Obsidian Entertainment, RPG maker extraordinaire—The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, and too many other new and old classics to name—revealed their next title: Avowed. It will be a role-playing game. It will be first person. It will be set in the fantasy world of Eora where Pillars of Eternity is set. And it's coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox Game Pass, and Windows 10 PCs.
Eora looks like it's hit a bit of a rough patch. Amidst the rocky, shark fin-shaped peaks, tight clumps of woodlands, and monolith-strewn river valleys, there appear to be nine or 10 spot fires smogging up the skies. From the narrator:
We have always known war. It forged our empire, turned heroes into queens and kings, decimated our foes. Now our oaths are lost, forsaken. And you must face the monsters our sins have borne. Is an oath worth the weight of a crown?
Banners flutter from wrecked castle walls, banners that 100% invoke Neverwinter Nights symbolism (another Obsidian property). Flaming arrows fly from those battlements, so I guess that explains some of the wildfires around the place. There's a Mt. Rushmore-sized statue of a king and his wolfhound carved out of the mountain, and a bunch of armor clad skeletons marching in a loose formation, crawling out of fissures in the rock. Beautifully, a flaming arrow drops into a fissure to reveal an abandoned underground kingdom.
And here's where you come in. With your first-person view of a sword lighting up the dark with glowing runes. With your spell-weaving hand tracing more magical runes into the air and bursting into purple flame. All while we wait for a presumably Balrog-sized big boy to come stomping onto the scene.
Not gonna lie: Looks boring. But that's how Obsidian gets you. Their vision always appears small and tame, practically domesticated and generic. Then they whip out their closet full of writers that always seem to squeeze so much nutrient-rich storytelling out of so small a fruit.
No date announced, but again, it'll be on Xbox Series X and Windows 10 PCs. It'll also be out, day one, on Xbox Game Pass.
