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From: Tahitian pearl <j63480576@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: I bought Avowed at full price, for feks sake
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:43:06 -0600
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Justisaur wrote:
> On 2/20/2025 5:20 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:
>>
>> And the real shocker is, no regrets so far.  In terms of action combat
>> in a single player fantasy setting like this (which isn't really my
>> genre), I really haven't seen something like this in quite a while.
>>
>> First I want to say I had no intention of paying full price for this
>> game, I can wait forever for single player games since
>> matchmaking/lobby filling is not even a consideration.
>>
>> I bought it mostly because [1] I found out someone I knew reasonably
>> well wrote the entire soundtrack for it, and [2] it looked kind of fun
>> and combat-mechanics focused which will draw me in much faster than a
>> game where a few tens of millions of dollars have been spent on
>> "story" that's been out-woked to Sweet Baby Inc or whaever.
>>
>> About [1] I've never met him in person, he's quite a bit
>> younger/greener/less experienced than me in all aspects of life, but I
>> have had enough conversations with him to know that I've had
>> substantial influence on the choices made in his music career
>> (especially regarding gear purchases which I know he struggles with
>> financially).. , and I've learned a great deal from him (as I always
>> do from music buddies), so there was absolutely no way I was not
>> supporting him by purchasing the game whether I liked playing it or
>> not.  He does tend to be a bit of the type to talk because he loves to
>> hear his own voice, and there is a YT video out there where he is kind
>> of giving himself attaboys...  but in terms of the soundtrack itself,
>> the appropriateness for the game (and what I always look for, the
>> production value), I think he recognized the value of the opportunity
>> early on and stepped up to the plate appropriately, so kudos to him on
>> a job well done!
>>
>> About [2]... I guess going into things with the expectations of the
>> kind of changes we've seen over the last few years sets us up for
>> going "wow" when we see something better than the usual crap?  I
>> definitely got a nice surprise here.. where I really feel the
>> difference is simply combat that's actually fun.  I'm not going to
>> tell you it's necessarily as fun or impactful as Dark Messiah of Might
>> and Magic back in the day, but it reminds me of that in the sense of
>> the overall immersiveness of the combat itself.
>>
>> It's not a perfect game by any means.  It comes in woke very quickly
>> with the character creation thing (He/She/They pronouns), and very
>> early in the game makes sure that every female or female-like being
>> you might encounter is so far from sexy or fuckable, that it seems
>> like an intentional-yet-subliminal libido passiviation mechanism,
>> designed to be sure you never get distracted from anything but the
>> game.  Did they hire Kim Belair to design the female characters?
>> Rodney Dangerfield used to joke that if you want to look fit, make
>> sure all the friends you hang around are only fat people.  I think
>> this is Kim's strategy to game design -- to downplay her own
>> unattractiveness by making sure everything else has trouble meeting a
>> lower standard.
>>
>> It also has bugs..  pretty severe if you go wandering about the map,
>> climbing rocks and such.  You get into bad terrain clipping shit that
>> quickly lets you know the game patches aren't ready for that.
>>
>> Mack from WorthABuy is correct that the world feels "too clean" and
>> (my description not his) too Avatar-Movie-Like.  But I got used to
>> this much faster than I thought I would... and I remembered from the
>> Zelda games on Switch, not everything needs to look realistic to be
>> fun.  The art in this game is fun, you just have to be willing to let
>> your eyes adapt to it.
>>
>> So there ya go.  I'm now a chump who has spent full price for a game,
>> with absolutely no chance of refunding it. :)  Most of you should
>> probably buy this game too, if your machine can see it in all its
>> glory and at a nice framerate.
> 
> First impression from watching the trailer on the steam page is it seems 
> to be a Skyrim type game.  We could sure use more competition there.  I 
> might pick it up on sale eventually.
> 
> To compare to Skyrim from the reviews,
> 
> [x] bugs
> [x] mostly boring quests
> [x] mostly boring npcs
> [x] mostly pointless dialog choices
> [x] simple skill tree
> [x] mostly attack by left clicking
> 
> Of course I haven't played it yet to verify.  Most of the negative comes 
> from people expecting it to be like Path of Exile which are the same 
> makers, or like some other games with more action combat instead of RPG 
> combat. If you take those out the reviews are pretty positive.
> 
> I don't see much mention of the 'woke' bits, certainly not in the 
> negative reviews, so it's not getting review bombed for that (unless 
> it's because I'm not seeing those due to Steams algorithm which is a 
> distinct possibility.)  I looked up the female NPCs, at least half of 
> them look o.k. to me, but yeah the other half look manly.  I didn't 
> really notice to begin with but after taking a close look, I can't unsee 
> it.  I don't know that it would bother me.  Have to wait to see if 
> modding will be available.
> 
> I like the art for the cover for it, the in game stuff looks pretty 
> enough, but nothing special.
> 
> I've been keeping an eye on it, I'll probably pick it up if reviews get 
> better, or it's mod-able, eventually if it gets a discount.  As usual 
> with almost every single player game (or even many multi-player) give it 
> a year and see if they manage to iron out bugs and improve content, and 
> state of modding.
> 
> It's on PC game pass so if you're dying to try it but aren't sure you 
> can always pay for the month for $12.
> 


Boring is better than Skyrim in some ways because I have such a 
difficult time gaining a foothold in them for 2 and forwards to Skyrim 
(5).  I really can't figure out how to get started.  I've done some 
progress in Oblivion by joining the mage's & fighter's guild but that's it.

-- 
No heebies, creepies or hallucinogenics It's the height of paranoia
Male, white, mid-to-late thirties