Back in 2020, when Avowed was first announced, the internet had a pretty specific opinion of what sort of game it was going to be. It was Xbox’s Skyrim, right?
Fans read between the lines of that first, vague cinematic trailer and drew their conclusions. It had an Elder Scrollsy look and feel. And the developer, Obsidian, of course has experience making these sorts of games – including for Bethesda with Fallout New Vegas. But when Avowed resurfaced, it was something quite different. Gamers yammered away online, speculating that the game changed shape after Microsoft, y’know, just straight up purchased the folks who made Skyrim. But Avowed survives, and thrives – and when you sit down and speak to its developers, they’re clearly happy about the game they’ve made and its place in the world.
While Avowed might be set in the world of a sprawling, open-ended and staunchly traditional CRPG (Obsidian IP Pillars of Eternity), it’s a very different game. Focused on tight first-person combat (with a third-person option), driven by melee, and with a scope that’s more like The Outer Worlds than a jaunt through Morrowind, it aims to be something fresh and familiar at once – appealing to a new audience while threading the needle to also draw and and satisfy fans of the Pillars universe.
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