There isnāt a single Bethesda game since Morrowind that I havenāt sunk dozens, if not hundreds, of hours into. Thatās a pretty common theme among gamers — the moment the studio releases a new title, vacations days are planned, schedules are cleared, and we lose ourselves in the sprawling worlds filled with detailed backstories, conflicting factions, an unnecessarily large number of collectible items, and the occasional head-scratching bug thatās somehow easier to forgive than youād think it would be.
Bethesda just makes a certain type of RPG thatās instantly identifiable and strikes a chord with players thatās hard to define. While there are plenty of great (and arguably superior) open-world RPGs out there, thereās no company that really does things like Bethesda.
Well, except for Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian seems dead set on doing all those things Bethesda does and not really bothering to hide it.
During Thursdayās Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian Entertainment announced that itās working on the first-person sword and sorcery RPG, Avowed. It takes place in the same world as the companyās Pillars of Eternity series, but upon hearing the announcement, I couldnāt help but wonder whether the universe contains any scrolls, particularly of the elder sort.
That might not be a fair assessment, seeing as we know next to nothing about Avowed besides what little can be gleaned from its short reveal. But any first-person RPG will draw some comparisons to the long-running Bethesda series, and if the game happens to be made by Obsidian, itās hard to do anything but assume that it will take significant inspiration from the beloved Elder Scrolls titles.
Ever since Obsidian released Fallout: New Vegas back in 2010, fans have linked the studio with Bethesda, which owns the Fallout franchise. Itās a reputation that isnāt entirely fair, since up until that point most of Obsidianās catalogue had consisted of follow-ups to BioWare titles, including Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights 2, and an aborted attempt to create Baldurās Gate III. But then Obsidian released The Outer Worlds, which borrowed the Fallout seriesās role-playing systems and satirical retro-futuristic style. It became clear that Obsidian has taken quite a liking to Bethesdaās specific brand of open-world RPG.
Thatās not just idle speculation, either. Obsidian devs openly welcomed the comparisons to Fallout in press interviews — which isnāt surprising, because some of those devs have been part of the Fallout series since before Bethesda even touched the franchise. This connection to pre-Bethesda Fallout was, of course, seen in The Outer Worldsā emphasis on player choice and dialogue options ā something that was more than welcome after Fallout 4 pushed those elements to the wayside.
But now that Obsidian is working on Avowed, it feels like the companyās doing more than writing love letters to games of the past. Rather, it feels like the studio is wearing Bethesdaās clothes and trying to take over its life, like Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Thatās not a complaint. Somebodyās gotta be Bethesda, and Bethesda certainly hasnāt bothered to take up that role lately.
Bethesdaās most-recent single-player RPG is Fallout 4, which came out half a decade ago. Skyrim was released all the way back in 2011. The only information we have about the upcoming sixth chapter in the Elder Scrolls series is a video of some sprawling landscapes paired with some epic music. Its space RPG Starfield, which is apparently further along in development, also has little more than a content-free trailer available to the public eye.
Sure, the studio released the multiplayer Fallout 76 in 2018, but that hardly counts as a Fallout game. On release, it didnāt even have NPCs, and you can be sure the previous games in the series werenāt loved for their combat and crafting systems. The game was subject to poor reviews and less-than-stellar sales numbers. The Outer Worlds, meanwhile, was much better received by critics and fans alike. It’s notable that Bethesda has been quiet aboutĀ Fallout 76‘s total sales, while publisher Take-Two applauded that The Outer Worlds had exceeded expectations and had sold over 2 million copies as of this past February.
With that in mind, I certainly canāt blame Obsidian for its apparent desire to take up Bethesdaās abandoned mantle. Itās proven itās more than capable of filling the void left by the prolonged absence of single-player Fallout titles, and I would not be surprised if Avowed proves that itās just as capable of filling in for The Elder Scrolls.
Still, it feels weird to see Obsidian cosplaying as Bethesda, no matter how well it wears the suit.
Published: Jul 24, 2020 04:49 pm