Summary

  • When Avowed launches next month, it'll make use of the "open zone" concept rather than having a sprawling open world.
  • According to Obsidian, that decision is due in part to wanting to have "good pacing" in its game.
  • As a result, everything in the zones feels purposeful, rather than existing simply to serve the map's size.

In just about 24 days, role-playing game fans will be able to sink their teeth into Avowed, the latest title from Obsidian's long lineage of fantasy games. That said, if you were hoping to jump into a fantasy open world romp similar to Skyrim, then think again.

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That's because Avowed won't feature an open world. Instead, the game will make use of the "open zone" concept that has become a popular alternative in recent years for games straddling the line between hyper linear and open world. As it turns out, there's a method to the madness, and in an interview, Obsidian's leads discussed why exactly it decided to build its world around zones.

Pacing Is Everything

As part of a larger blog post on Xbox Wire, Obsidian shared that its choice for an open zone layout stems from a desire to have "good pacing," specifically in relation to the game's choice-based narrative.

“I think it’s a good pacing mechanism (for those choices)," Region Director Berto Ritger said. "We know roughly what you’ve done before you’ve gone to the next thing. It’s still a very open structure within those zones, where you can do whatever you want for the most part, but it’s not one contiguous area where you could be anywhere at any moment.”

In turn, everything in the zones is purposeful and not present to make the open world feel larger. The post notes that NPCs have a "tangible reason" for their presence, and their dialogue similarly reflects that. More so, the use of zones allows Obsidian as a developer to further understand where players are at any given point, as opposed to an open world that is endless.

“Pacing is really tough in open-world games,” Narrative Designer Kate Dollarhyde shared. “You never know where the player is and what they’re doing at any given time. So having these zones that happen in sequence means we always know what content you’ve just come from on the critical path. Maybe not what side quests you’ve done, but we always know you’ve just had this [core] experience.”

Based off how Obsidian has described things, it doesn't sound like players will miss having an open world all too much. Considering the numerous open world games that exist, and arguably often feel like slogs, it certainly will be refreshing to have a more honed in adventure when Avowed does launch in February.

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