The Outer Worldssaw Obsidian Entertainment dive into the world of first-person RPGs for the first time sinceFallout: New Vegasreleased back in 2010. Many fans of the developer saw the release of a first-person satirical sci-fi game as a direct aim at Bethesda andFallout’s spot in the RPG market. With Obsidian’s first-person fantasy gameAvowedon the way, many now see the studio making a similar move to fulfill the desire Bethesda fans have for a newElder Scrollsgame.
There is one small problem withThe Outer Worlds, however, that could prove to be a far larger problem if not solved in time forAvowed. If Obsidian Entertainment is going to take on a giant likeThe Elder Scrollsseries, fixing this issue will be an absolute necessity.
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Interactivity In The Outer Worlds
The Outer Worldspresents a game world which resembles atraditional Bethesda RPGin many ways. Players find themselves thrown into a non-linear world filled with quests and NPCs, and often find themselves moving from town to town solving mysteries, running errands, and resolving local conflicts. Combat is common between towns, and exploration is encouraged.
Though it may seem small, there is one key difference between the way players can interact with the world inThe Outer Worldswhen compared togames likeSkyrimandFallout 4.The Outer Worldsallows players to interact with the world in two main ways. They can talk to NPCs using the game’s dialogue system, or they can engage NPCs in combat.
What they cannot do is pick up items and manipulate them in the game’s world. They can’t move bodies or objects, they can’t drink water from sources like inFallout, and they can’t even sit in thecaptain’s chair of their ship The Unreliable. In fact, they can’t sit in any chairs. Players are also unable to zoom out to a third-person view like they can in anElder ScrollsorFalloutgame.
Without these small detailsThe Outer Worldsends up feeling far more like a shooter with an RPG dialogue system than a fully immersive open-world RPG. WhileRPGs likeMass EffectandDragon Agealso have far fewer ways to dynamically interact with the world, their more linear stories and more prescriptive player characters create a style of RPG which doesn’t rely as heavily on these smaller elements.
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Interactivity In Bethesda RPGs
InSkyrim, players could manipulate items to decorate their homes in extreme detail. They could sit in any chair at any inn and listen to a bard play music, and they could zoom out and see themselves as part of a scene. They could even famously putbuckets over the heads of shopkeeper NPCsin order to break the character’s line of sight, letting them steal as many items from the store as they could carry.
Though it sometimes leads to silly outcomes,Bethesda’s physics engineallows for the kind of small details that make its open worlds feel extra immersive. BioWare RPGs draw players in with a strong central narrative, but not games likeThe Elder Scrolls. Many open-world RPGs rely on the player immersing themselves in the world by making their own character, creating their own backstory, and setting their own goals. This reliance on the player to immerse themselves in the game makes these kinds of details hugely impactful, and for all its merits,The Outer Worldsproved comparatively poorer without them.
Although these features mostly add extra opportunities for immersion, sometimes the lack of them directly detracts from player immersion in the game. InSkyrima player can kill an enemy then drag their corpse out of sight to prevent another enemy from going on the alert. This doesn’t come with any special animation like players will find inDishonoredor recentFar Crygames. In fact, the bodies inSkyrimwill ragdoll, making them look more than a little silly. Nonetheless, there is an underlying logic, and players are given the ability to engage with their environment in less traditional ways than just combat or dialogue.
Eclipsing The Elder Scrolls
Avowedwill likely draw a lot of direct comparisons toSkyrimand theElder Scrollsseries at large when it releases. These are likely comparisons Obsidian itself will want to encourage.Avowedis set in the world of Eora, first created for the twoPillars of Eternitygames,Pillars of Eternitybeing an isometric RPG series developed by Obsidian previously. One of the reasonsAvowedwill see the franchise move to a first-person perspective is that, despite their critical success, the studio’s traditional isometric RPGs were struggling financially. By marketing anElder Scrolls-style game, the studio likely hopes to find more reliable success with its setting.
However, this also comes with a cost.Avowedwill need to go above and beyondSkyrimif it’s going to set a new standard for the genre on thenew generation of consoles.Avowedwill also need to include the small details that help bring the worlds ofThe Elder Scrollsgames to life.
With voiceless protagonists, small cast of voice actors, and large but relatively free-form narrative worlds, theElder Scrollsgames rely on the imagination of the player more than many othermajor RPG franchises. Small details like being able to sit in chairs, zoom out, and manipulate objects and bodies go a deceptively long way towards allowing players to imagine their own stories in these worlds.
This could require Obsidian to make some updates to its engine during the development ofAvowed. That being said, the studio can’t hope to take onThe Elder Scrollsseries without first understanding some of the smaller elements that helped bring its huge success.Avowedmay be a continuation ofPillars of Eternity, but many fantasy fans buying the game will be hoping for a spiritual successor toSkyrim. If Obsidian is going to take on a giant, the devil will be in the details.
Avowedis in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
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