Obsidian’s Avowed Is A Skyrim-Style RPG With Destructible Environments

Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian is making a new RPG called Avowed, and a new report sheds some light on what the game might be like.

Windows Central has heard from its sources that Avowed has advanced through pre-production and is now in a playable alpha state–the site has seen the game in action.

Avowed runs an a “similar, albeit enhanced” engine from The Outer Worlds, the site reported, and it will have “action-oriented first-person combat and deep RPG exploration and narrative systems.” Sources added that the game will also have Skyrim-style two-handed combat, allowing players to combine weapons or use a combination of swords and magic.

Avowed is set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, and a number of magic spells from that series will be carried over to the game, the site reported. Additionally, weapons can be augmented with magical enchantments, according the report. As for deadly creatures, players will find wyverns and drakes in Avowed, Windows Central’s sources said.

“If The Outer Worlds was Obsidian’s take on a Fallout-style game, Avowed is undoubtedly Obsidian’s take on The Elder Scrolls,” the site said.

Avowed may also feature destructible environments, with players able to to use spells to light things on fire to, for example, get through a blocked doorway. The report didn’t have concrete answers as to whether or not Avowed will take place in a fully open world or if it will be more like The Outer Worlds, which had a hub system.

The full story at Windows Central has many more details and deeper insights into Avowed. The game doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’ll be coming to Game Pass.

GameSpot has contacted Microsoft in an attempt to get more details.

Avowed is one of multiple projects in the works at Obsidian right now, as the studio is also working on The Outer Worlds 2. Microsoft acquired Obsidian in 2018, giving the Xbox company an esteemed RPG studio, and it would be followed up by Microsoft’s $7.5 billion buyout of Elder Scrolls studio Bethesda and parent company ZeniMax.

Bethesda Game Studios’ next major project is Starfield, which launches in November 2022. The studio will follow that up with The Elder Scrolls VI at some point later on.

GameSpot’s Jordan Ramee argues that Xbox is poised to reclaim is identity as a console for RPGs with the acquisitions of Obsidian, Bethesda, and others.

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