In Avowed, players roam the game world exclusively in solo mode.
Advertisement
A co-op mode in a classic role-playing game? Baldur's Gate 3 impressively proved last year that this is possible. Another role-playing game, however, consciously decides not to take this path.
Obsidian’s most expensive role-playing game to date, Avowed, is scheduled to be released in 2024 – and relies entirely on single player. Obsidian announced this last year. Game Director Carrie Patel now reveals the internal reasons for this in an interview with Windows Central.
Focus is on story and campaign
According to Patel, Obsidian wants to focus on other areas of their game. Obsidian's Game Director says:
It was a very big creative and technical challenge to find a way to build multiplayer while still delivering on the things we're strong at as a studio.
Advertisement
And further:
It's important to us that we have a really solid campaign and a compelling story that puts the player in the shoes of the character driving things forward, making important decisions and really shaping the world and characters around them. This obviously gets more complicated when you try to add a multiplayer component.
You can get an impression of the campaign and the first key moments in the story trailer for Avowed:
1:40
Avowed: The new trailer reveals first key moments of the story
Obsidian's decision against a co-op mode came in early August 2023 – the same time Baldur's Gate 3 left Early Access. According to Patel, the success of Larian's role-playing game has not led to a rethink at Obsidian:
It's not that these challenges are insurmountable. The team at Larian Studios has created an incredible RPG with Baldur's Gate 3 and has years of experience with Divinity: Original Sin in developing a multiplayer mode within a really solid RPG framework.
Then comes the big but:
It's very hard to do that well, and we wanted to make sure that we delivered first and foremost what players expect from an Obsidian Entertainment RPG, which is a really well-developed story, meaningful choices and consequences, and the ability to change the world.
Decision against co-op mode and open world
It is not the first time that Obsidian has decided against a concept that has been successful in other games when developing Avowed. For example, there will be no open world in the role-playing game. Avowed takes place in the same world as the role-playing games Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.
The role-playing game is the studio's first AAA production since its acquisition by Microsoft in 2018. In the meantime, rumors have emerged that there are many problems behind the scenes. The development of the game is said to have been restarted after the departure of the lead developers.
Whether players will miss the missing co-op mode will become clear this fall. That's when Avowed is due to be released. During this year's Xbox showcase, a specific date, November 12, was also leaked.
However, the date has not yet been confirmed officially. The game's official website still only lists 2024 as the release date. During the Summer Game Fest 2024, we spoke to the developers ourselves and they also confirmed: 2024 remains a realistic release year.