The devs behind Obsidian’s upcoming first-person RPG Avowed continue to drive home their commitment to letting you experience the world at your own pace and in the order you pick. Designer Berto Ritger recently told GamesRadar that the game’s quests can be started in multiple ways, so even if you march off in the opposite direction of your main quest marker, you’ll still be able to start them in organic ways.
“I think almost every, if not every, quest in the game has more than one way to start it,” Ritger explained. “You can do things out of order and pick up items and give them to people that want them, or kill a character or whatever, like, you can play things out of order.
“You can come at a dungeon or vice versa, from a different direction than you normally would. And we want you to be able to do that just based on however you naturally progress through the world.”
It’s a statement in line with what other Obsidian designers have said about their approach to making the RPG. Director Carrie Patel previously explained that “The choices you make and the outcomes in front of you are going to depend on what you’re able to find,” and the idea that you can come at quests from multiple angles lines right up with that.
PC Gamer’s Robin Valentine got his hands on Avowed back near the end of November and said it felt like a ” thoroughly old-fashioned RPG adventure”—but that after being disappointed in other recent RPGs, that might just be what we need.
“If Starfield felt cold and sterile, playing Avowed is like putting on a lovely old jumper,” he said. “Is it fashionable? No. Does it have some moth holes in it? Sure. But as the nights get chilly, it’s warm and comforting and smells of happy memories.”
For more Avowed, go ahead and watch the game director Patel set some kind of record for answering questions quickly during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted Showcase.