When Avowed was revealed two years ago with a flashy teaser trailer it was almost impossible to find a corner of the internet that hadn't compared it to Skyrim.
According to Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, that was exactly the idea they were going for. At first.
"Originally we were pitching, in essence, our Skyrim," said Urquhart in an exclusive interview with PC Gamer. This doesn't come as a huge surprise. At the time, the Bethesda acquisition had yet to be announced (that bombshell would drop later in September of 2020) and there had been a large hole in the open-world fantasy RPG genre since Skyrim came and went.
Since that original pitch, Obsidian took a deep look at who they are and what they wanted to create and decided that a more intimate and in-depth experience like their past title, The Outer Worlds, was more their style.
Before I go any further, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's just not what I was initially expecting.
Considering Obsidian is most often compared to Bethesda, especially when Fallout: New Vegas enters the conversation, it is not a huge stretch of the imagination to say that the Bethesda acquisition may have affected how Obsidian approached Avowed. Suddenly, Avowed would not be placed in comparison to a 'competitor's' game, but a fellow sister company of Microsoft. I'm not implying their was some corporate nudging, but I can only imagine Obsidian was originally purchased with the idea they would eventually be making the next Skyrim. With Bethesda in the fold and all eyes on Starfield, Obsidian would have less pressure to create the next Skyrim and instead create their next great RPG with their own flavor.
To say I am excited would be an understatement. I loved the Outer Worlds and it felt like it filled a gap in the RPG world that had been missing for a long time. Not every game has to be Skyrim or Starfield. It can just be Outer Worlds. A delightful romp through an imaginative universe. If Avowed can simply improve on that with a Pillars of Eternity flavor, that's okay by me.
Nuance and depth over size just for the sake of size is a good thing.
I'll have kids by the time I see the next Elder Scrolls, my favorite game series of all time. If they ever make one after that, I'll be thinking more about retirement than I will my college days. That's just how it goes. These are huge games that take a long time to make. Most games that are slapped with a triple-A label do. I would imagine that was part of the reason Obsidian decided to take Avowed back to their more intimate experience roots.
Avowed looks just right for what it needs to be, a fantasy RPG with player choice and an emphasis on characters and player control. The magic system looks great and very original. It doesn't need to be Skyrim. It just needs to be the best Avowed it can be, and based on what we have seen so far, its hurtling towards that with gusto.
As a side note, I plan to talk about Avowed without the fluff more in a separate post but I've seen the idea that Avowed pulled the rug a few times and wanted to give my thoughts. Thanks for reading!
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