While Avowed is undoubtedly a huge undertaking, Obsidian Entertainment somehow has another project in the works that could be equal to the scale of Avowed, if not greater. Josh Sawyer, design director at Obsidian Entertainment, took to Twitter in August 2020 and noted in no uncertain terms that he's directing his own project and that the project isn't Avowed. Josh Sawyer worked on the Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights series early in his career. More recently, he was responsible for pitching Pillars of Eternity which saw the company get out of a tight financial spot, and went on to direct the two games in that series. He's perhaps most well-known for directing Fallout: New Vegas, a fan-favorite entry in the post-apocalyptic RPG ser
When Obsidian returned to CRPGs with released like Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, the hope was likely to help revive and occupy a large portion of the CRPG market following the success of games like Wasteland 2 . Although the Pillars of Eternity games were critically successful, however, the studio was still struggling commercia
Obsidian is currently developing two major first-person RPGs, Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 . When looked at alongside smaller projects like Grounded , it certainly seems like the studio is busier than ever bef
For a game centered on the return of the dragons to Tamriel , Skyrim 's version of the creatures left much to be desired. For a start, Skyrim 's dragons weren't very big. Aside from a few minor differences there wasn't much aesthetic variation between the kinds of dragon players could encounter across Tamriel's most northern province. There was also a big gap between the description of dragons in the game's dialog and in the lore compared to their appearances and behavior in-g
Although Grounded is a solid game, people are excited for Avowed because it's much closer to the genre of game that people know Obsidian is best at. Fallout: New Vegas is frequently held up as one of the best entries in the Fallout franchise, but the RPG wasn't developed internally at Bethesda -- Obsidian made it. That's only the most famous of Obsidian's credits, too. Microsoft is poised to talk a lot about its internally developed games over the summer, so it's getting likelier and likelier that Avowed won't be such a mystery for l
This philosophy of freedom extends beyond exploration to other classic RPG elements like dialogue trees . Conventional wisdom says that the more dialogue options and the greater their potential to affect events, the better. Skyrim certainly gives the player different dialogue options when dealing with some NPCs, and even presents the player with some big decisions during quests, such as choosing whether to become a vampire or not during the Dawnguard
If Obsidian's Avowed is going to feel like a truly next-gen RPG, then walking into a hostile camp with several followers should inspire a different reaction from the average NPC than walking in alone. Default enemy NPCs should factor in things like the player’s weapons, armor, and even reputation among their faction if they’re a part of one. A lone player may be surrounded as the bandits attempt to intimidate or rob them. A group of arrivals may inspire a more hostile react
One major Obsidian project is actually already accessible. Grounded went into early access in July 2020 , and Obsidian has been supporting it aggressively ever since. Grounded is a new take on a familiar premise: the player characters are children who've mysteriously been shrunken down, and now have to fight insects much larger than them to survive. Although Grounded looked strong from the beginning, Obsidian consistently comes up with good additions to the game, like new buildings for players to create and a koi pond offering a tense and beautiful new way to engage with the microscopic wo
For fantasy fans who err towards evil, Avowed should also include multiple ways to introduce hostility to otherwise non-hostile default encounters. Players should be able to tell a traveler they meet on the road that they’re robbing them, for example, instead of just pick-pocketing in games like Skyrim and hoping they succeed. The NPC might then take several factors into account before deciding whether to give up their goods or put up a fi
There have been no hints as to what this project is, but it's not hard to imagine Josh Sawyer returning to the Pillars of Eternity series in light of Avowed. Additionally, The Outer Worlds is a successful new IP for the company, so it would make sense for Obsidian to follow it up at some point down the line. Perhaps the most popular and sought-after theory is that Obsidian is making Fallout: New Vegas 2 , which has been rumored ever since Microsoft began its Bethesda acquisit
Avowed will be set in the Living Lands , a harsh but ecologically diverse frontier to the north of Eora, the world first established in Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity . The fact that the Living Lands are a harsh frontier does not mean that interactions with humanoid NPCs outside of quests should be violent by default. Avowed Collectibles needs to give players enough options when interacting with non-quest NPCs that their interactions can generate small but dynamic storytelling opportunit