Given Obsidian Entertainment’s pedigree and its reputation as one of the top RPG developers in the industry, it’s no surprise that there’s always plenty of anticipation surrounding whatever it is that the studio has cooking up next. Avowed is next in line for the ever-so-busy Obsidian, and as a first-person fantasy action RPG, it has obviously drawn a lot of comparisons with Skyrim- but exactly how similar to BGS’ 2011 classic is Obsidian’s upcoming game going to be? Based on all that we’ve seen of it so far, Avowed looks like it’s going to have a few things in common with Skyrim, but at the same time, it’s also setting itself apart in other key ways. Here, that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about.
FANTASY SETTING
Let’s get things started with the most obvious and surface-level similarity between the two games- that both are modern AAA first-person RPGs in a fantasy setting. Avowed is taking players back to Eora, which is the world of the Pillars of Eternity series, though it’s going to be set primarily in the Living Lands, a previously unexplored part of the setting. Since its very first cinematic teaser all those years ago, Avowed has echoed Skyrim with its high fantasy setting in some very obvious ways, and that, of course, continues to be the case.
Look a little deeper, however, and the differences begin to show…
AVOWED IS NOT A MASSIVE OPEN WORLD
Though Obsidian originally set out to make its own version of Skyrim – i.e. a massive open world fantasy RPG – the studio ultimately ended up deciding to scale down instead. Now, Avowed is going to be more in line with The Outer Worlds- a smaller, more condensed experience. Of course, those who wish to engage in a good bit of exploration will still get plenty of opportunities to do that, but you shouldn’t go in expecting a sweeping, gargantuan epic similar to Skyrim.
DIFFERENT EXPLORATION LOOP
Given the fact that Avowed’s world is going to adopt a different structure from that of Skyrim, naturally, that’ll mean the exploration loop is also going to take on a different form. Of course, how much players will want to engage with the optional content will be entirely their decision, something that’s true of both games, but from a tighter structure to levels feeling more designed and handcrafted compared to the vast expanses of Skyrim’s world, traversing Avowed’s maps will have a different flow. Making use of companions’ abilities and interacting with different things in the environment will also be important. Oh, and speaking of companions…
AVOWED IS SEEMINGLY PLACING MORE EMPHASIS ON COMPANIONS
Obsidian and BGS RPGs have both traditionally been known for their companion characters, but of course, they go about that in very different ways. Skyrim, for instance, did have its own cast of recruitable companion characters, but these are entirely ancillary and completely missable parts of the game who can have little to no integration with the story, depending on how you play. Avowed, on the other hand, will be more similar to Obsidian’s past games, with the companion characters forming a core cast that will have a crucial role to play in the main story from beginning to end.
AVOWED IS LOOKING MORE STORY-FOCUSED
Avowed’s greater focus on its cast of companion characters can attributed largely to the fact that the game is going to put more emphasis on its main story and storytelling, period. Skyrim, like all BGS RPGs, is more of a massive open world sandbox where players are free to do as they see fit. A byproduct of that, of course, is that the game’s main story ends up feeling relatively weaker, and by no means does it remain the main focus. Obsidian, on the other hand, has always been known for crafting narrative-focused experiences, and it looks like Avowed will continue that trend, with its main story very much being the primary driver of the experience.
FACTIONS
Here’s an RPG trope that’s never going to die, because why the hell should it? Populating their worlds with different factions with engaging histories, cultures, conflicts, and stories is something RPG developers have done for as long as the genre has been around. Skyrim’s world is filled with a variety of different groups and their own dedicated questlines, in true BGS fashion. The upcoming Avowed, too, will see players encountering a number of different factions as they explore the Living Lands. Then again, Obsidian’s greater focus on player choice will make Avowed’s implementation of factions stand out, by the look of things.
CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE MECHANICS
This is an area where BGS RPGs have never made too much of a mark, the same being true of Skyrim as well. Make no mistake, the open world epic certainly put little to no limitations in allowing players to do whatever they wanted to do, and however they wanted to do. But though Skyrim always lets you make whatever choices you want, it’s not often that you ever actually feel the weight of any of those decisions, no matter how monumental. Successfully seeing the questlines of two rival factions in direct competition with each other through to completion shouldn’t be possible, and yet Skyrim (like other BGS RPGs) lets you do that. Avowed, however, is going to be the sort of game where the choices that you make have consequences, in true Obsidian fashion, which means you can expect the story and the world to react more strongly to your actions and decisions.
QUEST STRUCTURE
Speaking of player choice, Avowed will seemingly allow for plenty of it in terms of the actual moment-to-moment gameplay as well- which, of course, is an area where Skyrim and other RPGs made by its studio do excel. For instance, speaking to GamesRadar, Obsidian’s Berto Ritger explained that nearly every quest in the game had been designed so that players would be able to begin and tackle them in a variety of ways. Skyrim’s immersive sim-esque gameplay sandbox, which lets players go about tackling objectives however they please, is one of its biggest strengths; we don’t expect Avowed to be on that same level (it’s going for something else, after all), but clearly, its quest structure seems to be taking a few cues from the BGS design playbook.
FIRST/THIRD PERSON OPTIONS
Here’s another way that Avowed is going to overlap with the Skyrim experience, and it’s another obvious on. Like Skyrim, Avowed is primarily a first-person experience, and that plain and simple fact has led to countless inevitable comparisons (like this one). Also similar to Skyrim, meanwhile, Avowed is also confirmed to feature a third-person option. How well the gameplay experience will translate to that camera perspective remains to be seen- Skyrim in third-person is something of an abomination, so here’s hoping Avowed doesn’t have that in common with it.
COMBAT DIFFERENCES
In spite of the similarities in their camera options, Avowed’s combat still seems to be setting itself apart from Skyrim in some unique ways. Experimenting with different kinds of spells and weapons and creating unique combos – like freezing an enemy with an ice spell before using a sledgehammer to shatter them into pieces – is going to be a key part of the combat in Avowed, which promises to lend the combat an interesting moment-to-moment pacing. Other mechanics such as seamless weapon switching as well as the inclusion of firearms could also spice up combat in interesting ways.
AVOWED WILL BE MUCH SHORTER
Skyrim is obviously an absolute giant of a game, with a main story of 30 hours but a play time that could easily extend well into the tripe digits, courtesy of its oceans of optional content. Avowed, on the other hand, is being designed as a way more contained and compact experience. Obsidian has said it’s going to be roughly the same in its and length as The Outer Worlds, which means we’re looking at a game that’ll be anywhere between 15 and 40 hours long, depending on how much of its side content you engage with.
