There was a long-running joke that Bethesda’s Skyrim had become so ubiquitous that it would run on anything. Starting life on the humble Xbox 360, it found its way on to Nintendo Switch, virtual reality headsets, PS5 and even Amazon’s Alexa. After more than 13 years, its sequel is still nowhere to be seen, so role playing game veterans Obsidian are offering fans an alternative in the form of Avowed.
I’m taken aback by just how fun and breezy it is, given that it has been spun off the somewhat stuffier computer RPG Pillars of Eternity. Entering the game’s colour-saturated world, Eora, I explore a luscious overgrown cavern with my alarmingly athletic mage, and find myself leaping across chasms and climbing rock faces without breaking a sweat.
Where Skyrim’s dull colour palette and clunky combat betray its 2011 origins, Avowed’s kineticism and vibrance make first-person spellcasting feel fun. As I unleash bursts of acid at a horde of charging skeletons or fling a barrage of ice missiles at an apocalyptic cult, chopping and changing between spells is as easy as holding down a trigger and pressing a button, and each attack is animated in an explosion of light and colour.
“I think players are going to be really pleased with how fun the combat feels, moment to moment,” says game director Carrie Patel. “We wanted to take the momentum and sense of impact from more action-forward games, and add that player-driven progression and choice from our RPG roots.”
I am accompanied through my demo by a sneering, sarky companion called Kai, and armed with a classic wheel of dialogue choices. There is more than a touch of Mass Effect here, with the actor who voiced Garrus in Bioware’s sci-fi epic offering up a similarly endearing companion in Kai. “Players will see the effects of their choices play out in front of them, even in the early hours,” says Patel. “Later in the game, the choices you’ve made along the way are going to affect which characters are willing to trust you.”
Where Bethesda approaches fantasy with a furrowed brow, Obsidian opts for a more irreverent tone. Its banter levels land somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons film – which will be off-putting for people for whom the Avengers style of dialogue has not so much soured as entirely curdled. It’s the companions and their personalities that will make or break it.
“We’re really excited for players to meet the companions that we built for them,” says Patel. “We had a lot of fun building these characters out and trying to develop interesting moments between them. As you move through the world, they’ll talk to each other, giving you time to get to know them, and also to see them get to know each other.”
In many ways what I see here is less Diet Skyrim and more Skyrim Zero – not so overindulgent and without the dodgy aftertaste. With its elements of Uncharted and Mass Effect, it’s a refreshingly jovial take on the familiar fantasy setting.
• Avowed will be released on Xbox and PC on 18 February
