Avowed Review: An Epic Fantasy RPG That Almost Nails It

Avowed by Obsidian Entertainment is yet another reminder that this studio has firmly secured its place among the RPG greats. The team has crafted a compelling story with rich exploration and Avowed does manage to do a lot of things well, but does it live up to the hope of a spiritual Elder Scrolls successor set in the Pillars of Eternity universe?

Deep-rooted in the Pillars of Eternity world of Eora, Avowed takes us into the Living Lands, where you begin your journey as an Aedyran Envoy to the empire. From the moment you create your character, there are some unique points that will shift some of your gameplay options. Like the other Pillars games, your path is somewhat pre-chosen, though instead of being a Watcher, this time you'll take on the role of a Godlike. That means that you'll have some inherent visual options within character creation, and while you have the option to turn them off, it's still apparent that whether you choose to show them or not, you won't be treated as just another traveler.

The options for character creation are mostly varied, and it wasn't difficult to create an appealing-looking character, unlike the character creation in another recent game that I reviewed. The backstory options have also provided ample unique story elements, though aside from a change in your starting weapon, you'll mostly see roleplay-worthy conversation options that give a little oomph and attitude. However, the extent to which these choices change your overall experience is debatable. While they provide some additional dialogue and allow you to inject some flavor into your character’s responses, they don’t significantly alter the main trajectory of the game. This is a bit disappointing for those expecting a deeper roleplaying element that meaningfully branches based on origin story.

The story for Avowed revolves around being sent to the mysterious continent of the Living Lands, where you're tasked with investigating a sickness known as the Dreamscourge. The disease itself is a unique blend of a The Last of Us cordyceps style infection and a very real-feeling degenerative condition, with some side stories hitting to the heart of the fear of having such a scary condition.  In a conversation with the developers, I was told that The Living Lands would feel "wild and wacky" which I hoped would point closer to one of my favorite Obsidian games, The Outer Worlds. However, after playing for dozens of hours, it felt far more wild and much less wacky than I had anticipated, with very dark subplots littering my path.

Within short order, after being shipwrecked on the Living Lands, you're met with the Dreamscourge immediately, but over the course of your adventure, it takes shape in unexpected ways. You also eventually meet with your patron god, the god of the Living Lands itself, and the internal strife that you'll deal with—which can also be somewhat of a hindrance or annoyance at times—will bridge the entirety of the story together in a curious manner that drives home the main factor of what Avowed does extremely well.

Story Is The Cornerstone Of Avowed.

It's easy to point to so many games that weave these unique choose-your-own-adventure-style stories together, but Avowed's story seems to hit specific points where you're not really sure if what you choose will lead you down the path you expected it to. You're met with choices, even early on, where what you do not only affects your growth as a hero (or villain), but it affects what abilities you have access to. For example, you'll reach these conversational points where you can talk to your patron god about whether you want to receive their assistance or not.

On one path, it provides you with a special ability, while on the other, you're provided with an ability point. The strange thing about these choices is that the very same ability was awarded to me on two separate characters at two distinctly different points in the story, giving me pause and making me wonder if there are more abilities and options that I haven't encountered on either playthrough. The level of variability in how abilities are handed out creates a layer of unpredictability, which is both intriguing and a little frustrating when trying to plan a build.

The choices you make extend farther than just what you choose throughout the story itself. How you build your character can truly shift most of your encounters throughout the game. My first playthrough was on the hard difficulty, and it warns you that you'll need to pay closer attention to team dynamics and weapon swapping. However, I didn't find that to be the case for the vast majority of encounters. Even dialing up the difficulty on my second playthrough to the hardest setting didn't shift my perspective on how combat dynamics change.

A More Dynamic Elder Scrolls—But Still Needs Work

There are a lot of pieces to the combat system, between elemental afflictions, stun meters that can proc a finishing move, and a keen mixture of weapons ranging from large two-handed hammers to dual-wielding daggers or firing off wand magic with a grimoire in hand expanding your magic. There are plenty of options for dispatching your foes, but I found that once you've picked a path, it's far more effective to stick with it, despite diversity being a fantastic option.

My first playthrough started with the good ol' sword and board, with a minor in ice magic, which I found to be quite fun and powerful as I could freeze enemies in their tracks and deliver some blows at my discretion. I loved the idea of being a battlemage until I realized just how many ability points I needed to really flesh out a frost-inspired battlemage, and then it felt like I was splitting my effectiveness.

I ended up with dual pistols mid-game and stuck with that to the end. Dual pistols were so much fun—at first—and eventually became monotonous at how unbalanced they felt in the end. The slow-time ability allowed me to alternate between firing and reloading, making short work of almost every enemy I came across. The stun potential of my pistols was nearly unrivaled near the end of the game, completely stunning most enemies in just a couple of shots. Even boss enemies would quickly have their stun meter filled to the point where I was using execution maneuvers fairly consistently.

However, despite how effective combat could be, there was a lingering issue: it never really evolved. Unlike some RPGs where your combat style gets more intricate or engaging as you progress, Avowed’s combat often felt like a solved equation. Once I found an effective rhythm, there was little incentive to experiment beyond what was already working. Enemies across the various zones were mostly rehashed versions of the previous zone's monsters, which meant tactically I only needed to stick to the basics to ensure my victory.

Using dual pistols meant slowing down time for a headshot, and the slow-time ability neatly placed a box showing the weakspot of the enemy in question, taking away nearly all of the challenge. In some ways it felt like there were far too few ability points for some builds, while far too many for others, which meant sticking to your guns (so to speak) only makes you stronger, but rarely more diverse. This lack of progression in combat variety makes some encounters feel repetitive despite the solid mechanics.

Itemization also didn't particularly make things any easier. I expected numerous options for unique weapons and armor but I ended up sticking with a series of pistols I found fairly early on. Crafting, enchanting and upgrading your items seemed like it could have been far more fleshed out, with unique items only getting one major enchantment upgrade and then only rarity ranks up to legendary. That meant I was saddled with a lot of gear and items and not much use for them. There's nothing particularly wrong with the system, but more diversity could have gone a long way to diversifying my combat experience. 

Some Bugs That (Hopefully) Will Get Fixed

I played the game on PC via Steam with my handy Xbox controller, and Avowed looked amazing. Obsidian knows how to make an appealing-looking game, but throughout my time, I encountered so many bugs. While I have confirmed with the development team that many of these bugs will be fixed on launch, it's hard to know to what extent. Some quests couldn't be turned in if I did certain things out of order. Worse yet, as a pistoleer, I kept getting this strange bug where my shots wouldn't register on some enemies.

I also had other strange issues where bosses wouldn't drop necessary quest items. At one point, an NPC told me they would give me a key to a chest behind them—and they didn’t. In some cases, I could work around it, but in others, I had to reload and replay sections. Finally, a few client crashes would also stop me in my tracks at the most inopertune times. While Avowed does auto-save frequently, there are times when you're out exploring that it won't do it for you, so a crash will roll back a lot of that freestyle exploration which is extremely frustrating.

It's important to note that many of these issues will be fixed on the day one patch. The crashes, missing items and even some of the visual bugs encountered should mostly be fixed and you likely won't encounter them. I did take that into account during this review. Still some of the more sensitive bugs did stymie my progress on multiple occasions, and it's hard to say how many of those issues will be completely handled on early release day. 

Just Short of Legendary

Avowed is an epic adventure held within more than 50 hours of gameplay. However, it feels like Obsidian could have spent a little more time rewarding players and adding extra chutzpah in areas like gear and character development. Building my character just felt like it fell short. The arbitrary limitation with a level 30 cap tied my hands in weird ways. You could only max out two stats, and with diminishing returns, it just felt hampered.

Despite these issues, Avowed still manages to be an engaging and ambitious RPG. Obsidian's storytelling prowess is on full display, and the game successfully immerses players in the Living Lands. While the Elder Scrolls comparisons don't entirely parallel what you'll experience with Avowed, mainly due to the heavy handed direct storytelling, Obsidian still managest to pull off a great open world RPG with a lot of exciting moments. If you're looking for an RPG with deep lore, solid combat, and meaningful choices, Avowed is worth playing—just be ready for a few bumps along the way.

*Avowed was provided by PR for the purpose of this review.*