Avowed won’t be open world, here’s why

With the first-person RPG Avowed set to make its debut sometime in 2024, many fans are looking to learn more about it, especially if it features a traditional open world for players to explore.

Avowed is Obsidian's next big AAA role-playing game, which is set in the world of Eora from Pillars of Eternity. We're starting to learn more and more about the upcoming game, such as how the world will be structured, so check out what we know below, including why the game won't feature a fully open world.

Why isn't Avowed open world?

Avowed will not have an open world, and is instead split into different open segments with loading screens between them.

This is similar to how the world operates in Obsidian’s last RPG, The Outer Worlds. There, players must traverse between different planets and areas of the world by interacting with doors, which trigger a loading screen.

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The news was revealed during the Xbox Extended Showcase 2023. There, game director Carrie Patel explained that the world of Avowed is made up of “a series of interconnected open zones”, which are designed for players to explore at their own leisure.

Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart elaborated on this during an interview with PC Gamer, explaining that the original pitch featured an open world like Skyrim's, but over time they reduced the scale. 

Urquhart stated, "We could go off and create an 8km x 8km open world and then deal with all the consequences of that - because that makes it a different style game. But we want to tell more confined stories that the player can experience with their companions, and then move from part of the world to part of the world."

How big is the Avowed map size?

Patel also revealed that the size of the Avowed map is roughly comparable to either Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 or Outer Worlds. Those games from Obsidian also weren’t open-world titles and instead used a series of zones split behind load screens.

While it’s difficult to put an exact size on the world of Avowed just yet, we can expect it to be fairly large. The Outer Worlds especially featured several different planets and areas for the players to explore, which completionists would likely spend almost 40 hours exploring.

Avowed might not be as big as some other open-world RPGs out there, like Skyrim or Starfield, but the bite-sized chunks of the world should surely be satisfying for players to explore nonetheless.