It’s always a real treat when we get to go hands-on with a title that has big promises and comes from a legacy. There’s a thrill in finding your own way through the world you’ve been anticipating, an extra level of eagerness that comes with your existing curiosity. This year, there have been a few titles that have intrigued at an early stage, for various reasons, and over the past weeks, we’ve been treated to another.
As part of PAX Australia’s massive schedule this year, GamesHub got the opportunity to sit down and play through an excerpt of Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG Avowed, paying keen attention to the detailed environments (and smashing up every single pot and vase we could find) before chatting to Production Director Ryan Warden about the upcoming game.
The first thing that was clearly noticeable was the aesthetic. Avowed has faced a mixed response in the past for differing art styles and changes, but what the current build does seem to have is a stronger sense of self. It’s not trying to be Skyrim in its grittiness, it’s not trying to be Fortnite with its stylistic features. It’s finding a balance that feels like a healthier blend of approached.
“One of the philosophies that we’ve taken when it comes to region creation is: take the whole region to about 80%, then put it on the shelf for a little bit and move on to the next region,” said Warden. “And that allows us to take some learnings from that one, apply them to the next region’s creation, and so on.”
“Then by the time we’re all the way through and we’ve made about as many learnings as we can, we go back to this one and go, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve learned so many things, let’s apply them to this first region again’. [We] take that to about 85% [then 90%, and so on], and it means having to revisit things, yes, but we’re able to [do so] when we have a little bit more knowledge … and then raise the bar just very gradually, and keep that momentum going.”
To that end, this extensive process of continually improving and tweaking the visuals has resulted in a landscape that feels genuinely quite beautiful. Avowed has clearly placed a lot of emphasis on crafting environments that feel like a good blend of realism with fantastical, especially in areas that featured elements of bioluminescence.
To get a little inside baseball, bioluminescence done wrong is one of those things I always look for in a preview, because it can occasionally skew to a stylistic, almost plasticky look that takes a step away from the grounded core you need to be able to convincingly sell a fantasy narrative. Word is that when George Lucas began work on Star Wars, he allegedly stressed that the world needed to be 80% familiar, and only 20% alien – the audience still needs a point of connection.
Fortunately, in Avowed, the bioluminescence settles into that right mathematical mix of percentages. The lighting team have done a solid job of dimming to a degree that feels luminous without overdoing it, and as such the vibe feels less obtrusive to the world.
“We’ve been able to capture that bioluminescence throughout the game, because at various parts [in the game’s production], it’s looked different than it has right now,” said Warden. “What you’re seeing is the result of a lot a lot of hard work, and a lot of experience and lessons learned along the way.”
Read: Avowed will now launch in February 2025
Stepping into Avowed‘s gameplay
Needless to say, looking at your surroundings is only one small element of Avowed, and what we were most excited for was to get hands-on and scope it out for ourselves. Our snippet was focused on a rescue and retrieval mission, to find a missing expedition team alongside your companion, Kai (voiced by the incredible Brandon Keener).
Playing with a Fighter build gave us two options for combat: a heavier two-handed axe, or two one-handed weapons for a faster strike. As we faced down a selection of skeletons and assorted enemies, it became quickly clear that some encounters lend themselves to favour one over the other.
I often gravitate to heavier weapons (I do truly love an axe), and it definitely had the heft I was hoping for, while for quicker melee encounters, the faster swing of the dual-handed set-up allowed for a more aggressive approach to chipping away health.
That being said, there were some moments where the difficulties felt less about the enemy waves and more about a slower reactivity with the weapon’s swing. Wielding two one-handed weapons also removes your ability to block, while the one-handed axe was able to do so easily – and as someone who likes to take a defensive approach at times, it became a little frustrating to take the time to swap it out, or play with an alternative weapon. I’m certain I could get used to this in time, but in a 40 minute session it was a bit of a bugbear.
Narratively speaking, there were still plenty of Avowed secrets kept under wraps as part of this preview, but it held a solid promise that there’s plenty of story available to those who want to sink their teeth deep into the lore. There are reams and reams of in-world books to pore over for a dedicated history – but there’s also a kind of “too long, didn’t read” equivalent for players who aren’t as keen to go so deep.
“All of the lore drops that you’ve seen [during the Avowed preview] in the various books and examinables, that’s all supplemental information, and I think a really good example is the journal,” said Warden. “If you want to read that like, by all means, go for it – I think that it adds a lot of flavour to the actual quest – but then Kai very succinctly wraps up the quest.”
“So we have that supplemental information, but we don’t force it upon you. If you don’t want to read all that, that’s cool. We can summarise, we’ll give you a TLDR of what happens and what you need to know.”
Possibly the highlight of the entire preview was Brandon Keener’s Kai, the companion who accompanies you on the particular quest. As a long-time Garrus girlie from the Mass Effect days, I immediately recognised the voice and was 100% invested in everything he had to say.
“When we were casting the voiceover actor for Kai, it came down to a shortlist of finalists, just a couple of actors,” said Warden. “It was very, very close, [but] one of the big conversations that we had was like, ‘Okay, we got a couple folks who can nail the sass, but how many are going to nail that moment when the air gets sucked out of the room and you have that sense of vulnerability, of solemnity?'”
Keener’s characterisation – at least in this short snippet – really nailed that balance of hushed tones and wry humour, so it’s clear that the extra mile in the casting department was worth it. If anything, it makes us even more intrigued to hear more from the other companion characters in Avowed.
Is “player choice” the new “immersive”?
In a post-Baldur’s Gate 3 world, it sometimes feels like “player choice” and “player agency” have become a new buzz phrase in the RPG genre. For the team at Obsidian, with a legacy of being at the forefront of this, it feels like there’s some added pressure to not only talk the talk, but continue to walk the walk.
“I think it really boils down to Obsidian’s motto of ‘your worlds, your way’, and Obsidian’s pedigree of making RPGs, and so we have to be really careful to live up to that and it’s something that the team takes very seriously,” said Warden.
“Several months ago, we did a choice and consequence and reactivity pass over, over the entirety of the game. So Carrie [Patel, game director of Avowed] had been playing through and kind of going, ‘hold on, this doesn’t really pay off’, or ‘this is maybe just not quite living up to its potential’. But with a few small cheap and cheerful augmentations, we can really live up to that consequence pedigree that Obsidian brings to the table.”
FREAK MODE
It wouldn’t be a GamesHub interview if we didn’t integrate the most important thing to us: the freaks. Whether they have too many teeth, not enough teeth, or perhaps just a freaky little aesthetic that sets them apart from the rest, we are here to treasure the critters, creatures and NPCs that fly the freak flag.
Fantasy worlds often have some of the most wonderful freaks, so we were hyped to hear Warden touch on what’s to come in the freak zone of Avowed. His answer was very simple: “Sporelings! They’re little cute/freaky mushroom dudes.”
“One of the things that we had to figure out as a team was, well, you’re gonna have to fight them, so they can’t be too cute, right? Otherwise, you’ll feel pretty bad slaughtering them,” he said. “And so, some of them have little mushroomy, fungal, noodly appendages.”
As far as freaks go, we’re excited to see how many different types of Sporelings there are roaming around the world in Avowed – and excited to see how the preview compares to the full game when it releases next year.
