Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed is already on the list of 2025's most anticipated role-playing games, and its art director teases that the studio is leaning on "all the greatest hits" from its previous works to bring it to life.
As a stand-alone game set within the Pillars of Eternity universe, Avowed goes its own way by developing a deeper focus on combat and the shared experience of going on an adventure that shares a lot of common ground with The Outer World - yet it still retains the DNA of Obsidian's other more varied projects such as Grounded and Pentiment. During GamesRadar+'s recent Avowed preview, we spoke with art director Matt Hansen and lead environmental artist Dennis Presnell about the making of the game and how Avowed is a culmination of all the best content and features the devs had refined from across their entire studio's history.
"With each game we make, we can reference that thing and say, like, 'Actually, how did Grounded handle that? Or how did they do it on The Outer Worlds? Or how did Pentiment handle that storytelling beat or whatever?' And we go, 'Cool. We explored that there,'" says Hansen. "Let's bring in all the greatest hits of that stuff, which is really satisfying, but also remembering what our core DNA as a studio is, right? We've got that mantra of 'your worlds your way.' We want to make sure that the player feels empowered to play the game in ways that excite them and occasionally will hopefully surprise them as well."
Many of Obsidian Entertainment's games are still seen as the gold standard for the role-playing genre – particularly Fallout: New Vegas and its adaptation of a Bethesda-style RPG. From GamesRadar+'s recent features by senior staff writer Heather Wald, we got a clearer sense of the game's fantasy world structure and how its first-person combat presents players with options on how to engage enemies in several ways. It also focuses less on open-world exploration and more tightly designed zones that connected throughout the adventure – much like how The Outer Worlds was structured.
According to lead environmental artist Presnell, Avowed is "an evolution over from past games that we've done," and gives players the tools and options to chart their course through the story and its many encounters.
"For this game, we have our parkour system so you can move through the world in ways that we've never been able to in previous titles, and that combat is great; I love it," Presnell says. "But for me, just exploring and getting around is the most fun thing. There are so many challenges to the player; you will see something enticing, you wonder, 'I bet I could make that jump,' and you can parkour up to the top of the building, make a leap of faith, run across the narrow pillar, and land on another one. It's so satisfying when you do. There's not a whole lot of our regions that are off-limits to the players."
From our extensive hands-on time, Avowed has the makings of a sprawling and tightly designed RPG that aligns with Obsidian Entertainment's pedigree. With its February 18 release date fast approaching, we'll see the latest evolution of the developer's work fairly soon.
For more on our coverage of Avowed, check out our mega round-up of all the things you'll want to know about the game.
