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Obsidian's next big RPG Avowed is looking to Vermintide's 'masterclass in having a sense of hitting and impact' to make its first-person sword-swingin

Mister Wolf

Member

Pretty candid to just say outright they're looking to another game for inspiration. Getting the feel of first-person melee combat right is very challenging.

An example of Vermintides melee combat:



One thing I've noticed is they don't just make every weapon pass through the enemy when it lands.
 
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Haven’t played Vermintide but Darktide is indeed masterclass.

Not expecting Avowed to reach that level though.

I mean, Darktide is a good game, but its all combat, good enough to sink 100s of hours. Its build for that.
 

Gandih42

Member
They should look to Dark Messiah for the ultimate 1st person combat experience.

Ice patch on the ground to make enemies slide off the edge to their doom baby.

Personally I think the footage looks fine so far. 1st person melee combat doesn't sell itself very well on trailers in general. And it has a distinctly different flavor than 3rd person melee combat, so I don't really think that point is all that interesting.

But hopefully it'll actually feel better then it looks in the footage. If they manage to have satisfying combat along with their trademark Obsidian RPG bonanza, it'll surely be great. And probably still great with mediocre combat.

Either way I'm totally ready to port beg.
 
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Wildebeest

Member
I'm sure it is going to be some exciting visceral action combat with a sub 20fps frame rate because they didn't optimise like in Outer Worlds.
 

kyussman

Member
My favorite first person melee ever was in Dying Light.....it must be hard to get the sense of weight behind the swings and impacts because few games get it right.
 

Braag

Member
It looks better than Skyrim, that's for sure. I mean that game's combat feels super floaty, which is why one of the most popular combat mods for Skyrim is the one that adds hit stop and makes enemies slightly flinch when they're hit, small changes like that make a world of difference.
But Avowed could feel even more weighty imo.
 
It looks better than Skyrim, that's for sure. I mean that game's combat feels super floaty, which is why one of the most popular combat mods for Skyrim is the one that adds hit stop and makes enemies slightly flinch when they're hit, small changes like that make a world of difference.
But Avowed could feel even more weighty imo.
At a bare minimum I would hope it looks better than a game from 13 years ago.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The B-roll shown at the podcast they did after the Direct did a better job showing off the game play than the Direct itself.


 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
The B-roll shown at the podcast they did after the Direct did a better job showing off the game play than the Direct itself.



Question: Around 00:03, the player does a magic attack. His right-hand carries a sword, and his left-hand carries a shield. How does he shoot the magic attack when both his hands are busy? 🤔

Is that coming from his dick? 🤔

j0sB2FV.jpg
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Question: Around 00:03, the player does a magic attack. His right-hand carries a sword, and his left-hand carries a shield. How does he shoot the magic attack when both his hands are busy? 🤔

Is that coming from his dick? 🤔

j0sB2FV.jpg


There's a helping NPC behind the player, it's probably his attack.




pn2WGMS.jpg
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
It's fine to use other games for inspiration - actually gleaning the important lessons from them is the hard part. For example, Vermintide doesn't actually use hitstop in its melee combat. Rather, it utilizes a subtle camera shift effect to sell the momentum of attacks and hits; combined with fluid first-person animations, varied enemy hit responses, a cleave mechanic that affects how slashing vs. blunt weapons impact enemies, excellent sound effects, and of course gratuitous blood and gore, it makes for some really satisfying first-person combat.

Unfortunately, I'm not really seeing any of that in this preview. But release is still some ways off, hopefully they understand what elements really need fleshing out before then.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
Well, that's some great news IMO. I didn't really see it in what was shown already, but there's time to improve it. I'd like to thin that by the time it launches it'll deliver to some degree. Here's to hoping!
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Hey good job you finally got me interested in this game! Im gunna blast some monsters with my big swingin magic wand
Right?! I'm in day one if I can shoot magic lasers with a flappy dick.

Bamboozle them with a cancellable fake sword attack and blast them with a dick magic shot = 20 million copies sold and 97 Metacritic!!
 

outsida

Member
Haven’t played Vermintide but Darktide is indeed masterclass.

Not expecting Avowed to reach that level though.

I mean, Darktide is a good game, but its all combat, good enough to sink 100s of hours. Its build for that.
I was coming to say something about Darktide as well. Melee feels combat really good in that game.
 
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