Avowed, a new first-person RPG from Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds creator Obsidian Entertainment, was announced at today's Xbox Games Showcase.
With Avowed, Obsidian is once again dipping back into fantasy for a break from sci-fi. Set in the world of Eora from Pillars of Eternity, Avowed's reveal trailer is dark and stormy with shades of Skyrim, a marked departure from their earlier work on Fallout: New Vegas, at least in terms of setting and themes.
Curiously enough, this is Obsidian's first, first-person fantasy RPG. Games like Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, and Neverwinter Nights 2 were all isometric RPGs, and the studio's first-person projects have always been some flavor of sci-fi. The game's reveal trailer was a bite of exposition and a snippet of first-person gameplay, with our hero brandishing a sword in one hand and a spell in the other - confirming that, yep, it's a fantasy RPG.
"We have always known war," the trailer's narrator says. "It forged our empire, turned heroes into kings and queens, and decimated our foes. Now our oaths are lost, forsaken. Now you must face the monsters our sins have born. Is an oath worth the weight of a crown?"
Microsoft Studios head Matt Booty described Avowed as the epic game that Obisidan has wanted to make for years, and as a project "built from the ground up to take advantage of Xbox Series X."
After the reveal of Avowed, Obsidian is now spinning quite a few plates. On top of a new fantasy title, it's also working on the newly announced Peril on Gorgon DLC for The Outer Worlds, as well as the miniaturized survival-crafting game Grounded. The studio has come a long way since Fallout: New Vegas and is now positioned as a key creative for Xbox, and in the past few years especially, it's brought its trademark wit and writing to new genres and unique worlds of its own making.
