Is Avowed an open-world game?

No, Avowed is not an open-world game. It is in fact, an open-zone game. Avowed is set to be released worldwide on February 18, 2025. While it may appear as an open-world game to many, the developers at Obsidian Entertainment have revealed that Avowed utilizes zones to control pacing and the overall gaming experience of the players.

This article will explain the very nature of these zones and how they resemble an open-world game to some extent.

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Avowed: An open-zone game

Avowed is an RPG game that utilizes "zones" in the game's physical world. These are large regions divided by borders, and are locked in order to control the player's overall experience. The purpose of this design is to keep the pacing of the gameplay consistent and controllable by the developers to aid the player experience.

As opposed to the concept of open zones, an open-world game is where players can explore the game's entire physical universe without restrictions. Grand Theft Auto 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2 are great examples of this design.

In a recent interview with Xbox Wire, the narrative designer of Avowed, Kate Dollarhyde, explained how the open-zone concept works and why it was implemented in the game:

"Pacing is really tough in open-world games. You never know where the player is and what they’re doing at any given time. So having these zones that happen in sequence means we always know what content you’ve just come from on the critical path. Maybe not what side quests you’ve done, but we always know you’ve just had this core experience."

Berto Ritger, the Region Director at Obsidian Entertainment, further explained that the developers will roughly know what the player has done in the game before they move on to their next area or objective. This helps them understand the pacing of the game, as the zones provide smaller areas for the devs to concentrate on at one time. The smaller the area, the easier it is to manage it.

It also allows the developers to be more intricately involved in the design and deliver a powerfully immersive experience.

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