurochs-Skin once you get it (may want to look up the location on that one, since it was well-hidden in a spot I don't think you can return to after leaving).

Just don't waste upgrade materials on anything you aren't using forever, even at the very end of the game and having min-maxed all my upgrades, I still only ended up with one fully maxed out weapon and two that were legendary but with only +1 in the final tier. There just isn't enough wood in the game for ranger or wizard builds, it's fucking retarded. I guess wizards have it a bit easier though, since greater elements grimoire maxes out at superb+3, and there's really no point to upgrading the unique one past legendary+0.

As for companions, you just need to cast their skills manually using the radial menu. Kai can sort of just do his thing, but Giatta absolutely needs to be micromanaged.
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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krismunich said:
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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All you have to do is learn that most of these games that are failing are hitting a "reset" after 2-3 years of development. Then they are racing to complete content for the next 2-3 years chasing whatever reason that caused the reset to happen in the first place. Im not a dev, so I dont quite understand why it is good for the life of a single player game to go from UE4 to UE5. But I could understand it in say, Ashes of Creation, because the game looks phenomenally better now and is an MMO. Where the game will HAVE to look as good as it can for as long as it can. But that pretty much wiped out a huge swath of content they had in the early Alpha's.

This game, for some reason, went through a reset and Asmongold showcases it with earlier trailers in that video. They went from a darker, grittier, atmosphere to almost this Hipster Disney type of art. I dont necessarily see anything wrong with it, but its just not to my taste in art direction and .. I dont think Im alone.

Other resets that could be comparable are like Anthem. They worked on that game for 6 years, and developed just the game we got in 18 months of that 6 years. If we look at Mass Effect: Andromeda, guess what? Another project worked on for 5-6 years and also given the ultimatum at the 18 month mark. Another one? Dragon Age Veilguard was in development for 10 fucking years, with most of that spent as project Dragon Age Dreadwolf. Actual development time is somewhere less than 4 years. They did the reset at 4 years from Dreadwolf to Veilguard. But then they had an additional reset somewhere along the line in the 4 year time span. Why? Who fucking knows. But I bet that if they would have stuck with Dreadwolf - what was originally teased all those years ago, this forum full of gamers would have loved it. Same with Avowed. Same with Anthem. Same with Andromeda.

The fag shit, woke shit, SJW shit... Thats going to be WAY more obvious when the entire weight of the package is significantly smaller. Or what we're really barking at with these games is that the management of these projects is fucking awful and these people continue to lead projects over and over and over, failing upward.
 
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spronk

spronk

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so why is kingdom come 2 selling so much better (2m+ copies first week) than this game? I didn't play KCD2 (or 1), not much interest really in medieval realism games. but i saw it has some woke shit in it like gay romance and christians being villains, i assume its minor shit since people mostly like the game a lot it seems.

Is it really way more complex/systemic than avowed? both seem similar combat/gameworld/story wise. neither seem to talk down to audiences like dragon age, avowed does seem more basic and younger-skewing (dialog wise), is that basically it?
 
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Chimney

Chimney

Trakanon Raider
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spronk said:
so why is kingdom come 2 selling so much better (2m+ copies first week) than this game? I didn't play KCD2 (or 1), not much interest really in medieval realism games. but i saw it has some woke shit in it like gay romance and christians being villains, i assume its minor shit since people mostly like the game a lot it seems.

Is it really way more complex/systemic than avowed? both seem similar combat/gameworld/story wise. neither seem to talk down to audiences like dragon age, avowed does seem more basic and younger-skewing (dialog wise), is that basically it?
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KCD2 and Avowed only overlap in the fact that they both have RPG in the name. Avowed is like babies first RPG in comparison so they serve two different core audiences.
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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spronk said:
so why is kingdom come 2 selling so much better (2m+ copies first week) than this game? I didn't play KCD2 (or 1), not much interest really in medieval realism games. but i saw it has some woke shit in it like gay romance and christians being villains, i assume its minor shit since people mostly like the game a lot it seems.

Is it really way more complex/systemic than avowed? both seem similar combat/gameworld/story wise. neither seem to talk down to audiences like dragon age, avowed does seem more basic and younger-skewing (dialog wise), is that basically it?
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This is WAY more shallow than KCD2. I still havent even been to the wedding in KCD2. Just watch someones playthrough video and make your own judgement if you dont want to sail the high seas.
 
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rhinohelix

rhinohelix

Dental Dammer
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GD mit, I am really enjoying playing this now: Once you accept it for what it is, bar set so low, not Skyrim but more open-world Mass Effect: Andromeda with the same intended story as Avatar/Dances with Wolves, the combat is really fun, the score is great, every item in the super static world is meant for you to pick up, etc. Writing is still zoomer mid but I like the Companions except for the Black Girlboss radical who is a piss poor healer. Give me either a Skeleton Priest or one of the Mixelpix Lizard people High Priests; those bastards are c-healing like they are doing NTOV. The Dwarf Hunter and the Midget Furry Wizard are both pretty good, if the MFW is under-written. I am still in the desert area so I think Dwarf Hunter will get more character (and maybe get worse) as we get to his home zone. I started following Vorph's plan once I read it; with the conversion I am at low level Superb in Shatterscarp. but if I had started earlier and took the upgrade takes less to convert and Scavanger skills that give more when you harvest, I surely could have gotten there.

Exploration is actually a good mix of jump puzzles and just looking off the beaten path. I normally hate that stuff but don't mind it here. Upgrade materials also seem way less rare once you get to the desert; that may just be my getting ahead of the power curve though, and getting into the groove of the game.

All in all its a great time and I will enjoy buying this on sale on Steam for 10 bucks some time in the future. Its just such a shame these Devs get bullied into making the writing/narrative/quests the weakest part of the game. With a just a few tweaks to the story and quest writing, this could have been a much much better received game, if you also exclude the crazy radical Obsidian employees trying to sink their own company. It could have not been a rank failure.
 
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P

pwe

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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I hit the wall. This is not a good RPG. As a Borderlands type game with tons of weapons it might be great. Bow is lot’s of fun, but I’ve been using the same bow and dagger all game. RPGs should have lootz I care about, but upgrading just seems better. And cut 90% of the dialog.

Still playing, though. Bow sniping at range and then shield + fire dagger when they get close. Due to great world design it’s still ok, but it’s just an FPS at this point. With Gamepass definitely try the first hours, they are pretty good.

Edit: btw, my gayger counter:

1740942272415.png
 
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rhinohelix

rhinohelix

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So I finished it. I hate to say, I really enjoyed playing it. They had a fun core game here, dragged down by lots of incredibly mid dialogue choices, some overall bad plot decisions, world building iffiness, lots of efforts towards wokey crap, etc. The Skulls/leveling creatures issues stopped being a problem by the time I really dug into Vorph's upgrade strategy. I had to quit using the black girlboss animancer/healer because all of her quest responses were so f'ing unbearable. But if you ignore all the gay Dwarf merchants, the previously noted tendency towards overall World girlbossiness, the whole game slanted against the empire you represent (I can't imagine playing as anyone other than Supporting the Living Lands! Avatar/Dances with Wolves Outsider Savior; the Companion dialogue might have been unbearable in that case). There is probably a ton of things I forgot/am not including here but I just starting ignoring any woke bullshit, I just didn't care.

I found the Dwarf Marius OK/enjoyable, Obviously Kai/Garrus was great. The Furry Midget Yatzli was pretty OK, and even toward the end the Black Girlboss Giatta wasn't so bad, although that may have been because of the ending I was playing towards suited her goals as well. Combat was good, once I was clued into the proper upgrade strategy for gear it went even better (I ended up using a unique 2-handed sword from the 3rd area; I full upgraded that and my armor right before the end of the game). I used an early game lightning pistol and fire sword as alt weapons to open doors and burn brambles as I went through the various areas, frost grenades where required because I didn't want to switch weapons.

The game isn't really replayable for me it feels super linear; I did every side quest on this play through and never really enjoyed the ranged combat enough to warrant another playthrough. I have never seen a game where I had to kill the final boss 4 times as well. WTF. It didn't outstay its welcome, I came around/got into the spirit of the story once I stopped trying to figure it out, as it were, and just went whole hog on what I had determined my role to be. I will say the game worked hard to make you doubt your choices about whom to trust, what to believe, and where to come down on the big decisions in the game. But so many of the dialogues would just leave you with choices that were so extreme, or not germane, or not how I wanted to answer in the context of the conversation.

I don't know if I would rise from my second judgement of 7.5/10 because its ok to like mediocre things; just because I enjoyed doesn't mean its qualitatively better. The game grew on me considerably and I am super glad that I played it. The Woke stuff is all modern day California crap, the story is OK; I mean not great at all but I liked how my game ended; so the end-game execution worked pretty well. The camp conversations reminded me of Mass Effect elevator convo's, and the guy playing Garrus needs to be the Companion in every game; damn he makes it great.

There are many games that are defeated by my ADD and I don't complete but this one compelled me/I enjoyed enough to finish. What a weird rollercoaster ride Avowed was.
 
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Daidraco

Daidraco

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rhinohelix said:
So I finished it. I hate to say, I really enjoyed playing it. They had a fun core game here, dragged down by lots of incredibly mid dialogue choices, some overall bad plot decisions, world building iffiness, lots of efforts towards wokey crap, etc. The Skulls/leveling creatures issues stopped being a problem by the time I really dug into Vorph's upgrade strategy. I had to quit using the black girlboss animancer/healer because all of her quest responses were so f'ing unbearable. But if you ignore all the gay Dwarf merchants, the previously noted tendency towards overall World girlbossiness, the whole game slanted against the empire you represent (I can't imagine playing as anyone other than Supporting the Living Lands! Avatar/Dances with Wolves Outsider Savior; the Companion dialogue might have been unbearable in that case). There is probably a ton of things I forgot/am not including here but I just starting ignoring any woke bullshit, I just didn't care.

I found the Dwarf Marius OK/enjoyable, Obviously Kai/Garrus was great. The Furry Midget Yatzli was pretty OK, and even toward the end the Black Girlboss Giatta wasn't so bad, although that may have been because of the ending I was playing towards suited her goals as well. Combat was good, once I was clued into the proper upgrade strategy for gear it went even better (I ended up using a unique 2-handed sword from the 3rd area; I full upgraded that and my armor right before the end of the game). I used an early game lightning pistol and fire sword as alt weapons to open doors and burn brambles as I went through the various areas, frost grenades where required because I didn't want to switch weapons.

The game isn't really replayable for me it feels super linear; I did every side quest on this play through and never really enjoyed the ranged combat enough to warrant another playthrough. I have never seen a game where I had to kill the final boss 4 times as well. WTF. It didn't outstay its welcome, I came around/got into the spirit of the story once I stopped trying to figure it out, as it were, and just went whole hog on what I had determined my role to be. I will say the game worked hard to make you doubt your choices about whom to trust, what to believe, and where to come down on the big decisions in the game. But so many of the dialogues would just leave you with choices that were so extreme, or not germane, or not how I wanted to answer in the context of the conversation.

I don't know if I would rise from my second judgement of 7.5/10 because its ok to like mediocre things; just because I enjoyed doesn't mean its qualitatively better. The game grew on me considerably and I am super glad that I played it. The Woke stuff is all modern day California crap, the story is OK; I mean not great at all but I liked how my game ended; so the end-game execution worked pretty well. The camp conversations reminded me of Mass Effect elevator convo's, and the guy playing Garrus needs to be the Companion in every game; damn he makes it great.

There are many games that are defeated by my ADD and I don't complete but this one compelled me/I enjoyed enough to finish. What a weird rollercoaster ride Avowed was.
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You rated it that well, yet a good chunk of your review is "if you ignore" ... Bro..
92a22a09b2dde40e1e995829d8cb01f9
 
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rhinohelix

rhinohelix

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Daidraco said:
You rated it that well, yet a good chunk of your review is "if you ignore" ... Bro..
92a22a09b2dde40e1e995829d8cb01f9
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Yes, I acknowledge they exist; and in spite of their presence, things I absolutely despise, I still enjoyed the game because they were ignorable. It's OK to like bad or mid things if you acknowledge they are bad or mid, my liking something doesn't change what it is or that these things are there. You might not be able to ignore them; I want to give everyone full warning about their existence and *in spite of them*, I still liked the game, FAR more than I expected. If you ramrod down the path the game seems to be directing you, its seemingly preferred/intended choice (and the game offers you plenty of opportunity and info to turn away from) and you fully roleplay that in order to get the best outcome, its not a bad story.

I just want to provide all those caveats and provisos when I write about how much I enjoyed it and what that required. Some people may not be able to do those things; its certainly not what the cool kids are doing nor what it is how I expected to react to the game but if I of all people can ignore it, it should be fairly damn ignorable for most folks are not as ideological strident as I am.
 
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