Avowed director says "We're working on" the RPG's combat after a lukewarm reception during the Xbox Direct

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Obsidian's upcoming RPG's combat is only going to get better

Avowed new screenshot
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

The director of Obsidian's next RPG, Avowed, has revealed that the team is still working on the game's combat and that things have changed since we last saw the game during the Xbox Developer Direct showcase last month. 

Carrie Patel, the director of Avowed, has appeared on the Dropped Frames podcast to offer insight into the upcoming game's development, more specifically, how the team is responding to community feedback, such as the game's combat that is still evolving ahead of its release.

During the Xbox event, we saw Avowed's polished combat, leading fans to compare it to a certain Bethesda RPG. Not long after this, Patel addressed the Skyrim comparisons and revealed that the upcoming action RPG is more like Obsidian's "fantasy take on The Outer Worlds" instead. 

In the Dropped Frames interview, the director discusses the community's reaction to Avowed and explains: "We showed something for a showcase last June, we showed a little bit more at Developer Direct a couple of weeks ago [...] so we're getting to share more and more, but all of that is while the game is still in progress." 

Patel continues by mentioning Avowed's combat: "One of the heartening things has been seeing fans call out some of the things that we are actively working on, like the sense of hitting and impacts as you're attacking enemies." 

The director then goes on to explain how the footage we saw during the Developer Direct is actually "a few weeks behind" where the team is currently, in terms of its development. "It's kind of nice to always say like 'yep, they saw it, we know it, trust us, we're working on it," Patel continues. 

What this basically means is that Avowed could see a lot of changes between now and when it's set to release in Fall 2024 - we just have to trust the process. In case you were wondering, Obsidian has revealed that Avowed is set in Pillars of Eternity's world, but you don't need to have played the studio's older CRPG first. 

Avowed is a fantasy RPG with open-zone maps, unique local conflicts, and companions to meet – but it's still "the player's story first and foremost."

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.