Obsidian’s next RPG goes all in on first-person action
A vowed has been at the top of my own, personal most wanted list since that first pre-rendered trailer back in 2020. A first-person, more immersive take on the world of Eora I’ve loved so much since first playing Pillars of Eternity always sounded like just the thing for me.
While we still have plenty of gaps in our knowledge of this RPG, even as its planned release this fall draws near, a recent developer showcase and conversation with Avoweddirector Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo have given us a clearer picture than ever before of this RPG.
Avowedtakes place in Eora’s Living Lands, a northern frontier previously only represented by lore tidbits and potential character backgrounds in the PillarsofEternity games. You’re cast as an emissary of the Aedyr Empire, sent to investigate some kind of metaphysical sickness that, going off the trailers and Avowed’s cover art, manifests as some kind of glowy fungus.
I asked if this was a prequel or sequel to the PillarsofEternitygames, but that seems to be a revelation Obsidian’s saving for later. Patel explained that Avowedwill “have some recognisable touch points and a few recognisable characters for returning fans, but you don’t have to have any familiarity or experience with Pillars 1 or Deadfire to enjoy Avowed ”.
You’ll be creating your own character, but rather than Pillars’ spread of six races, you’re limited to humans or elves. The lore explanation is that Aedyr was formed of an alliance between these two most vanilla of fantasy species, but in another recent interview with IGN, Patel explained that short kings in particular just wouldn’t play nice with Avowed’s new perspective.
HAS ME HOPEFUL THAT IT’LL AVOID A GREAT PITFALL OF SIMILAR FIRST-PERSON RPGS
SWORD AND BOARD
There’s still plenty of character customisation though: Avowedwill have a classless system with particular flexibility when it comes to mixing and matching different combat styles. While I’ll miss the specific class fantasy of Pillarsstandbys like Ciphers or Chanters, I did spot what looked like a dialogue option in the developer direct trailer, and Patel confirmed that there would be background options at character creation.
As for the first-person combat, that seems to be a huge focus on Obsidian’s part going into Avowed, and to such a degree that while there will be dialoguecentric solutions to certain quests and some light stealth, Patel and Paramo revealed that this isn’t agame in which you could pull a pacifist run.
For Avowed’s first-person swording, Obsidian’s looking to the best in the game for a lead. Paramo cited Fatshark’s beloved co-op Warhammer first-person slu
