When Obsidian Entertainment first unveiled Avowed with a CGI trailer in 2020, the game looked a lot like Skyrim in terms of the fairly dark, gritty art style. However, the 2023 gameplay reveal showed a different, more colorful artistic direction that initially didn't sit too well with some fans.
Speaking to Screen Rant at Summer Game Fest, Obsidian Art Director Matt Hansen finally addressed the studio's aesthetic choice for Avowed. He also explained that players will experience a variety of biomes within the Living Lands.
For me, I am a big fan of fantasy games and fantasy genre. I'm also a big fan of vibrant worlds. What you often see, and it's a really useful effect, is a lot of fantasy games will go with a more muted palette, a grimmer look, because it's an instant draw to nostalgia. You immediately feel like you're being transported to an older world because we associate that color palette with history, even though in reality, history was just as vibrant as today minus all the LEDs and things like that.
I wanted to tap into that just because I think conflict is so much more interesting when it's in color, in full color. Also, just the world is a wonderful palette to draw inspiration from. The other half of that is the Living Lands itself, as it's referenced in our prior games, is this exotic and very dangerous place. When people think of exotic and dangerous, they think of things like poison dart frogs and all of these very vibrant forms of danger. We wanted to tap into that here as well, but also, within Avowed, there are areas where it is a little more muted. We can play into that duality and play into those contrasts.
Humans perceive contrast - that's how we perceive everything, the contrast between things. Having an area that's a gloomy swamp, and going from that to a vibrant red desert, to an ashy waste and flipping between all of those different areas, it makes the world feel very, very grand. The Living Lands is a single continent, but it feels like you're traveling across the entire planet between all of these different biomes, so we really wanted to tap into that.
We recently learned that Avowed will feature optional third-person camera view (in addition to the already confirmed first-person view) as well as the ability to respec your character. An article published on the Obsidian blog announced a November 12 launch date, although it was quickly amended - the studio is likely not ready to confirm it. The action RPG will be released on PC and Xbox Series S|X, launching day one on Game Pass.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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