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"

Obsidian Entertainment is known for its beautiful video game environments and stories, but Avowed is poised to up the ante even more. We already know that the upcoming fantasy RPG is set in Eora, an embattled kingdom in its Pillars of Eternity universe. Despite this, you don't need to have played that game to understand Avowed's story, and in keeping with large segmented world maps as seen in The Outer Worlds, Obsidian is determined to maintain the player's ability to navigate the story however they choose.

That means although the game isn't a fully open roaming experience, we can expect opportunities for nuanced environmental storytelling and companion-specific decisions as we explore Eora. "Open zones allow us to create a strong sense of place in each of our environments," game director Carrie Patel tells us. "All of our regions have distinct aesthetics and atmospheres as well as unique local conflicts and narratives that build towards the larger, grander story that the player is at the center of. Building Avowed through separate regions allows us to balance that sense of distinctness with a feeling that the player is journeying through portions of a much larger world," says Patel, speaking to Avowed's championing of choice and consequence-driven gameplay – and its flexibility doesn't stop at its "classless" combat system. 

Gather the troops

Avowed's highly-reactive world contains myriad stories and subplots to explore, largely involving your companions. Patel describes these companions as "fellow travelers'' you meet on your journey, and "each have their own ties to the Living Lands, investment in its central conflicts, and personal demons, all of which shape their perspectives." While a romantic opportunity with any of these companions is seemingly off the cards, their stories have the potential to affect the player's own.

In Avowed, we can "influence how the companions tackle their respective personal struggles, and the companions in turn will try to nudge the player around the decisions and outcomes that they think are best…rightly or wrongly," says Patel. "Ultimately, though, companions are the player’s allies – and if you get to know them – friends, which means they’ll help the player out of sticky situations when they can, and they’ll share the expertise they have." 

This sounds like Avowed's companions are somewhat optional rather than hard-written into any given playthrough. Their importance in the broader narrative seems essentially down to how players deal with respective quest lines, district conflicts, and other subplots. 

Potentially "missable" content like this has been a huge draw for me in other RPGs, with the sheer breadth of choice on offer in the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 being but one reason many players (including myself) are finding such immense replay value in it. I'm keen to explore just how much Avowed's story can shift and branch out after making certain decisions. Obsidian has already commented on how players will never see 100% of everything in a single playthrough due to how much of it hinges on choice, so right now, it's sounding more than promising.  

In terms of who these companions are and what they're capable of, Avowed is leaning toward a party-makeup system that can be shaped however you wish. "Each companion has a role in the party if the player wants them to," says gameplay director Gabe Paramo. He goes on to give two examples. "Kai is a tank and can taunt enemies, causing him to take aggro, or Giatta can heal the party when you want her to."

Still, companion choices are just one part of Avowed's overarching mission to facilitate the roleplaying fantasy. "Players will have extensive freedom to experiment with companions, class capabilities, and character progression in both combat and other aspects of the game," says Paramo, with Patel having said previously that Avowed's combat is more like a "fantasy Outer Worlds" despite the Skyrim comparisons. 

The ultimate goal of Avowed is clear to me: it's our world to shape however we want, from whose stories we interact with to how we engage in battle. "The player is the main character of Avowed," Patel says in conclusion. "Companions have their own outlooks, goals, and visions for the future of the Living Lands, but this is the player’s story first and foremost, and it falls to the player to decide whose advice to heed."