We've gotten a much-closer look at Avowed in recent weeks, especially with the game's appearance at Xbox Developer Direct followed up by an extended look at gameplay right after the showcase. Still, a good old developer chat is bound to provide some more juicy nuggets of info, right?
Well, Avowed game director Carrie Patel recently sat down with PCGamesN to talk about this upcoming Xbox RPG - touching on its obvious comparisons to the likes of Skyrim and The Outer Worlds.
"It’s hard in 2024 to escape some comparison to Skyrim if you’re making a first-person fantasy action RPG,
But I think the model that we’ve looked to internally is building Avowed as our fantasy take on The Outer Worlds, not with the same tone, but a similar structure to the world and in terms of scope.
For us, it’s about having a more focused experience, something that feels a little more curated. We can be a little more intentional."
That slimmer scope and focus also translates to the game's 'open world', which isn't fully open like Skyrim. Again, closer ties to Obsidian's The Outer Worlds seem more apt for Avowed.
"Our world comprises zones that are definitely not small but certainly more constrained than a massive map that you can walk from, beginning to end, in several hours. It allows us to have a little more intentionality."
Huge sprawling landscape or not, we're very much looking forward to exploring the Living Lands of Avowed on Xbox later this year. In fact, the game's smaller scale appeals to us a lot these days, especially when there's just so much to play across Xbox and Game Pass platforms!
If you'd like to read more about what Patel had to say on Avowed then the full interview is well worth a look, and in the meantime, you can expect Obsidian to be working away on its fantasy RPG for Xbox Series X|S ahead of the game's Fall 2024 launch.