I’ve played Avowed for 15 hours, and this is the most fun I’ve had in an RPG since Skyrim released. It might not be as good as Skyrim, but it has a very similar feel for me, and I’ve encountered zero bugs so far. I’m having an absolute blast!

If you like RPGs, I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s included in Game Pass, so there’s no reason not to check it out!

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[–] PlantJam 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I've heard it's more action and less role playing than Skyrim, which sounds perfect for me. Does that match your experience?

[–] Essence_of_Meh 35 points 2 days ago (3 children)

This is a genuine question and not me trying to be snarky or anything: how's that possible? Was there any meaningful role playing in Skyrim at all?

To me the system simplification of Skyrim went so far that the only real role you could play was the dragonborn - not your specific one but a generic dragonborn who could be anyone and everything at the same time. Maybe my definition of role playing is outdated as I feel it should include choices and consequences (like blocking or limiting access to some content) so I'd be grateful if you could expand on that.

Again, I'm not trying to suggest you're wrong or anything, I'm just curious about your perspective (or something more about what you've read).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's never been much content blocking in elder scrolls. You could always master every skill even in Morrowind. Morrowind had a few exclusive guilds, but even Skyrim had a couple. Role playing in Skyrim is self imposed.

[–] Essence_of_Meh 4 points 1 day ago

Guild exclusivity is actually what I had in mind. Sure, there's nothing that significantly changes the main quest in TES games (and I think I misremembered how much blocking is there in previous titles) but that still counts for me personally. Self-imposed role play is fine in general (I do it all the time in games in fact) but I still think that lack of reasonable requirements for some (optional?) content makes the world feel more generic and player-focused than I'd like.

Thanks for the reminder though.

[–] PlantJam 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think what I read was actually about oblivion rather than Skyrim, but I'm not sure if that changes your questions or not. I agree that the Skyrim character did feel like a genetic dragonborn. The guild quests especially made it feel that way. (I'm the head wizard, but also chief fighter dude and captain of the thieves guild... What?)

I guess for the role play aspect I prefer games to more narrowly define the main character and tell the story from there rather than leave it up to me to decide who the character becomes. A Plague Tale is a great example of this type of story telling, but of course it isn't at all comparable to an open world game.

[–] Essence_of_Meh 2 points 1 day ago

Change from Oblivion to Skyrim would definitely affect my question. I do think the former had more "my kind" of role playing so the initial thought would be more understandable for me.

Thanks for the answer. I get what you mean about playing as more defined main characters, it definitely has it's benefits over more open-ended approach.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

No, there wasn't - Skyrim is the video game equivalent of makeup on an otherwise uninteresting individual. Might seem pretty at first, but the lack of depth or meaning dulls any beauty.

[–] Different_pie 18 points 2 days ago

In my experience, there are actually a lot more dialogue choices based on your skills, which I really liked—it makes me feel more connected to my character. So I’d say there’s more role-playing depth than Skyrim, but at the same time, the action feels better too.

I really enjoy the combat; it’s not easy, even on medium difficulty. If I’m not careful, I can die pretty quickly, which makes it more fun and engaging for me.

The only downside is that the world feels smaller than Skyrim. In Skyrim, I had this feeling that the world was endless, but in Avowed, it feels more limited. However, that’s fine—not every game can be a legend like Skyrim for me! :)