Avowed might be classed as an RPG, but it doesn’t follow the same playbook as many of the games that came before it. Adopting a more freeform approach to combat and character customisation, it’s an intriguing take on the widely beloved genre.
Avowed also marks a significant departure from its source material. Set in Eora, the same world as the Pillars of Eternity series, it adopts a first-person perspective where the action happens in real-time. So, instead of the isometric perspective used by Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, it looks more like an Elder Scrolls game – at least on the surface.
There’s some serious pedigree behind Avowed in the form of Obsidian Entertainment. The North American studio is known for making story-rich games like The Outer Worlds, Pentiment, and the cult-classic Fallout: New Vegas.
To find out what goes into making an Obsidian game, I spoke with Ryan Warden, Production Director on Avowed, about the daunting task of changing up well-established RPG conventions. I also played an hour vertical slice of the game based on an earlier preview build – since then, a more recent wave of previews took place that give a closer look at what to expect ahead of next year’s launch.
Going classless
RPGs and archetypes go hand-in-hand. Fire up any roleplaying game and you’re usually presented with various categories, or “classes”, of playstyles to choose from. Warriors, rogues, and mages are common starting points – each one comes with its own set of pre-determined abilities and progression paths.
That’s not how Avowed works. It instead employs a “classless” system, letting you freely swap between weapon types and abilities as you so choose. Warden explained that this approach was the brainchild of Carrie Patel, the game’s director.
“Carrie was very, very strongly pushing for a classless RPG,” Warden said. “And I think some of that harkens back to Obsidian’s model of ‘your worlds your way’.”
“We’re not going to provide a button in character creator that says, ‘make me a wizard’.”
Your worlds. Your way. It’s the guiding principle prominently displayed on Obsidian’s website, referring to the studio’s approach to making non-linear games driven by player choices. This time around, Avowed brings that philosophy to the tangible gameplay, not just the dialogue and story decisions.
For my preview session, I played as a magic-wielding gunslinger who shot their way through problems. Outside the confines of the preview session, I could have wielded a pistol in one hand, and a shield in the other. Or a sword. Or a magic wand. You get the idea. What’s important is that Avowed lets you combine different sets of gear in a way that most RPGs don’t.
From a game balance perspective, that sounds like a development nightmare. For Warden – whose production experience spans Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and League of Legends – it was a challenge, but one the team was up for.
“It’s possible that we’ve made it difficult on ourselves in terms of balancing and trying to get the gameplay to feel awesome right across the board,” he said.
To tackle the mind-boggling number of potential variations, the Avowed quality assurance team made a comprehensive library of save data at every part of the game. At any moment, they could load a save from anywhere in the game, and test different combinations of equipment and abilities to ensure everything felt balanced.
Worst case scenario, if you get stuck with a character build you don’t like, you can change without needing to start fresh.
Bridging Avowed and Pillars of Eternity
Although not a direct sequel to the Pillars of Eternity games, jumping into a game like Avowed, with so much existing lore, might be intimidating to newcomers. Even for me, someone who has played Pillars of Eternity, albeit a while ago, I worried about how many proper nouns I needed to remember to get the best experience.
Fortunately, Avowed makes a strong effort to cater to fresh faces. During dialogue encounters, names of places, characters, and important information are highlighted. Selecting the text provides a tidy summary of everything you need to know, giving you helpful context clues on the go.
“We’ve been doing a ton of playtesting with the Microsoft User Research group, where we bring in players and have them take a look at some pretty unfinished gameplay and then ask them questions about ‘how did this land for you?’” Warden said.
“And they identified a couple of key things, one of which was that lore highlighting.”
To address the feedback, the Avowed team borrowed the lore refresher system used in Pentiment. According to Warden, it helped quickly answer questions about the in-game deities like Eothas, including “why should I care? And how does that impact my story?”
Existing lore is one thing, while a change of perspective is another. A major reason behind the shift to first-person was to encourage a “sense of exploration and verticality” and more responsive combat.
From my brief session with Avowed, the heightened focus on exploration came through clearly. Winding caverns encourage you to snoop around for hidden treasures and approach combat encounters from different angles.
Moving through the game felt a bit stiff, like I was remotely controlling a camera more than I was a character. When it came to combat, the movement coalesced better, which could’ve simply stemmed from me gleefully firing my dual pistols like an old-timey cartoon sheriff.
What do rocks sound like?
More than anything during the early preview session, Avowed‘s strong audiovisual design stood out. Bathed in picturesque blue and green hues, I caught myself gawking at the eye-catching vistas around every corner. Even restricted to a small area of the game, I wanted to know what other visual delights awaited me.
Everything looked and felt familiar yet a little strange at the same time. Warden pointed out this likely came from the team deriving inspiration from Annihilation, a film that explores the mix of nerves and excitement of exploring the unknown.
I also asked about the key artwork featured prominently as part of Avowed‘s promotional materials. As it turns out, the kaleidoscopic skeleton came from an external agency, based on Obsidian’s Sergio Toppi-inspired 2D art featured throughout the game.
One of the main things Warden and the team wanted to avoid while making Avowed was making something that felt “generic fantasy”. Music and sound design formed a core part of differentiating Avowed from other fantasy games.
Venus Theory composed the game’s soundtrack, aiming to blend organic and synthetic instruments together to the point where you can’t quite tell the difference. Self-described as ” the kind of guy who likes a little salt with his sugar”, Warden explained the complexities behind Venus Theory’s work.
“One of the things that I really wanted to get was a sense of cinematic beauty, but with an undertone of just a little bit of tension,” Warden said. “That makes it more complex, I think, and delivers a richer experience.”
That level of meticulous detail also feeds into some of the most seemingly minute details. When testing an early build of the game, Warden described to a sound designer that the silence of a cave felt “off”. In response, the sound designer casually mentioned they hadn’t done a “rock pass” yet.
“What do rocks sound like?” Warden asked.
His recollection of the amusing anecdote concluded with the sound designer matter-of-factly explaining that it was their job to find out exactly what the rocks in Avowed sound like.
Avowed is an RPG for time-poor gamers
As much as I love a meaty RPG, I simply don’t have time to play them all. Fortunately, Avowed seems to be similar to The Outer Worlds in terms of scale. It’s not a fully open-world RPG, with Warden instead using the “open zone RPG” classifier.
“We’re talking open zone regions and tons and tons of exploration,” he said. “I think we’ve hit a pretty good spot where there is an awful lot of exploration for you. The game is not short, but it’s also not a seven-zillion-hour open-world RPG.”
It lines up with Obsidian’s “always be shipping” focus, referring to the studio’s approach to making games with a well-defined scope without spending too long on them.
However, even before the delay bumped Avowed from November this year into 2025, Warden described the development schedule as being slightly longer than most Obsidian games. Conversely, there was a trick to ensuring it didn’t balloon out any further.
He explained that the team would polish each region to 80% complete before moving on to the next section. This way, they’d get through production quicker, and then apply lessons learnt along the way when returning to complete each region – something Warden also elaborated on in a GamesHub interview.
I’m going to borrow that approach when working on bigger projects – I hope Warden and the Obsidian crew don’t mind.
Although my time with Avowed was brief, it piqued my curiosity ahead of next year, ready for a return to Eora. A shorter, more freeform RPG is an organic-synthetic blend of music to my ears.
Avowed launches on 18 February 2025 for Xbox Series X|S consoles and PC, including day-one access via Game Pass.
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