Avowed’s world puts other games to shame for one simple reason

Along with the lack of romance and the Pillars of Eternity setting, one feature has been racing around the minds of eager players looking to dive into Avowed – its lack of an open world. After playing to completion, one thing becomes apparent: this is how it should be done.

When you think of most RPGs, you think of a massive world unlike our own, usually featuring a magic spell or two and a whole glossary of words you’ve never heard before. Skyrim has its Dragonborns, shouts, and Tamriel, Fallout has its mutants, Synths, and retro/ futuristic America, and Avowed has Godlikes, grimoires, and Eora.

However, while Avowed may have its set region, it’s not an open-world adventure, at least not like Skyrim, Fallout, Fable, or really anything of its kind. Instead of exploring a large space, players must fast-travel to various locations, completely changing the nature of its genre, and it was the perfect choice.

Four degrees of separation

Altogether there are four separate regions to explore in Avowed, each with its own ecosystem, politics, design, enemies, and difficulty rating.

Avowed region map

What Obsidian could have done was have them all connect, allowing you to travel all the way to the border of each region and enter the next. That’s what we’ve seen with other RPGS, and it works. Especially if you want to keep your locations nearby and flowing like a normal country or land.

Instead, in Avowed, they treat these regions as completely different settings, separating the disturbing farmlands of the Emerald Stair from the harsh heat of Galawain’s Tusk.

As such, the player gains a degree of separation towards each place, making them feel like the individual cities they’re designed to be. After all, you can’t really tell me that Pine Crest Cavern and Kittredge Pass from Fallout 4 are easily discernable (fair play to you if you can). In Avowed, they absolutely are.

The nature of politics

As we previously mentioned, Avowed features its fair share of contradictions. You’re often fighting between the politics of civilization all while dealing with the chaos of the wilds as you attempt to stop the Dreamscourge (kind of like 2020). This style of exploration is perfect for navigating a complex topic like Avowed’s primary storyline.

The entire point of the Living Lands is that it’s alive (what a shock) and incredibly dangerous. The lore around the location explains it’s inhabited by refugees and is designed to be the last resort for most of the population. It’s not like many of them are happy living there.

Given that, it would make no sense to let a political Envoy explore the middle region of the map which is so dangerous that even Marius won’t delve in that far. So placing the locations so far away from each other and splitting them up both geographically and politically only heightens the story and increases the scope of the Living Lands immensely.

They feel like levels

Not only are they politically and geographically apart, but how you explore the lands is also distinctly separate. It’s not entirely obvious through any clear requirements, but each region has its own level and challenge rating. Dawnshore offers the starting equipment with weaker enemies, while Galawain’s Tusks hold Superb or Exceptional items in its stores and on its dead bodies and holds legendary enemies.

As such, your progression is inherently tied to the regions, making them feel more like individual levels you can just go back into whenever you want, to pick up a certain material or complete a side quest, rather than a widespread country.

Avowed treats its cities independently, crafting stellar stories out of each location, rather than blurring them into one. With that style, we get the chance to explore the best of the Living Lands as we see fit, while still gaining perspective over the sizeable differences of each region’s politics and overall design.

In many ways, the Living Lands puts other RPGs to shame. With any luck, we’ll start seeing more of this design in the future.