The gaming world buzzed with anticipation as Obsidian Entertainment polished up Avowed for its 2025 launch, and for good reason. Most of the chatter revolved around the studio’s trademark narrative chops and the flashy, almost frantic combat that promised to shake up first-person RPG conventions. Yet, tucked beneath the surface lay a secret weapon that nobody saw coming — a parkour system so slick it casually mocks one of gaming’s most iconic traversal quirks. While The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gave players shonky yet beloved horses that could scale near-vertical cliffs like mountain goats, Avowed lets its protagonists pull off the same daredevil feats on their own two feet, and with far more style.

For years, Skyrim’s horses have been the stuff of legend. They were never supposed to break the laws of physics, but the wonky engine gave them an uncanny talent for scrambling up mountains that would send any normal rider tumbling back to the valley floor. Players would hop onto a trusty steed and zigzag up sheer rock faces, effectively turning the horse into a preferred form of “fast-travel” across the rugged province of Skyrim. It was broken, it was absurd, and it became the very soul of the game’s janky charm. Speedrunners exploited this glitchy grace to clip through walls or launch themselves across the map, while casual adventurers simply grinned at the meme-worthy spectacle of a horse defying gravity. The community embraced the weirdness so passionately that Skyrim horses are now pop-culture shorthand for delightful, unintended nonsense.

Fast-forward to 2026, and Avowed steps onto the stage with a parkour system that feels like a deliberate, polished answer to that chaotic energy. Obsidian’s offering doesn’t require a mount to turn every cliff into a playground — the envoy’s own legs get the job done, and they do it with buttery-smooth animations and hyper-responsive ledge-grabbing mechanics. The beauty lies in how natural it all feels. Wall running, mantling, and mid-air corrections flow together as if the character has been parkouring through the Living Lands since childhood. Where Skyrim’s horses required players to accept a dose of jank with their exploration, Avowed serves up a traversal system that simply works the first time, every time. No more awkwardly hopping sideways for five minutes only to slide back down; if there’s a surface, you can probably climb it.

The kicker? Avowed’s parkour can replicate — and even surpass — the outrageous stunts that made Skyrim’s equines famous. In areas where invisible walls don’t block progress, curious players have already discovered they can scramble up out-of-bounds geometry and sneak into zones that were presumably off-limits. Clip through a mountainside? Sure thing, mate. Scale a fortress wall by nimbly hopping from one tiny brick outcrop to another? You bet. The Living Lands are packed with verticality, and the game’s own systems often shrug their shoulders and let explorers go ham. This isn’t just a neat feature; it’s a full-blown invitation to break the game in the most entertaining way possible. Once word got out, speedrunners and tricksters dove headfirst into the madness, and the memes practically write themselves — a wry nod to a certain horse-riding nordic RPG that came before.

What makes this so brilliant is how it contributes to Avowed’s personality. Skyrim won hearts through its glorious imperfections, but Avowed manages to capture a similar sense of freedom and mischief without relying on buggy code. The parkour system is a deliberate, lovingly crafted ace up the sleeve that makes the world feel open-ended and playful. It’s the kind of design choice that screams “go ahead, try it,” and then rewards players with breathtaking vistas found on some forgotten spire or a shortcut that skips a dreary dungeon crawl. Even within the intended play space, the fluidity of movement transforms routine exploration into a kinetic joy. Chaining together a wall run into a ledge grab and then smoothly hopping across a series of rocky outcrops never gets old.

Of course, the invisible walls still exist, and they’ll gently shunt you back to reality when you push too far, but the sheer vertical freedom available in the open zones is staggering. In a genre often content with stiff, grounded protagonists, Avowed’s acrobatic agility feels like a revelation. It’s not every day that an old-school first-person RPG bothers to include a parkour system at all, let alone one this polished. The comparison to Skyrim’s horses is inevitable, and it’s high praise: what once required a four-legged physics abomination can now be achieved with nothing but a pair of boots and a fearless attitude.

As 2026 rolls on, the community keeps finding new ways to marvel at this traversal sandbox. Videos of improbable climbing routes flood platforms like YouTube and Twitch, with captions like “who needs a horse anyway?” or “avowed parkour > skyrim horse, change my mind.” The game’s subreddit brims with tales of reaching developer test rooms, hidden Easter eggs peeking over unclimbable ridges that turn out to be very climbable, and group efforts to map the true boundaries of the Living Lands. It’s a beautiful, collective unearthing of secrets that feels reminiscent of classic Skyrim exploration culture, yet it’s fueled by a mechanic that was clearly meant to shine from the start.

Avowed’s parkour isn’t just a feature — it’s a statement. Obsidian knew what gamers loved about tearing across fantasy worlds, and they gave us a tool that makes that fantasy feel responsive, snappy, and endlessly entertaining. You can keep your noble steeds with their gravity-defying glitches; this envoy will be over here, catching ledges and flipping off mountains, all while wearing a grin that says “Skyrim who?” The torch has been passed, and the Living Lands are ready to be climbed with style.