Is Obsidian Entertainment Taking On More Than It Can Chew
Todd Howard recently announced that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still "in the design phase" over three years after its initial reveal, with the studio focusing primarily on Starfield , its first new IP in over 25 years. It's likely that, similar to Bethesda, most of Obsidian's resources are currently focused on Avowed . The Outer Worlds 2 's trailer may have poked fun at games announced long before their development had begun in earnest, but it's also likely a self-confessed culprit of exactly t
Obsidian has a big task ahead of them with Avowed and making sure it can stand out from the crowd. Using what has come before in Pillars of Eternity will help the team craft something more unique, but it remains important for Obsidian to make sure it can stay within first-person fantasy action without delving into stat-heavy mechanics too much. There are few confirmed details for Avowed at the moment, with many players hoping to see some more official news s
As much as Avowed ’s gameplay resembles The Elder Scrolls based on what little has been revealed so far, exploring its world doesn’t risk revealing too many more similarities. The world of Eora has a huge amount of lore that far fewer players have come into contact with than The Elder Scrolls ’ story. From the fact that many of its nations are recently liberated colonies to the idea that the gods of Eora were artificially created using animancy - the science of souls - Avowed ’s world could be just as rich as The Elder Scrolls ’ with the advantage of being far less famil
Skyrim is packed full of references to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Its last DLC, Dragonborn, saw the inhabitants of the isolated town of Raven Rock fall under a mysterious trance-like state that was leading them to build strange obelisks, with only the faintest memory of doing so. While some The Elder Scrolls quests are full of surface-level Lovecraft allusions like this, the series' metaphysical lore makes the connection explicit. The same can be said for Obsidian's upcoming first-person fantasy RPG, Avow
Grounded is Obsidian's big potential release for 2021, but the studio's next step is public too. In the same showcase that Grounded was revealed, Obsidian and Microsoft announced Avowed, a new RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity universe. Although Obsidian has said next to nothing about Avowed since then, knowing the setting of the game has gone a long way in helping fans get an image of the game. There's tons of Pillars of Eternity lore already in place that'll surely inform the game, no matter what the story is or how the gameplay differs from the games that precede
It's in the best interest of Obsidian Entertainment to keep a balance between RPG mechanics and action gameplay. While there is going to be competition between The Elder Scrolls 6 and Avowed due to the titles sharing a genre, the developer should look at doing enough to ensure it stands out from the Bethesda game series. There is a balance to strike between taking enough from PoE and keeping the title action-heavy while not leaning into its RPG roots too much. Adapting too many role-playing mechanics has the potential to alienate a new audience to the world of Eora, who are looking for a more combat-focused experience. It's possible that if Avowed concentrated on role-playing features too much, it could push gamers towards Skyrim or the forthcoming Elder Scrolls
The cosmology of Avowed is just as bizarre as The Elder Scrolls , and clearly takes some influence from Lovecraft's work. However, the metaphysical side of Avowed 's lore — first created by Obsidian over the two Pillars of Eternity games — has a far more explicit role to play to in the franchise's plotlines. Here's how Skyrim and Avowed connect to Lovecraft, and why fans can expect Avowed 's Lovecraftian influences to have a bigger influence on the game's tone and st
Obsidian's status recently underwent a pretty major change. Although it was once an independent studio, Microsoft acquired it in 2018 , right in the middle of the development of The Outer Worlds. Obsidian hasn't lost any momentum thanks to visit this page change of ownership, though; if anything, it seems like Obsidian is ramping up development. Fans of the studio have a lot to look forward to over the next couple years, between Avowed and Grounded. Based on how many projects Obsidian is stacking up, it's also possible that it's planning even more new games with the help of its new parent comp
The deepest The Elder Scrolls -Lovecraft connections, however, require a broader view of the entire Elder Scrolls cosmology. Morrowind 's "36 Lessons of Vivec" reference CHIM, a hotly-debated term in The Elder Scrolls community. CHIM can summed up as a state of enlightenment and godlike power which comes from someone in the TES universe realizing they are merely a product of the constantly shifting, involuntary dreams of a being known as the "Godhead," while maintaining the strength to assert their individuality any
