Pretty much agreed. I think the main reason for "the hook" is simply the name. Obsidian. It can take a very long time for a once great name to lose its power and many buy into it simply because of the sticker slapped on it.

Avowed would have been fine. But for 30-40 dollars, not 70. Asking 70 for it seems just insane to me and I suspect one of the main reasons it's day 1 gamepass, so they can farm the numbers there at least. Because otherwise, it's 100% a wait for sale material. I could easily see myself shelling out full price for KCD 2 (60 bucks by the way), but 70 for this absolutely not. The quality just doesn't seem to be there.

I feel like most would find more fun in Kingdoms of Amalur, which is currently on sale here on GOG, 15 bucks for the FATE Edition.

The problem is that people expected Avowed to be the next Skyrim or Fallout: New Vegas since it is made by Obsidion. It’s not, it’s an action RPG. The focus is on world-building and combat, rather than traditional RPG mechanics. This is also why the game allows for so much fluidity between classes and stats, letting you change skills and attributes on the fly without penalties and so on. As an open-world action RPG, it’s a really strong game with several interesting innovations.

I saw a review that pointed out that if this game had been made by another studio, people would have praised it to heaven and back. But because it’s an Obsidian game, expectations were different, and people assumed it would be something else.

Because it launched like, a few months after Fallout 76 iirc? it was also marketed as a direct jab at Bethesda because the creators of Fallout were behind it

It's honestly the middest mid game ever, but at the time it just had to be better than F76 to be acclaimed. If it were released today people wouldn't even look at it lol