At the recent Xbox Developer_Direct 2024 broadcast, Obsidian Entertainment shared its most comprehensive look yet at its upcoming fantasy-action RPG, Avowed.

But even that only scratched at the surface of what’s coming your way this fall. On today’s special episode of The Official Xbox Podcast, Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel and Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo shared an extended look at the quest showcased during Developer_Direct, providing more detail on the moment-to-moment experience of the flexible combat system, and where this side quest fits in the larger narrative of Avowed.

This latest look at Avowed gives us a good idea of what to expect from Shatterscarp, one part of the ecologically diverse island of The Living Lands, all in the same universe as Obsidian’s CRPG series Pillars of Eternity. But what makes Avowed a very ‘Obsidian game’ goes far beyond the commonality of setting in the world of Eora.

“It’s really about our player-centric approach to role play,” Patel shared during this week’s Podcast. “The way we really approach consequence and choice is giving players the opportunities to define who they are in this world, how they want to behave – what fantasy, what challenges they want to undertake.”

It’s all part of Obsidian’s “your worlds, your way” approach, and players will feel the weight of their choices moment-to-moment with every slash, parry, and spell cast.

What stands out is not just the variety of ways you can tackle combat – examples include the classic ‘sword and board [shield]’, samurai-esque sword and gun, and dual-wielding wands like a wizard in the Old West – but also how you’ll frequently want to (or need to) change your loadout to best suit what you find yourself up against. These loadouts are also complemented by skills, and Obsidian had a deep well of moves to pull from out of the Pillars of Eternity universe.

“We wanted to be able to grab as many abilities from the trees as possible – and categorize them a little bit differently so that the player doesn‘t feel locked into a single choice at the start of the game,” said Gabe Paramo, Gameplay Director. “They can mix and match between different abilities to get some variety. You can commit to being a fighter, but it’s not an enforced class setup.” And if you want to try out a new suite of abilities, you can always respec your character.

We saw great examples of this in the Developer_Direct: dual-wielding wands served as effective crowd control when a group of smaller Xaurips swarmed the player. But in a more one-on-one encounter with a slightly larger enemy, using an ice-imbued wand to freeze an enemy, then shattering the newly-frozen block with a charged power attack of an off-hand sword was supremely effective.

Paramo cited another devious combo: “With ‘Into the Fray,’ you can use a fireball ability that creates an AOE [area of effect] ability on the ground, and then pull the enemy into the fire.”

It’s all part of a comprehensive elemental system that comes into play both in and out of combat. Paramo continues, “you can light guys on fire, you can freeze them, you can shock them, you have objects in the environment you can interact with. They’re not just on weapons, on wands – you might find it on swords, certain abilities might cause elemental damage. And your companions [can] as well.”​