I’ve been eagerly looking forward to Avowed ever since it was first announced by Xbox and Obsidian Entertainment, and after getting the chance to play the first couple hours of the upcoming first-person RPG during a preview event, I honestly don’t know how I’m going to be able to wait till February. From its meaty, impactful combat to its incredible visuals and world-building, Avowed looks like it has the ability to be the total package.
Set in the same world as Obsidian’s award-winning CRPG, Pillars of Eternity, Avowed is a first-person RPG that puts players in the role of the Envoy of the Empire of Aedyr, sent to the Living Lands to investigate reports of a deadly plague sweeping lands, the Dreamscourge. However, like most video game plots, things don’t go as smoothly as their characters would hope.
Customization is king
Our preview took us through the first two hours of Avowed, from character creation through stepping foot in one of the first major cities the player will encounter upon landing in the Living Lands, Paradis. In my short time with the RPG, I came away thinking one very simple thing: character customization is king.
Nearly every aspect of an Envoy’s build is customizable, thanks to Avowed's classless design. Players are free to mix and match skills from various skill trees to create their perfect Ranger, Fighter, Mage - or some hybrid mix of the three to create something truly special. This is extended even to your choice of weapon, and Avowed gave me plenty of options within those first two hours.
This level of customization is incredibly freeing, and while in this short demo I found myself staying pretty much in the Ranger skill line as it felt more aligned with how I want to play, I could see myself with more time exploring just how crazy a Ranger Mage could be, or try out crazy builds and truly experiment. Thankfully, too; Avowed does let you respec all your skill points if you choose, though it does cost some coin to do so.
Each character also has the standard attributes, from Intelligence, Dexterity, and more. These affect your stats but can also influence conversations with NPCs with special responses based on the level of your stats. Your character background can also influence this, with special conversation lines in…well…line with your character’s in-universe history. This latter feature is more roleplaying than anything else, as backgrounds don’t influence your ability to master any skill - you can learn any you want regardless of background - but this is a really nice touch.
All of this comes together to create a system where you can truly create the character of your dreams. It’s very freeing, and I honestly can’t wait to dive deeper once the full launch is upon us, but also reading the incredible builds the community is bound to create, replicating them in subsequent playthroughs.
Welcome to Eora
One thing Obsidian has become known for over the years is incredible world-building, and this is felt from Avowed’s first moments. Kicking things off, a work-in-progress cutscene set the stage, introducing the world of Eora and my role as an Envoy of the Adyran Emperor tasked with investigating the rumors of Dreamscourge in the Living Lands.
Pillars of Eternity and its sequel, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, laid a ton of groundwork for the worldbuilding in Avowed, and it definitely is a benefit if you’re already familiar with the world Obsidian has built out in its incredible CRPG series. Yet, even if your first steps in Eora are through the eyes of an Envoy in Avowed, there is a built-in Lore explainer during dialogue scenes, which even as someone who has played the previous games I found helpful to refresh my memory. However, it felt incredible to step foot into Eora from a new perspective, and the Living Lands are beautiful to behold.
Things kicked off as the ship carrying me to the Living Lands was shipwrecked on an island, though it was at least an island held by a fort belonging to the Aedyran Empire. However, after being spotted by a shiphand anmed Garryck, I learn that it might not have been the thunderous storm that saw our ship destroyed upon the nearby rocks, but rather the cannons from the Aedyran fort.
As such, I set out to investigate the fort to learn what happened and why they would open fire, only to come across devastation - the guards on duty seem to have succumbed to the very scourge I’ve been sent to investigate.While the guards might be down for the count, Xaurips haunt the place, giving me something to swing my newly found axe at, and boy is it satisfying.
Other first-person RPGs have a tendency to have what can only be described as floaty combat. Yet, Avowed has managed to make its combat feel crunchy and meaty, and every swing feels like it has actual heft to it. Charging up a powerful attack feels satisfying when it connects, and whiffing presents actual consequences as it leaves you open for a counter blow.
The Envoy’s Godlike abilities also seem to give these meaty attacks some more weight, as pulling an arrow on a bow to its full length saw an aura manifest around the arrowhead, only to zip the shaft towards an enemy, slamming hard into its chest. Stealth takedowns also seem to benefit from the Godlike abilities, with the Envoy growing what I found myself describing in my notes as a mini-magic katar only to shove it into the back of an enemy I got the drop on.
Combat isn’t limited to just one weapon as well. The Envoy can swap easily between two loadouts, giving some incredible flexibility in combat. I found myself keeping a long range weapon like the Arquebus or Bow on one load out, while I would wield two weapons on the other.
This is where that build flexibility and customization are truly felt in the moment to moment gameplay for me. Building into the Ranger skill line, I found myself opting for a skill that grew thorny vines from underfoot of an enemy, rooting them in place, only to become easy fodder for my Bow or gun. In my other loadout, I initially ran with a sword and a grimoire, a tome of magic that allowed my non-mage to fire off a rotation of spells, from an ice barrage that froze enemies to a lighting bolt that arced from one enemy to another if they were near enough, causing some great damage.
However, I really came into my own when I discovered my first wand. Slinging bolts of magic with my wand from a distance to consistently peck apart an enemy's health and build up its stagger meter, I would use my off-hand to swing an axe to deal devastating blows once the enemy had closed in. I felt incredibly powerful with this build, and if I really needed to put some distance between me and whatever was bearing down on me, I still had my root and the more powerful but slow-reloading Arquebus.
I also really enjoyed trading that wand for a small pistol and sword, letting me live out my swashbuckling fantasies. What was clear, though, is that combat in Avowed isn’t simply a hack-and-slash affair. Fighting is a balance between stamina, skill cooldowns, and using your positioning and style to your advantage in a fight, and that’s without even considering how to best utilize the skills each companion has (and can be directed to use against any enemy you want during combat).
The possibilities were seemingly endless, and it made zipping through that initial prologue island and into the Living Lands proper a real breeze. Reaching the Living Lands, I learned the Aedyran Ambassador and Paradis’ Claviger (effectively the mayor) I was there to meet were missing, having gone to explore a disturbance north of the city of Paradis, the major port hub on the Dawnshore. It’s here I met my companion for my journey, the Aumaua Kai (whose dulcet tones you might recognize from Mass Effect’s favorite baritone, Garrus Vakarian), his sardonic wit matching the sarcastic vibe I was giving with my responses back to everyone I had spoken to thus far.
I truly enjoyed the fact that I could effectively respond any way I wanted, and nothing felt wrong, per se. Having a multitude of conversation lines helped me roleplay how I wanted to: sarcastic but deadly serious when I needed to be. Kai, to his credit, picked up right alongside me, and it was then I knew he and I would be great friends.
Stepping off the boat onto the docks of Paradis, though, was a sight to behold. The docks themselves felt particularly patched together with whatever driftwood and spare timber the locals could find, while the city proper gave off the vibe of a society building up around the ruins of a civilization long past, much like how I imagined early Anglo-Saxon cities must have looked as they settled in the ruins of the long dead Roman Empire in our world. Paradis gives off the vibe that if you’re not careful, you might lose your coin purse or worse, take a shiv in the side, and I’m here for that kind of chaos.
After selling some wares at a nearby vendor, I gathered my party (just Kai, Garryck stayed behind at the docks, his duty to see me to Paradis completed) and ventured forth into the wilderness, only to be stunned by the world Obsidian has crafted.
For an early demo build of the game, Avowed ran rather well on our Starforge Systems Navigator II PC, running the RPG at 4K, the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti Super in the machine holding up under the pressure quite well (though this is largely thanks to Obsidian embracing Nvidia technologies like DLSS 3 frame generation). I will say there were also no noticeable issues visually, and the build didn’t suffer from the usual jank and bugginess I would associate with games in the genre. It was smooth sailing throughout my time in Eora, and it let me just focus on the incredible world around me.
Everywhere I would turn the camera, the landscape oozed with detail. Avowed’s colorful palette doesn’t disappoint here, even if you’re like me and were expecting a darker, grittier presentation thanks to those early trailers when the RPG was first announced. Fungi and overgrowth crisscrossed everywhere, taking over the ruins of civilization’s past. The dense forests gave way to winding trails, camps stuffed with Xaurips ready to brawl, and majestic waterfalls crashing into a nearby river coursing through the hills I was heading towards.
The landscape around me was also incredibly interactive. I found myself trying to locate areas where I could clearly knock in a wall to uncover a chest, burn down some bramble to reach a new area, or simply solve a puzzle to get a strong item that could either help me in combat or be sold to help me upgrade my gear later on. There are locked chests you can pick as well, but I was incredible disappointed where was no lockpicking minigame, instead it was simply a press-and-hold of the X button to use the pick. Hopefully, it’s a result of the demo, and there will be one in place by launch, but it does break me out of the immersion the world does such an utterly fantastic job of creating.
Nearby Paradis, as well as a ruin near my quest objective, were large crystals of Adra, at which you can set up camp for the night. This party camp brings the day to a close, bringing your health and essence (the resource used to fire off skills and spells) to full, while offering the opportunity to upgrade or enchant gear, provided you’ve got the materials to do so, as well as have a deep conversation with your companion members.
While we know romancing won’t be an option in Avowed, these moments around the campfire allowed me to get to know the characters and world around me a little bit more, which just fuels the world-building even further.
After a bit more exploration, I discovered the Ambassador and what was left of the Claviger, a victim of a rampaging bear suffering from the Dreamscourge itself. It’s this battle that put everything I had learned in combat to the test, especially after Kai found himself incapacitated early on.
What took shape was a battle that saw me dodging out of harm's way as the bear swiped his powerful claws with reckless abandon, pounding the ground with weight enough to shake me to my core. The Ranger’s root spell came in handy here, as did an additional skill I unlocked that gave me more damage with both Bows and Guns, so I would root the bear and pick away at its health with carefully aimed shots.
But even Godlike’s have cooldowns, so it became a careful balance of not eating into my stamina too much with attacks so I could still dodge, while downing essence and health potions to stay afloat, especially since Kai had died again. One thing to note is if you carry another weapon in your off-hand (and it isn’t a shield), you can’t block - something I figured out to my loss very quickly in this fight.
Thankfully, a nearby corpse dropped a shield of its own, so after reloading the save thanks to a well-placed bear claw, I dashed for it while Kai kept the bear busy. Somehow, I could swap to a sword and shield build while in combat, which was just awesome and, once again, highlighted the incredible flexibility of Avowed’s character-building and combat systems. Sure, I had no skills with a shield, but I could block easier now, and slowly but surely, I downed the bear, kicking off a cutscene I’m better off not spoiling for now. Nor will I the next, as I can’t wait to see how things go from here.
All in all, Avowed seems to be shaping up quite well, and the extra time Obsidian is being given is being put to great use. I’m a huge fan of the Pillars of Eternity series, so it’s incredible to step back into this world and see it through another lens. And if the rest of the game matches the stability of this demo, I’m even more excited.
Yet what I can’t wait for most is truly having the time to dive deeply into that skill tree and fully unlock the potential of what looks like limitless customization. It’s here where I think Avowed true stregnth lies, and I’ll be very excited to see other builds from players more creative than me once Avowed is released next February 18th across PC (via Steam, Windows Store, and Battle.net), Xbox Series S|X, Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
