The problem is, public declaration just feeling correct.
Usually, when you sit down to play a new RPG, it takes a while to adjust, to get used to its shortcomings and learn its details. But with public declarationI just started playing. I chose a rogue-like character, armed with dual pistols and a longer-range bow, and immediately began exploring some of the caves beneath the Dawn Coast as if I’d lived there my entire life.
Much has been shown public declaration So far, we’ve had a heavy focus on action and exploration, whether it’s the game’s combat system (especially dual-wielding wands for some reason) or the non-RPG-style jumping and climbing in a first-person world. The demo I played at GamesCom focused more on one aspect that I think long-time Obsidian fans may have been missing so far: role-playing. While I fought in multiple battles and did a fair amount of exploration, the emphasis here is on dialogue, deliberation, and branching decision-making.
The first-person perspective certainly helps create a sense of familiarity, it removes a lot of the alienating aspects of traditional remote viewing RPGs, and means you don’t have to learn a new UI with 800 buttons. Instead, all your movements here are handled via a wheel that pops up when you hold down the left bumper (I started out playing with mouse/keyboard because that’s my natural inclination, but later found it’s much easier to play on a controller Comfort), and when the action pauses you can choose a health potion, or ask your companion Kai (voiced by Garrus himself, Brandon Keener) to help solve some special problems.
For anyone who has spent dozens of hours in Eora, much of the dialogue in this 45-minute portion of the game will feel familiar, which also helps because Eora is a pillars of eternity Already set. Here, I was tasked with finding a missing expedition who themselves had been searching for a relic associated with the god Ursus. I know Eosas! Or indeed, given the events of the 2015 RPG and its 2018 sequel, dead fireand fully understood why the god-like man I subsequently met, Sargamis, noticed that Iotas’ light was fading of late.
Of course, developer Obsidian isn’t stupid, and all of this is color for those who’ve been playing, and a side story for those new to the game. And in order to maintain the balance between the two, public declaration Continuing the RPG series’ tradition of adding footnotes to all noteworthy content, including the option to pull out a paragraph about Eothas (the god of rebirth, and the earlier game’s antagonist, the Waidwen). (I leaned over from my computer and asked an Obsidian developer, “Why doesn’t he know what happened to the gods?” and was told, “Eora is a big Places where news took time to travel – these people didn’t even have a printing press. public declaration The setting is an entirely new one, meaning it’ll be fresh for first-time players, but the flavor will be familiar enough for long-time followers.
Yeah, so Sargamis is a god-like being, like your own character (a unique race of beings thought to be blessed by the gods with special skills), and he’s clearly up to no good . He had some ridiculous plan to resurrect Eosas through a statue, and he also tricked us with some nonsense that never saw the expedition. Sagamis was apparently too timid to go get the relic he needed, as it lay outside the collapsed and flooded cave area and was guarded by various beasts, so it was inevitably recommended that we go get it ourselves.
So we began our quest across huge chasms between platforms, climbing and exploring to find treasure chests and find our way to this magical MacGuffin. As I played the game, I couldn’t help but collect every item, harvest every plant, and find every treasure chest, even though I knew I wouldn’t be using any of it given the short time I’d spent playing the game. But I think it’s crucial that it’s there and it’s believable. This meant I found strange electronic devices that were triggered by throwing plant seeds I picked, which would open doors to special areas, or smash through suspicious-looking boards to find bonus chests.
What surprised me, besides how natural it all felt, was the scale. This section is all set in a cave, most likely tunnels and small rock chambers. Instead, it’s a series of vast and beautiful caves, incredibly detailed in a vast area beyond my reach, and beautiful enough that I wanted to stare at them in silence for a while. This is enhanced by some stunning lighting. (If you jump to 13:30 in the video below to see the candlelit library, then move on to the spider-filled portion of the sunlit cave in the distance, you’ll see what I mean.)
One thing I didn’t have time to get right was combat. I performed pretty well, even though I was a little ashamed of how many health potions I swallowed, but clearly conveying what the rogue looked like when things got close-up took some practice. (It would also help if I consciously spent more time improving my skills and wearing some of the armor I’ve collected.) But at range, I feel like a fucking master. The bow is great to use, and the aim is pretty generous (this is an RPG, not a first-person shooter, after all), which meant I often cleared areas of goblin-like Xurips before I even got there. Thankfully, Kai is helping too, with his own artificial intelligence taking charge of his battles.
The same sequence from the game is used elsewhere in the German session, so you get what I saw as an alternative gameplay experience, albeit using a wizard instead of a rogue and making different dialogue choices. It’s also worth noting that there’s a whole section of open gates here that I’ve never encountered, as I’m pretty sure I found a completely different route.
I have seen many game websites comparing public declaration arrive horizonI found this to be the most peculiar idea. Those games were all RPGs, all first-person games, but after that, no matter how much I loved Bethesda’s games, I struggled to find the connection. public declaration feeling a lot a lot of More coherent and focused, like a natural evolution for games like Arkane’s brilliant 2006 RPG, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Obsidian gains storytelling power with its brilliant third-person RPG, making it feel bolder and distinct from Bethesda’s neighboring games fall out and outside world title.
In a crazy week of non-stop dating, I totally forgot about the release date public declarationand makes me think it will arrive before Christmas this year. After the demo was done, Sargamis was resolved, and ridiculously eager to keep playing, I turned to the Obsidian guy and said, “What’s the release date for this?” “February 2025,” he replied, completely unprofessionally to me replied, “What?! No!
I think this is probably the most useful message to take away from all this: I exclaimed like an offended nine-year-old when I realized how long I’d have to wait before I could play again.
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