Avowed: Obsidian is releasing a first-person RPG, set in the "Pillars of Eternity" world. I have no idea how open world it is.

[Distraction]

Why not both? You can dual-wield melee and magic.

This game has optional pronouns, so both it and Obsidian are being eviscerated on the steam forum.

 

[Distraction]

So not a stealth archer? I don’t understand.

I quit playing stealth builds a long time ago. Standard tactic is to charge until overwhelmed. Clears out an area in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes…or I die hilariously. When charging fails I pull them to me, ideally through a choke point. Onwaaard!

 

[Distraction]

I’m in the 2nd area with about 25 hours played. It’s been great so far. I’m playing a high Dex character with medium armor and spear/shield. My 2nd set is just the level 1 grimoire for puzzles that require magic. So 100% melee in combat. I’ve already got 3 pieces of gear with stacking speed boosts so I’m fast. In fights I rush their back line and take out the squishies first. The combat is fun and fairly challenging. Several of the fights so far have involved a lot of enemies.

All that speed is great for exploration, too.

 

[Distraction]

There are a couple solutions for puzzles other than using your own spells. First, you can have Kai burn the fire targets and Giatta zap the electric targets using the command wheel ("E" on keyboard) if you have the party member with you (there's no ice companion). Second, the fire, ice, and electric grenades also work for all of those targets.

True, and I was using an arquebus as my secondary weapon early on, but I found it was more effective (and fun) to rush immediately. So I switched to the grimoire since I wasn’t shooting anyway. It is kind of a waste of the second slot, but maybe I’ll find another weapon at some point. For now it saves me from needing to open the inventory. I’d rather throw the grenades at enemies.

One thing that surprised me is that all physical damage is the same, so no need for a blunt weapon for skeles, for instance. That reduces the amount of weapons I need a lot. That’s also something I would hate in theory, but it feels kind of freeing in practice.

 

[Distraction]

Anniversary update just hit, giving three more races and a new weapon, new game+, and photo mode.

I had picked the game up before this, but now I actually installed it. I will say that some of the key rebinding still doesn't work. Like I remapped the function of the F key over to the G key, and the GUI will say to press the G key for some things, and it won't work. Or it will still say to press the F key and it won't work. so far I've still be able to get around by either using the space key for the preceding case, and clicking with the mouse for the second.

Even after they added new races, I still just picked an elf. Not sure what kind of character I'm going to roll. I've played for two days and I've only just gotten through the tutorial. I've been busy with other stuff. I have a lot of FOMO playing the game. I did TRY and use the wand and grimoire, but I got stomped. I think for my first playthrough, I should probably stick with melee and maybe dip into ranged. I sort of liked spears, but I heard there weren't any really good spears until all the way at the end. I also like swords, but I heard they were just "meh". Other option would be to go two handed.

At this point, I haven't really taken anything other than my first skill, and I was planning to put some of my other points into food, so I have time to play around. I figure I'll see what uniques I can find, then I'll worry about what I'm playing.

I used shield/spear soon after release and really liked it. I did upgrade the common spear all the way to superb before I found a unique one, but I believe they've added more unique weapons since then. I was waiting for this update to start a new playthrough, so thanks for the head's up.

 

[Distraction]

I'm being told that uniques in the world are set in their level the moment you look at them and the uniques in shops are set the moment the shop spawns.
I saved right outside the second town. I'm not sure if the town is a separate map or if the shops in the town have already spawned. In fact, I'm not sure if I want the shops at fine or at exceptional. If I level up my gear, and then spawn the shop, what if I want something, but then can't afford it? I'm thinking maybe I need to see IF I can rush the next level before determining if I SHOULD.

Any words of wisdom or theories?

I only gamed some of the chests like that. I’d save when I found a big one and then check it for uniques. If it contained a unique I needed, I reloaded, finished upgrading the current tier, and then looted it. From what I remember, just hovering over the chest will spawn its contents, so don’t get too close.

Doing that, I had enough mats to max out everything I was using by the end of the game, plus some extra stuff ‘just because’.