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This bodes well for The Outer Worlds 2 , which was announced at E3 2021. The game's trailer parodied the early announcements of other games - particularly RPGs like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Elder Scrolls 6 - suggesting it's in very early development. In that case, The Outer Worlds 2 could be in Obsidian's back pocket, with the announcement trailer designed to keep interest in the studio's upcoming releases as it works on Avowed . In other words, the fact that both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 are "in development" doesn't actually mean that Obsidian is dividing its resources evenly between the games, or anywhere cl

With news about The Elder Scrolls 6 practically non-existent since its announcement at E3 2018, Obsidian is likely hoping to fill part of that gap in the market, even if Xbox head Phil Spencer claims Avowed will be a very different experience to The Elder Scrolls . Avowed may be trying to differentiate itself, but comparisons to one of the best-selling games of all time are unlikely to hurt its sa

There are lessons that Avowed can learn from all three of these games as a first-person fantasy RPG. There's also enough variation between the games to show that Obsidian doesn't always reliably pull off the best parts of its previous titles in later games. Here's what Avowed can learn from New Vegas , The Outer Worlds , and Pillars of Eterni

With Benny, the player might pursue revenge or simply avoid him, but in both cases it feels far more like a personal, in-universe decision rather than the player just following the plot's demands. The main character in Avowed needs the option to ignore the main quest, and should be positively motivated to do it, not negatively. This may not need to be the case for all RPGs, but Obsidian has shown before that it works particularly well with the open-world RPG form

The trailer for Avowed shows the first-person perspective of a character drawing a magical symbol in the air before summoning a spell into one of their hands. This could hint at some sort of rune drawing system connected to more complex magic mechanics than Skyrim 's. Back in March leaker Tiffany Treadmore suggested that " Elder Scrolls 6 will include new 'Rune Drawing' functionality." While she said this feature was yet to be confirmed, it is likely that both Bethesda and Obsidian are looking for ways to make their first-person magic and combat systems feel like a generational step forward from Skyrim

Obsidian's status recently underwent a pretty major change. Although it was once an independent studio, Microsoft acquired it in 2018 , right in the middle of the development of The Outer Worlds. Obsidian hasn't lost any momentum thanks to this change of ownership, though; if anything, it seems like Obsidian is ramping up development. Fans of the studio have a lot to look forward to over the next couple years, between Avowed and Grounded. Based on how many projects Obsidian is stacking up, it's also possible that it's planning even more new games with the help of its new parent comp

There are a few reasons why Obsidian's situation may not be as bad as it sounds, however. Not only has Microsoft given the studio some much-needed stability, but The Outer Worlds ' commercial success exceeded the financial expectations of publisher Private Divisions . The Outer Worlds is not without its flaws, but with Bethesda otherwise dominating the first-person RPG market, it provided a respite from Bethesda's two main franchises and the long wait for their next installments. While Obsidian's CRPGs sometimes struggled commercially, the studio's penchant for more traditional RPG design also stood out in contrast to games like Fallout 4 , which has often been described as a better shooter than an RPG, even by fans of the Fallout franch

Dragons in the Pillars of Eternity universe continue to expand in both size and intelligence the older they get. Old dragons can grow to be dozens of feet long, and their intelligence is said to surpass almost any other being encountered in Eora. Dragons could not only prove to be among the most interesting combat encounters in Avowed Skills , but potentially some of the most interesting characters players might meet in the g

There simply aren't diverse dragon characters with that level of complexity in Skyrim . Indeed, only Alduin , Parthurnaax, and Odahviing really exist as dragon characters in Skyrim at all. Avowed has the potential to introduce far more interesting dragon characters that aren't bogged down by the need for them to be the subject of infinite random combat scenar

The dragons of Avowed have the potential to be far more diverse and exciting as encounters than those found in Skyrim . For a start, all dragons are merely the final form of the lifecycle of the creatures in the world of Eora . All dragons hatch from eggs, live part of their lives as wurms, become drakes during their adolescence, and eventually become dragons after years of developm