Avowed is the culmination of everything Obsidian Entertainment has done before. From its flexible combat system that lets you chop and change your own dual wielding loadout on the fly, to creating your own character and making choices that will have different consequences in the Living Lands, the new RPG from the developer behind Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and Neverwinter Nights 2 is coming on February 18 to put us in charge of our own fantastical journey. While all of these ingredients dial into the studio's signature longstanding ethos of "play your way", there's one new feature that speaks to how Avowed is also going to be "an evolution from past games", as veteran Obsidian developer and lead environment artist Dennis Presnell tells me.
"We've always created these really wonderful, unique, exciting worlds to explore. And in Avowed, we have our parkour system, so you can move through the world in ways that we've never been able to in previous titles," Presnell says. "And the combat is great. I love it. But for me, just exploring, getting around is the most fun thing. There are so many challenges to the player, you will see something enticing. You wonder, 'I bet I could make that jump', and you can parkour up to the top of the building and make a leap and run across the narrow pillar and land on another one. And it's so satisfying when you do. There's really not a whole lot of our regions that's off limits to the players."
