Obsidian Entertainment’s much-anticipated forthcoming title,Avowed,is soon ready to launch, bringing fans a new adventure set in the land of Eora first introduced in the studio’s CRPG series,Pillars of Eternity.Avowedwill shift to an action-RPG FPS design and send players to investigate a previously unexplored part of the dark fantasy world while navigating political, philosophical, and moral issues. As they grapple with the situation at hand and interact with the various characters involved, players will need to make choices both great and small that impact the flow of the story, sometimes in unforeseen ways.
Obsidian has long held a reputation for accounting for a range ofunique RPG playstylesin its games, including firmly villainous ones.Avowedwill be no exception and affords fans plenty of opportunities to engage in less-than-upstanding behavior, making decisions that benefit only them at the expense of other NPCs and the rest of the world. In an interview with Game Rant, Senior Narrative Designer Kate Dollarhyde spoke a bit ’s inclusion of these evil choices, and how the possibility of going down nefarious roads makes the opposite ones more meaningful.
Avowed Developer On its Evil Roleplaying Options Balancing its Virtuous Ones
Avowed’s Setup Offers Fans the Ability to Freely Indulge in Villainy
Players will beginAvowed’s tale from a prominent position. As an Envoy ofAvowed’s influential Aedyr Empiredeployed to the Living Lands, they will have the authority to decide the fate of its populace and potentially the Lands itself. Tasked with uncovering the mystery behind the Dreamscourge, a strange supernatural plague warping the Lands' inhabitants and wildlife, the Envoy will also be dealing with the region’s cultural and political conflicts. Along the way, they will be presented with numerous ways to initiate and complete quests, including fully evil approaches. Dollarhyde noted that while this requires more work and attention on the design end, it ultimately aligns with the studio’s commitment to choice in its titles:
Though evil routes can be time-consuming to plan for and implement (particularly considering how few people actually play them!), we design them because we believe they’re a vital element of player freedom.
Avowed’s Inclusion of Evil Paths Makes Heroic Ones More Rewarding
Obsidian is well-versed in crafting well-roundedevil character options for RPGs. Its 2016 release,Tyranny, took the idea to its extreme. There, players took on the role of a high-ranking officer in a malicious dynasty that had already enacted a bloody conquest and was in the process of imposing its iron rule. While its framework differs greatly fromTyranny’s, Dollarhyde confirmed it is entirely viable to be a complete “evil jerk inAvowed.”
She also stated that doing so will affect the conclusion in relevant ways. More crucially, though, the option to engage in heinous acts lends the upstanding ones more significance. As the saying goes, there is no light without darkness:
If you choose to go [the evil] path, it can result in some devastating outcomes at the end of the game… Personally, I feel that heroic options don’t mean much if the player isn’t tempted to also be a villain. An evil route gives the heroic one weight.
Avowedwill also feature a collection of companions, each with personal stories that the Envoy can influence for good or ill and who will react accordingly to their actions.
Obsidian’s penchant for detailed and branching dialogue treeshelps add narrative depth and nuance to its RPGs.Avowed’s take on morality will manifest through these and other ways, promising many possible experiences and interesting outcomes. It will be exciting for fans to decide how good or evil they want to be in it and discover what the related rewards or consequences are whenAvowedreleases on July 16, 2025.
