Obsidian Entertainment, known for its player-driven narratives, has confirmed that its upcoming RPG Avowed will feature multiple endings. This news comes after the recent Xbox Developer Direct showcase, which offered a deeper look at the game’s branching choices through a specific sidequest.
Game director Carrie Patel officially confirmed the multiple endings to IGN, stating, “What else would we be if we didn’t have a few different endings?” There is currently no confirmation on how many endings there will be or what they are.
Patel further clarified that the focus lies not solely on individual choices and their direct consequences but on how players perceive and experience the world’s response to their actions. They don’t want a simple cause-and-effect system; instead, they want to emphasize the player’s agency and interpretation.
“You have to approach it with a degree of range, both in the spread and placement of those consequences and also the nature of those consequences…”
Carrie Patel
Choosing can have a big impact on characters, from personal narratives to world-altering events. The diversity of these choices is supposed to make players feel like every decision matters without needing a direct answer to what it does.
While this sounds cool, I’m used to Obsidian’s end card screens. This is common with Bethesda as well, where the player just gets told what affect they have on the world and what it will do to those who live there. According to Patel, this is not going to happen, but I’ll have to see it to believe it.
The idea of it all sounds great because very few games make you feel like what you do matters more than just checking some boxes. If Avowed can do this right, we’re in for an amazing time.
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