I’m actually going to pick on WoW for a minute because that is such a major change in the gaming industry that few people remember a time before. When WoW launched it had an innovative (at the time) method for leveling – and that was through quests. Prior to that, and exemplified in Everquest, progress was 100% tied to combat. D&D only really gave experience for monsters (unless you had a smart DM), so it was baked in that progress was based on body count. WoW changed that, and the rest of the gaming landscape changed as a result. If you have levels in a game today, the progress of those levels is very tightly tied to questing… and the ! marks that track it.

What that meant was that quests moved from being exploration driven to achievement driven – the goals were more important that the journey. That is not a small pivot. And we’ve been living with that mindset in gaming for nearly 20 years.

Avowed now. Does it have formal quests? Yes. Do quests equate to the majority of player progress? No, combat and exploration add a lot. Pillars of Eternity 2 was a step in this direction, but much larger here. Avowed also goes deeper into what I call breadcrumb quests. These are items and things in-game that you need to piece together as next steps and context without formal guidance. There’s no in-game tracking, just reliant on you. Most of them are simple, like “hey, I put your stuff in the bag behind the shed” and sure enough, stuff behind the shed. Others are much, much more complicated.

Light spoilers here.

Emerald Stair is the 2nd zone, and the main hub is a key part of the story. There is a rather substantial breadcrumb quest in this zone that has multiple paths that can be taken before the tail end. If you only follow the quest markers you will see a specific and honestly horrific event take place. If you follow the breadcrumbs you will have a completely different outcome.

Truthfully I had those crumbs and steps up, but proximity to a quest marker had me take a different path. Following that main path completely changed the zone layout, failed some quests, and closed off areas. By reloading I was able to take the different path. While the results of that alternate path are more, I guess lawful good in essence, I loaded back on the main path as it appeared to have more story implications long-term. Let’s see how that pans out.

Spoilers end

It’s hard to properly explain what this type of world building construct actually means. Skyrim has smaller pieces, but my memory has them as distinct and not connected. I honestly cannot find a comparable event in recent gaming, though I’m certain they exist. Of course breadcrumbs exist – what I mean is breadcrumbs that exist outside a vacuum. Playing a game that rewards exploration with more exploration and world building… I thought that only existed in table top sessions.

At the end of the day it’s still a game, and someone will write a guide about an optimal path including these more hidden pieces. That’s for later. Right now, there are impactful decisions here that are not obvious, that do not have a glowing sign saying ‘EXP RIGHT HERE’, and that reward the nook and cranny type of player. I am really, really pleased with what’s here. A truly fresh breath in the RPG space.