Obsidian Entertainment Fans Have A Lot To Look Forward To

Skyrim ’s followers are relatively barebones, even for a game released in 2011. Compared to 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas , Skyrim has far more characters who can be recruited as followers, but with far fewer unique lines, quests, and with next to no engagement with Skyrim ’s main story or any other major questlines. Even the recruitable followers with the most story like Aela the Huntress or Cicero have stories which are completely independent of their journeys with the pla


While Solstheim is just a small part of Skyrim ’s overall world, the fact that the open-world RPG formula's immersion fits so well into the frontier bodes well for Obsidian’s choice of setting. It’s unlikely that Obsidian would have been able to bring the large cities depicted in Pillars of Eternity to life without significantly shrinking them down, while the Living Lands provide a setting which could avoid the open-world RPG genre’s city scaling prob


When it comes to the question of whether players will be able to use guns as a weapon in Avowed Skills , the game's setting in time is key. If the game is set in the same period as Pillars of Eternity the answer is almost certainly yes. However, there are indications that Avowed may be set long before the events of Pillars of Eternity , in a very different period of Eora's histo


Obsidian has had a rocky history, sometimes needing to crowdfund its games to get their development started. Now it's in a very different place with Microsoft's help. Frankly, it's great to see someone as influential in the game industry as Microsoft acknowledging what Obsidian is capable of and giving it a much greater level of stability to help develop its ga


Woedica appears in both Pillars of Eternity games, but there are reasons to think that the focus on her in the trailer may also indicate the time period in which Avowed is set. Woedica was once the queen of the gods of Eora , but she was eventually overthrown by the other deities in the pantheon. As such she is also known as the Exiled Queen or the Burned Queen, having been burned by Magran, the goddess of fire and


Obsidian could just as easily come up with something even more surprising. A recent job listing from Obsidian revealed that it's starting work on an unannounced project supposedly set in an open world, which could mean The Outer Worlds 2 , or it could mean something completely different. In fact, since Obsidian has been establishing quite a few new IPs in the form of Grounded and The Outer Worlds lately, it seems pretty likely that the studio has another big idea that it wants to expl

Obsidian fans should get excited about the state of the studio. It's determined to push out a lot of new projects, and experimental ones like that. The Outer Worlds ' incredible claim that no NPC has to live for players to beat the game proves that Obsidian wants to try bold new things. Obsidian's future isn't just packed with new games; it's packed with new ideas that'll help Obsidian grow as a stu


For fantasy fans who err towards evil, Avowed should also include multiple ways to introduce hostility to otherwise non-hostile default encounters. Players should be able to tell a traveler they meet on the road that they’re robbing them, for example, instead of just pick-pocketing in games like Skyrim and hoping they succeed. The NPC might then take several factors into account before deciding whether to give up their goods or put up a fi


In fact, those differences could be the source of many of the "petty wars" across the landmass, while allowing players to interact with cultures that feel as alien as Morrowind ’s, seeing the difference imprints those cultures leave on the unmarked territory of the front


The Living Lands could be a fantastic frontier setting if it also plays with the fear of the unknown in the same way. Players might find entire settlements mysteriously abandoned, for example, motivating them to find out what happened from a sense of insatiable inquisitiveness rather than any in-game reward. Skyrim ’s Dragonborn DLC shows how frontiers like the Living Lands can be used in RPGs to inspire unique dread, but also inspire a unique curiosity which can be a key motivator in open world explorat


While Solstheim has a lot of lessons to teach Avowed ’s Living Lands , the unique success of the frontier island as an RPG setting suggests that Obsidian may already be on the right track with its choice of location. What remains to be seen is whether the studio exploits all the unique opportunities its frontier setting presents, or if lets some pass it


Ultimately this would mean that there would be no guns in Avowed . That may be for the best, however. While it's easier to balance many different weapon types in an isometric RPG like Pillars of Eternity , balancing the variables in real-time combat between guns, swords, and magic may not work as well in a first-person RPG. A lack of guns may end up making the world of Avowed more similar to Tamriel, but that may be a necessary sacrifice in order to get the first-person fantasy RPG formula to work smoot