Is “avowed” what obsidian has always been?

before i start this entry… i must relate to you microsoft copilot’s assessment of this ip’s performance on the steam deck. low settings and 30hz hit and miss. as i am required to mention just to more complete the article i will post an amazon code, as for the moment i am an amazon associate here for the steelbook/digital pc code of the game. i get a few pennies on the dollar if you decide to purchase it through that link and it’s an xbox series x console/p.c. exclusive by the way… sorry weebos. personally, i’m mostly a desktop fan, and that is part of the reason why. irregardless of which steam deck you purchase they share a chipset so don’t waste your cash unless you have a capable desktop or an xbox series x|s. now, down to brass tacks. full transparency, i do not own baldur’s gate 3, i can’t stand fallout new vegas, i own divinity definitive edition and that thing is harder than a two-year-old elephant turd. i like for there to be a little bit of linearity in my games. i don’t like thinking too hard. i’m into the story more than i am into the pure conundrum of the way developers like larian’s games play. i don’t know if they are the same folks who programmed divine divinity, but my inferior mind must not be able to fathom the game plan that goes along with these incredibly difficult games. if you have enough of a complete mind to have gotten through pillars of eternity, this is basically that mixed in with oblivion in the same fantasy world as “pillars of eternity.” it’s powered by the incredible since unreal tournament, unreal 4 development engine… and that thing has been iterated on and gotten appreciably better since you were an embarrassing stain on your father’s bedsheets. so far it runs like a dream on my mid range p.c. with that nvidia dlss and of course, in the new paradigm of the market is colorful, one of my top 10 beautiful game worlds and it’s fantastical like the worlds everybody claims that obsidian was supposed to be known for but the first boss still kicks your butt for an hour straight. i mean this is what we wanted from obsidian since neverwinter nights 2, which, to be fair wasn’t a horrible game for the time but also one that got enraptured and whisked away to patch hell. it’s been a couple of decades and, with a competent computer that relic is thankfully playable and enjoyable finally, although the armor is still bland as ever. as for avowed, you can switch between a third person view and a first person view, both with reticles for the bow your using, your gonna need it trust me, and the character models are straight off of tatooine. there is a good degree of customization to be had, but the aesthetic of the game skews to odd more decisively than it does to “me the way i want to look, jacked,” that so many of us refuse to admit they try for a half an hour to character create until they are satisfied. right now im playing a character sub class called a “godlike” which is supposed to refer to a chosen creature that was blessed in the womb by a God but multiple species have the “godlike” designation available to them. the official race of my character is an orlan. from what i’ve experienced of playing this sub class, the gods, seemingly in very ungodly duress over the situation of the planet, help you and give you special powers depending on your dialogue checks one of which i’ve received. orlans look kind of like anthropomorphic meerkats more than divine beings, but the godlike designation, complete with a host of identifying facial features and species… in fact, the orlans are one of five new species added to the game i’m assuming as a thanks from obsidian for the game’s success over the previous year since launch and the races are all highly customizable with presets. orlans, like such animals in our reality, start off with a couple of extra points in perception. im a sucker for playing unusually perceptive characters in role playing games whether i am or not. like i said, the story isn’t epic so far as i’ve played but it’s largely voiced and, not like i’m the best critic of character voice acting… i’m enjoying myself. one other interesting thing is that the game doesn’t constrain you as far as the combat is concerned. i’m an hour in and i have an axe, a bow, and a magic wand complete with grimoire and, even though i’m not heavy into the magical characters the prospect of a progressive grimoire is awesome. i may keep you posted or i may not but with supposed blizzard crossplay (it’s on sale for a couple of days on the microsoft market.) there are other differences from oblivion even though it shares the same camera perspectives that endear me to this title, like the fact that you travel with a partner that helps out enough so you don’t feel like the game is playing itself, and they have interesting, fleshed out personalities. it comes off like a sandbox, but the story has enough structure so it doesn’t feel programmed lazily so far. there are voiced quests with a structure that wasn’t really possible in the fallout 3 days. the crafting is split between acquiring new gear and improving your existing equipment in the ethereal camp you enter into so you can rest, and its super simple and i like that. now this is the obsidian that everybody used to swear they were, but i never got it, did i mention that this game world is seriously colorful with its own unique art style that attests to the fact that oblivion remastered was fan service? maybe it’s just me. i would go so far to say that, after my first three hours, this is my favorite obsidian game ever… capitalizing on the drought of good, fun to play games. it’s probably still on sale for thirty something dollars on the xbox store… if you’re not starving its worth a play.