The new RPG Avowed is Skyrim on Steroids; many experts could play Obsidian’s new RPG Avowed. No, we were not amongst them, and now, we don’t want to talk about, and, yes, we still consider ourselves experts, but that’s beside the point. The point is that everyone agrees that Avowed is amazing. You can almost say they all vowed on it, heh… (sorry).
Klobrille, Jez Gordon, and VGC are the lucky ones in question, and we will sum up their thoughts for you here. We wish we were summing up our thoughts, but, Obsidian didn’t show any love, so what are you going to do?
The new RPG Avowed is Skyrim on Steroids
Avowed is Obsidian’s Skyrim killer (or sure looks like it, at least). If you’re at all familiar with Obsidian’s history, that makes perfect sense. Over the past decade, Obsidian has built a reputation for taking beloved RPG subgenres and giving them a unique twist. Pillars of Eternity was a love letter to cRPG classics like Baldur’s Gate and The Outer Worlds (which is getting a sequel, by the way), channeled the dark satire and meaningful choices Fallout: New Vegas.
So it only makes sense that Obsidian would take on Skyrim next—and it’s good timing since Elder Scrolls 6 was a no-show at E3 2021.
Sadly, Obsidian also had nothing to share about Avowed at E3, so we don’t have much detail about the project. That said, we’ve painstakingly collected all the information out there into this comprehensive guide, including more information about the story, world, and gameplay. This is what we know about Avowed so far.
Sadly, Avowed was not at E3 2021, so there is little to know beyond what was said during its initial reveal in 2020. That said, on June 13, Obsidian said it is still hard at work on Avowed and will have something to share soon.
Avowed was first revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase this year with an ominous cinematic trailer. What we saw is brief, but it shows a few key details—most notably that Avowed is a first-person RPG in a similar vein to The Outer Worlds or, perhaps more accurately, Skyrim.
Though it showed no gameplay, the trailer ends from that perspective, as the “player” brandishes a sword and traces out a spell in the air that charges their hand with some violet energy as an unseen enemy, presumably one that is very large and made of flames, approaches. It’s cool, and it very much evokes the scene in The Lord of the Rings when the Balrog chases down Frodo and the gang.
Not much else is revealed, but the trailer’s narrator places specific emphasis on oaths, which seems like it’ll be a central theme in the story. Clever players on the Avowed subreddit have also deciphered the runes etched on the sword in the trailer, realizing that it’s a language that already exists in Pillars of Eternity to discover the sword’s name is Oathbinder.
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The Bottom Line
We don’t know! The reveal trailer didn’t hint at any window or even suggest a possible year. But given that Obsidian is also working on Grounded, their upcoming early access survival game, and has two DLCs for The Outer Worlds in the works (one of which was revealed just before Avowed), it’s possible that Avowed could be years away from release.
Given that information, one of the more prominent rumors is that Avowed is a prequel to Pillars of Eternity and set in the Aedyr Empire. And when you consider the banners shown in the trailer and the Oathbinder sword carved with Aedyran runes, it makes a lot of sense. By the time Pillars of Eternity starts, Woedica is exiled. Avowed could explore her fall from power, which might also explain the trailer’s ominous monologue about forsaken oaths.
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