More than six years on from Obsidian’s last Pillars of Eternity game, Avowed has finally landed, transporting us back to Eora with your choice of a third-person or first-person perspective. Some revere it as another brilliant Obsidian RPG with scintillating combat and exploration, while others are more critical of its main storyline and forgettable companions. No matter where on that scale you sit, it certainly hasn’t been the total flop that many doomsayers predicted it would be. In fact, Obsidian is rather happy with its post-launch reception, and in a new interview, the game’s top dev says that the studio would “love to do more with it,” which could pave the way for some Avowed DLC – and maybe even a sequel.
I’m admittedly not very far into my own Avowed adventure yet, but almost immediately it did exactly what I hoped it would do – pull me off of the beaten track with tempting looking points of interest, world events, and side quests. Even with fairly basic loadouts, combat already stands out as a major strength too. Our Avowed review has highlighted some weaknesses that I’m bracing for, but overall the fantasy RPG has been pretty well received. It’s sitting on a solid Metacritic score of 80, and over on Steam it’s earned itself a ‘mostly positive’ 79% rating.
In a new interview piece with Avowed’s game director, Carrie Patel, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reports that Obsidian (and hopefully, by association, Microsoft too) is “happy with sales so far.” At the time of writing, Avowed has been out for eight days including its early access window, and three days for those that jumped into the standard edition or accessed the game through Game Pass.
Due to its solid reception and seemingly strong sales too, it sounds like more Avowed could be on the way.
“Now that we’ve built this wonderful world, and also built this team strength and muscle memory around the content and gameplay in this world, I’d love to see us do more with it,” she tells Schreier.
While this is absolutely not confirmation, it does seem likely now that Obsidian could cook up some Avowed DLC. The Outer Worlds was blessed with two expansions, Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos, so it’s definitely not out of the question.
The Outer Worlds’ similarly positive reception also earned it a sequel – The Outer Worlds 2 release date should be arriving later this year – so maybe Patel is hinting at similar treatment for Avowed. It’s clear Obsidian loves its Pillars of Eternity universe, and even if Avowed’s narrative is a little lacklustre, the studio may have found the perfect remedy for this if it does want to make an Avowed 2.
John Gonzalez, the lead writer for Fallout New Vegas, has returned to Obsidian after 14 years away from the company, during which time he’s worked on other excellent projects like Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. He wouldn’t say what projects he’d be getting stuck into, but if there are plans for more Avowed or Pillars games, his expertise will surely be put to good use.
Anyway, I’m heavily theorizing now. All that’s certain is that Avowed has done alright for itself – not amazing, but not appalling either. If it’s not your cup of tea, check out some alternative fantasy games and open-world games instead.
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