I walked through the front doors of Obsidian Entertainment with a singleminded mission: find a gun in fantasy RPG Avowed as quickly as possible. So much of Avowed—which Obsidian has taken pains to point out is not a sweeping open world game like Skyrim—looks deeply traditional. Cozy. Unsurprising. But then there are the guns. Where else might it diverge from the stock fantasy playbook?

“The things that set Avowed, and really all the [Pillars of Eternity] games we’ve made in the world of Eora apart, are that blend of a very grounded political story and a very philosophical and metaphysical story,” says director Carrie Patel. “You almost always have a player character with one foot in the world of the gods and souls and these strange, mysterious things, and another foot in the conflict between nations. That enables us to tell stories where the characters feel very grounded and relatable, but also still have some color, and the quests you’re encountering can mix those feelings of groundedness but also scale and epicness and wonder.”

Patel has had the task of reining in expectations for Avowed while also making a case that it still has branching roleplaying and combat. If the dev team is feeling any pressure for Avowed to be a smash hit after five years in development, though—and Microsoft’s last big RPG, Starfield, not exactly matching up to Baldur’s Gate III—there’s no sign of it.

As I played Avowed I kept hunting for the one special, amazing thing that would wow me. And, well, I didn’t find it. But after a few hours, I started to think maybe I didn’t need to.

GRIMOIRED AND DANGEROUS