'Avowed' Devs Talk About Reason Behind Choosing Not To Go Open World

Developer Obsidian Entertainment talked about the reasoning behind the decision not to make the fantasy RPG "Avowed" an open-world title.

Narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde said that they decided to make "Avowed" follow in the footsteps of "The Outer Worlds." This is that the game takes place in large zones that players are able to explore throughout the story.

Avowed is Not Open World

The game is set for release this year and comes as Obsidian Entertainment is responsible for creating some excellent RPGs over the years. These include "Fallout: New Vegas" and "The Outer Worlds."

However, details that have been revealed regarding the upcoming title have raised concerns and questions about the studio's design choices. One example is that "Avowed" does not have romance options, which is quite surprising for modern RPG titles.

On the other hand, it is somewhat refreshing for a development studio to do what it thinks would be best for its project. This is instead of simply making a feature that many people feel is meta for the genre nowadays, according to Game Rant.

Dollarhyde said that pacing is a difficult thing in open world games as they never know where players are and what they are doing at any given point. Having the zones that they chose to have that occur in sequence gives them an idea of what they have already experienced.

Making Pacing More Manageable

She added that with this system in place, they always know that players just had this "core" experience in the game. This explanation seems to make "Avowed" something of a semi-open world RPG, similar to how "The Outer World" worked.

Feb. 18, 2025, is the official release date of "Avowed" which makes it arrive during a time when a lot of other RPGs are coming onto the scene. Region director Berto Ritger added that the zones provide a good pacing mechanism for the game, Insider Gaming said.

He said that they have a rough idea of what players have already done before they go on to the next thing. However, each zone still has a very open structure where players are free to do whatever they want in that particular area.

Dollarhyde also said that the decision not to go open world gives the studio the ability to give players more interesting choices. Obsidian Entertainment is not content with storytelling that simply concludes with decision points where players simply choose between Good or Bad endings, according to PCGamer.