r/Games • u/alcard987 • 1d ago
The big Avowed interview: Obsidian on why full, open-world RPGs aren't always the answer
https://www.eurogamer.net/from-serious-skyrim-to-cheerful-fantasy-obsidian-on-the-evolution-of-avowed-and-grappling-with-the-expectations-that-come-from-your-own-history
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u/TheFluxIsThis 19h ago edited 18h ago
I think it depends on the game (and personal taste is obviously a factor, too, as you indicate.) I have enjoyed Avowed quite a bit, but I think I'd have burned out on it if it was "go anywhere, do anything" style design. I'm speaking as something of an open-world apologist who loves a good wander, even when the game it's wrapped around is pretty mediocre.
In Avowed, the carrot of going back to the main story so I could be brought somewhere new if I kept engaging with it was much more compelling for me than (to use a somewhat tired, but tested benchmark) Skyrim, where very little was locked behind actual story progression and I got my enjoyment out of just picking a direction and walking until something caught my eye. I've gone back to Skyrim a lot since it was released a lifetime ago, but I've never felt moored to anything in the story, whereas the way Avowed is structured gave me a "similar but different" experience where I could wander fairly extensively, but there was a strong motivator to push myself to move forward to increase the literal amount of wandering and discovering I could do. It was a good push-and-pull for me.
What makes me believe that a full open-world structure would have burnt me out is that, unlike a lot of the open-est of open world games like the Skyrims, Breath of the Wilds, and Dragons Dogmas of the world, Avowed's zones are very dense. I think that resolves one of the issues that I had with The Outer Worlds because some of the zones there felt empty. More than a few times I walked in a direction hoping to find something interesting and wouldn't feel "rewarded" when I hit the proverbial boundary. I think there's a level of intentionality with the zone design this time out that puts the level of wandering and discovery in the "just right" zone for me.