Avowed - A Closer Look and More Info on Obsidian's Next RPG
Jan. 28, 2024Avowed – A Closer Look and More Info on Obsidian’s Next RPG
Avowed just got its first major gameplay trailer, however, more information arose after the Xbox Developer Direct.
Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming first-person RPG,Avowed, recently got more information thanks to some developer interviews as well as a deep(er) dive thanks to the folks over at Microsoft. Here, we get even more tidbits about the game that will extend Eora, Obsidian’s world of the Pillars of Eternity.
While both the Pillars of Eternity games and Avowed share the same setting, they are quite different. This is very literal, as the former is a top-down isometric CRPG featuring real-time-with-pause gameplay while the latter puts players right in the first-person shoes of a character in the world. Essentially, the developers’ intention here was to expose fans and new players to the world from literally a different point of view, making things feel much closer, intimate, and fantastical.
Avowed takes place in a new area called the Living Lands, which is much separated from the Pillars’ Eastern Reach region. Looking at the timeline, Avowed looks to take place almost immediately after the events of Deadfire. The world-changing events of Deadfire will ripple onto the shores of the Living Lands, but these aren’t instantaneous. Instead of immediately living with whatever consequences happened in the Pillars game, we will only scratch the surface, at least early on in Avowed.
As there is a literal ocean between the Living Lands and the Eastern Reach, players will not set foot in any of the familiar locations. Instead, they will experience and encounter various concepts, cultures, and probably a few returning characters as well. Being a separate game will also let newcomers to the series be able to feel more immersed in the world, making it akin to discovering something brand new instead of having the feeling that they missed out on something great (though they should still play the original games).
A huge portion of the Avowed footage during the Xbox Developer Direct showcase featured the game’s variouscombatsystems. Avowed will be a “classless” game, much like Skyrim or even Cyberpunk 2077. Instead, it looks like players will have access to variousskilltrees that they can pursue in any order and in any combination that they wish. Character development isn’t touched upon too heavily, we only know that it will have an XP system to level up, and nothing more.
Moment-to-moment gameplay should be quick and exciting due to how Avowed is touting what it calls “loadouts”. Just like the namesake, loadouts will be different equipment sets that players can swap to at a moment’s notice to overcome the immediate challenge. Swap between sword and board, massive hammers, or even dual wands, or anything in between.
We also know that magic will play heavily for characters who choose to dabble in it. Some of the abilities shown off in the gameplay trailer included force pulls, entangling roots, magical bolts, freeze attacks, and more. All of this was done without a user interface present, but game director Gabe Paramo describes that spells will be “on their own button” giving us the impression that magic will have its own dedicated spellcasting key. Hopefully, this does not limit our options in combat, especially on PC where we will have hotkeys aplenty at our disposal.
Some may argue that combat may not truly be Obsidian Entertainment’s strong point. What we do know of their strengths, aside from player choice and agency, is their strong writing that extends even to the game’scompanions. The gameplay trailer featured two: aCoastal Aumauanamed Kai and a human named Giatta with the former acting as a tank/warrior and the latter being a magical support.
Each companion in Avowed will eventually be interwoven into the game’s storyline, meaning they will organically join the player at set moments in the narrative. It seems that players will need to explicitly go out of their way to avoid companions as they will find a way to join you one way or another. While this may take a bit away from the player’s agency, the upside is that Obsidian can better integrate these allies’ tales into the main narrative. Unfortunately, they also did confirm that they are not going to be romanceable at all, as there is a careful balance that they are trying to maintain between player choices and the overall storyline.
Companions in Avowed will operate independently in combat, just like how they behave inThe Outer Worlds. Similarly, they will have active abilities that the players themselves can trigger when needed. The only micromanagement you will need to do with companions is making choices on their gear or what to do when they level up.
Of course, Obsidian’s greatest strength arguably lies in how it creates a world filled with interwoven storylines, cultures, concepts, and more. They can expertly weave memorable tales of heroism or villainy, depending on your poison. Be it in an original universe such as the Pillars of Eternity series, or building upon existing lore like in Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian has proven that their storylines that incorporate player choice truly shine.
This looks like it will carry over nicely into the shores of Avowed. “For us, creating these choices, like the big ones that affect the outcome of a quest, or the wellbeing of certain characters or communities are just as important as the smaller choices that you make in navigating a dialogue and, in subtle ways, influencing your relationship with another character,” game director Carrie Patel says in an Xbox interview.
Some choices will be small but will have a meaningful impact later on down the line. As long as we live with these choices and see their inevitable impact, there’s no limit to what we may experience in the Living Lands.
Just like Ninja Theory withHellblade 2, Obsidian Entertainment is releasing Avowed as their first major game under the Microsoft banner (Grounded and Pentiment being smaller projects). Just like any massive merger or company reshuffling, there are fears that decisions may be muddled, or things may change for the worse. This does not seem like the case, as Obsidian Entertainment seems to be happily working along with a team of roughly 100 developers – the same size the team has been already for a while.
In other news, check outVampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Dev Diary Discusses “Visceral” Combat, andHonkai Star Rail 2.0 Details Revealed.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
