By all reports, Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed is set primarily in the Living Lands in the studio’s world of Eora. What little information about the Living Lands can be gleamed from Pillars of Eternity and comments made by the developers indicates that the game’s setting will be on the frontier of Kith civilization, with the Living Lands inhabited by diverse, loosely formed communities and composed of a great diversity of biomes.
Even though Red Dead Redemption 2 is not an RPG, Obsidian could learn a lot about creating a diverse and compellingly threatening frontier from the game. There are many parts of Red Dead 2’s design philosophy which should be considered when putting together the Living Lands for Avowed.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s map size is around 29 square miles. For comparison, Skyrim’s map covers around 14.3 square miles. Avowed is rumored to have a map far larger than Skyrim’s which could make it important to look at some of the ways Red Dead Redemption 2 handled a world on such a large scale.
Though Red Dead Redemption 2 has many mysteries and a huge amount of encounters and interesting characters to be found all across its map, there is one key mechanic it also uses to make the world feel dynamic and exciting in the gameplay that remains in play even when the player has completed all of the quests in the world. The game’s bounty system tracks the player and their crimes, and not only will lawmen pursue the player, but even after they have escaped different lawmen will wait for them on the highway to take up the pursuit again if the player is ever found.
Avowed isn’t a western, but the Living Lands are described as a “lawless land where communities band together, fall apart, and fight petty wars with each other constantly.” By implementing a dynamic faction system where different groups recognize the player for their actions and will even hunt them down or aid them in the wilderness depending on their reputation could go a long way towards making the Living Lands feel lived in, as well as taking advantage of their ever-shifting political situation in the lore.
Not only did Red Dead Redemption 2’s map have a great diversity of biomes, but Rockstar also made sure that the diversity of its environment was reflected in the flavor quests and random events. Even the most extreme, silly, and sometimes supernatural encounters in Red Dead 2 are flavored by the location.
In the New Orleans inspired Saint Denis, for example, the player can come across a feeding vampire in streets that resemble the creepy Old World architecture of the real city and its many presentations as such in media. The player can come across a UFO when visiting a shack in a region more closely resembling the isolated mountains of Montana or Colorado to the west where far more of those stories take place.
Although the communities of the Living Lands are ever-shifting, Avowed should look at how Red Dead 2 gives the different areas of its world distinct cultures and influences. Avowed should make sure that the different settlers of the area have brought very different architectural styles, for example, and should play with how these styles have adapted differently to the frontier. It is likely the Kith brought their worship of the gods of Eora with them to the Living Lands, and seeing how their culture and religion is warped by frontier living could be interesting.
The dwarves have a strong colonial presence in the Living Lands, and it would be interesting to see how their customs and architecture adapts differently in the swamps and jungles of the Living Lands as opposed to the region’s icy mountains or grasslands. If Avowed can create a frontier that feels as dangerous and diverse as Red Dead’s, Avowed‘s setting of Eora could have a unique flavor that helps distinguish the fantasy RPG from its next-generation rivals.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
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