The Avowed gameplay trailer that debuted at the Xbox Games Showcase 2023 was far from the most impressive of Microsoft’s first-party trailers, but an Obsidian developer took some time to address the criticism in a series of posts published on RPG Codex.
Briar Diem agreed it wasn’t a good trailer and also said the actual game looks a lot more like the direct feed screenshots released (available to watch in the gallery below), probably due to the trailer’s bad compression and color editing. Moreover, the developer said Avowed hasn’t entered Alpha yet, which means there will be a refining of the art and improvements to the lighting.
Since the game is running on Unreal Engine 5, Obsidian will hopefully choose to use Lumen GI to solve that particular problem.
Interestingly, Diem added that the game will enjoy the longest Alpha/Beta periods in an Obsidian game to date, which should provide plenty of time for polish and bug fixing. It also pretty much confirms that Avowed is targeting a late 2024 release window.
The Obsidian developer also commented on the game’s size, which was compared by director Carrie Patel and CEO Feargus Urquhart to the likes of The Outer Worlds and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. According to Briar Diem, this was an unfair comparison as the game is actually ‘big and open’. The developer reckons Obsidian’s official comments were attempting to temper expectations (the game was originally pitched as a Skyrim-like experience), but Avowed should still turn out to be larger than the mentioned Obsidian games.
Diem, who previously said Avowed had been ‘a lot of work’ (the game was partially rebooted in 2021), ended his string of comments reassuring Obsidian fans that the usual fare of characters, quests, game mechanics, and a big story are all in store for them, despite not appearing in the trailer.
Originally announced at the 2020 Xbox Game Showcase, Avowed is a first-person action RPG set in the world of Eora, the setting of the Pillars of Eternity universe. Earlier this month, it was confirmed that it would take place in the Living Lands, a large island in the North filled with wild beasts and unique landscapes. The player character is an envoy of the Aedyr Empire (as such, the only available races will be human and elf) sent to investigate a local plague. First-person combat has been a big focus during development, as claimed by the developers and seen in the gameplay trailer.
Avowed is one of several potential RPG gems Microsoft has in the works through its various studios. Find out more about the others here.
