From the moment its cinematic announcement trailer revealed that it would be played from a first-person perspective, Avowed has been viewed as Obsidian Entertainment’s answer to Skyrim. It’s a position Obsidian itself has tried to distance itself from, largely because Avowed is a smaller scale RPG made up of interconnected zones rather than a huge, sprawling open world game. Despite this, the Skyrim comparison makes a certain amount of sense; after proving it could do Bethesda games better than Bethesda itself with Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian created its own Fallout analogue in 2019’s The Outer Worlds. It cut short the agonising wait for Fallout 5 with a similar style of RPG (sure, it wasn’t open world, but it was directed by Fallout’s original creators), and so eyes have naturally turned to Avowed – could this be the game that finally gives us a new Elder Scrolls-like adventure years before Bethesda ships its own Skyrim successor?
At gamescom 2024 I was able to play an hour of Avowed. That’s hardly enough to say if it truly is capable of standing up to such a landmark RPG as Skyrim – I didn’t even get to explore outside of a single cave. However, what I did play suggested it may well equal (or, hopefully, actually better) Skyrim in one important area: the stealth archer build.
It’s a meme among the Skyrim community that everyone will eventually spec into a stealth archer build, no matter their initial intentions for a playthrough. That’s because playing a shadowy sniper in Skyrim is incredibly satisfying. You can decimate entire dungeons largely unseen and the thud of an arrow hitting an enemy’s skull is delightful every single time, particularly when it triggers a slow-motion killcam. I think Obsidian knows all this and has gone to lengths to ensure its own ranger class is equally strong.
The gamescom demo’s example ranger build was, naturally, equipped with a bow. The fundamentals of it will be familiar to anyone who’s played not just Skyrim but any other game with archery – aim, zoom, draw back longer to increase power, and release. But as any stealth archer knows, the first shot is the most important – if it doesn’t hit true, if it doesn’t kill the target, then stealth is broken and chaos ensues. Seemingly recognising this, Avowed displays a small red diamond-shaped target on an enemy’s weak point when you zoom in, a feature likely pilfered from the similarly killing shot-obsessed Sniper Elite games. While I’m perfectly capable of aiming between the eyes without assistance, I actually don’t mind this – it’s like a HUD representation of your character’s archery prowess. They know exactly where to strike.
Archery is bolstered by two passive skills – power attacks and Steady Aim. Holding the drawn-back bow string engages the power attack, which empowers the notched arrow with a silver flame-like energy (I’m guessing this is because you play as a Godlike, a supernatural race from the Pillars of Eternity RPGs with which Avowed shares a setting with). Steady Aim, meanwhile, slows down time while aiming that power attack. These are, of course, repackaged versions of archery skills we’ve seen in Skyrim and beyond, but I’m glad they’re here because they’re a vital ingredient in the stealth archer’s return.
Where Avowed’s sample archer build begins to deviate from Skyrim’s template is when it comes to sneaking. Naturally, you can crouch to reduce your visibility and crawl into long grass to disappear completely. But Avowed rangers also have access to the Shadowing Beyond skill, an active ability that renders you fully invisible until you make a combat action (provided you can afford its mana-draining cost.) It’s as effective as it sounds; after literally tearing a hole in reality and slipping into some kind of parallel shadow realm, you’re able to walk right through enemy patrols without disturbing even the air molecules. It’s the stealth archer’s dream, enabling you to bypass tricky encounters or reposition to a more advantageous sniper’s perch. It’s an ability that’s hard to come by in Skyrim; in Tamriel, a stealth archer needs to either find the Bow of Shadows and make use of its invisibility perk (which is nowhere near as powerful or flexible as Shadowing Beyond), or train as an illusionary mage in order to cast the invisibility spell.
Maintaining silent stealth isn’t just for ranged encounters, though. I was pleased to see that Avowed has a proper stealth takedown attack; tap the attack trigger while looking at an unaware enemy and your character lunges forward, a spectral dagger-like weapon forming around their fist. The blade reduces the enemy’s body to shimmering ash, leaving no evidence of your kill for enemy guards to stumble across. It’s a very satisfying animation and an ability I’m sure will shape the direction of a stealth archer’s overall approach.
Of course, not every encounter is going to remain silent. For the occasions where things heat up, the ranger’s Tanglefoot spell allows you to summon thorny vines that root enemies to the spot for several seconds. It keeps them at a distance, letting you snipe them before they get into slashing range. I found this skill was also helpful when combined with other ranged options; the demo character’s backup weapon was a pair of flintlock pistols which are naturally louder and more explosive than a bow (plus can be fired twice in succession thanks to being dual-wielded), but they demand that enemies are kept far away thanks to their long reload times. Smart use of Tanglefoot, as well as directing my AI companion, Kai, to use his own abilities really helped here.
Talking of Kai, I was pleased to see that Avowed’s companions don’t seem to get in the way of your stealth tactics – something many of Skyrim’s clumsy companions are unforgivably guilty of. Kai never busted my cover and I think he even disappeared from view along with me when I used Shadowing Beyond. It’s things like this that make Avowed feel like a Skyrim-style game from the 2020s – the movement, the ability to mantle up to vantage points, the environmental hazards, the impact of combat, and the general polish all make Avowed feel like the kind of Elder Scrolls experience I want to have in the modern age.
I understand why Obsidian tries to push the conversation away from Skyrim when talking about Avowed – its zone-based environments likely will make the game structurally very different from The Elder Scrolls series. But there’s much more to Skyrim than its open world, and it’s those other elements that I think Obsidian can offer an excellent, updated analogue to. Hopefully, when we have the chance to explore beyond the demo’s cave and experience the grander scope of Avowed’s setting and story, it’ll also prove itself a well-designed, modern-feeling RPG in the important areas: character, level, and quest design. But for now I’m left feeling reasonably confident that Avowed will, at the very least, tickle the same bits of my brain that Skyrim did when I let loose a well-aimed arrow into a lizard man’s face.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
