Avowed: Obsidian is releasing a first-person RPG, set in the "Pillars of Eternity" world. I have no idea how open world it is.

[cogwheel]

This is one of the free PSN games this month. I'm still playing PoE 2, but I nabbed it for after I finish.

@mysdrial is right, you're talking about Dragon Age: Veilguard. Avowed is only on Windows and Xbox Series X/S, and Obsidian has no official plans of ever porting it to PS5, which isn't surprising for a game published by Xbox Game Studios.

It's also called Playstation Plus now. Sony abandoned the PSN name (at least as a subscription thing) when it merged PS+ and PSN.

Avowed is a Game Pass game, though this is to be expected given it's from a Microsoft-owned studio and published by Xbox Game Studios.

 

[Ajar]

RIP, y'all are right. I got my wires crossed.

 

[whoisit]

Fairly big patch dropped today. Haven't seen patch notes yet, so who knows whats fixed.

 

[The Ventriloquist]

"Now doesn't use the same barely animated cutscene for every damn dream sequence."
"Your avatar will now animate emotions more than .4% of the time."
"Changed useless cool grey minimap to equally useless warm grey minimap."

 

[whoisit]

Uh,...you know if you don't like the game, no one here is forcing you to play it, or post in threads about it.

 

[The Ventriloquist]

I am able to multitask and like aspects of the game while also finding fault with (quite frankly, too numerous to list) gaps in the quality of the title that stem from it's well documented turbulence during development.

 

[Semi On]

They reduced the Adra cost to upgrade and added an extra perk at certain levels. So that’s cool.

 

[Nauls]

Ran into a story-altering bug that I couldn't seem to get around.

Regarding the decision on Solace Keep:

I got to the part where you can choose to open the sluice gates to save the keep or destroy the gears to doom it (or do nothing and also doom it). I opened the gates, which should trigger a small cutscene, but it never does. The quest markers never update either. When you step outside it acts as if you did nothing and the keep is destroyed. No matter how far back I reloaded or tried different dialogue paths it never changed the outcome.

I got to the point where I just said fuck it, I guess that's just how the story is going to play out then.

I also got to the point around the start of the 4th act where the game was definitely getting stale, so I've been just powering through to finish it out. Down some fresh water for the 25% speed boost and just Forrest Gump it everywhere as fast as possible. Eat a hero's feast worth of consumables before large fights to make them go quicker.

I also broke down every unique I've amassed so far to use the mats to upgrade my final gear that I'll finish out the game with. No point in keeping anything you're not going to use once you've settled into a build you like.

 

[NewNinetyNine]

Really enjoying this so far! I haven't followed the plot beyond a first visit to the main city, and have enjoyed just exploring and clearing the map.

After trying magic and pure guns I've settled on a ranger Sword/Shield and Long gun setup. I have no idea what I'm doing, and it's glorious.

Found a mod to set respec costs to zero, because there's no way to know what works well without experimentation.

Gorgeous game, and I enjoy the world. My only gripe is that the AI can be easily cheesed in combat.

 

[Nauls]

Well I've finally finished the game. Clocked in at 58 hours. That's doing the first 3 areas at a casual pace and the last 2 much quicker. Explored everywhere, did all the quests. Found all the fragments for 2 of 4 totems (didn't bother looking for the other two at all), and only went out of my way to find two fragments that I missed casually in the first area. I did have to re-do one main story quest in Emerald Stair because I didn't realize that not completing a certain sidequest beforehand had major consequences on the story.

Overall I enjoyed it. As others have said it's a straightforward action RPG that more or less accomplishes what it sets out to do without pushing any boundaries. The companions are the real standout for me; their banter is always enjoyable and wonderfully voiced.

 

[Nauls]

Found a mod to set respec costs to zero, because there's no way to know what works well without experimentation.

Gorgeous game, and I enjoy the world. My only gripe is that the AI can be easily cheesed in combat.

The respec costs end up being extremely cheap once you start amassing any steady amount of coin. And it never gets very high at all - the respec cost at level 30 is less than 3000.

I do agree the flexibility is great. I actually did a minor respec in the literal last 10 minutes of the game before the final boss fight.

Regarding combat, the AI can get pretty aggressive in later areas, so you might be grateful for the cheese eventually. Crowd control skills are king. In the final battle I think I had the boss CC'd for like half of it.

 

[NewNinetyNine]

The respec costs end up being extremely cheap once you start amassing any steady amount of coin. And it never gets very high at all - the respec cost at level 30 is less than 3000.

Understood, but I got respecs up to 250 when my total gold was a few thousand (after probably spending a couple thousand on respecs).

I'm going to give the second level grimoires a try to decide once and for all between ranger sword/board/gun and mage.

 

[cogwheel]

Bleh. The game's still fun, but since I'm playing a arquebus/caster hybrid (mostly frost and Corrosive Siphon), I'm caught between a bug and a terrible design decision.

The bug: guns, and possibly arrows, will sometimes miss entirely even when you definitely should have hit what you're aiming at. It appears that somehow the game's internal logic about where an enemy is and where it's showing on your screen can differ, so you aim where an enemy appears to be and you whiff. This can happen multiple times in a row, but it seems to temporarily fix itself if you actually damage the enemy.

The terrible design decision: grimoire spell cost reductions and cooldown reductions only work on spells you cast from the grimoire. Yes, that means if you learn a spell, put it on your action bar, and cast it from there, even if you have the spell in a grimoire and have that grimoire in your currently active weapon set, you don't get the cost and cooldown reductions. To get those reductions, you must hold right click (or whatever it is on console to access the grimoire in your offhand) and then select from the grimoire's list of spells.

I'm trying to figure out what to change to get away from this.

 

[NewNinetyNine]

I switched from Sword/Shield/Gun (which itself was very fun) to caster with the Greater elements grimoire and Grimoire mastery level 2.

Tier 1 spells were quite lackluster and involved far too much proximity to enemies that love to swarm and kick you in the face. Whereas the Tier 2 spells really make me feel like I'm playing with awesome forces that can level a battlefield. Currently Wand/Grimoire 1 and Pistol/Grimoire 2, and it's a rollicking good time. I just cleared the "Skeleton Challenge" for the unique sword in the second zone with both methods. The sword/shield were quite powerful, but it felt quite repetitive versus slinging different massive spells at a horde.

The only odd element of casting is how potion dependent mana is, but I assume that will be addressed once I get the upgrades to essence per purple orb.

The plot and characterization have been very ho-hum so far, but I'm enjoying wandering the world, clearing out the map, and finding secrets. My biggest wish is respawning or random enemies, as the world really empties out once you clear it.

Edit: It's also amusing that I'm a royal envoy with the ear of the emperor and I'm running around stealing potatoes. The game unabashedly ignores repercussions for gamification and loot.

 

[Ardax]

The bug: guns, and possibly arrows, will sometimes miss entirely even when you definitely should have hit what you're aiming at.

I've seen this happen with both. It's kind of annoying. Switching weapons also seems to work IME.

My biggest wish is respawning or random enemies, as the world really empties out once you clear it.

I've heard there's a few spots where enemies respawn, but they're few and far between. I have come back through a couple spots that I've cleared of living creatures only to have undead spawn there.

 

[Hound of Cullen]

Finished it after roughly 60 hours, including twice reloading earlier saves because I missed a major plot point decision.

Was almost exclusively a ranger, bow with arquebus as alt weapon. The 'grasping vines' is great for boss fights; fast cooldown means that you can hold most big-bads in place and safely snipe them from a distance.

Companions in combat don't really do much. They're best to act as distractions since their damage is negligible. That meant my preferred running-around pair was:

Kai and Giatta. Kai has an ability which draws aggro, Giatta will throw heals and shields which help with your durability.

I preferred it to "Veilguard" which felt too much on-rails for my liking. Veilguard lacked the exploration that Avowed had. Party member quests in Veilguard were better (Kai's was the only one that felt fleshed out, involving multiple steps and areas). And, to be honest, I find Dragon Age lore more tedious than Pillars of Eternity lore (which is saying something). Despite all of the "moral ambiguity" it still felt like there was a "light-side" path (don't work with the flaming-eyed zealot) and a "dark-side" path (work with the flaming-eyed zealot). Most of the individual act choices didn't have a "good" solution, but it was pretty clear which the nicey-nice (or evil) solution was going to be.

 

[Distraction]

I’m in the 2nd area with about 25 hours played. It’s been great so far. I’m playing a high Dex character with medium armor and spear/shield. My 2nd set is just the level 1 grimoire for puzzles that require magic. So 100% melee in combat. I’ve already got 3 pieces of gear with stacking speed boosts so I’m fast. In fights I rush their back line and take out the squishies first. The combat is fun and fairly challenging. Several of the fights so far have involved a lot of enemies.

All that speed is great for exploration, too.

 

[cogwheel]

Companions in combat don't really do much. They're best to act as distractions since their damage is negligible. That meant my preferred running-around pair was:

Kai and Giatta. Kai has an ability which draws aggro, Giatta will throw heals and shields which help with your durability.

That'd be my preferred pair mechanically, but the third area introduces illusion obstacles, which only Yatzli can get rid of, unlike the fire/ice/electric obstacles that can be gotten rid of by the PC as well. This means I feel I'm forced to run Kai/Yatzli, Kai because scaly blue Garrus (Brandon Keener is the VA for Kai), and Yatzli for exploration/loot reasons.

Now that I'm in the fourth area, I may just give up and run Kai/Marius since Marius is likely to have a lot of commentary, and taking the time to swap out Marius for Yatzli when I run across illusion obstacles, but that's going to be a bit tedious.

My 2nd set is just the level 1 grimoire for puzzles that require magic.

There are a couple solutions for puzzles other than using your own spells. First, you can have Kai burn the fire targets and Giatta zap the electric targets using the command wheel ("E" on keyboard) if you have the party member with you (there's no ice companion). Second, the fire, ice, and electric grenades also work for all of those targets.

 

[Arbelac]

That'd be my preferred pair mechanically, but the third area introduces illusion obstacles, which only Yatzli can get rid of, unlike the fire/ice/electric obstacles that can be gotten rid of by the PC as well. This means I feel I'm forced to run Kai/Yatzli, Kai because scaly blue Garrus (Brandon Keener is the VA for Kai), and Yatzli for exploration/loot reasons.

Now that I'm in the fourth area, I may just give up and run Kai/Marius since Marius is likely to have a lot of commentary, and taking the time to swap out Marius for Yatzli when I run across illusion obstacles, but that's going to be a bit tedious.


There are a couple solutions for puzzles other than using your own spells. First, you can have Kai burn the fire targets and Giatta zap the electric targets using the command wheel ("E" on keyboard) if you have the party member with you (there's no ice companion). Second, the fire, ice, and electric grenades also work for all of those targets.

You'll be fine with the swapping. Just swap when doing Godless ruin points and you shouldn't miss anything.

And yes, I highly recommend that combo for the 4th area. There is significant commentary and dialog decisions related to it.

 

[Distraction]

There are a couple solutions for puzzles other than using your own spells. First, you can have Kai burn the fire targets and Giatta zap the electric targets using the command wheel ("E" on keyboard) if you have the party member with you (there's no ice companion). Second, the fire, ice, and electric grenades also work for all of those targets.

True, and I was using an arquebus as my secondary weapon early on, but I found it was more effective (and fun) to rush immediately. So I switched to the grimoire since I wasn’t shooting anyway. It is kind of a waste of the second slot, but maybe I’ll find another weapon at some point. For now it saves me from needing to open the inventory. I’d rather throw the grenades at enemies.

One thing that surprised me is that all physical damage is the same, so no need for a blunt weapon for skeles, for instance. That reduces the amount of weapons I need a lot. That’s also something I would hate in theory, but it feels kind of freeing in practice.

 

[Arbelac]

True, and I was using an arquebus as my secondary weapon early on, but I found it was more effective (and fun) to rush immediately. So I switched to the grimoire since I wasn’t shooting anyway. It is kind of a waste of the second slot, but maybe I’ll find another weapon at some point. For now it saves me from needing to open the inventory. I’d rather throw the grenades at enemies.

One thing that surprised me is that all physical damage is the same, so no need for a blunt weapon for skeles, for instance. That reduces the amount of weapons I need a lot. That’s also something I would hate in theory, but it feels kind of freeing in practice.

The difference in physical weapons appears to be their stun amount.

Also, there's a unique bow that has an electric enchantment, and can be used to shoot the electric switches (and puddles...)

 

[Nauls]

The difference in physical weapons appears to be their stun amount.

Also, there's a unique bow that has an electric enchantment, and can be used to shoot the electric switches (and puddles...)

There's also a unique wand that adds frost to its basic attacks, which also has the side benefit of creating ice sheets on water without the need for appropriate grenades.

Although it's not like grenades are in short supply. As usual, I always forgot that I had them and thus I think I finished the game with close to 300 in my inventory. Probably should have just spammed them in the end since the stacking effect doesn't seem to care.

 

[Hound of Cullen]

The difference in physical weapons appears to be their stun amount.

Also, there's a unique bow that has an electric enchantment, and can be used to shoot the electric switches (and puddles...)

A unique pistol, too for electric switches. And an arquebus for frost (although you get it fairly late)

 

[NewNinetyNine]

There's also a unique wand that adds frost to its basic attacks, which also has the side benefit of creating ice sheets on water without the need for appropriate grenades.

Although it's not like grenades are in short supply. As usual, I always forgot that I had them and thus I think I finished the game with close to 300 in my inventory. Probably should have just spammed them in the end since the stacking effect doesn't seem to care.

Once I got blizzard, it trivialized "freeze a path through water" sections. It's ALL ice.

Currently planning a play 1 on Hard with mage, followed by play 2 on hardest sword and board ranger or 2H bruiser.

 

[Nauls]

Once I got blizzard, it trivialized "freeze a path through water" sections. It's ALL ice.

Currently planning a play 1 on Hard with mage, followed by play 2 on hardest sword and board ranger or 2H bruiser.

Blizzard was by far my favorite spell. Such great CC, especially when you can unlock the extra duration at level 3. Fights in shallow bodies of water were hilariously unfair, as casting blizzard or blast of frost at anything standing in water absolutely melts it.

 

[NewNinetyNine]

Once I got blizzard, it trivialized "freeze a path through water" sections. It's ALL ice.

Currently planning a play 1 on Hard with mage, followed by play 2 on hardest sword and board ranger or 2H bruiser.

Update - already dropped my first playthrough to do POTD from the start on a sword and board war hero. The mage route just felt too easy/spammy, and I had already sold or dismantled all of the melee items I found. It's shocking all of the extra secrets I'm finding the second time through.

Trying to decide between the fiery 1H sword or the frost axe. The sword feels better and heals me, but axes seem to be inherently better weapons.