Obsidian's first-person fantasy RPG Avowed will be released this year. In fact, if you believe a quickly deleted post on Obsidian's website, it is scheduled for release on November 12. However, Obsidian studios is still hard at work tweaking the game in advance of its release; Avowed's recent deep dive showed it to be considerably better than when we saw its first gameplay showcase back in January.

It turns out that our collective wince at Avowed's January demo played a key role in getting Obsidian to beef up the game; in a chat with Windows Central, gameplay director Gabe Paramo said the studio "has been working hard to make [Avowed Avowed] thought it was good enough to show as is," but said that the reaction to the demo convinced him to start working on improving the combat (which was the original plan)." I thought, "Okay, let's take a look at this, this is a big deal, people are noticing, we should polish it faster.

And you know what, I don't think Avowed is going to be the next Elden Ring, but its combat has definitely gained a little momentum in recent showcases. Paramo said that they "really analyzed the feeling and the moment of impact when the player swings the weapon," and their goal was to eliminate the delays that make the combat feel less "immediate."

Besides that, Obsidian tweaked the way characters were posed during combat to give them more "visceral and immediate feedback," and "blood shocks, VFX feedback, and audio" to make the combat feel "juicier," as little as possible. He said he fiddled with the parts.

I'd say it paid off. Obsidian's entire marketing effort for this game seems to be focused on keeping people from getting too excited about it, but I'm a diehard Pillars of Eternity fan eager to get back to Eora. Outer Worlds-style, less cringe-worthy but more rugged first-person RPG form, I'll be quite happy. Especially if it felt good to slam what I found there against the wall.