Highlights

  • Avowed, Obsidian's upcoming fantasy RPG, is set in the Pillars of Eternity universe but plays in first-person like The Outer Worlds.
  • Despite revealing a lot of combat footage, no boss fights have been shown for Avowed yet.
  • Obsidian is working to improve Avowed's combat system based on feedback.

Avowed is Obsidian's upcoming fantasy RPG set in the developer's firmly established Pillars of Eternity universe. Despite being set in the same universe as the top-down RPG Pillars of Eternity, however, Avowed is played in first-person and is more akin to Obsidian's recent sci-fi hit, The Outer Worlds. Obsidian unveiled a surprising amount of footage for its highly anticipated fantasy RPG at this year's Xbox Developer Direct, with most of it detailing Avowed's combat system. However, as far as what is known, no boss fights have been revealed thus far.

Unfortunately, despite Obsidian's attempts to garner positive reception for Avowed's combat, many fans were left unimpressed. As such, based on the lackluster reception of its combat showcase, it may do well for Avowed to reveal a boss fight or two sooner rather than later to hold the attention of those awaiting its release, as this may show what the game's combat system is truly capable of.

Avowed hero
Related
Avowed's Scale May Put Its Skill Trees in the Hot Seat

Avowed is likely going to be roughly the size of The Outer Worlds, and its skill trees may suffer if they aren't built according to the game's scale.

Avowed Should Reveal Its Boss Fights Sooner Rather Than Later

Avowed's Combat Hasn't Been Received Well Based on Its Showcase

Judging by what was shown in the Xbox Developer Direct footage, many of Avowed's enemies appear to be rather lethargic, not moving much at all and appearing less-than-threatening to the player. While using various combinations of weaponry to tackle foes appears to have its exciting moments, it seems as though a large portion of Avowed's enemies can be overcome simply by adopting a purely offensive approach to combat and taking them out before they have a chance to respond.

That said, Obsidian has confirmed that it is hard at work to improve Avowed's combat based on player feedback. It's unclear exactly what the developer might be working on, but it could potentially do well for the developer to reveal a boss fight during its next showcase, as Avowed's boss fights will presumably be the highlight of the game's combat. This is all rather surprising, too, given the fact that players haven't necessarily been able to experience combat with their hands on a controller yet, and this is all based on gameplay shown for a showcase.

Avowed's Boss Fights Could Be the Highlight of Its Combat

Obsidian's last title, The Outer Worlds, didn't necessarily have typical boss fights. More than anything, what might be considered boss fights were really only NPCs that were hard to kill. In other words, these fights had very few unique mechanics and instead largely relied on an NPC having a large health pool.

Avowed , on the other hand, has a chance to be starkly different, considering the emphasis Obsidian has been placing on the game's combat and the Pillars of Eternity series it is based on.

Avowed's boss fights could potentially introduce new mechanics to its combat, thereby differentiating them from a normal fight. This is something both The Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas couldn't necessarily do on account of their genres not being too accommodating for traditional boss fights. In light of that, Avowed's boss fights could be an ace up its sleeve that it has yet to reveal. Obsidian will hopefully consider revealing one soon if not just to showcase the full extent of Avowed's combat system.