CEO Feargus Urquhart told me that in scope Avowed is more akin to Obsidian's past RPGs like The Outer Worlds in size than it is a sprawling open world a la Skyrim, though that was actually Obsidian's initial pitch. When the developers sat down and focused on what Obsidian does best—stories and companions, in particular—the more compact scale came naturally.
Yeah this is what's in the second of those PC Gamer links I posted, that Avowed was rebooted to NOT be like Skyrim.
But as others here have said I also just cannot play first-person games. So as much as I absolutely LOVE Obsidian's games, I may very sadly have to pass on Avowed if it doesn't include a third-person option.
