As detailed in our Avowed review, it turns out Obsidian Entertainment's latest is pretty good – as long as you're interested in a dialed-back open-world RPG that puts story and characters before massive Bethesda-esque open-ended adventures. Though both studios likely have very different ideas when it comes to tackling the genre, there's one element of Avowed that The Elder Scrolls 6 should really use as inspiration: the punchy and weighty combat system.
For the longest time, Bethesda's crown jewel series (sorry, Fallout fans) has attracted millions of adventurers looking to lose themselves in Tamriel's provinces. Whether you're all about Skyrim or consuming every The Elder Scrolls Online expansion which comes our way, there aren't many universes in gaming as absorbing as The Elder Scrolls. That said, very few fans would argue one of the series' strengths is the combat. In fact, the common sentiment is that it's serviceable at best if you don't use mods.
This isn't just a Skyrim thing. For one reason or another, every Elder Scrolls entry (The Elder Scrolls Online might be the exception) has struggled to wow with its combat. Morrowind's dice rolls always felt like a mismatch. Oblivion's vanilla enemy scaling nullified much of the main character's power growth. Skyrim fixed scaling but in turn lacked weight and proper feedback for many melee weapons; not to mention the half-baked magic system. So, how does Avowed make its fighting excel?
Lost might and magic
Only 10 minutes into Avowed's opening section, it's easy to notice the devs at Obsidian Entertainment have figured out a crucial part of making real-time combat feel good – no matter its depth – is to work hard on the connection between first-person camera movement, weapon animations, and sound. Even if you completely took the 'numbers go up' system out of weapons, gear, and enemies, Avowed would still feel great to play when things get chaotic. Cyberpunk 2077 almost nailed this, and Avowed might just have the best real-time combat I've experienced in a western RPG, at least in quite a few years.
Bones crunch. Steel clashes believably against shields. Giant axes feel like giant axes when swung around. And the magic... Oh, the magic. It's like Obsidian looked at the bonkers late-game Dragon's Dogma spells, went "we gotta inject some of that into our medium-sized first-person RPG somehow," and it worked out. Spellcasters aren't underpowered people that like putting some distance between themselves and the hordes of enemies. Instead, they're actual glass cannons straight out of Diablo. But you know, in first-person and waving wands and grimoires around. It all looks cool as heck too. While The Outer Worlds' take on Fallout-ish battles is mostly safe, Avowed's non-peaceful interactions come across as confident (though maybe it's just the result of extra dev time and budget).
When you also factor the recurring 'ragdoll moments' in, it's very hard not to think of Arkane Studios' 2006 banger Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, which was an action game first and foremost. Avowed has that quality of being thrilling and very satisfying the moment action breaks out... which is quite often. Not even the (in my humble opinion) half-baked gear and leveling systems get in the way of enjoyment, with strategic depth also manifesting itself not with extra mechanics, but by forcing players to prioritize targets and use their surroundings to their advantage. Things go south very often, and big numbers alone cannot save you.
Helping relatives out
Studios looking at each other's well-graded 'homework' is a common occurrence in the games industry and other creative spaces. Innovation isn't born out of thin air. It just doesn't happen. Developers have something to work with and aspire to. Here alone, I've brought up a handful of other RPGs to try to convey what Avowed does and how it achieves it. I believe Obsidian's latest isn't interested at all in reinventing the wheel, but its mix of familiar pieces and the raw talent of its devs could help influence much of what lies on the horizon – and that may extend to other veteran studios under Xbox's giant umbrella.
We've heard next-to-nothing about The Elder Scrolls 6, and it could still be a while before we learn anything new from it. Nonetheless, with Starfield now behind us (though we're expecting more DLC and updates), it's time to theorize about Bethesda's return to Tamriel. Given id Software's limited part in Fallout 4 and Starfield's development, could a small-scale Obsidian x Bethesda Game Studios collaboration be on the cards when it comes to making swords feel like they're cutting meat and bones instead of butter?
At this point, Fallout: New Vegas 2 might never happen – though Xbox owns both the IP and all the powers involved in making the 2010 original happen – but perhaps Obsidian could help make The Elder Scrolls better without directly working on a spinoff for Bethesda. That's what family is for, right?
