It’s a good time for fans of traditional open-world open-mission quest RPGs, and much of the excitement today comes down to one study: Obsidian.
Most recently, the developer announced a medieval fantasy epic called Avowed, announced during the Xbox Games Showcase in July, and which has more than a passing similarity to The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim from 2011, given the similar setup, the first-look perspective. person and the double handling of swords and spells.
Obsidian has a proud medieval fantasy story, however, having released D&D-inspired Neverwinter Nights 2 in 2006, while the studio’s founders originally worked together at the Black Isle studios in Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale, as well as the original Never Winter Nights. Obsidian also developed the isometric RPG Pillars of Eternity and its sequel Deadfire, which actually lends its setup to Avowed, making it a kind of spiritual successor (even if he abandons the isometric perspective).
Basically, there are many reasons to think that Obsidian will offer much more than an Elder Scrolls clone, and also to give Obsidian credit for the medieval fantasy role-playing formula we’re so used to today.
But Avowed’s announcement begins to show a pattern within Obsidian’s game development timeline, one that cannot be discussed separately from the fortune of his collaborator, Bethesda.
Obsidian vs Bethesda
Bethesda Softworks is the development studio responsible for both the Elder Scrolls franchise and the Fallout series (well, Fallout 3 and 4). The studio tends to release alternate installments in each series, and the next title is expected to be The Elder Scrolls 6, even if there is currently no confirmed launch window or platform for the game.
What is the connection? Obsidian worked with Bethesda to create the fallout 3 sequel / sequel Fallout: New Vegas, which used the same game engine to tell a different story with separate characters and quest lines, and was released just 2 years after Fallout 3.
They both worked with the same template, then, and the comparisons were made naturally when Obsidian released The Outer Worlds of 2019, a sci-fi RPG made in the Fallout mold. But the game was even more remarkable for what it did first, given that it came just a year after Bethesda announced its own single-player space RPG, Starfield. Even then, we wrote that The Outer Worlds might well steal the thunder from Starfield, and it looks like Obsidian is about to repeat that trick with Avowed.
Elder Scrolls 6 is not expected anytime soon, especially as we are now hearing about a plethora of next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X games to be released in 2021.
With silence still around ES6, and nothing more than an initial teaser to continue, the release dates and Avowed could be fascinatingly close, though we wouldn’t be surprised if Obsidian hit Bethesda once again.
It certainly appears that the Microsoft-owned gaming studio is looking to invade Bethesda territory. And, given some anger directed at Bethesda in previous years, that lawn might be free to take.
Bethesda’s fall from grace
Bethesda has had a rough time in the court of public opinion in recent years. Fallout 76 online-only ended up being a disaster for the company, abandoning the Fallout franchise’s usual strengths (mission design, dialogue trees, world-building) for all its weaknesses (combat, combat, and combat).
The game was riddled with errors at launch, and while Bethesda has done a great job of improving and expanding the game, it initially has a high RRP and a number of other missteps, including obvious attempts to spill the most amount of Possible money from existing 76 player base: They have lost a lot of goodwill among players.
That said, the memories may be short, and there’s nothing that takes the flavor of Fallout 76 away like a next-gen Elder Scrolls game. With an incoming Fallout TV show for Amazon Prime Video, we may soon have something new to hate or love in the Fallout universe.
While The Outer Worlds was seen at launch as a preventative assassin from Starfield, the long wait before the launch of the latter, certainly still several years off, means the comparisons are highly speculative, and Bethesda is long overdue. to do things differently.
For now, though, Obsidian shows a lot of confidence in its ability to make Bethesda-like games their way, and if Avowed manages to launch soon, it could really take his breath away from The Elder Scrolls 6 candles.
