Given how outrageously popular Skyrim is, it always seemed weird to me that there were no big publishers trying to copy their formula. We have a entire genre of Dark Souls inspired games, but Bethesda games have no copycats.
Well, good for Obsidian for taking advantage of what is hopefully a lucrative gap in the market. That it’s first person only really tanks my interest, but I’ll at least casually follow its development to see if it does anything to rouse my interest.
To be fair, Elder Scrolls isn't just a barebone RPG in a generic open world. Its biggest strength is that it has TONS of lore that games can use to form a coherent experience. I wonder how Avowed will manage this considering this is a new franchise.
As Red Queen said, this is a spin off from Pillars of Eternity. I think lore is one of the few things those games did really well.
But I don’t think lore is the main strength of TES. I think it’s the absolute freedom to play how you want. Do you want to be a dread necromancer bringing terror to the land? Sure. Do you want to be a virtuous Paladin on a mission to complete the main quest? Go ahead. Do you want to be a thief who breaks into every dwelling and steals all of the spoons in the game world? Have at it.
I’m not sure if Avowed will have quite that level of freedom or will be a more structured affair. I assume more structured, because as janky as Bethesda games can be, their games have such scopes that they still require tremendous amounts of work. I don’t know if Obsidian has enough developers to get something like that off the ground.
My expectation is that Avowed will have combat and exploration similar to Bethesda games with less freedom and a better story (which is frankly a low bar).
