Avowed's Living Lands are Begging for a DLC Expansion

Summary

Obsidian's most recent title, Avowed, received a solid welcome upon release in February.
Obsidian has stated it is considering future DLC to flesh out the game's world and lore.
Avowed's setting, The Living Lands, has the potential for expansion with its maps hinting at unexplored areas and various characters providing a good backdrop for possible DLC.

Announced in 2020 and after undergoing a series of delays and redesigns, Avowed was released this past February. Obsidian Entertainment's foray back into high fantasy FPS RPGs, Avowed was an all-new standalone adventure set within the established world of Eora that the developer had previously built for its preceding Pillars of Eternity CRPG titles. Upon its launch, it received a pretty solid welcome from critics and fans. Commenting later on its sales and reception, Avowed's Game Director, Carrie Patel, said in an article published in Bloomberg that, "Now that we’ve built this wonderful world, and this team around the content and gameplay of it, I’d love to see us do more with it."

While nothing official has come from Obsidian since, and the studio is known to also be working on The Outer Worlds 2, set to drop later this year, Patel's comments suggest the developer remains open to returning and adding to Avowed's world down the line. And based on its in-game maps and other details, there is still potentially much more to see and do in The Living Lands should this turn out to be the case.

Avowed's The Living Lands Are Primed for Expansion in Possible DLC

The Living Lands' Map Suggests There's a Lot More to It

Avowed sends fans to The Living Lands on a quest to investigate the area and cure, or contain, a magical blight known as the Dreamscourge threatening to overtake it. The region itself had only previously been briefly mentioned and hinted at in the lore of the two Pillars of Eternity games, giving it a near-mythological aspect ahead of Avowed.

Throughout their journey in Avowed, players go through a handful of locations, each with a distinct feel and associated biome:

Dawnshore
Emerald Stair
Shatterscarp
Galawain's Tusks
The Garden

The level and art design of The Living Lands is one of Avowed's most impressive and memorable features. But looking at its geography and topography from what is presented in the game itself, there is a lot of room to work with in terms of potential expansion in DLC.

How Avowed Could Expand The Living Lands Even Further

Obsidian was clear about Avowed's scope and focus on a strong central narrative, and while it wasn't necessarily the next Skyrim, as many had put that label on it early on, its various locations were interesting to explore. They were full of surprises and secrets, and learning about The Living Lands' history and place in Eora was one of the highlights of the story. There are thus a couple of good avenues Obsidian could take to further flesh these elements out in future content.

Aside from expanding on existing regions or adding in new ones, one possible path would be to show The Living Lands before the Dreamscourge began to take hold in a prequel tale. Fans might be part of the settlement efforts of the outcasts, refugees, and other hardened adventurers who arrived earlier and attempted to tame The Lands and make a life for themselves outside the control and influence of established ruling entities like the Aedyr Empire.

Another promising route would be to focus on the lives of some of Avowed's important characters before they met the Envoy. One of Avowed's companions, Kai, has a long and storied history with The Living Lands, and is the only companion who receives their own personal quest. Delving into Kai's time before joining The Envoy would make for excellent additional content. This framework could also easily be applied to the other party members that the Envoy recruits, with Giatta, Marius, and Yatzli all being ripe for a similar story setup.

With large swathes of The Living Lands likely still unseen along with its colorful past, it is primed in many ways for a good amount of further content. Given that there's so much to work with, and that developers have already floated the idea of potential DLC for Avowed, there's good reason to hope that Obsidian is indeed looking at doing so down the line.

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