Despite its first-person combat, Avowed doesn't want you to get stabbed in the back: "You have to make sure you're giving players full awareness of the area around them"

Avowed screenshot depicting combat with a corrupted plague bear, the protagonist wielding a sword and a magical spellbook
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Combat in Avowed may not be too difficult, thanks to the enemy AI being prevented from swarming you.

You know that scene in The Matrix Reloaded where all the Agent Smith clones rush in and pile onto Neo? Well, don't expect the same thing to happen in Avowed. In an interview with Obsidian game director Carrie Patel, she tells Edge magazine about the way combat has been designed to make best use of the first-person camera without overwhelming you.

"You have to make sure you're giving players full awareness of the area around them," she says. There are some clever solutions to help you know exactly what's going on at all times despite the first-person perspective. Your companions will aid you in battle by shouting out warnings, and you'll see directional indicators to show where enemies are coming from – think of the ones in Call of Duty when someone starts shooting you or a grenade lands nearby. 

"It helps the player feel the pressure without feeling like they're being hit from all directions by things they can't see," Patel explains. Additionally, the enemy AI is programmed not to swarm you and attack from all sides at once. This shouldn't mean you'll never get flanked or snuck up on, as the systems mentioned above will ensure you always know what's going on around you. Just don't expect a room full of enemies to surround you and charge in while you swing your sword wildly.

If you've ever wondered why it seems like enemies come at you one at a time and each line up for their honourable duel instead of just rushing you, now you know.

We were originally going to get our hands on Avowed in November, but a delay pushed it back to February 18, 2025 due to the large number of new games in 2024 that may demand your attention instead.

In the meantime, here are the 25 best RPGs you can (and should) play right now.

Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

Read more
Avowed screenshot showing a corpse-like figure's face with glowing purple mushroom/spore growths
"It can't start in a way that just feels crappy": Avowed devs are turning to animation to solve an RPG "challenge" of offering a sense of progression without sacrificing a strong start
Avowed screenshot showing two companions assisting in combat
Avowed won't have enemy scaling, director confirms, but it will have jank: "You gotta accept a little jank to do something fun and creative"
The Big in 2025 image for Avowed, showing a montage of fighting and exploring with the RPG, including first-person combat with a skeleton, and Kai slashing enemies
Avowed is an RPG that's both the culmination of everything Obsidian has done before, and also an evolution of it: "There's really not a whole lot of our regions that's off limits to the players"
Avowed screenshot showing companion Kai wielding a pistol in one hand and short sword in the other while facing a large reddish-orange bug-like creature
Avowed is nothing like Bethesda's RPGs, but The Elder Scrolls 6 should take inspiration from its combat
A massive fireball explosion engulfs Chieftain Grithin in Avowed
In 14 years I couldn't get through Skyrim, but smashed through Avowed in a weekend thanks to its bite-sized exploration and high-impact combat
Avowed screenshot of a female godlike with treebark antlers, mushrooms decals on her face, and light pink hair with a bow on her back
Avowed's simple solutions to common RPG problems means I can just get lost in the fantasy of its combat and world
Latest in RPG
Atomfall screenshot
Fallout: New Vegas is a big inspiration for Atomfall, which is why you’ll be able to kill every NPC in post-apocalyptic Cumbria
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog looks set to combine the best of Odyssey and Vahalla to make changing my drip easier than ever
Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod Baldur's Village
Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke gives his official approval to the Stardew Valley mod that brings the D&D RPG to Pelican Town
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
The Witcher 3 devs created a Jekyll & Hyde-style character for their new vampire RPG "because nobody yet has done that"
Latest in News
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2
Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us
The Last of Us is "better" than 28 Days Later, says movie writer Alex Garland: "This is so much more sophisticated and moving"
Atelier Ryza 3 protagonist closeup
JRPG producer says people prefer their anime girls to have thick thighs when the economy's in the tank, and he's not even joking a little bit