At this year’s Xbox Games Showcase, the applause that followed Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed gameplay trailer was a tad more tinged than usual. Indeed, the simmering hype for Avowed – a fantasy RPG from the developers of Fallout: New Vegas – wasn’t as loud as compared to, let’s say, Fable and Starfield, and much of the reservation appears to be due to one reason: Avowed doesn’t look like a next-gen title.
But, while such criticism is warranted, Obsidian, or specifically, one of the game’s developers, wants everyone to know that Avowed is going to look better.
Specifically, Briar Diem, claims that Avowed “has not entered Alpha yet” and the graphics “will get refined in various ways”, which means to say that it’s only going to get better.
Obsidian Entertainment, renowned for its seminal role-playing games like the Pillars of Eternity series, Knights of the Old Republic II, and Fallout: New Vegas, began work on Avowed intending to deliver a distinctive take on the fantasy sandbox. With the pillars of high fantasy holding up the game’s framework, comparisons to Skyrim are inevitable. Yet, in its ambitious venture, Avowed is not merely an attempted clone of the popular Elder Scrolls game.
Set within the same universe as Pillars of Eternity, Avowed invites players to venture into the mystical island known as the Living Lands—a realm brimming with extraordinary creatures and enigmatic flora. Here, the narrative threads of Aedyran Empire’s unknown interests are woven into the rich tapestry of the game’s world. In a nod to its RPG roots, Avowed enables fans to create their own characters, albeit restricted to the primary races of Aedyr: Human and Elf.
Diverging from its predecessor’s top-down view, Avowed immerses players directly into a first or third-person perspective, aiming to deliver visceral combat and deep immersion.
That’s hard to do when Avowed looks more like, let’s say, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which came out in 2006, than most of its contemporaries.
Then again, if we go by Diem’s words, Avowed still hasn’t gone into Alpha yet and they had that much to show at the Xbox Games Showcase. More importantly, Diem revealed that Avowed will have the longest Alpha and Beta stages of any Obsidian title, which is a clear attempt to mitigate potential bugs and deliver a polished experience to players.
On one hand, it’s natural for Diem to defend Avowed from criticism. On the other hand, it’s possible that Diem is just trying to pour some much-needed water into the dumpster fire.
Don’t forget, Obsidian is the same studio that worked on The Outer Worlds, which, among many other things, is a beautiful game. The studio should’ve known better than to come out with a lackluster trailer like that, especially when there were so many other better-looking games that made their debut at the event.
At the end of the day, you can’t help but wonder if Avowed would’ve been better off being kept under lock and key until the game was in a polished enough state to get praises – not negative feedback.
The worst-case scenario here is that Xbox Game Studios has another Halo Infinite and Redfall on their hands. The former, in particular, was delayed partly due to the feedback on the game’s graphics and lack of polish ahead of the Xbox Series S/X’s launch in late 2020. But, as much as the internet likes to gang on its latest punching bag, we shouldn’t forget that a lot can happen in a year. Don’t forget, Starfield, which didn’t quite wow with its graphics in its earlier showcases, especially last year, looked magnificently better at the Xbox Games Showcase.
Now, the narrative has changed from “Was it worth it for Bethesda to delay The Elder Scrolls VI for Starfield?” to “What’s next for Starfield?
This isn’t to say that Avowed will change the game industry and force other developers to think about making their own open-world space game like Starfield. Rather, it’s just a reminder to keep an open mind about how giving studios space and time to work on the littlest of details in their games can do wonders.
Don’t forget, this year’s most-hyped titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo 4, and Final Fantasy 16, all benefited from extensive polishing.
If Obsidian can stay true to its promise and deliver an ambitious and enchanting foray into the fantasy, then all is forgiven.
But, if not, we’ll keep our pitchforks close by, just in case.
