At the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, we’ve had a surge of new info, so now’s a wonderful time to get into everything we know aboutAvowed, Obsidian’s new fantasy RPG.
Avowed is one of the biggest new Game Pass games and one of the most intriguing Xbox exclusives. It’s set its sights on a release later this year, and we’ve got new details about the games.
When is Avowed going to be released?
Avowed was revealed way back in 2020, and after several years of waiting, we now have a release window of fall 2024!
What platforms is Avowed coming to?
Avowed is an Xbox exclusive published by Xbox Game Studios and will be released for Xbox Series X|S and Windows.
As a first-party exclusive, Avowed will not be released on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch.
Is Avowed coming to Xbox Game Pass?
Yep, as it comes from first-party Xbox studio Obsidian Entertainment, Avowed will land on Game Pass on day one when it launches this fall.
What is the story of Avowed?
We’ve had plenty of new details and trailers for Avowed which give us much more information about the game.
Avowed takes place in the Living Lands in the world of Eora, although our character comes from the far-off land of Aedyr. We (playing as a human or an elf, according to an IGN interview) are sent as an ambassador to the island of the Living Lands, which is said to be sorrowing from a strange “spiritual” plague known as the Dream Scourge. The game’s Xbox page adds to this, telling us we’ll “discover a personal connection to the Living Lands and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything.” As if a plague wasn’t enough, you’ll be trying to “save this unknown frontier and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them asunder.”
So, first the Dreamscourge itself: it concerns the land, its people, and its creatures, so it sounds as though no one is safe. According to the new interview with the Avowed team, those affected by the Dreamscourge start out feeling confused and seeing hallucinations, before moving to unpredictable behavior, and then the last stage: becoming Dreamthralls, “their bodies intertwined with fungal growths and their minds and souls overtaken by the plague.”
We know that there will be difficult and complex relationships between the factions on the island, but it appears our mission is also complicated by the differing beliefs of those in Aedyr. The emperor worries the Dreamscourge could spread to Aedyr, while Inquisitor Lödwyn, the leader of the Aedyran paladin order the Steel Garrote, thinks there’s more going on behind the scenes and wants our character to master the island’s factions.
We’ll start dealing with all this chaos in the port city of Paradis, which, according to the Avowed team, is “the epicenter of tension between Aedyran forces and the locals, who are suspicious of Aedyr’s growing presence.”
If you’re thinking about map sizes, Xbox Wire interview with game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo revealed: “it’s open-zone, a size comparable to The Outer Worlds areas on the larger side, and [with] multiple paths essentially to tackle combat situations, or avoid them.” There will also be a dynamic day-to-night cycle which will no doubt give even more variety to the game’s different areas.
What’s more, the game will have numerous endings. In an IGN interview, game director Carrie Patel said that Avowed is “an Obsidian game… What else would we be if we didn’t have a few additional endings?”
Avowed achievement list
No word yet on the Avowed achievements, but we will post you if something comes up.
Avowed trailers
The official Avowed reveal trailer appeared on our screens back in 2020. Whether it was the hopeful expectation we’ve all been suffering from for the next Elder Scrolls game or not, there seemed to be something almost a little Skyrim-y about this announced trailer with its sword and magic combo and its talk of great wars and empires.
This was followed by the official gameplay trailer in 2023.
We had a lot more news from Xbox Games Showcase 2024. First, we had a story trailer, repeating our mission to head to the Living Lands and explore the Dream Scourge, but also indicating that there might be a more serious conspiracy behind it.
