Admittedly confirmed by Obsidian to be very short for an RPG

We already knew that Avowed wouldn’t be a monster of Skyrim-like size, but game director Carrie Patel of Obsidian clarified that it would be pretty short overall for an RPG. Speaking to Game Informer, she said players can expect a similar length to the studio’s previous game, the sci-fi The Outer Worlds.

The best comparison for Avowed in terms of scope is The Outer Worlds. Players can expect a roughly similar experience, much like The Outer Worlds, depending on the type of difficulty they play on and how they explore and invest in the content, rather than sticking to the main missions of the critical path.

Patel made a similar comment last year, comparing Avowed to The Outer Worlds or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. The latter would have been preferable in terms of length since it required over 30 hours just for the story main and more than 40 hours. when including secondary content.

The Outer Worlds, on the other hand, is one of the shortest high-level RPGs out there. The main story can be completed in just over 13 hours, while the side content doubles that to around 26 hours. For comparison, other non-open world RPGs like The Witcher 2 and Dragon Age II require between 24 and 37 hours. With The Outer Worlds, Obsidian had the excuse of a shoestring budget, having chosen Take-Two’s independent label, Private Division, as its publisher.

This can’t really work anymore, because Obsidian has been acquired by Microsoft – yes, Microsoft, the largest public company in the world by capitalization. While this doesn’t necessarily translate to an infinite budget, fans were certainly hoping to get larger games from the studio in the future.

Although The Outer Worlds remains Obsidian’s comparison to Avowed in terms of size, the tone of the story will be more similar to another title from the studio. Patel said:

Tonally the best comparison will be Deadfire, the second Pillars game where you have a very grounded and serious political story. There’s a very strange and esoteric, metaphysical, divine sort of story underneath. Lots of moments of seriousness, but also moments of levity to break it all up, and a lot of that stuff is very character-based. So yeah, I wouldn’t compare it to the tone of The Outer Worlds.

However, unlike Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, Avowed will not feature any romance options with the four companions. On the subject, Patel explained:

We decided to forgo full romantic paths in Avowed. It’s something we thought about a lot and talked about as a narrative team. I think if you’re going to invest in romance, everyone who writes them has to be absolutely, fully involved. And the other thing you need to do is make sure that if you’re going to provide that path, that you’re balancing that with a non-romantic path that’s equally meaningful and well-developed, because you never want players to feel: ” Well, the only way for me to really get to know this character or really form a meaningful connection with him is if I commit to romance them, which may not be something I want to do.” So, for all these reasons, we decided to forgo romances, especially in Avowed.

The game does not have a release date, although a recent Obsidian blog post lists November 12. It will be released on PC and Xbox Series S|X, being available on Game Pass from day one.