Player choice is at the forefront in Avowed and it’s a theme that is infused into just about everything you can do within the game’s world, born from a studio that prides itself on the motto of, “Your Worlds, Your Way.” That means everything is on the table, from complex dialog choices to customized character builds that let you choose how you want to explore the Living Lands within the world of Eora. Combat also fits within this framework of player choice, and it was an aspect that I explored in detail during a recent hands-on media event for Avowed.  

I must have tried close to a dozen weapons during my session (the powerful arquebus rifle would become my favorite, more on that in a bit), but having the freedom to cycle between axes and bows and hammers and wands and even a spell book was incredibly flexible. I felt encouraged by the game to experiment even though my starting background as a ‘War Hero’ began to feel more like a suggestion – as designed.

“I would describe it as like an open class system,” Senior Combat Designer Max Matzenbacher tells me. “In games where it’s class-based, you can be restricted on which weapons you can wield, which abilities you can select from. But in Avowed, the classes are more of a guideline or a flag post for someone to follow; you can mix and match your weapons at any time in the game. You can put things in your primary and off-hand, and then you can combine nearly any ability from any tree at any time. So, you could take something from a wizard build that’s a Meteor Storm style ability and then have a more fighter-centric ability. It’s giving the player the opportunity to build their class. We give you some indicators and you can find nods to Pillars of Eternity within those trees, and more nuanced subclasses, but you can really build whatever you like.”

“Flexibility in combat actions was always a goal for us,” adds Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo. “In terms of weapons, you can expect anywhere from a one-hit dagger to a slow reloading arquebus, two-handed great hammers, a one-handed sword, one-handed pistol, a one-handed wand, and we have a dual-wielding system that lets the player equip off-hand and one-handed weapons together in a dual-wielding type way.”

As I continued my experimentation with weapons, I initially found myself gravitating to the Grimoire early on, which is a magic weapon that allows you to tap spell abilities even if your class isn’t magic-based. Holding it in my off-hand while wielding a sword in the other felt like a great combination that could yield some entertaining results in combat. We’re told you can also discover more of these Grimoires throughout Avowed, and then choose to either improve it or learn spells from it. For example, you could take something that you learned from a Grimoire, like a “Fan of Flames” ability, and put it into your ability bar, and then run around with a giant hammer while tossing fire independently of the spell book.

“I think the biggest kind of unique element is how all the pieces fit together and how we don’t restrict the player; to give them ultimate flexibility in being able to quickly swap and execute these actions, like their abilities they choose from their trees, the weapons they fire, the dodge — all those I would say is a mix of how a lot of games handle it; we just mix some elements more uniquely,” Paramo says.

Avowed also lets you enchant (modify) unique weapons by utilizing resources that you’ve gathered throughout the world, rewarding the more adventurous and curious players with the tools needed to upgrade more powerful weapons and gear. As someone who loves to explore every nook and cranny, I was thrilled to see how often my curiosity was being rewarded, like the previously mentioned bird nest on top of the bell tower. It was also when exploring these nooks that the world of Avowed really opened up for me, not only because it was rewarding my curiosity and how I wanted to approach combat, but how those tie into the freedom to explore the world how I wanted to.

“With the enchantment system and weapon upgrading systems, and the unique [weapons] with passive abilities that the player can unlock to enhance those weapons, they can really drill in deep on the mechanic side of things to really min/max or improve the playstyle that they are choosing,” Paramo explains. “We also have a very flexible respecing system if they want to kind of change their minds and try something else, maybe choose a different ability to enhance another set of weapons that they find that they like later.”

“I would add that the attribute system is inspired by the Pillars of Eternity concept of not having restricted class specific attributes, where to wield a certain type of weapon, or to optimize a certain weapon, you must take a specific attribute,” Matzenbacher adds. “All the attributes are available to all players and builds, so they can use that to extend their play style if they want to be more damage centric or have more survivability or have more resources to use either weapon attacks or abilities.”

This raised the question of how they balance all these weapons while still rewarding player choice and experimentation. Matzenbacher and Paramo explained that it was all about stripping these weapons down to their most basic components first and adjusting from there. For example, larger weapons will cost more stamina but deal more damage; smaller weapons will use less stamina but could be better used for stunning. The same rules generally apply to taking the time to cast with a powerful attack spell and their essence cost; the more powerful the spell, the more cost to cast.

“Choice and consequence are not just something that we have in dialogue, but it’s something that we also have in combat, where for every choice the player makes and what they’re choosing to equip, there’s a consequence to that,” Paramo explains. “So, if I’m going to choose a two-handed great hammer, I’m going to do heavy damage, but have a slow attack speed that leaves me open more to hits but costing me stamina. Each one of these things is all about finding the system that the player will funnel into and then kind of creating those different consequences for choosing that weapon or load out.”

The way this played out for me was pairing the powerful arquebus rifle with the Charge ability for my “War Hero,” which had me dash forward and smash into anything in my way. Through its repeated use, I also discovered it did a great job of running up the stun meter on enemies — attacking a fully stunned enemy allows you to perform a special attack for massive damage. Combining that with my slow-loading (yet powerful) rifle proved to be a vicious combination, especially against some of the more formidable enemies I came across, like a diseased bear and giant spider.

Choice also applies to enemies as well, in how they are designed to utilize the environment to find the best method of attack. All of them, from sporelings to skeletons to Xaurips (this universe’s reptilian race), each have distinct rules of engagement on top of their more basic commands — fodder units will try to charge and attack you; ranged units are going to be at a distance; blocker units will always try to block. But here’s where it gets a bit more intriguing, as these commands also feed into a “parkour everywhere” approach for both the player and enemy movement within the environment that can keep these encounters challenging and fun.

“The AI knows how to parkour up (cliffs or ledges) and get to you. Or they know that you are trying to be on a high level trying to shoot at them from at a range distance,” explains Paramo. “They adapt, and even though they might be a more melee-focused character, they’re going to try to get to you. And if they can’t get to you, they’re going to switch to something more ranged too so that you can’t just like capitalize on them and cheese them basically.”

This exact scenario happened to me numerous times while battling crowds of Xaurips. I’d see them scatter up to higher ledges, trying to hit me with their arrows. As I climbed the cliff to get at them, they’d do backflips to get to a higher ledge as I chased them down. Eventually I had enough of this, equipped my Grimoire, and shot flames at them to put an end to this chase. But I really liked seeing that enemies both had an appreciation of their own survivability, but also continued to try and gain an advantage against me.

“Having the player able to jump up on locations, that kind of creates a different dynamic for the AI,” continues Paramo. “We also have stealth grass in the game where the player can take a bit more of a stealthier approach. And we have destructibles in the game that the player and enemies can destroy, or explosive barrels that the player can use range attacks on, so that can help get them an advantage in that encounter, and damage bonuses for stealth attacks when the player is hitting unaware enemies.”

“There are also environmental interactions in the game,” adds Matzenbacher. “So, there could be water on the ground that will react if you’re using shock magic. And then there are certain cases where there are traps and hazards that can either affect the player or enemies that they can trigger and interact with — there’s both the layout and the structure of the space, but also elements that can be combined and leveraged against the enemies.”

There are so many intriguing parts of Avowed, like being able to build our characters as we want, choosing the load outs and companions we want, and having such a dynamic approach to combat, that it will no doubt create numerous and exciting moment-to-moment adventures within the world of Eora. Obsidian are masters of their craft at giving players choice and freedom to play within their worlds as they want, and Avowed is shaping up to be their next great proof point of this concept – from everything we’ve seen and played so far, it’s leading up to something truly special. And we can’t wait to go back.