Is Avowed an open world game?

February 2025 is absolutely stacked with massive game releases, but one of the more intriguing launches is Avowed. Avowed is a role-playing game (RPG) from renowned developer Obsidian Entertainment, the same studio that delivered Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, Grounded, and more titles. However, Obsidian also created the Pillars of Eternity franchise, a computer role-playing game (CRPG) series that's well-regarded in the community.

Pillars of Eternity is the foundation for Avowed, which is set in the same universe. With this in mind, though, players are asking if Avowed will carry over anything else from Pillars of Eternity. One big question from this line of thinking is whether or not Avowed will be an open world RPG or feature large areas similar to Pillars of Eternity.

The developers have fully answered this question, and you can see what they had to say in the guide below.

Anyone who knows Obsidian knows it tends to shy away from fully open worlds. The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity are two franchises that feature large, explorable levels instead of a completely open world map that players can roam at their leisure. However, with Avowed being an RPG and looking like an Elder Scrolls and Fallout hybrid, some players believed that Obsidian might go full open world for the map.

This is not the case, though, as Obsidian developers have confirmed that Avowed will feature large zones that players can explore. These zones will make up the entire map and they'll become unlocked as the story progresses. The zones in Avowed are quite large, according to Obsidian, so you'll still have an open world feeling when traveling across the different areas. The only difference is that you can't go wherever you want right from the game's opening like a standard open world game. Instead, you have to unlock new zones by playing through Avowed's storyline.

Here's what Obsidian had to say about the decision to not pursue an open world map in Avowed:

“Pacing is really tough in open-world games,” said narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde in an interview with Xbox Wire. “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."

The interview went on to detail more about Avowed's zones as well.

"We know roughly what you've done before you've gone to the next thing. It's still a very open structure within those zones, where you can do whatever you want for the most part, but it's not one contiguous area where you could be anywhere at any moment," region director Berto Ritger said.

From the sounds of it, Avowed could still have an open world feeling but also keep you grounded in what content you're pursuing at a single time. This could lead to a less cluttered quest log and make it easier to focus on the different goals in each zone.

We'll have to see all of the map design decisions play out in Avowed when it launches on Feb. 18 for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

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