Avowed is yet to enter what's expected to be Obsidian's longest testing phase ever

Avowed screenshot Xbox Series X — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Following concerns over its visuals, an Avowed team member says the game will "get refined in various ways," and that its beta/alpha stages will be huge in comparison to the developer's past titles.

"All I can say is the game has not entered Alpha yet," said Obsidian's Briar Diem, responding to a forum post (via RPG Codex) that critiqued Avowed's "muddy" character models. "Art will get refined in various ways. Lighting will change. Though designs will not change of course. They are what they are."

Despite Diem's attempts to reassure users that Avowed's visuals are yet to be "refined", the bigger concern, according to another user, is that it sounds like the fantasy FPS is still not in a fully-playable alpha state just one year from its intended release in 2024.

Diem countered this, saying that's not a bad sign at all. "On previous projects Alpha periods were sometimes just a few months long. This is actually the longest we'll have for Alpha/Beta period for any game at Obsidian by a longshot, and is good news."

This seems to infer that lengthier beta tests before an even longer alpha stage might be necessary for a smoother release in general, with one RPG Codex user making a dig at "Bugsidian" - and we're sure they're not talking about the giant bugs of Grounded.

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Jasmine is a Senior Staff Writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London, she began her journalism career as a freelancer with TheGamer and TechRadar Gaming before joining GR+ full-time in 2023. She now focuses predominantly on features content for GamesRadar+, attending game previews, and key international conferences such as Gamescom and Digital Dragons in between regular interviews, opinion pieces, and the occasional stint with the news or guides teams. In her spare time, you'll likely find Jasmine challenging her friends to a Resident Evil 2 speedrun, purchasing another book she's unlikely to read, or complaining about the weather.