Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG, the game was first announced in 2020. Obsidian Entertainment have a long and storied past, they made the Star Wars: Knights of the old republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, their most recent well known title is The Outer Worlds. Avowed is set to come out in February of next year on PC and Xbox.
Amazing First Person Gameplay
Avowed is set in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity thus those who played those games will be a little familiar with the lore of this one. There is a proper character creator but we are only locked to the godlike race.
We can take a range of paths in how to approach combat such being a mage, a ranger with a bow or gun, or melee where with a sword and shield or ax. As of right now, it seems as if playing as a mage is much more worth it or intended by the developers than playing solely as a melee or ranger.
This is because there isn’t enough of a skill tree for melee or ranger compared to the number of skills there are for mages/wizards. The gameplay gets a lot more interesting and fun when playing as a hybrid of a wizard/ranger or a wizard/melee as this gives incentive into creating combos with the various spells that are available.
It also seems as if itemization will be a huge factor as they have particular buffs associated with them such as increasing critical hit chance, inflicting poison, increasing defenses etc. This will no doubt play an integral role when the player eventually wants to start crafting builds and finding what’s best for him or her incentivizes repeated playthroughs.
An Open World Filled To The Brim
Although the preview build only contains a singular area which contains a town and surrounding woods, it is full of stuff to do such as exploring a huge number of caves, enemy camps, lots of side quests and finding and speaking to NPCs.
What is a breath of fresh air is in-depth NPC dialogue, almost any NPC feels natural and dialogue choices actually matter as the NPCs will give immediate reactions and there will be proper consequences to face based on dialogue choice.
It is clear that the control is on the player entirely, they can choose to be good and help everyone or be completely evil and ruthless. This freedom of choice was what was expected from Dragon Age: The Veilguard yet it did not deliver, instead forcing the player to be the good guy regardless of their actions.
It Looks And Feels So Colorful And Vibrant
It has to be noted that this is a preview build and some things are subject to change, the game looks beautiful, the woods around Dawnshore look lively and natural, the color saturation looks amazing and the variation in environment as the player keeps exploring is phenomenal.
It will never fail to surprise you, with beautiful vistas consisting of mountains in the distance, stone bridges, tucked away ponds and so much more. The weapons also look so colorful and unique, the hand movement when casting spells or swinging our melee weapon look really smooth and satisfying.
Obsidian Is Cooking
From the preview build as baseline it is clear that Obsidian have a complete game on their hands, in terms of RPG elements there are tons of side quests to complete just on the area that was given for access, almost every nook and cranny from the town to the forest and beyond is explorable that hide items, weapons, armor for us to find and use.
On top of all those the dialogue paths we take show us immediate effects and gives the player actual complete freedom in choosing what they want their created character to become. All of this shows that Obsidian really poured their heart out on this game.
While the initial impressions of the game earlier this year wasn’t that good, this preview build footage is showing a huge improvement on all fronts. What does need more improvement though is the 3rd person perspective, it is still a little bit janky and our character moves a bit unnaturally as pivoting on a point instantly. Obsidian is surely hearing all the feedback being presented to them and are no doubt improving to present a masterpiece next year.
