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Everything we know about AvowedAvowed: story, gameplay, and more
Avowed: story, gameplay, and more
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
Want to know more about Avowed, the upcoming action RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity world?Avowedis Obsidian Entertainment’s newest project and serves as a spinoff game in the realm of Eora, the expansive fantasy world first detailed inPillars of EternityandPillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. Instead of a topdown CRPG experience with tabletop-inspired mechanics and real-time-with-pause tactical combat,Avowedputs the player up close and personal via a first person view with fast-paced gameplay more reminiscent of Obsidian’s 2019 effort,The Outer Worlds.
In this guide:
Avowed expected release date
Avowed will release in the third or fourth quarter of 2024. An exact month has not yet been specified, but the game is expected to come out in autumn - which would mark roughly four years since Avowed was first revealed on July 24, 2020.
Avowed platforms
Avowed will be available onSteam, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Series X/S.
Avowed trailers
Watch on YouTube
Avowed’s reveal trailer debuted in 2020 and showed off a fiery arrow descending through the sky into the darkness. The cinematic showed off the game’s first person view and had a dark veneer that somewhat faded in later trailers.
Watch on YouTube
Gameplay footage of Avowed was revealed in 2023. Sporting an artstyle considerably brighter than the initial reveal, this trailer showed off the game’s world, gave more hints of the plot, and served up a healthy dollop of spell-infused combat.
Watch on YouTube
The latest video of Avowed was unveiled during the Xbox Developer Direct of 2024, giving viewers an even deeper look at the game’s sword and wand combat along with interactions with NPCs.
Avowed setting and story details
Unlike Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire, which respectively took place around the center of Eora - more specifically, on the east end of Eora’s Eastern Reach and the Deadfire Archipelago - Avowed’s setting is the northern continent known as the Living Lands.
Described in the Pillars games as an untamed island with deadly wildlife and inhospitable locals, the Living Lands appears to be the perfect unpredictable setting for an action RPG. This change is obvious in the game’s visuals - whereas the first Pillars of Eternity featured relatively traditional fantasy stylings and Deadfire leaned into a pirate-inspired sailing setting, Avowed is full of a wildly diverse selection of colourful biomes, some reminiscent of the rugged frontier. One of these, identified in the Xbox Developer Direct footage, is Shatterskarp, a wasteland dotted with vibrant oases and plenty of xaurip lizardfolk to fight.
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
Despite this harsh reception, it appears that the player’s presence in the Living Lands is warranted. A plague is spreading throughout the continent, infecting everything in its path, and Avowed’s trailers notably show bears and corpses with fungi-like boils reminiscent of The Last Of Us' Cordyceps erupting from their skin - all likely victims of this disease.
Little else is known of Avowed’s plot at this time, other than the fact that the player will discover a personal connection to the Living Lands as they explore it - perhaps hinting at great powers that will develop over the course of the adventure, or maybe a secret origin tying the protagonist to the plague infecting Avowed’s frontier sandbox.
Avowed gameplay
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
Customisable weapon loadouts: Avowed lets the player quickly swap loadouts on the fly, from a standard sword and shield combo to an axe to a bow and arrow to a flintlock pistol. Swapping weapons is speedy and necessary for coping with different enemy patterns, which leads us to our next point…
Dual wielding: Yes, you’ll be able to equip two pistols - or even better, two wands, to “feel like a gunslinging mage,” as the Xbox Developer Direct trailer puts it. Dual wielding appears to be encouraged in Avowed’s gameplay, so it’s probably safe to say that you won’t see the same tabletop RPG-style damage penalties that you might encounter when eqipping two weapons in the Pillars games.
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
Spellcasting: Magic is a major part of Avowed’s combat, and the trailers show all sorts of nifty spell effects. These range from the main character casting a tanglefoot spell to keep foes in place, to using a wand in one hand to freeze an enemy while a sword in the other slashes its frozen form to bits.
Companions: Avowed’s CRPG DNA will shine in companions that follow the main character on their quest. While only two companions can accompany you at a time, they’ll fight alongside you in combat and have dynamic personalities that will change over time. Considering the memorable companions in the Pillars games, it’s likely that Avowed will follow through with well-written comrades.
That’s all we known about Avowed for the moment. If you’d like to brush up on the other games set in Eora, check out our thoughts onPillars of EternityandPillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.Pillars II also made theRPS readership’s list of the 25 best RPGs of all time, so take a look there if you’d like to experience other classics of the CRPG genre before moving onto Avowed’s action-packed gameplay.
