Avowed director teases a ‘more focused’ experience rather than a ‘big sprawling’ one
Avowed director Carrie Patel has explained that the open-zone format allows Obsidian’s RPG to have “more intentionality.”
Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming fantasy role-playing game Avowed is set to release later this year, and its director Carrie Patel has spoken more about what players can expect from the experience.
In a new interview with PCGamesN, Patel admitted that it’s “hard in 2024 to escape some comparison to Skyrim if you’re making a first-person fantasy action RPG,” but clarified that Avowed is more comparable in its scope and world structure to Obsidian’s 2019 RPG, The Outer Worlds.
“For us, it’s about having a more focused experience, something that feels a little more curated. We can be a little more intentional,” she explained.
It was previously confirmed that Avowed isn’t going to be an open-world game, but instead be made of several open zones that are size comparable to The Outer Worlds’ larger areas. Speaking about this in the interview, Patel added that the zones “are definitely not small but certainly more constrained than a massive map that you can walk from, beginning to end, in several hours.” However, this allows the developers “to have a little more intentionality” in what they create.
“I think there’s an appetite for games that are big sprawling RPGs with a ton of openness, but also games that are more curated, but also still maintain these elements of choice, character building, and progression,” Patel said. “I’ve been excited to see what we can do as a studio in mixing up those elements.”
During this month’s Xbox Developer_Direct, it was confirmed that Avowed is planned to release on PC and Xbox Series X|S at some point this fall, although no specific release month was announced at the time. However, whenever it is, Avowed will be playable via Xbox Game Pass on day one.
Avowed is arguably one of the most exciting upcoming games this year, but if you’re looking for something new to play right now, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best Xbox Series X games.