We played Avowed with both first-person and third-person cameras: Here’s what we thought

In a June gameplay walkthrough for Avowed, Obsidian revealed that the first-person RPG would also have a third-person camera, to much rejoicing. As with Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, Avowed is designed to prioritize first-person, but it’s not the only way to play—an option that I think most people assumed was added to mollify folks who say they won’t touch a first-person game. When I spoke with Avowed director Carrie Patel after going hands-on with Avowed at Obsidian’s offices last week, though, she said that’s not the case—third-person was in the plan from the start.

It wasn’t an afterthought—it was something we planned for from the beginning,” she said. “Making sure we were developing animations, visual effects, so that everything works in both control schemes is important, because you’re going to have a lot of players who strongly prefer one or the other. Or need one or the other [for accessibility reasons].”

I split my time with Avowed between first- and third-person to get a feel for both camera options, and asked my colleague Robin Valentine, who also got access to the preview build, to try it out too.

So what did we think?

Robin Valentine, Senior Editor: Honestly? I really don’t like the third-person mode. I think it’s always been the inferior way to play Bethesda’s RPGs and others in the same style, and that holds true here. The world feels designed to be seen from a first-person perspective, with all sorts of visual details much easier to appreciate that way. And ultimately the third person animations just don’t look as good as the first-person ones—in third-person, your character looks oddly floaty and doll-like.

Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: I remember playing Oblivion on the Xbox 360, and every once in awhile I’d accidentally click the analog stick and switch to the third-person camera and reflexively recoil. It was so stiff! Granted it’s almost 20 years later, but I will say that I think Avowed’s third-person is much better in comparison. They’ve clearly put much more work into making attack animations work in both perspectives. Even if it’s been part of the plan since the beginning, it’s telling that the third-person camera is listed as an accessibility option in the menu. I’m glad I’m not going to be accidentally toggling it, but it doesn’t exactly feel like an equivalent mode, either.

Robin: I think that was a really bad choice. What’s cool to me about being able to switch between the two is playing primarily in first-person, but popping into third-person to check out my character’s latest look, or to get an outside view on a cool spell effect, or for a selfie. For those who prefer sticking in third-person, I can imagine being able to hot-switch to first is great for getting a closer look at environmental details, making sure you’ve fully searched a room, or getting a screenshot without your character in it.

Having to back out into the settings menu, navigate over to the right tab, toggle it on, confirm the change, and only then have switched view… it just takes that bit too long and too many steps to feel worth it. The game seems to be telling you to commit fully to one or the other, and for me that means just never using third-person mode.

Wes: Yeah, I think we can safely say that the third-person toggle is primarily there for folks who deal with motion sickness in first-person. If you don’t get queasy, I’d strongly recommend playing Avowed in first-person. The climbing and combat in particular really feel built for it, and a few times when I was poking around in attics and on rooftops I felt like I was playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. There’s more of a “flow” to looking around, spotting a path, making a couple leaps and arriving at a treasure chest. The mantling is occasionally a bit awkward in Avowed—no one’s going to confuse it for Mirror’s Edge—but I’d say it still has a way better sense of physicality than Bethesda’s games in either first- or third-person.

Robin: Completely agree. I find the exploration and combat so much more immersive in first-person, and I think it really enhances the fun of poking around in all the corners of a cave or dungeon searching for loot. In the more confined spaces you find yourself in, it also prevents your own character from blocking half the screen. As you say, traversal also plays a big role in Avowed—in first-person, climbing and leaping feels surprisingly slick and intuitive, but in third-person it can’t help but look like a dodgy take on Uncharted. We’re too used to third-person platforming being tight and precise, and this just isn’t that.

Wes: Yeah, I’d say it even falls short of The Witcher 3, where Geralt steers with a solid 250 pounds of weight to him. But that was solely a third-person game, so it makes sense everything would feel better. I tried out Avowed’s third-person camera with a variety of weapons and found some worked a lot better than others. The spear, for example, looks really awkward, with some pretty funky overhead jabs. But the bow and pistol weren’t so bad! If you’re really not a fan of first-person but are also picky about your character have always found Bethesda games too clunky in third, you might still find a playstyle in Avowed that suits you.

Robin: That is one thing I’ll say in third-person’s favour—in first-person, your weapon can end up taking up a really significant portion of your view, especially if you use a shield too. In some ways that’s as much a feature as a bug though—I think it’s quite immersive in its way that your field of vision is another consideration in the first-person combat, and it reminds you to sheathe your weapons once a fight is over.

I think my only other concession to third-person mode is that your character’s appearance is an important part of the game’s story—their “godlike” deformities are regularly commented on and clearly represent a central mystery of the plot. Being able to see those front and centre as you play does help reinforce that to a degree, though even in first-person mode you do at least get to see yourself in dialogue scenes.

Wes: That’s a great point. The character creator options for Avowed allow for some really cool and striking faces. I’m not sure I’ve played another RPG that nudges you to design your hero in such a specific way, and I love that encourages me to lean into the weird. If there’s one style of third-person camera I really hope to see in Avowed when it launches it’s a photo mode—there wasn’t one in the build we played, but I hope for some opportunities to take close-ups of my Envoy come February.