TheKingofAverage
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AT:O vs. Oathsworn
🕑 Added 2019-10-06 16:01:01 +0000 UTCHere's another early look at what will eventually be another video. After many, many requests I see there's a huge need to talk about both of these games as quite a few people can only back one but cannot tell which would best fit their gaming group.
So here's all the info you (hopefully) need to know to ensure you back with higher confidence. Please note that I've played both several times, but neither fully through so all I can go off of is early game stuff so it could drastically change in the final, full product. Additionally my goal here isn't to say one is better than the other, but instead help you identify which (if not both) are a good fit for your gaming group's tastes. Also note that I will be talking almost strictly about differences, not similarities.
Story
It's important to note that stories can be told very differently from one another. Additionally how you interact with the story can also be quite varied.
As far as story is concerned between the two I liken them to comic books quite often. You have some comic books like Guardians of the Galaxy or Green Lantern that are on a cosmic level. They are dealing with world ending apocalypses on the daily and the stories there are grand and epic in nature. Power levels are extreme across the board. This is Aeon Trespass: Odyssey in a nut shell.
Alternatively you have the more gritty street level comics like Daredevil or Batman. These have much lower power levels and are typically more about personal drama and high personal stakes but low overall scale. This is Oathsworn.
This leads into how the stories express themselves. Odyssey for instance focuses on the journey. Exploring new lands, interacting with new people and balancing global powers. Their description within the stories are wide in scope, but tend to only explain what's pertinent to the story. Very small details are ignored because there simply isn't time with amazing and epic things happening all the time.
Oathsworn is the opposite. It'll describe how people move, how the environment is including textures and movement. With a smaller scale they can take the time to describe the minor details.
Another big part of the story is how players interact with it and again, both have some pretty stark differences. Odyssey is absolutely full of multi-part decision making. You typically only go a few paragraphs before having to make a decision (or 4). Additionally how you navigate the story is based on map movement with a very open ended exploration of the story. Time is still critical based on Progress and Doom tokens but there are not any upfront consequences for exploration.
Oathsworn on the other hand is a bit more tight-night of a story. You move around a city instead of a map but each movement costs you and the goal is to uncover the enemy as quickly as possible. More time often comes at a cost of a loss of extra benefits. This causes the sense of urgency to be much greater in Oathsworn compared to Odyssey. Additionally you are more locked into the story of Oathsworn as you have the specific city to explore, instead of an entire map.
Additionally, Oathsworn gives you less scale but more meat within the story. Much like how open world video games are grand in scope, but the story is spread throughout a larger area, Oathsworn is a more on-rails focused story that makes everything more dense, including the passages. You will have fewer decision points and rarely are they multi tiered with Oathsworn. Instead you will typically visit a location, read the passage and make a single decision, then move onto the next bit of story that leads to your next choice of location.
One last thing to speak about is overall theme. Odyssey is ancient Greek with a small mixture of sci-fi technology and an adventurous feel whereas Oathsworn is low-fantasy based and gritty with an almost grim dark feel.
Oathsworn will have a fully narrated app, and game mechanics that allow the story to be mostly skipped if that fits your game group better.
Game Structure
In Oathsworn you'll go through chapters, doing the story portion which will eventually lead to the combat portion of the game. The split in time investment is about 1/3rd story and 2/3rds combat. The two portions of the chapter are strictly split like this and there is very little upkeep involved.
Odyssey on the other hand is split a pretty solid 50/50 thanks to more fights and other mechanics within the story section such as research and crafting, more on that later.
In Odyssey you can stumble on a fight, or be ambushed and such that adds impromptu attacks in the middle of the story section, which is then picked back up after the fight, sometimes with some changes. The story section comes with more upkeep because of the plentiful decisions, and extra mechanics.
Combat
Actual combat is completely different between the two. In Oathsworn you are on a hex based board and utilize a hand of cards that allow you to attack or do various actions. Each card has a cost in animus as well as a "cooldown" cost that keeps it from your hand for a certain amount of time. The cost is based on animus, a resource you recover every round and the cooldown is manipulated via playing more cards of the same cooldown, or using certain abilities.
Movement is straightforward and is 1 animus per hex moved. Terrain pieces have game significance based on knockbacks, blocking line of sight and some abilities.
Turn order is fairly open and focus is on individual turns with minor party wide strategies such as being positioned for another character to use certain abilities.
Actual combat is used by rolling however many dice you like, with a push your luck mechanic based on the amount chosen vs how much damage is needed. There is no defense roll and this does include exploding dice. Gear plays a passive roll in combat.
Story is not a part of battle phase of Oathsworn.
Odyssey on the other hand is on a square grid. Movement is based on the Titan used and possibly any equipment. Dice are determined based on the titan, it's gear and Kratos table.
Actions are more straightforward with a certain amount of actions being available.
Terrain is more involved with searchable locations, blocked paths and more.
The Triskelion plays a large role in combat meaning as the battle progresses you become stronger, with a strong ramp up felt. Additionally enemies have a smoother ramp up with no clear stage changes. AI and BP cards are added constantly, instead of shifted all at once from stage to stage.
Focus when battling is about team attacks, with many cooperative moves and assists in attacking. Defense can be estimated, but is unknown until you attack so it is less definite than in Oathsworn with it's constant defense. Gear takes an active roll in combat, granting abilities and situational modifiers.
Story is integrated within the battle phase of Odyssey.
Overall Complexity
Oathsworn is a more streamlined game when it comes to game mechanics. There is less at play at the same time with interaction kept brief, for instance by gaining a combat token based on a story decision. When attacking you typically only have to be concerned with your own turn.
Story decisions are swift and straight forward.
Odyssey on the other hand has many more systems at play at the same time. From random battles to full story parts within battles. Game mechanics often interact with each other and battles often make changes to the story part that comes after. When attacking you must take into account everyone's turn including the enemies current status.
Story decision are more involved and detailed.
Fundamental Differences
As I said, Odyssey has more game mechanics such as researching and crafting, gear evolution, diplomacy and more that are not present in Oathsworn.
Oathsworn has the ally system that allows continue play, even from players that might be downed within the battle.
Upgrades and leveling are also different. In Oathsworn you have an upgrade card that you can pick character upgrades, as well as new cards and gear.
In Odyssey you can get completely new titans, gear, Kratos tables, assistance technologies/understanding, Argo upgrades and more.
Oathsworn is much more solo friendly compared to Odyssey.
Summary
I'm speaking generally and broadly here. Neither description is perfect or 100% right all the time but hopefully these pillars of differences can better help you decide on what you back based on your personal tastes and that of your group.
Hope this helped!
Comments
The King of Average
Well that's the idea anyway :) essentially every time you swap weapons you should be able to swap arms/weapons on the mini. I'm getting this and plan on testing it with painted minatures and repeated use. If it works it'll be AMAZING and probably adopted slowly in various other games where it makes sense. The standee version is an incredible deal. It's a huge game (chapter 1 is less than 1/20th of the game) with plenty of very nice HIPS minis for $100 O.o
Oh cool, so Oathsworn is push fit on the fly, so each battle or even during a battle you can easily change the weapon to reflect what they are wielding? Atm I'm thinking of getting Oathsworn standee version + Armory just for the push fit and battle flow!
The King of Average
Ah yeah okay so I as indeed just basing it off of gameplay and not components but you are right that's a difference indeed. The customization in ATO doesn't seem to be something you do often at all, with the main one most likely being scaling some of the enemies. But understand is these are not "push fit" so would need some blue tack (or magnets) to hold well. As for the HIPS vs PVC in AT:O obviously I think the HIPS will look better detail wise, though I'd rank them both as "great" if needed. AT:O sculpt wise has one of my favorite sculpts in a long while with the 4 armed dude that's been pushed back. Man do I love that sculpt. That's what makes minis such a mixed bag. You have the overall design, the theme, and then the actual methods of capturing that (detail level).
I'm surprised you didn't mention armoury + HIPS vs interchangeable parts + PVC/ADS in Oathsworn vs ATO. What do you think of their respective weapon customisation approaches? Is ATO customised on the fly or more like KDM alternatives unless you magnetise?
The King of Average
hehe yeah you have voting powers! Oathsworn is definitely a "tighter package" in terms of mechanics. It's much easier to pick up and play, though AT:O did do a great job with introducing rules as you go which I was thankful for.
My group is mixed as well but since Iβm the one fronting the money I will be picking Oathsworn for itβs streamlined mechanics and app driven story plus I know my gf would prefer it. Too many unkowns for me with AT:O in terms of resume, quality and language translations for so much story. I feel Oathsworn is the safer bet with the names involved. I will definitely keep an eye on AT:O when review time comes and wish it great success!
The King of Average
I think that came across because there's simply more stuff in AT:O. It's a larger game with more scope. As a fan of refined and streamline gameplay, that's not always better in every instance :) When talking only about differences though, there's just more stuff to be different with AT:O. At least I hope that's what caused that, but let me know if there's a specific passage that might lean too far that I didn't mean to include. I actually love them both, but they are very different games.
The King of Average
Yeah same for me. I enjoy them both for different reasons (and actually different groups). My son and brother preferred AT:O over Oathsworn but my daughter and wife preferred Oathsworn. My main gaming friend and myself enjoyed both. That just goes to show you how differently they actually play. Only at the highest abstract level are they "similar".
Fantastic comparison King! Thank you for doing this, I greatly appreciate it. This just confirms that each game will scratch a different itch for me and that is exactly what I wanted.
Thanks King for the info! From what I understand (from your text and from what I know) the main difference seems to be that AT:O feels more like a choose-your-story system with different decisions, paths and stories, so more like a book, and Oathsworn is more straightforward with some room to investigate and build your personnal path before the combat like a video game (the cooldown system really has a RPG feel to it, like Dragon Age, World of Warcraft and Baldur's Gate). Of course its more complicated as you lenghtfully explained but thats a general feel that I have. Love that you do this kind of comparisons between games, especially if you were able to test them a lot (relatively speaking). Also, after reading I noticed you seem to lean a little more on Aeon's Trespass in the way you compare the games (not criticizing, just mentionning). Just something I realized π Keep up the good work!
I think that ATO is user friendly but plays better in a team. But for replayability the story system is clearly on the side of ATO. KoA mentionned that in the prelude there was like 20 endings. And since the paths can be chosen by decisions, dices and past consequences, there should have a pool of stories to tell.
Super useful! Does this mean that ATO isn't solo friendly? Thanks for the great overview. Seems like ATO will have more replayability?
