Can we stop comparing Avowed to Skyrim/Oblivion already?

[Hellleon]

First off, the whole prop-moving thing. You know how in Skyrim or Oblivion you can throw a spoon across the room or stack random junk for no reason? That’s the Creation Engine flexing—super cool in its own way. But Avowed? It’s Unreal Engine. It’s not built for that. It’s more about looking gorgeous and running smooth than letting me toss buckets around. Trying to judge it for something it’s not even trying to do is just unfair.

Then there’s archery. People are like “oh, how’s the bow gonna stack up to Skyrim?” It’s not even the same deal. In Bethesda games, you’re counting arrows and scavenging for more. Avowed doesn’t even use ammo for its bow in a traditional way. It’s a totally different flavor of combat, not a 1:1 competitor.

And don’t get me started on lockpicking. I’ve seen folks say Skyrim and Oblivion had the “real” lockpicking experience, but let’s be real—half the time those minigames were a pain in the ass. I’d rather explore than fidget with a lockpick for five minutes. Obsidian didn’t bother with that in The Outer Worlds either, and nobody cared because the game was still good.

Why expect Avowed to copy a mechanic most people don’t even miss?

Now, I’ll give the comparison folks two fair points. Pickpocketing was a thing in The Outer Worlds. Breaking the law was also legit; you could steal, fight guards, and deal with the fallout. Avowed doesn’t let you do that, though. No pickpocketing, no law-breaking—NPCs just shrug if you grab stuff in front of them, if they react at all. That’s a bummer compared to The Outer Worlds, and I get why some people miss that freedom.

Idk, I just think we should chill and let Avowed be its own thing. It’s not trying to be Skyrim 2.0 Comparing it to Bethesda’s formula feels like missing the point. Anyone else tired of these takes, or am I just yelling into the void here?

[Pixel Junkie]

Yep.
You may hate Avowed or love it, both are valid opinions.
But the comparison to Skyrim are ridiculous. Apples to Oranges.
Whenever I see someone do it, I skip whatever else they said, cause they started off with a false premise, which discredits any further argumentation.

[SparX]

Originally posted by AngryPixel:

No, we can't.

Bad story writing.
Empty world.
Dead npc-s.
Low variety of monster
Small world.
Bad combat mechanics.
No rpg elements in rpg.

Have you played it?
I played about 4-5h on gamepass and decided to buy it soon on Steam and play it here.
Most people I spoke to who finished it said that the Story and writing are good and the combat is the highlight of the game.

Small world yes that's the obsidian experience, small compact RPG-lite focused on story telling. They are not open world sandboxes like Beth games.
And some people prefer that in general.
You said it yourself, its more or a Action- Adventure with RPG elements rather than an RPG.
But that's only a bad thing if you expected Skyrim which is your fault.

I agree with the dead NPCs its immersion breaking, and this is most likely due to UE5 limitations, lots of devs working with UE5 complaining about it. Still they should've done better in that department.

The rest of your points are very subjective, if not uninformed.

[Xarko]

Comparing things is good for you.

[SparX]

Originally posted by Xarko:

Comparing things is good for you.

Depends if for some reason I was excited to play cowboys VS Injans and the game turns out to be Harry Potter in Hogwarts, I'm going to hate it. That doesnt mean the game is bad, it means my expectations were off.

[JacEEEBABY]

We will stop talking about them when they decide not to make trash games.

[The Mandalor]

we should compare it to a game they previously made Fallout New Vegas but that would just be cruel

[Darrrreee]

People should really compare avowed to morrowind lmao, see how a game made for the modern audience stacks up. 80 million$ budget, 5 year development and over 100 devs lmao

[Cyber Moduled]

People are harking on the, "Why doesn't this have this specific thing that Oblivion/Skryim," does, but it's also emblematic of a bigger question: What is Avowed trying to be? For a game that was sold on the idea of, "Smaller but more dense," than other big open world games, it absolutely does not show that aspect in any meaningful capacity with either the game regions, reactivity, or narrative interactions.

Now that I'm in the last region of the game, I can mostly say the game just feels like action RPG gruel with an open world on par with something like Kingdom of Amalur. In other worlds, a bland, offline MMO. Shockingly, most people don't want to pay $70 for that, especially when the studio has a pedigree to rise about this type of game loop slop.

[Furiox]

can u stop pretend its good game? Its not, u can like it and enjoy it, its fine but its still poorly made game. It shuld be compared to same types and shouldnt loss so much in any aspect with titles thats 15-20 yo if it would be "good game"...

[My Name Jeff]

Originally posted by Johnny_B_80:

Originally posted by Jinzo:

What is its own thing exactly? That its "graphically impressive" slop like most modern games?

You know its funny before release the shills were so obsessed with calling Avowed the “Skyrim Killer” too.

I've never seen anyone call it the "Skyrim killer" except for anti-woke trolls claiming that people were calling it that.

https://x.com/Xvault2/status/1892212431868309750

[Janthis]

Originally posted by My Name Jeff:

Originally posted by Johnny_B_80:

I've never seen anyone call it the "Skyrim killer" except for anti-woke trolls claiming that people were calling it that.

https://x.com/Xvault2/status/1892212431868309750

So a bunch of Twitter randos and journalists fishing for clicks, fair enough.

[BBSon John]

It is a 20 years old standard. If we are comparing Skyrim 2020, sure you can say it is wrong genre and budget comparison. We are comparing games 20 years ago... We cannot achieve the level of immersion that was achieved with 2000s tech with 2020s tech???

It is like releasing a first person shooter that failed to do world building and interactivity because I am not trying to make Half-Life 2. Bro, a standard in 2000s should be the low standard in 2020s...

[[EXDr]TheBlast]

Originally posted by Hellleon:

First off, the whole prop-moving thing. You know how in Skyrim or Oblivion you can throw a spoon across the room or stack random junk for no reason? That’s the Creation Engine flexing—super cool in its own way. But Avowed? It’s Unreal Engine. It’s not built for that. It’s more about looking gorgeous and running smooth than letting me toss buckets around. Trying to judge it for something it’s not even trying to do is just unfair.

Well thats straight up a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lie.

https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/physics-in-unreal-engine

Chaos Physics is a light-weight physics simulation solution available in Unreal Engine, built from the ground up to meet the needs of next-generation games. The system includes the following major features:

Destruction
Networked Physics
Chaos Visual Debugger
Rigid Body Dynamics
Rigid Body Animation Nodes and Physical Animation
Cloth Physics and Machine Learning Cloth Simulation
Ragdoll Physics
Vehicles
Physics Fields
Fluid Simulation
Hair Physics
Flesh Simulation

[KAELANIME]

Originally posted by Fraktal:

We should compare Awoked to Morrowind. Would be more fair.

And Morrowind is still better... Maybe not graphically, but gameplay...

[Ele]

Originally posted by Pixel Junkie:

But the comparison to Skyrim are ridiculous. Apples to Oranges.

How is comparing, for example, the arrows from Avowed to the arrows from Skyrim "apples to oranges"?

That’s what a comparison is. Otherwise, we’d just be comparing Avowed to itself, which is pointless.

You can tell me, are you saying that because Avowed gets completely outclassed in those comparisons?