The Future Of Open-World RPGs Should Look More Like Avowed Than Skyrim
It’s a small world.
The promise of most open-world RPGs is that of a massive landscape to explore, full of surprises at every turn. A seemingly endless scale is a core part of the pitch, where the sheer size of the game is a feature unto itself. But it doesn’t always have to be that way. Avowed is by no means small, but it’s more compact than the standard set by games like Skyrim, and that’s one of its biggest strengths.
The most obvious way Avowed uses scale to its advantage is in the game’s map. Unlike other typical open-world RPGs, where you can walk from one side of the game’s world to the other from the start, Avowed is broken up into several smaller zones, which you’ll progress through one by one throughout the campaign. Every one of these is a substantial environment to play around in, while keeping players confined to a relatively small segment of the world.
Each of Avowed’s self-contained regions has a unique feel.
As impressive as it sounds to have a huge world that’s fully explorable from the start, sectioning off the game into smaller chunks turns out to have a lot of advantages. The simplest is that there’s just less ground to cover between one point of interest and the next. No matter how big an open world is, it doesn’t amount to much if most of it is barren. By virtue of its smaller regions, Avowed can cram interesting details into every bit of its world. Stand in any one spot in the game’s world of Eora, and you’re almost guaranteed to see something worth investigating in every direction, from a horde of enemies to the telltale glitter of a treasure chest peeking out from a nearby cave.
Simply traveling from one town to another in Skyrim can be a long, perilous journey, which encourages the use of fast traveling rather than hoofing it there on your own. Because walking from place to place is much quicker in Avowed, there’s less incentive to teleport everywhere, so you’ll actually be more likely to see all the landmarks along the way. When you first arrive at any of the game’s regions, it’s almost more difficult to avoid interesting encounters than to find them, since they’re packed so tightly into the map.
A smaller map means less distance between each interesting discovery in Avowed.
Avowed’s smaller size has less obvious benefits, too. Open-world RPGs tend to be overflowing with side quests offering optional ways to improve your character or learn more about the world. The trouble is, when there are dozens of these available at any time, it can be hard to separate the compelling adventures from the busywork. Accepting a job to retrieve a precious amulet could lead to an interesting side story, or it could just reward you with a handful of gold for your trouble. It’s not that Avowed totally lacks these more rote tasks, but side quests more often than not lead to interesting stories and treasures that are actually worth the effort.
One early example is the Dawntreader quest. What starts as a request to find a lost expedition team turns into an encounter with a godlike — a god-touched character like the protagonist, with a unique viewpoint on how to handle that responsibility. A well designed dungeon ending in an intriguing moral quandary awaits, along with a unique and powerful sword. All that for agreeing to help a bunch of strangers find their way out of a cave. Even trips into optional locations that aren’t tied to quests usually lead to an interesting story beat or reward, which feel all the better because they’re not drowned out by dozens of inconsequential chores.
A smaller loot list means finding new gear in Avowed almost always feels impactful.
Even weapons and armor in Avowed are improved by the game’s tight focus. The game features only a handful of standard weapons and armors, rather than countless near-identical pieces of gear to compare stats on. Instead of offering a vast array of items with little actual difference, Avowed is instead packed with equipment offering unique effects, from improving your dodge to granting you entirely new skills. The smaller number of items in Avowed offers true variety in terms of how that equipment actually changes the game.
Avowed’s world isn’t as expansive or reactive as it is in bigger-budget RPGs, but it’s proof that that’s not a bad thing. It’s hard to argue that more would necessarily be better for Avowed, when that would almost certainly dilute the game’s charms. A gigantic fantasy setting to get lost in can be a joy of a different kind, but Avowed’s more condensed take on the open-world RPG feels more exciting than any sprawling but empty world map could ever be.
