After Starfield's strict companions, I'm glad Avowed's crew won't be 'backseat driving and second-guessing all your choices'

Avowed's companions will be interactive and reactive, offering commentary on events and quests, but avoiding backseat driving. The game prioritizes optional conversations and missable content, offering player agency and in-depth companion interactions.

Avowed's companions will apparently have lots to say about all the strange things going on in Eora, but developer Obsidian Entertainment was careful to make sure party members didn't act like backseat drivers in the adventure.

While speaking to GamesRadar+ about the incoming first-person RPG, Avowed director Carrie Patel said that "one thing we wanted to do with companions in Avowed is give them a little more interactivity and reactivity based on the events and conversations and quests that you're encountering in the game. So we wanted them to be a little bit more present in conversations, and we also wanted them to have a little bit more to say about the adventures that you're experiencing together."

Having talkative friends is part of the RPG experience, at least in ones like Avowed, but the team was also conscious about hitting a right "balance" so that the game didn't "feel like someone is backseat driving and second-guessing all your choices." I probably liked Starfield more than most, but that game definitely felt like it was restricting how much you could roleplay when your companions would treat you like a plague if you leaned ever so slightly into 'evil' territory, so I'm glad that Avowed's crew seems to be a little less judgemental, while still hopefully pushing back on me.

"But it can also feel weird for players like me, who really do get invested in companions, to think you've been on this adventure with me this whole time, and you're not saying anything about it," Patel continued. "So we've written a lot of content for these characters for their engagement in the story with one another, with the player. A whole lot of it is opt in, however. And so for players who go back to party camp, you know, they might hear their companion say a thing or two, but it's really going to be on them to have that conversation, to kind of really dig into that perspective and get to know their companion a bit better."

As Avowed storms toward its February release on Xbox Series X|S and PC, the game's developers have been sharing all the juicy little details, like how almost every quest can be started in multiple ways or how Avowed is focusing on "missable content."

For now, why not occupy the wait with our Big Preview of Avowed?