Avowed Dev Says 'Absurd Outcomes' Are an Obsidian Tradition

Avowed is just about to complete its road to launch, releasing on February 18, 2025. First announced in 2020 and subsequently undergoing various design tweaks and a delay, Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming title has long been on the horizon and eagerly awaited. Based on the developer's previous Pillars of Eternity CRPGs, Avowed follows some of the studio's recent experimental games, like Pentiment and Grounded, by treading more familiar ground. As the next entry in the Pillars franchise, Avowed will bring the world of Eora to life in an action-heavy FPS/RPG experience, telling a new tale while accommodating both newcomers and longtime fans of the series.

While it has seen some changes throughout its development, Avowed will retain core aspects that many of Obsidian's titles have shared. Along with a richly engaging narrative, complex characters, and a well-realized setting that all react to player choice, Avowed features multiple endings. Further, some of these can be quite hidden; only attainable through less than obvious means like specific builds, or a string of decisions that many players are less likely to take or may not even notice. Chatting with The Best War Games, Senior Narrative Designer Kate Dollarhyde stated that this component is a longstanding staple of Obsidian's games, and will be present again in Avowed.

Obsidian has previously stated that Avowed will have more than 10 possible ending variants.

Avowed Adheres to Obsidian's History of Alternate and Secret Endings

Avowed Carries the Torch For Obsidian Including Nonstandard Endings

Obsidian often tries to ensure players' RPG decisions matter, and this extends to choices that can unexpectedly cut their epic adventures short. Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, had some surprising possibilities that abruptly and tragically ended The Watcher's journey. Doing any of the following in their respective main storylines resulted in an unorthodox game over:

Killing Lady Webb in Hadret House
Jumping into the Twin Elms Burial Isle pit before completing the Council of Stars quest
Hitting the crystal in Cayron's Scar without a means of escape (during The White March Part 2 DLC)
Refusing to accept Berath's request in Deadfire's opening prologue
Sailing to Ukaizo without a properly prepared ship
Attempting to fight Eothas head-on

Beyond these, one of Obsidian's most memorable (and darkly hilarious) nonstandard gameovers was The Outer Worlds' secret ending, the "Crash The Hope Into the Sun" option. If players had a character with a below average Intelligence stat try to pilot their ship instead of letting its AI, Ada, navigate, they wind up incinerating themselves and their crew by flying directly into the Halcyon system's central star.

Responding to whether Avowed contains alternate or humorous endings similar to The Outer Worlds' Sunburn one, Dollarhyde noted that it indeed keeps to the studio's longtime philosophy of including them:

You can make some choices throughout the game and, at the end, they can have some shocking or unintended consequences, for certain. Choices that result in an early game-over or absurd outcome are an Obsidian tradition at this point!

As they set out to unravel Avowed's central mystery, players will thus be able to uncover potential paths leading to one of Obsidian's trademark designs, and it will be intriguing to see what form these might take in its latest outing.

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