Obsidian reveals Avowed's dual wand 'gunslinging mage' combat and fall release

At today's Microsoft developer direct, we finally got a good, long look at RPG powerhouse Obsidian's upcoming game, Avowed. The studio gave an eight-minute presentation of the first person spinoff of the Pillars of Eternity series, including an early game quest, a breakdown of its new combat system, and a fall 2024 release window.

That combat system is definitely the highlight—it looks fluid and improvisation-heavy like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic or BioShock, a huge improvement on stiff, imprecise heartland RPGs like Skyrim or Fallout New Vegas. Spells include substantial, fun-looking crowd control effects like telekinesis, tangling vines, and ice spells that freeze enemies.

Gameplay director Gabriel Paramo singles out a «gunslinging mage» playstyle where you dual wield wands, but you can also sling, you know, actual guns thanks to the abundant flintlocks of Pillars/Avowed's world of Eora. The presentation showed a player quickly cycling through a variety of weapon combos like two-handers, a gun and shield, or a sword and spell. This variety and emphasis on experimentation has me wondering what character building will look like—I'm guessing a classless, skill-based system like Fallout as opposed to the set character roles in the original Pillars of Eternity games.

We also got a peek at a quest, but it didn't feel like anything to write home about—some soldiers were attacked, it may have been the fault of a deserter, and it's up to you to investigate and decide whether he goes free or is punished. Avowed's director Carrie Patel alludes to potential ramifications for a nearby town, but without seeing how twisty things can get, this feels like a fairly standard set up for an Obsidian side quest—it absolutely beats grinding for Chocobo pelts or killing rats in a tavern basement, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat for it either.

One thing that really stands out to me is how pretty this game is—to this day, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is one of the best-looking