Big Preview: Avowed – Exclusive access and hands-on impressions of Xbox's first must-play RPG of 2025
Nov. 21, 2024With access to Obsidian’s studio and hours spent playing Avowed, we dive-deep into one of the biggest video games of next year
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It goes without saying that when we got the call to visit Obsidian Entertainment HQ in Irvine, California, we jumped at the opportunity to neglect the sunshine and instead stay indoors pouring over every facet of Avowed available to us. That means talking to the great RPG developers responsible for this rather unique and funky fungal take on the genre, and, of course, spending many hours with the opening of the game. We get into it all, from getting started with questing, meeting the companions, the combat, and more – all while discussing it all with the many individual developers that have been crafting it.
Avowed: The Big Preview
Despite the Skyrim comparisons, Avowed is an Obsidian RPG first and foremost: “Let’s bring in all the greatest hits”:Simply put, Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment at its best. It’s not just an epic new RPG, but one that feels truly like a culmination of everything the developer has wowed us with through the years. This feels like an RPG that only this team could make, at this moment. We unpack everything that happened in our visit to the dev’s offices as we speak to the team about the long road to building this pivotal RPG, as well as getting into the nitty gritty of what we got to play while we were visiting!
The ten things we love about Avowed:After spending hours with the opening of the game and trying different builds and approaches, Avowed is an RPG that really puts its best put forward to get you into the action and have a taste of everything as quickly as possible. Which also means several elements have already jumped out to impress us. Watch us cut about the Dawnshore ourselves as we get to grips, showing you all the little things we love already from the characters to the types of gear we use. We’ve also loved chatting with the party so far, even ifyou can’t romance them.
3 hours in, here’s the 10 things I love most about Avowed so far:And two of those things are spellbookandgun. Seriously, we’ve loved how malleable and tactical the combat experience has felt so far, and importantly, how it’s felt on an Xbox controller. It’s still early days – we’ve only played through the opening zone of the game – but we’ve come away impressed with the richness of the spaces on offer, the amount of customization in how you play, and the characters we’ve met so far.
Avowed’s flexible combat system represents Obsidian’s dedication to player choice: “It’s not just marketing speak – it really is the most important thing to us”:One of the standout features in our opening hours with the RPG is its robust first-person combat. Not only is tactile and immediate, but a host of gear to choose from, ways of equipping it, and the ability to mix-and-match mid-battle is impressive. We talk with the developers about crafting the battles that lay in wait.
Avowed might look like Skyrim, but its director says Obsidian’s new fantasy RPG is actually much closer to The Outer Worlds than anything from Bethesda:Talking again to game director Carrie Patel, we discuss how the studio’s own identity is coming through in Avowed. For as much as attempts to pigeon-hole it have been made, there’s a strong throughline from Obsidian’s prior work and their latest RPG as you might expect. “You’ve still got a variety of styles of content, and certainly plenty of humor and levity that is largely character-based,” says Patel.
Avowed is an RPG that aims to respect your time: “I’m getting older, I got a lot of responsibilities, I don’t got time for a 500-hour game”:Which isn’t to say Avowed isn’t going to be a massive quest. In our interview with Obsidian Entertainment, we learned plenty about how the RPG isn’t going deep while also respecting player time. “I will say that I did a full completionist playthrough, and the game is big,” says lead environment artist Dennis Presnell. Learn more from our interviews with the team here, as well as throughout the rest of the Avowed Big Preview!
Avowed dev channels Baldur’s Gate 3 by admitting that “the core of RPGs is missable content” that most players might not ever see:We chat with region director and senior area designer, Berto Ritger, about crafting a huge world made to quest in. Games like Avowed need to both make the most of what they build, while also having ample room to make players feel like they’re discovering new ground.
Avowed lead isn’t worried about launching between Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Monster Hunter Wilds because you’re never “going to find a window where absolutely nothing is coming out”:Game director Carrie Patel talks to GamesRadar+ about the busy Feburary launch window for Avowed. The Xbox Game Pass exclusive has been a long time coming, but we also want it to have the best shake possible at attracting fans. “We’re very confident that Avowed is going to stand on its own,” says Patel.
Avowed is “an evolution” of Obsidian’s past RPGs, including The Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas.At least, that’s what art director Matt Hansen and lead environmental artist Dennis Presnell tell us.
Avowed dev with credits on RPGs dating back 25 years says this is the most confident he’s ever been in a game at this point: “I’ve always felt a certain level of dread months before a game shipped.”
Obsidian’s new first-person RPG Avowed channels Baldur’s Gate 3 in one key way: “The core of RPGs that makes them special is missable content,” says environment region director Berto Ritger.
Obsidian defends the RPG’s lack of romance in the face of Baldur’s Gate 3’s intense relationships: “I think players will always respond well to a really good character,” says Avowed game director Carrie Patel.
Avowed’s Kai, who shares a voice actor with Mass Effect’s Garrus, has me hooked on the RPG after only 3 hours:It’s true that you can’t romance companions in Avowed – it’s just not that kind of game. But that also can’t stop us from loving the characters in our own way. While it’s early days yet and we’ve not properly spent time with most of the cast, we’ve already become quite charmed by Kai, a merman-like Coastal Aunauma who guides you through Dawnshore, the first area you come to within The Living Lands. It certainly helps that Kai is voiced by Brandon Keener (Garrus Vakarian from Mass Effect). Either way, already becoming obsessed with spending time with just our first permanent companion is a great sign for the party to come.
The 10 RPGs that defined Xbox and evolved the genre:With the launch of the original Xbox, Microsoft changed the RPG genre forever. With the likes of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from BioWare and The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind from Bethesda, the console bridged a gap between hardcore computer RPGs and the couch experience forever. Over the years, what was once two distinct branches of development became intertwined, reshaping not just the RPG space, but bleeding through into just about everything, from other games introducing RPG elements to the way console storefronts themselves are built. Join us as we take a look at the ten games that best defined that shift on Xbox!
Avowed backgrounds, attributes and builds: Obsidian Entertainment is known for building complex RPGs which empower you to create really unique characters. Looking at the backgrounds and abilities coming to the studio’s new fantasy-RPG, it’s clear that expression is a core factor of the experience. Get a head start on your build planning with our guide to Avowed’s core combat.
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I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I’m not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.
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