Avowed Preview - Gamescom 2024

Obsidian Entertainment are considered by many to be a top tier studio that delivers great RPG and adventure style games. Their catalog is indeed very impressive, ranging from Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, to Alpha Protocol and Pentiment. Their next project, Avowed, is a first person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora, and we got a chance to see a live demo of the game at Gamescom 2024.

Our demo was hosted by narrative designer on the game Kate Dollarhyde, and driving the demo was a seasoned member of the QA team. The demo was focused on one of the first dungeons within the game, and the story goes that the player character has ventured down here in search of a missing group of explorers. This expedition was looking for a holy relic, but did not return. Upon entering the dungeon, we quickly encounter an Oracle. This golden-skinned character says he is a devoted follower of an ancient god, who also seeks the relic. However, the path to it has been blocked, and he has not seen the expedition pass by. Using typical plentiful dialogue options, we are able to learn more about the ancient god and the Oracle's traditions and motivations. Avowed will include a helpful tooltip system in the dialogue that highlights key words such as names and locations, and through the historical chat log, it's possible to review some basic background on those keywords. The conversation itself had a familiar RPG flow, with back and forth responses; the camera was static, but did change angles a few times for a bit of dynamism.

Having agreed to help recover the relic, we proceeded deeper into the ruins, which were typical fantasy fare, with lush greenery and partially collapsed rock formations, blocked paths and some bodies of water. The art style of Avowed also leans on the slightly cartoony and magic infused. We broke some wooden boards to open new paths, did some basic first person climbing across vines, and found optional chests that contained new gear such as an accessory that provided passive buffs when equipped. We got a quick glimpse at the inventory screens to manage gear, and the attributes screen where points could be assigned to the expected categories like might, dexterity, perception, and so on. There was also the ability system, where points could be spent to increase the effectiveness of our special attack skills.

Proceeding through the dungeon, we had to do a bit of swimming and some environmental navigation to find a path into an old library, where the quest indicator was guiding us. After a brief diversion to solve a puzzle to restore power, we entered the library where some enemy spiders spawned, along with a boss, so the player had to do some focused combat. As a caster in this demo, using various ranged spells was the way to handle things, while AI companion Kai was taking on direct aggro. The boss had a big energy bar as well as a stun meter, depleting this allowed for some extra damage while it was recovering. An enemy caster soon appeared, so he had to be prioritized first as he was casting protection spells on other enemies.

Following this battle, the player ventured further in, again doing some traversal and following a quick sidepath to open doors that are blocked by sigils. This time, the player was faced with some skeleton enemies, that also needed some precision casting to eliminate. With the room clear and relic in hand, the player had a choice on how to proceed - just take the relic and return to town, where someone could know better what to do with it; return to the Oracle; or keep going a bit further. The player decided to keep exploring and it wasn't long before we found a workshop, and the dead members of the expedition within it. We spoke to companion Kai to get his thoughts on the situation, and agreed that we should confront the Oracle on what happened.

We returned to the start of the dungeon and spoke to him. He confessed that the expedition members may be dead, but their souls have apparently been transferred into the statue of the god that resides in this cave. Sadly that didn't seem to be enough to activate the statue, so perhaps the artifact was the missing piece. The Oracle asked us to hand over the hardware, and the player chose to do so. But even with the artifact, the statue was not able to get activated - so the Oracle's next wild plan was to sacrifice another soul directly. The response options included a fight, acceptance, or convincing him to self-sacrifice. Based on our demo audience, it was chosen that the player will accept to become the sacrifice of this ritual. Kai tried a few times to make sure our mind was clear and made up, and we persisted. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in the character's death and a game over screen.

It's clear that Obsidian are working in familiar territory here, as Avowed looks like any other solid modern RPG, with its fantasy setting being well-envisioned, if a bit generic. The combat also didn't look all that engaging, but perhaps to be expected for the genre. The narrative choices are likely to play a key role, and in the demo seemed to be fairly varied. Players looking for their next RPG fix should definitely keep Avowed in mind - it doesn't look like anything groundbreaking, but much like The Outer Worlds, it knows what it does best. Avowed is expected in 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.