Avowed has been compared to The Elder Scrolls since its first moments in the public eye. As a fantasy RPG with lots of different ways to play, all set within an already-established world, it was almost impossible this upcoming Obsidian game wouldn't be compared directly to Bethesda's 2011 effort. But from its trailer at the Xbox Game Showcase, it seems that Avowed has one thing Skyrim didn't – a sense of humor.
Don't get me wrong. Skyrim had the potential to be very, very silly. But much of the time it felt like you were, at least a little bit, laughing at Bethesda instead of with it. A little slapstick and dramatic irony did as much as it could to put across the idea that Skyrim was happy to try and make you laugh, but that idea was outshone; physics glitches, emergent stories, community memes, and a chaotic modding scene combined to make sure that even the game's most serious moments didn't feel that way for long.
By comparison, Avowed is putting its jokes front-and-center. By my count, it took fewer than 20 seconds before its gameplay trailer started cracking wise. Clearly, the main focus was on exposition and explanation, but Obsidian made sure to cram in a bunch of delightful moments of humor; the image of our hero pulling a pair of ornate magical dueling pistols on some rampaging ogre drew a particular chuckle.
Avowed, me hearties
I shouldn't really be surprised by that. Obsidian's The Outer Worlds had its tongue lodged so firmly in its cheek that it almost gained a second mouth, and it's not as though Fallout: New Vegas was particularly serious. I don't remember Pillars of Eternity, the CRPG series that gave life to (and shares a world with) Avowed, being all that light-hearted, but there's certainly a comedy pedigree at the studio.
What really captured me about Avowed, though, was the bombast. A decade on from Skyrim, you'd hope that the art and animation would be capable of a little more than Bethesda could manage in 2011, but Avowed is also more colorful, more explosive. Our hero weaves spells that seem, frankly, to border on the edge of ridiculous, throwing together hand movements and rituals that wouldn't look out of place in a Doctor Strange film to send hordes of cartoonish skeletons flying. Enemies shatter into ice, have their heads caved in while rooted to the spot, or are flung into the air by swirling black holes. One enemy goes down to two swipes of a huge, flaming sword. Another is charged with a huge shield bash. I still can't get over those fantasy pistols.
There's just an amazing sense of B-movie heft to everything I saw about Avowed that turns it from a pleasing homage to Skyrim to an entire comedic overhaul of the entire RPG genre. Where The Elder Scrolls clearly wants to evoke the feeling of sprawling epics like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, there's a sense of the fantasy b-movie to Avowed; of something a little bolder, brasher, and prepared to take itself a little less seriously. There'll always be a place for Skyrim in my heart, but a game that evokes that feeling while also letting me cut loose? Sign me up.
Here are all the rest of the Xbox Games Show announcements.
