One way to think of Avowed is as Obsidian Entertainment’s Skyrim substitute, ever since the game’s first-person viewpoint was made clear in its cinematic teaser. Obsidian has made an effort to remove itself from this viewpoint, in part because Avowed isn’t a massive, open-world game but rather a more intimate role-playing game composed of connected zones.
The Skyrim analogy does, however, make some sense; Obsidian produced its Fallout analog in 2019 with The Outer Worlds, demonstrating in Fallout: New Vegas that it could emulate Bethesda titles better than Bethesda themselves. Eyes have naturally turned to Avowed, as it may be the game that finally gives us a new Elder Scrolls-like adventure years before Bethesda ships its own Skyrim successor. It ended the excruciating wait for Fallout 5 with a similar style of RPG (sure, it wasn’t open-world, but it was directed by Fallout’s original creators).
I got to play Avowed for an hour at Gamescom 2024. That’s barely enough to determine whether it can hold its own against a role-playing game as iconic as Skyrim—I didn’t even get to venture outside of a single cave. What I did play, though, indicated that it might match—or perhaps surpass—Skyrim in one crucial area: the stealth archer build.
In the Skyrim community, it’s a joke that no matter what their initial playthrough goals are, everyone will eventually spec into a stealth archer build. This is due to the immense satisfaction that comes from being a stealthy sniper in Skyrim. Entire dungeons can be destroyed almost completely without being seen, and it always makes me happy to hear an arrow smash an enemy’s skull—especially if it starts a slow-motion kill cam. I believe Obsidian is aware of this and has taken great care to make sure its ranger class is just as powerful.
Of course, the example ranger construct in the Gamescom demo has a bow. Anyone who has played any other archery-based game, including Skyrim, will be familiar with the basic controls: aim, zoom, drawback longer to boost power and release. However, as every archer skilled in stealth knows, the initial shot is crucial; if it misses or fails to take out the target, stealth is compromised, and mayhem results. Avowed appears to recognize this by displaying a little red diamond-shaped target when you zoom in on an enemy’s vulnerable place. This feature was probably lifted from the similarly lethal Sniper Elite games.
I don’t mind this, even though I can aim between the eyes just fine without help—it’s like a HUD depicting your character’s archery prowess. They are fully aware of where to attack.
Power strikes and Steady Aim are two passive skills that help archery. The notched arrow gains a silver flame-like energy when the drawn-back bow string is held to initiate a power strike (I assume this is because you play as a Godlike, a supernatural race from the Pillars of Eternity role-playing games, which Avowed shares a setting with). While aiming that power attack, Steady Aim slows down time. Naturally, these are just upgraded versions of the archery abilities we’ve seen in Skyrim and other games, but I’m happy they’re included because they’re essential to the reintroduction of the stealth archer.
When it comes to sneaking, here is when Avowed’s model archer build starts to diverge from Skyrim’s blueprint. Of course, you can also crawl into long grass to entirely disappear, or crouch to make yourself less visible. However, if you can afford its mana-draining cost, avowed rangers can also use the Shadowing Beyond skill, an active ability that makes you completely invisible until you take a combat action. It works exactly as it sounds—you may move right past enemy patrols without upsetting even the molecules of air—after tearing a hole in reality and entering a sort of parallel shadow world. It’s a sneaky archer’s paradise, allowing you to sidestep difficult situations or go to a better sniper’s vantage point.
This is a difficult talent to come by in Skyrim; to perform the invisibility spell in Tamriel, a stealth archer must either locate the Bow of Shadows and employ its invisibility perk, which is not nearly as strong or versatile as Shadowing Beyond, or train as an illusionary mage.
But quiet stealth isn’t limited to close-quarters combat. I was happy to discover that Avowed included a legitimate stealth takedown move. When you press the attack trigger while facing an unsuspecting adversary, your character leaps forward and a ghostly dagger-like weapon appears around their fist. The enemy’s body is reduced to shimmering ash by the blade, so enemy guards won’t be able to find any proof of your kill. It’s a pretty pleasant animation, and I do not doubt that this ability will influence how a stealth archer approaches situations in general.
Of course, there won’t be silence during every interaction. The ranger’s Tanglefoot spell lets you call out prickly vines that bind opponents to the area for a few seconds when things get hot. You may snipe them before they get inside the range of your blade because it keeps them at a distance. The demo character’s backup weapon was a pair of flintlock pistols, which are naturally louder and more explosive than a bow (plus because they can be dual-wielded, can be fired twice in succession). However, because of their lengthy reload times, enemies must be kept a safe distance away from them. This is where I found that this skill was also useful when combined with other ranged options.
Speaking of Kai, I was happy to find that Avowed’s friends don’t appear to obstruct your stealth strategy, something that many of Skyrim’s awkward friends are regrettably prone to doing. Kai never revealed my identity, and when I utilized Shadowing Beyond, I believe he also vanished from sight. Things like these are what give Avowed the feel of a 2020s Skyrim-style game: the movement, the capacity to climb to strategic points, the dangers posed by the surroundings, the impact of battle, and the overall polish all combine to create the kind of Elder Scrolls experience I wish to have in the present day.
