When Avowed’s teaser trailer was released by Obsidian Entertainment back in July, fans were quick to excitedly point out similarities to Skyrim. Like it, Obsidian's next game will be a first-person fantasy RPG set in an open-world. The trailer appeared to directly encourage those comparisons to Skyrim, ending with a first-person perspective shot of a character with magic in one hand and a sword in another in a very similar shot to one in the original Skyrim trailer.
However, while Obsidian may encourage the comparisons, comparing Avowed to Skyrim doesn’t do the former justice. The upcoming title has a brilliantly unique setting, an expansion of the world from Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity games, and despite the UI similarities, the world of Avowed is set to be less generic–and potentially more dynamic–than Skyrim.
Avowed’s Setting
The setting of Avowed is one of its biggest strengths. In contrast, one of Tamriel’s biggest challenges has always been scale. While Bethesda games have huge game worlds, some Skyrim cities have as few as 20 inhabitants while towns like Riverwood – established in Arena as bustling centers with hundreds of houses – are rendered as hamlets.
In Pillars of Eternity, players see expansive urban areas in places like Dyrwood which feel more lived-in and exciting to explore. While Windhelm’s Grey Quarter would be an interesting setting for an adventure, in Skyrim it is rendered as little more than a couple of streets. Avowed will be set in the Living Lands, an ecologically diverse northern frontier with no official government, giving it the potential to avoid this immersion problem in a few key ways.
First, the absence of huge cities won’t be striking in a frontier, and there’s a better chance that what can realistically be rendered is more aligned with what fits in with the lore. Second, the ecological diversity could be great for exploration. Third, the Living Lands are described as “lawless land where communities band together, fall apart, and fight petty wars with each other constantly.” This could imply a dynamic bandit or faction system in Avowed, with different factions in Avowed warring in a changing landscape which players could have direct influence over.
The Potential of Pillars of Eternity
The Pillars of Eternity setting also comes with features which have the potential to distinguish Avowed from its RPG competition. The gods of Avowed have an extremely unique history. In Pillars of Eternity, it is revealed that the gods were created by an ancient society known as Engwith that discovered animacy – the science of souls. After creating the gods the Engwithans began inquisitions to prevent other mortals from discovering their deities' true origins, but hints at the truth can be found in the huge interconnected series of Adra pillars built by the Engwithans which run under Eora.
The Adra Pillars are an opportunity for Avowed to have some huge dungeons filled with lost technology and secrets which could reveal as much about the cosmos as they do the mortal races. Pillars of Eternity also contains more radically different player race options than Skyrim, from the deformed Godlike to the mischievous Orlans. If included, the different player race options in Avowed could lead to some very unique playthrough experiences.
Avowed will need to be as flexible as Skyrim if its next-generational ambitions are going to be rewarded. That means players should have maximum freedom to roleplay as whoever they want, and the developers should try to foster a modding community as strong as Skyrim’s. Whether Avowed can live up to the hype remains to be seen, but right now the new game certainly has a lot of potential, and quite a few reasons for fans to be as excited for Avowed as the eventual follow-up to Skyrim.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.