GamesRPGObsidian made Fallout: New Vegas in 18 months, but Avowed has taken the studio five years: “It’s been a long development cycle"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGObsidian made Fallout: New Vegas in 18 months, but Avowed has taken the studio five years: “It’s been a long development cycle"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Obsidian)
Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind some of thebest RPGsof all time, is no stranger to tight turnarounds. Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic 2 infamously took just over a year to create, while post-apocalyptic darling Fallout: New Vegas was given 18 months to cook.Avowed, the developer’s upcoming fantasy RPG set in the plague-ridden Living Lands, has taken five years – a whopper, in comparison to its radioactive predecessor. It’s been a long stretch, game director Carrie Patel tells GamesRadar+, but the payoff is finally in sight.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
“It’s a really exciting time in development, because it’s at the end when you really see everything come together,” says Patel. Right now, the team is giving Avowed a polish – “turning it up to 11,” in Patel’s words – and looking for ways to improve the largely-finished RPG. “It’s extraordinarily satisfying,” adds art director Matt Hansen. “It’s been a long development cycle for us – for Obsidian specifically – and we’ve learned so many lessons over that time.”
Choose your own adventure
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
“Right now, we’re so focused on experiential polish, rather than making sure we’re, you know, under poly count and texture memory,” adds Hansen. “We’re doing pretty good in that place, and it’s allowed us to have a lot of freedom to improve things we didn’t think we would get to improve. And that’s been really, really liberating.”
The result of this is shaping up to be Obsidian’s biggest game since 2019’s sci-fi adventure The Outer Worlds. Though Avowed has been widely compared to Bethesda’s first-person fantasy The Elder Scrolls 5:Skyrim, in truth it looks much weirder. The Living Lands, though whimsically colorful, is overrun with victims of the mysterious Dreamscourge – think pustular spiders, shroomy soldiers, and restless dead. Combat is just as eclectic – a mix of firearms, medieval weapons, and magic – and Hansen says that even this is grounded in Obsidian’s deep-rooted belief that players should be given as much control as possible.
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
“You don’t want it to feel as if the player’s role is inconsequential"Carrie Patel, game director
“You don’t want it to feel as if the player’s role is inconsequential”
“We don’t just want to [make] a game where you can be a wizard, or a warrior, or a gunslinger,” says Hanson. “We want it to feel like those choices are choices that you as the player are making, you’re not being pigeonholed into one world or another. We’ve got a lot of mixing and matching of systems and styles for players. You can [have] a wizard’s grimoire in one hand and a pistol in the other – I actually love playing that way, it’s super fun – but allowing for that level of depth is super important.”
However, this approach doesn’t come without risk. “You don’t want to feel as if the world ceases to exist when the player isn’t present,” Patel points out. “But you also don’t want it to feel as if the player’s role is inconsequential! For us, it’s about finding balance that makes our world meaningful, but also makes the player’s role feel central.”
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Truth and consequence
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
The topic of morality comes up again when we discuss Avowed’s story. So far, plot details have been kept minimal: besides investigating the Dreamscourge, it sounds like we’ll be exploring the Living Lands and determining the fate of its inhabitants, but it will once again come down to your choices.
“The story of the game, to use a bit of a cliche, is very morally gray,” says Hanson. “We don’t spoon feed you the good or the bad approaches to things. We touch on a lot of topics that have a lot of real world complexity to them, and you as the player can kind of decide how you want to go through that and what you want your experience with those, those political tensions and local conflicts.”
Patel says players will experience “a little bit of both” short and long-term consequences for their decisions, from choosing the fate of empires to much smaller results. “There are definitely some moments where your ability to persuade someone, or their reaction to you at a pivotal moment, is going to depend on how you’ve acted in situations before. They’ll kind of call it out – like ‘you want me to trust you now, but you did X, Y, and Z? I don’t think so!'”
Even so, the staggering cultural impact of Skyrim means that any first-person fantasy game is inevitably judged beneath its long shadow. But the track record of Obsidian – the studio that made a 16th century murder mystery, drawn on medieval manuscripts, one of the most compelling games of this generation – suggests that at the very least, it should have no trouble turning Fus Ro Dah to flowers. At the very least? Expect things to getweird.
Avowed is one of the most anticipatedupcoming Xbox Series X gamesfor the year, although its release date is still TBC
TOPICSSummer Game Fest
TOPICS
CATEGORIESPC GamingXbox Series XPlatformsXbox
CATEGORIES
PRODUCTSAvowedSummer Game Fest 2024
PRODUCTS
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3
Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5
Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
1Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
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1
Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2
Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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3
Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”