Avowed is an RPG that's both the culmination of everything Obsidian has done before, and also an evolution of it: "There's really not a whole lot of our regions that's off limits to the players"

Avowed is the culmination of everything Obsidian Entertainment has done before. From its flexible combat system that lets you chop and change your own dual wielding loadout on the fly, to creating your own character and making choices that will have different consequences in the Living Lands, the new RPG from the developer behind Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and Neverwinter Nights 2 is coming on February 18 to put us in charge of our own fantastical journey. While all of these ingredients dial into the studio's signature longstanding ethos of "play your way", there's one new feature that speaks to how Avowed is also going to be "an evolution from past games", as veteran Obsidian developer and lead environment artist Dennis Presnell tells me.

"We've always created these really wonderful, unique, exciting worlds to explore. And in Avowed, we have our parkour system, so you can move through the world in ways that we've never been able to in previous titles," Presnell says. "And the combat is great. I love it. But for me, just exploring, 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 and make a leap and run across the narrow pillar and land on another one. And it's so satisfying when you do. There's really not a whole lot of our regions that's off limits to the players."

Exploration and discovery

Avowed is home to different open-zone regions (think mini open worlds) we'll get to explore as the Envoy of Adyr, who is sent out on behalf of the emperor of the Aedyran empire to investigate a plague that's spreading across The Living Lands. From my hands-on time with the RPG late last year, I got to spend some time playing through the prologue and venturing through the region of Dawnshore. Both sections of the demo gave me a taste of the exploration Presnell highlights.

From climbing up ledges tucked away off the beaten path of a forest to uncover a hidden chest, to finding my way into a spider-filled cave, the open zones have been designed with verticality in mind. Climbable walls, ridges, and hidden openings beckon you on to explore, and as I parkoured across the landscape, I was often rewarded with smaller discoveries – whether it be loot, an unexpected encounter, or even just a part of the landscape that's hidden from view.

As region director Berto Ritger explains, that sense of discovery is possible thanks to the open-zone approach, and the scope allowed the team to be "a lot more handcrafted about everything".

"Every single aspect of the game was placed by somebody deliberately," Ritger says, "so you'll come across stuff. From a team perspective, we can actually populate the world at a density that we feel like is good for that world. And it's meant to be a game that respects your time. There's a lot of depth to it if you want to engage with it – read every single thing you find, and talk to every single character – and some of those things are missable."

As Ritger adds, having that "missable content" is at the heart of what makes RPGs like Avowed special. You'll have the freedom to decide to explore and parkour across the landscape, or invest your time doing quests outside of the main story, but it's never forced on you - and it's that level of choice when it comes to how you want to engage with the world and experience all it has to offer that makes it, as Ritger says, "feel more personal to you".

Verticality and variety

Narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde says that the parkour system, which is new to Obsidian's games, was a learning experience for the team – often driving them to look at the design of a space differently in terms of what could and couldn't be climbable, and forcing them to make the most of open-zones by bringing a sense of verticality to each area.

"It really felt like this organic sort of growth and learning experience of how to make parkourable spaces," Dollarhyde explains, "to the point where I feel like the verticality is one of the things that makes this game so different and gives it a really unique and fun identity to me."

From my own experience with Avowed, being able to parkour up and down the landscape certainly encouraged me to explore, and the sense of discovery was a real highlight. For Obsidian Entertainment, though, it's just one of the many features that instill a sense of confidence among the team that the upcoming RPG will stand out on its own merits in 2025.

"Games are really hard to make, and every experience is different," Presnell says of the approaching release date, "and they've always been challenging. I've always felt a certain level of dread months before a game shipped, a case of the nerves. But this is the most confident I've ever been in my experience at this stage of the project. I'm just overjoyed at how well everything's come together. And the team is now closing things down and fixing bugs, and I'm going to be really proud of this game when it's available to the public. I can't wait, actually."

Want to go deeper? Our Avowed: Big Preview features plenty more interviews and gameplay impressions from our recent studio visit!

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