Avowed deep dive reveals third-person mode, improved combat, and more
While the fantastic Xbox Games Showcase shared a story trailer for Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment game director Carrie Patel has now shared further details about the upcoming RPG via a deep dive with Xbox Wire, confirming that the game is now in its polishing stages. “It’s a really exciting part of the development process because you’ve got so much that’s so far along,” Patel said. “Your content, your gameplay, your systems, and you’re really just investing those final touches, that final layer of polish, like pushing everything to be as good as it possibly can, trying to make smart decisions, not crazy ones.”
Earlier this year, I said that Avowed looked amazing but its combat was missing something. Well, looking at this deep dive, it appears that Obsidian has put the time into improving the game’s combat, which shows punchier attacks and better hit reactions. Additionally, while we have seen first-person combat so far, Patel confirms that a third-person perspective will be available. Combat isn’t a linear experience, and you’ll have many options available for engaging with enemies: “We wanted to try to, as much as possible, give the different abilities that players can pick up,” Patel says. “Obviously, solutions in combat, but also solutions in exploration. And so there’s almost always more than one way through a particular barrier. But you’ll have weapons, your own abilities, spells, weapon enchantments, sometimes even your companions who can use their environmental abilities to help you get through barriers like that, again, as you build the character you want to play.”
In Avowed, we play as a Godlike, a kith species whose soul has been touched by the gods, much the same as in Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire. The Godlike have a physical appearance that “manifests in some way on your face and/or head,” and in Avowed we’ll be able to customize how that looks. Speaking of customization, we’ll be able to upgrade our skills and abilities as we level up, and respeccing will be available if you’re not happy with your current build. Weapon upgrades will also be available when in your party camp, and seems to be an important part of progressing through Avowed. Patel explains, “We want to make sure that players are getting clear feedback as to when their gear is effective, and when, maybe, they need to go back to camp. So it looks, it feels, it sounds different when you’re playing with appropriately leveled gear.”
As for conversing with the many characters Avowed has, depending on the choices you make during character creation and leveling up, you can unlock new dialogue options. “This is an Obsidian game, some of the options available to you are dictated by choices you make at character creation, choices you make as you level up your character,” Patel says. “So some of them are tied to specific attributes. Some of them are tied to specific backgrounds that you choose at the beginning of the game. And a lot of those will really, in different cases, either add some different flavor, personality, or possibly, a different outcome to that conversation.”
With its dynamically changing day/night cycle, varied combat options, and customizable nature, Avowed is shaping up to be a gorgeous RPG. After seeing the improvements Obsidian has made to its combat, I’m more excited than ever to dive in later this year when Avowed leaves our list of upcoming Game Pass games.