Obsidian Entertainment has revealed Avowed, a brand new RPG set in the studio’s Pillars of Eternity world.
Avowed will be Obsidian’s first big game for Microsoft since the acquisition in autumn 2018. The Outer Worlds, remember, was published by Take-Two indie label Private Division (an expansion, Peril on Gorgon, was announced today for release in September). Grounded, the studio’s other Microsoft game, is a much smaller affair.
Previous Pillars of Eternity games were isometric, meaning the camera was pulled up and back in an old-school RPG way. This naturally lends itself to a more tactical, paused approach to fighting. Taking the camera perspective into the character’s eyes in Avowed suggests Obsidian is going for a much more Elder Scrolls/Skyrim kind of immersion. The section at the end of the trailer, when we see through the eyes of a fighter wielding a sword and magic, backs this up.
Pillars of Eternity’s world is known as Eora and setting Avowed here, in familiar territory, is a great idea, not least because it has the most memorable collection of meddling gods I can think of. Obsidian needn’t waste any time dreaming up a world and game systems, although exactly how those systems will translate to first-person remains to be seen. It’s not a viewpoint that screams stop-start gameplay.