Avowed has the Best Parts of Skyrim & Mass Effect
I was surprised how much it improved on the Skyrim formula.
I adore RPGs. They are my favorite genre of game and it all goes back to having a story that I can sink into, that I can use as an escape from my day to day life. There are so many good RPGs releasing out there nowadays but so few come out in the spring where they aren't surrounded by other shit.
Enter Avowed. The newest game from Obsidian that came out last month. It's a game that I honestly wasn't super interested in until just a month or so before release. I figured I'd play it eventually. But after all the stuff I had heard about it, I just had to grab it. So how was it as an experience? Is it an Obsidian RPG that lives up to that idea of what an RPG should feel like? In a word, Yes. In many words, well that's below.
The Premise
Avowed takes place in the world of Pillars of Eternity 10 years after Pillars 2. You play an Envoy sent by the Emperor to this Island, the Living Lands, to investigate something called the Dreamscourge which is ravaging large parts of the island. You get to decide the background of your envoy and of course what they look like. Your Envoy is also a Godlike (all of the games in this universe you can play a Godlike), which is a person touched by one of the Gods. You don't know who the God is that touched you, but once you land on the island and you get exploring and end up finding much about yourself, the Empire you serve, the Dreamscourge, and the Living Lands itself.
The Good
Games are defined by what you do in them. Many games are remembered for their combat like with Souls games being combat focused, although they have other things too. Then, there's Bethesda games which have NEVER had good combat. Even Starfield, the utter disappointment that it is, still had shit combat when compared to any other game that is shooting guns. Here, in Avowed, you'd expect the combat to be more closely aligned to Bethesda games as many compare the game to Skyrim but that couldn't be further from the truth. In Skyrim, the combat is trash and far more simplistic than Avowed. In Skyrim you have spells that you just use with shortcuts and you learn them by unlocking them through individual books.
In Avowed you learn spells by discovering Grimoire’s which are books that each have 4 spells attached to them. Once you discover the Grimoire you can unlock those spells to be able to use without said Grimoire. If you then choose to use the spell with the Grimoire, using the book gives you bonuses that just using the spells as shortcuts doesn't like quicker cooldowns. The spell system is just fantastic and discovering a new Grimoire has this exciting feeling for discovering what new spells you're gonna have access too. You're able to dual wield a Grimoire and another weapon, could be a wand or a sword or a mace, as long as it's a one handed weapon. My main driver was a Grimoire and an Axe, Mace, or Sword depending on the unique perks of the weapon. As you level up the spells in your normal point investments as well, it changes how the spell works when cast with the Grimoire. For instance, once the (fire spray spell) is unlocked, the Grimoire cast of it now uses two hands instead of one. The game has these constant little things in combat that make you feel like it was truly perfected in development. For instance, one of the other things I hated with Skyrim was getting out of the way of the enemies attack. Well here in Avowed you can dodge and some of the enemies attacks slow down for a sec so you can do your dodge in time. It's this small touch that allows you to react and feel the satisfying feeling of avoiding the attack. In Skyrim avoiding something is difficult and cumbersome. Avowed takes inspiration from some of the Skyrim combat, ropes in the world of Pillars of Eternity, and wraps it all up together in the best fantasy first person melee/spell combat I have ever experienced.
The sidequests in the game are something else. I enjoy a good side quest because it makes the world feel deeper, makes me feel like I'm doing stuff to help improve the lives of people in the world of the game. In Veilguard, I felt this was a strong part of the game. Avowed is no different. Some of these quests are genuinely fantastic and one of the most interesting parts is you can do them without realizing it. Multiple quests I had in multiple of the hubs of the game I was able to instantly complete because I had already done the quest while exploring. This particularly happens with Bounties. Every Hub area has a set of bounties on local Bad Guys that you can go around and kill and get some money when you claim the bounty, but you can end up completing them without realizing it and then when you go to pick up bounties you find out that you already killed those bad guys. You can then instantly claim the bounty and get some Gold. Exploration in the game isn’t just rewarding in you finding useful items and upgrade materials, it's useful for quest discovery and for finishing things before you meant to.
Multiple small decisions also have further implications later on in the game. For instance, you're able to get a spy in the first area that will then report to you in the second area with some information about a secret base of the Steel Garrote. When you come across a traitor to the local Rangers who just so happens to be helping the Steel Garrote, you can ask them to tell you where the local base is. She refused to tell me, but thankfully I had already gotten my letter from my spy and I put two and two together with information from my spy and the location of my final confrontation with the traitor to the Rangers and was able to find the base easily and take them out. This then had implications with the story development at the end of the area that I won't go into. But such a small decision of getting a spy in the prior area having such a large influence on how the story can play out is something fundamental about Avowed. The game is filled with these small decisions that you don't think will matter, but then later on they end up mattering a lot. You, as a character, gain a reputation as you go along the story and the people in each new area reference the deeds you have done, including the small ones. The side quests don't just have meaningless decisions to them, they're influential and wonderful.
There was another instance of me doing a quest objective before realizing it. I came across some Zaurips (lizard goblin like creatures) who were acting weird and not attacking me. I go into the cave they're out in front of and discover that there's a guy who's controlling them and making them docile towards him, but attacking the local crops and villagers. Naturally, I killed him because he was being terrible to the locals, but I didn't think anything of it. Then I came across some people who asked me to find out why the Zaurips were acting so weird. I told them basically "oh I already figured that out, it was this dude controlling them" and then the quest is instantly completed and I didn't even have to leave the conversation. The quests in Avowed are wonderful.
But the quests, both main and side, would be nothing without an amazing world to experience them in. Avowed has 4 Hub worlds that each have different biomes, and enemies, and cities, and stories. I adored having such unique areas that allowed me to really feel like I'm progressing throughout the world. Something I didn't like about games like Skyrim and the Fallout games is that the environment and biomes are consistent. There is no real variety. But Avowed has the variety that makes the world interesting. Then add on the lore of the world that you are constantly discovering, the story developments that are constantly progressing, and little details that make the game such a lovely experience to just explore through.
Another thing I really enjoyed about Avowed is how it still has this basic idea of going around and collecting things in the world like cheese and food and such, but it takes away the shitty parts of it. Specifically, the game both has these items have no weight, and has them not be stealing. But also, one of my favorite parts, is that these things aren't all of the set dressing. In Bethesda games you're able to pick up ALL of the set dressing. But here in Avowed it has just enough pickup-able set dressing to make you always feel like there's something to pick up while also not feeling like you're clearing out the place. I can go into a room, grab all the stuff possible, and there's still food in the room. Still stuff for the people around. It doesn't feel like I'm stealing all of someone's food, I'm just taking some of it. Add in that stealing isn't a thing and you've got the recipe for feeling like the game has the same interesting mechanic of picking stuff up, but not having to pay the consequences for taking it. I hated the stealing mechanics in Bethesda games so I'm really glad to see that shit dropped by Obsidian for Avowed because it's useless.
Companions is also an area that Avowed excels in, and not just because you have Fantasy Garrus in Kai. You gain two companions in the first area, one in the second, and one in the third. Each one offers a new way to look at the Hub world you're playing in/they joined in and the world at large. From the amazingly funny Kai to the opinionated Animancer Giatta, your team has characters that have interesting backstories, have interesting points of view, and have interesting abilities. Avowed also doesn't fill your team with a large team of companions, the team is small enough that you don't feel overwhelmed by talking to all of them while still maintaining unique characters. In Veilguard and the Pillars games you had a lot of companions, but here having so few actually made me care about them more. I had to spend so much time with all of them and I always loved talking to them back at Camp.
Something that I've grown tired of in the industry are open worlds. My partner disagrees with me on this, but I think open world games are over done and I would much rather prefer a good hub world or more linear experience than a shoddy done open world game filled with BS filler shit like collecting random things that are, overall, pointless. An open world game that I think did this particularly badly was Dragon Age: Inquisition. You would go around and collect "shards" and shit. It just sucked and was filler that didn't matter. But Avowed has 4 unique hub worlds that have variety in both general environment and some variety in enemies. Enemies have more variety in just enemy types like exploders, mages, rangers, and warriors. Also color. But otherwise there aren't a whole lot of different enemies, and there could have been more but this is only a problem for some and not for me. Meanwhile the environmental variety allows each hub to feel unique, despite having similar structure. In games like Skyrim or the fallout games or many other RPGs out there, the whole world often doesn't feel entirely unique. It has the uniformity to it that makes me feel like it's cohesive but doesn't have that "oh I gotta go look at that!" feeling. Avowed having that variety, being able to have distinct areas and not having to feel like they all can easily run together or would "realistically" be right next to each other, just makes a game that made me just want more hub worlds to explore. It made me hope for a DLC or sequel so I can experience more. And it gave me a new appreciate for Hub world games.
The Bad
I think one of my only real criticisms is that I don't like how many upgrades you can do to your gear. There are 5 levels and 3 upgrades per level. I would have preferred either, get rid of one of the upgrades per level, or get rid of one of the levels. Or just decreased the amount of materials you need to upgrade them. Even by just a little would allow for upgrading to be a bit faster. I'm not sure which would have been better because it follows the pretty normal track of rarities for Fantasy systems, but I still think it should have been tweaked.
Another thing is that I just wish there were more side quests. There are a decent amount per area but I just want more. The world of Avowed and the side quests that exist in it are so damn good that I must, must, have more of it. I am likely going to do a replay because I want to see different outcomes to different decisions and the different background dialogue options, but I still just want more. I'm desperate for a sequel because Obsidian made such a tight and well done Action RPG that it needs to be further iterated on and I need to see where it can go past this.
You're also able to miss some weapons depending on your decisions. For instance, I let a guy live in the first area, I gave him a chance, but this meant I missed out on what many people consider to be one of the best weapons in the game, a flaming sword. This is a cool little detail where you're able to really feel like your different decisions on subsequent playthroughs have not just different outcomes but different loot to them. Or another where in the third area you have a sidequest where you discover one of the old guys there has a secret of something he said he did but didn't. At the end of the quest you're able to choose to keep or share the secret with the town. If you share the secret you get a set of armor but if you keep the secret you get a really cool spear. I shared the secret because I thought it was the right thing to do and now I missed out on another great weapon. This is kinda cool, having your decisions matter beyond just story, but actual gameplay and loot. It still sucked missing out on some items that I will see articles on about how great this weapon is and look into how to get that weapon only to find out its at the end of a quest that I made a different decision on. At the end of the day though, this is a small nitpick that is just solved by doing another playthrough and does make things interesting and each playthrough more unique.
I also wish there were more unique weapons. This isn't to say there aren't a decent amount, but it seems for many of the weapon types there are only 3-4 unique’s per weapon type. Grimoire’s do seem to be the exception here as I found 5 or 6 of them. And my prior point adds an asterisk to this whole thing as the amount of unique weapons will often simply depend on how your playthrough goes. Again, this is another nitpick, not a serious issue to get upset over.
The Ending - Detailed
**Start Spoilers**
The ending differs somewhat based on the decisions you made. I'm going to be going over how my game ended but yours is likely to be different.
At the Garden, I released Sapadal, convincing her she needed to learn from the past and the mistakes she's made. That she can and must do better. Then she lets the party and me through a portal where we go to find Paradis under the siege of the Steel Garrote and under the leadership of the Inquisitor. Also you've been in the Garden for 2 weeks.
Then I convinced the leaders of the cities of each area to unite under their own flag, an independent Living Lands flag. With that, I go ahead and stop the siege on Paradis, and fight Lödwyn. Or sorta. I didn't fight her, I pulled a Mass Effect with Saren and got her to kill herself through dialogue options. Then, ending slides.
**End Spoilers**
The Ending - Reaction
Honestly I liked the ending, it did feel like this last little bit was pretty short but overall, it brought together a lot of the decisions I had made in the last 28 hours. I was able to choose things based on how I had approached prior decisions. I had several people that I had saved in quests pop up and help me. I had my stats mean something. It was a great ending to a wonderful game and I loved being able to see, in the ending slides, little outcomes to some more of the decisions you made and what happens to your companions afterwards.
The Conclusion
Avowed was an absolutely wonderful experience. It's a game with a world that has such depth to it that I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn't playing it. It's a game that makes you make choices that you don't know what the down the line outcomes will be, but are still interesting choices in the moment as well. It's a game that you can sink a whole lot of time into without even seeing everything, even at 28 hours I know I didn't complete literally everything despite doing the majority of it. The best game I can think of to compare it to, for so many reasons, is Mass Effect. The true care given to the world just has that feeling of love without the needless BS just like the original Mass Effect.
I cannot recommend Avowed enough. It is one of the few recent games that, once I was done with it, I just wanted to play more. That I genuinely considered doing another playthrough right away, except that I have stuff to do and write so that isn't exactly possible much anymore. If you're considering an RPG where it's got great action combat, an interesting world with interesting characters and choices, one where it doesn't overload you with too many things to pay attention to, and it isn't a 100 hour experience, Avowed is just the game for you.
Meow,
Cat
So happy to read that you also loved the game. I hope that they may add some DLC in the future because I also just want more! More world, more side quests. More Avowed!
Cat we are so vibing lately! I’ve been drafting a similar article. I just love how Avowed feels like a fun game from the PS3 era. Similar Games these days are just overcooked and are missing the fun.