The hype machine surrounding Avowed has kept on chugging, which means new details on the action RPG continue to be revealed by Obsidian Entertainment and Microsoft. We’ve covered a lot of those in previous features leading up to its release, but there’s plenty more to talk about still. Here, then, we’re going to go over a few more key details that you should know about the game.
NO LEVEL SCALING
RPG fans often tend not to be big fans of level scaling, which is what it’s called when enemies in a game level up alongside you. After all, what’s the point of levelling up if you don’t ever feel that gap against weaker enemies that you’ve left in your wake? Thankfully, Avowed will let you feel that growth. Speaking with MinnMax, game director Carrie Patel confirmed that it won’t feature level scaling, which means enemy levels won’t scale up with you as you progress further in the game.
NO TRADITIONAL CLASSES
Speaking of Obsidian’s obsession with player choice, in pursuit of maximizing agency, Avowed will also not feature any traditional character classes. Rather than boxing your character into a defined category with its own abilities and limitations, the game will instead allow players to advance and progress their character the way they see fit. Speaking with Game Rant about the same, Patel said, “What we did instead [of traditional character classes] is give players the freedom to make their character be whatever they want them to be. You can still go into the game with a specific character type in mind and make that character and play it that way, end to end. However, being locked into a single style is the player’s choice and not ours.”
SKILL TREES
How exactly will progression function in Avowed? We have, of course, gone over the basics in the past – levelling up will earn you skill points that you’ll then invest across five different skill trees to unlock new abilities – so let’s dive a little deeper into the details. The Fighter tree will cover your melee combat, Ranged will cover your melee combat, and Wizard will cover your spells. There’s also a Companion tree for, well, all of your companions. Speaking of which…
CHOICES AND COMPANIONS
Companion characters will have an important role to play in Avowed, as you’d expect from an Obsidian title, and yes, they’ll also be tied intrinsically to the game’s choice and consequence mechanics. Speaking with Xbox Wire, region director Berto Ritger explained that the choices players make will “impact how your companions feel about you and whether they will stick around”. Companions will react to and have their own thoughts and opinions on the decisions you make in both side and main quests, though how significantly you’ll be able to impact their stories remains to be seen.
NO OPTIONAL COMPANIONS
As we’ve known for a while, Avowed will have four core companion characters in Kai, Giatta, Marius, and Yatzli- and none of them will be missable. Speaking with MinnMax, game director Carrie Patel revealed that the game doesn’t have any optional or missable companion characters. That said, outside of the core cast of four companions, there will seemingly also be other characters who will temporarily fight by your side at times.
VOICE CAST
Avowed’s voice cast for its companion characters boasts some notable names. Kai is being voiced by Brandon Keener, who is perhaps best known as the voice of Garrus Vakarian in Mass Effect. Then there’s Mara Junot, known for her roles in Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 1, among others, who plays Giatta. Marius is played by Scott Whyte, who is the voice of Captain Quark in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and Crash in Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. Finally, Yatzli is voiced by Anjali Bhimani, best known as Symmetra in Overwatch.
CHARACTER BACKGROUNDS
When creating your character in Avowed, you’ll select one of five different backgrounds for your character, which in turn will impact how characters in the game will interact and engage with you, in addition to providing unique dialogue options at certain moments. The Noble Scion background, for instance, will see you playing as a character from a noble family who decided to curry the Emperor’s favour after your family’s prospects declined. With the War Hero background, on the other hand, you’ll play as someone who made a name for themselves in a particularly bloody battle.
MORE CHARACTER BACKGROUNDS
Those who like a little bit of deception and subterfuge in their playing style in RPGs will want to play as a Court Augur who has gone from back alley fortune-teller to personal mystic advising for the Emperor himself. Then there’s the Vanguard Scout background, which will define your character as someone particularly skilled with tracking, spying, and the like. Finally, the Arcane Scholar background will cast you in the light of an expert scholar in service to the emperor.
LORE GUIDE
Obsidian games are usually brimming with rich and fascinating lore, and with Avowed being set in the pre-established (and lore-heavy) setting of Pillars of Eternity, you can bet that that will continue to be the case here as well. For those with the inclination to engage more deeply with that aspect of the experience, Avowed will also feature a lore guide similar to Final Fantasy 16’s Active Time Lore- one that you’ll be able to seamlessly pull up during conversations to find contextual lore and information on things being spoken about.
MORE WEAPON VARIETY
We previously spoke about the different weapons in the game, but we now have more information on them. Player agency and choice mechanics are usually the bread and butter in RPGs where each decision matters, and while that will seemingly continue to be the case with Avowed, it seems like combat is also an area of focus for the title. Particularly impressive is the variety of weapons that the game is promising. We already spoke about swords, hammers, crossbows, wands and pistols but now we also have the likes of one-handed weapons like daggers, maces to two-handed ones like greatswords. Avowed will allow players to take on enemies with a variety of different weapons. As noted earlier, Dual-wielding will be a big feature too, and players will also be encouraged to mix and match and try different combos.
ENDINGS
Obsidian hasn’t yet said how many different endings Avowed will have, but some vague details are available on that front nonetheless. For instance, we know that the game has at least 10 different ending slides. Speaking with IGN, game director Carrie Patel explained that players can end up with a number of different combinations depending on their actions. “I can tell you that our ending slides number in the double digits, and you can end up with a lot of different combinations of them. I mean, this is an Obsidian game, so your ending is really the sum total of your choices across the game, across a lot of pieces of content, depending on what you encountered and what you did when you found it.”
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CREDITS ROLL?
It seems like Avowed won’t allow players to continue playing the game once the credits roll. Although this hasn’t been officially confirmed, the developer in an interview with MinnMax confirmed that players can begin a new game after the credits roll and there is a point of no return in the game.
EXPLORATION AND OPTIONAL CONTENT
This, of course, is an area where fans of RPGs (and Obsidian titles) usually have high expectations, and Avowed seems to be aiming high, too. We’ve known for a while that Avowed isn’t open world, instead opting for a semi-open world structure that will see players travelling from large zone to large zone in sequential order. Each of these zones will also be brimming with optional content, secrets, and more, with the goal for Obsidian being that no two players have the same experience. Speaking with Xbox Wire, game director Carrie Patel said, “We know that for the players who find those secrets and experiences, it’s going to give them that same sense of delight and surprise that it sounds like you experienced. What makes RPGs special, and what makes our RPGs special, is the idea that we’re building a lot of content. We know that no one player is going to have the exact same experience, and part of what makes it fun and rewarding is when you find something and think, ‘I found this on my own, and I wonder how many other people did.’”
HOW DO REGIONS UNLOCK?
Many RPGs allow the player to explore the world right off the bat. Will this be the case in Avowed? In an interview with RPGSite, the developer confirmed that the regions unlock in a specific order, however, players can backtrack for the most part, if they choose. So, you will have to progress through the game if you have to see every zone the game has to offer.
GRAPHICS MODES
Game director Carrie Patel has confirmed in an interview with MinnMax that Avowed will run at “up to” 60 FPS on Xbox Series X, and though further official details aren’t available, leaks have seemingly filled in the blanks. As per leaker extas1s on Twitter, the game will also feature 30 FPS and 40 FPS modes on Xbox Series X, both of which will also be available on Xbox Series S. On Series S, however, a 60 FPS option seemingly won’t be available.
