Avowed (2025)

Genuinely shocked how up-in-arms people were about this game. I had a fantastic time with it, even as someone who is a massive CRPG fan/player. I grew up on Blades of Exile, and have bought and played near every CRPG since. Even saying that, I still had a great time playing this despite it not being Pillars 3.

Maybe some of it is the Capital G Gamer outrage tourists; maybe some of it is people who play crazy amounts of open world RPGs (I play nearly none) and are burned out on the style unless a game is revolutionary; maybe it's the reasonable reaction to the price point (no matter how good I don't pay $70 for ANY game; i paid $35 and feel very satisfied); no matter what, I really enjoyed Avowed. Every playthrough I've done of Pillars 1 and 2, I've always wanted to just run around and explore EVERYTHING, wishing I could see it all closer up and more detailed. Avowed gave me that. I had just as great a time learning about all the cultures in Avowed as I did in White March and Pillars 2. Not much more to say, it was a really enjoyable game.

Basically having Garrus on your team is a refreshing thing in 2025.

This is an extremely Skyrimmy game. Let's get that out of the way. But melee combat actually feels good. Surprisingly good. It's amazing what a simple dodge mechanic and some hotkeyed actions on cooldown will do to the fun factor.

The story? Meh. Yeah, all of your choices are "considered". But the payoff is mostly just how the motion comic at the end plays out. The "God in your Head" arc really kind of just fizzled out like a big, wet fart. And I feel like that was "the main story".

Barely a week beyond 40+ hours of gameplay, and I'm already rapidly forgetting all of the characters' names. Kai, Marius, Italian TV mobster's wife, and Yahtzee the vaguely-horny pink elf-cat. It ain't memorable. There are "loyalty missions" for a couple (but not all) of the characters, but they don't feel nearly as impactful as anything from Mass Effect.

I give it 3.5 shiitakes out of 5. Mostly for the engaging combat. 🍄

Kind of felt like a waste to pump 20 hours into this. The stilted characters in cut scenes, mid story, mid dialogue really made me want to speed run pretty much all the dialogue and side content.

The main content is -fine- The combat is definitely the highlight. For a while I was playing a mage class in hard and lowered difficulty to medium. it was still challenging bc you are squishy but i stopped dying and started having way more fun casting tons of spells and worrying less about inventory management / restarting ^^ best way to play it

Not a game worth devoting yourself to. If you have an open world RPG hunger... it will do but there are so many more worthy rpgs out there (mass effect series, elder scrolls, baldurs gate 3, dragon age, etc)

Article: Avowed Review - High Fun Per Square Foot

Score Report: 8.25 / 10

With Avowed, the team at Obsidian manages the rare feat of grasping the scope of the project they’re building, and hitting the mark on most of the places it aims for. It’s not the biggest role-playing game, or the most innovative, but as I played, I was constantly aware of how much fun I was having by just letting the game carry me forward. Avowed is a confident and fulfilling fantasy adventure without pretension, accomplished by a studio that knows what it’s delivering. It may not change your world, but its world should be more than enough to satisfy.

• Matt Miller

Coming off the back of playing Kotor 1 and 2 for the first time, I feel compelled to leave this a review now. I finished this game in early June after dropping it for months, and overall, I enjoyed it, but it is sad to see in what ways these games have both evolved and devolved.

I enjoyed the story enough, the lore of Pillars of Eternity was interesting to learn about, and the characters were okay for the most part. But after having seen the worldbuilding and characters in Kotor, it just left me feeling a little more bitter.

Kai was the only companion I ended up really enjoying, with Marius behind him. For whatever reason, Giatta didn't speak to me too much, and I REALLY was not fond of Yatzli. Their lore and stuff were okay, but their personalities were kind of grating in the end for me. I think that their stories were alright and fairly rewarding, but I don't think that any of them (save for Kai IMO) had the depth or quality that most characters in Kotor had.

I don't like comparing and saying "this game bad cause that game better", but really, even the gameplay was fairly basic and repetitive and gets old quickly. While it was something entirely different, it felt like an attempt to be what they once were. And if it was, then it was a step in the right direction.

I hope that they can regain the magic that they once had in creating their visions, one unclouded by graphics and ideologies.

As someone who did not get into OUTER WORLDS I did not expect to like this but I really did!

I got into the RP of my character and even though they got kind of a shitty end I feel like I chose it.

Also, the environments feel really bespoke and nurtured my need to uncover all the space in each map.

I enjoyed all the little stories and big stories and how they tied together. My only fault is the game felt a touch over long and could have done with some pruning.

I spent about 170 hours with my playthrough! Again, I did all the content and quests I could so I could have prevented it somewhat.

In terms of combat I loved how easy it was to spend some money to try a totally new build. I ended up doing ranged bow, ranged rifle, sword and shield, mace and shield, 2 handed axe, 2 handed sword, 2 handed hammer, and wand with grimoire.

My fav was mace and shield and my least was the wand. The magic focus felt too detached but I like the immediacy of blunt weapon and shield! Either way, the combat felt a lot more interesting then it did in The Outer Worlds.

I know this is basically The Outer Worlds (which I was not into) but fantasy but for whatever reason everything clicked for me with this one.

I am addicted! The poster for this is kinda bad because it did not pull me at all. Every time I saw it in my GamePass menu I was like, "what is this game?" because it had that weird skull with colourful mushrooms things as the key art.

I guess that is a big part of the game but it does not really feel like it matters and I had no idea it was a big open(ish) world action-RPG! It feels like Better than Fallout combat with better than Elder Scrolls level design and some of the cool RPG bits from Baldur's Gate 3... so ...GOOD GAME!

I am on the second "map" and probably have 20 hours and am playing with any free time I can steal. It really sunk its claws in. So far so good.

The movement is fantastic, the game is colorful, exploration is fun, the banter is witty, the combat is zippy and in a cool detail you have to actually hold a book if you want to cast spells.

In fairly typical RPG style you are an Envoy of an Empire, sent to a Remote Location to Fix Some Things, so you end up far and away from your past which gives you the space to work out your own choices to various dilemmas. There aren't many NPC's that really care about your background, and you'll quickly be distracted by all the other things going on (like the question of who put all these chests in barely-reachable locations). Calling the game "Avowed" is a brilliant trick to constantly remind you of your mission and your oath of allegiance, it definitely made me roleplay more as an empire fanatic. Die, rebel scum!

I've read somewhere that Obsidian made this a "shorter RPG" on purpose but it still took me 58 hours to complete, and during that time I didn't get bored for more than a minute with it.

Spent 2 hours in this game, couldn't go any longer than that. While the combat is fun on the prologue island, I got a feeling it's gonna be really tedious halfway through the game. The UI looks horrendous and cartoony. The writing is a bit weak and some characters won't stop throwing new words at me so I have to keep looking them up the in-game glossary in between dialogues. Looking at the reviews online and even on this site, people sure are mixed on this game.

In a way, this game reminded me a lot of Greedfall but at least I managed to finish that one because I have nothing better to play at the time. Plus, that game is a AA title at best made on shoestring budget so I can forgive a lot of its shortcomings. I think most of my gripes with this game is because I just finished KCD2, a huge RPG that somehow managed to keep me entertained for 70+ hours. Had I played this before that, then I might have found some enjoyment here.

Finally finished it. I loved the story and the fact that it seemed to give you some real choices about how it would end, not just the good path, the bad path, or the snarky path. In the end, the allies you have when you decide the Living Lands fate seem directly related to earlier choices of what leaders to support or overthrow.

Final boss was a bit of a letdown in terms of being an interesting fight. But the game's strength are much more about the PC interactions and the intermediary adventuring and combat. Fantastic.

This game just has an unacceptable number of crashes. It is so good that I keep playing it despite this but I am just about at my end. Had 2 hard crashes on the multi-stage final boss fight. I am going to try one more time and then just throw in the towel.

The boss fight isn't hard and mostly fun but this is just stupid.

Lo abandoné en el tramo final por pura desgana. El sistema de combate cumple sin destacar, es simple y sin chispa, no es divertido ni tiene peso. La trama y el guión, por su parte, son insípidos, y los personajes son clichés con historias poco o nada interesantes.

Esperaba mucho más de este juego. No es un desastre, pero tampoco brilla en ningún aspecto. Técnicamente correcto, pero sin personalidad. Y no, el problema no es que sea "woke", como dicen algunos colegas que no saben lo que es la luz del sol; el verdadero pecado es que carece por completo de alma. No hay pasión, ni atención al detalle, ni un diseño de jugabilidad que invite a quedarse.

No es un mal juego, simplemente es intrascendente. Y en un mercado saturado de propuestas que pelean por destacar, eso es lo peor que se puede ser.

Not much to be said, i've speed through the main story coz i couldnt care less.

• Writing is horrendous. Dialogues are mediocre.
• Combat is fine early game, late game become really boring. the skills very limited. gears optimization are joke. Same enemies throughout the game just change skin. Nothing much extra for bosses. so just spam spamm spamm basic atck and dead. Spells and long range weapon is de wei to go.
• 3rd person view better just be remove completely. terrible animations and sluggish movement, i didnt enjoy 1st person coz dizzy and stuff. but for this intance, 1st person actually better. fail. somehow, game stutter even worse playing on 3rd person
• exploration not worth. u rewarded nothing, same things, bad gears.
• boring side quests
• UI for mobile game??
• Braindead NPC
• wth is that upgrade systems

positive points

• not tied to class and can reset points to play as ranger, warrior or mages. so can try what u like, me ofc mage the most fun coz playing melee in 1st person just shit
• Voice acting not bad , but again theres wall of text essentially useless banter and facial animations are yikes.
• Short main quest (thank god). it took me roughly 15-17 hours just speed running which time i wouldnt get to refund lols

Been enjoying my time with this game. Nothing too standout except maybe all the quality of life elements: Re-spec at any time, can send unused items to your stash or break down anytime, eating food auto selects the best item based on your current hp, and a few others.

My big gripe is that the stability is pretty bad. I regularly get boot-up or shut-down crashes. I am playing on two different PC's and yet the game has problems on both.

While admittedly bursting with elements that could best be described as "okay," or "coulda been great," Avowed is still exactly what I wanted: an rpg fps that doesn't take itself too seriously. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole adventure, start to finish and particularly appreciated the side quest characters and playing the hero (or villain?) in their dramadies. The skills and equipment are varied enough to make experimentation rewarding, but not so complex as to require a heavy grind or googling of god tier loadouts. I particularly enjoyed some of the unique items' abilities. It sure would have been nice to be able to pet my bear, though. Future update, maybe?

Some dialogs and themes were repetitive. But my X button still has plenty of spring after skip skip skipping through many companion chats at the first signs of redundancy. I get it. Main-Quest-only players need the whole story, too. It's cool.

Much respect goes to Obsidian's crafting of magnificent visual backdrops for the often-silly stories within the Living Lands, and making all the heavy and light fit together like a glove.

I'll admit there were times I wanted to quit Avowed half-way through. but I'm glad I stuck with it. In the end I did enjoy my time exploring the Living Lands and the game's story.

I wish the companions had a little more depth and I could "take" them in different direction, but I had to remind myself this was technically a smaller-scale RPG, and as one it's pretty good.

Combat was fun as a wizard, but melee felt a little repetitive. Luckily you're never locked out of anything so you can try any weapon and see what works best for you.

As for the graphics - I've never seen a game so beautiful yet so ugly at the same time. Environments are lush and interesting, yet character models look almost last-gen.

Overall, I do think Avowed is a good RPG, but an unremarkable one. Sometimes that's exactly what you need, but I don't think any of us will be talking or thinking about it in a year or two...

Some spoilers for the story contained ahead. Peruse at your own danger, folks.

A person wiser than I once shared their knowledge with me through a song. "Oh Nyans," they sung to me, voice all warbly and weird. "They can't all be zingers." Don't I know how that goes, now.

I was pretty excited for this game whenever I first saw it spoiled years ago. Sick. Obsidian making a first person action rpg in a setting for a game I couldn't really bring myself to play? I'm down for it, even though I couldn't bring myself to do Another Round Based CRPG. After promptly forgetting about it and ignoring most of the hype for it for the past few months, it released when I wasn't paying attention. Wow! What a world we live in. I know some people rationalize the higher price tag as...well, whatever, but at least in my case, I'll never really be able to look at it with anything other than disdain, especially since $60 seems to go less and less these days.

Drivel aside, Avowed has a really strong start. Kai is great, the premise of the game is great. Weird...fungal infection making everyone crazy? Great. I am down like you wouldn't believe. I'm so happy to be hearing Brandon Keener playing Kai that i almost feel like i'm back in the good ol' days, playing and replaying Mass Effect obsessively 85 thousand times. Unfortunately for Avowed, it can be compared to Mass Effect unfavorably in more than a few ways.

To start with the good, the combat is fun, at least to begin with. (there's a really big caveat here, look forward to that) The upgrade paths can brick wall you out of exploration if you aren't careful, but they facilitate a certain flow present in this game. I love going around looking for random plants and materials only to forget what I'm doing and finding a whole chest featuring goodies I have no idea what to do with. Do you like opening chests? Does your blood pump faster when you see a shiny, golden box making shimmery noises at you from afar? Then have I got a $70 game to recommend you. Half of my ability to explore the Living Lands is thanks to the fact that there are just so many chests all over the place, to say nothing of the level design! A lot of these chests aren't just out of the way — they're up 803 ledges that you have to do some Basic Parkour to get to(no wall running, unfortunately), and I have to stress that, at least for me, this is easily one of the best parts of the game. Tucking little shinies away for me to find activates that obsessive treasure hunter in me and I swear, most of the hours I sunk into this game were lost exploring its grand vistas, its acid seas, its absolutely gorgeous, off color forests and deserts. UE5 looks amazing on this game, I can't even lie, even if I despise the engine for almost singlehandedly aging my computer by about 74 years. If you've got a pc capable of playing this at high settings, do yourself a favor and give it a shot.

You'll note that there's really not much in with the good. That's because this game goes out of its way to be really odd in several areas. Once you've gotten your good girl points from the endless cavalcade of quests this game throws at you (along with some light exploration) you will inevitably find yourself ahead of the damage curve by quite a significant margin. Once you've done this, combat becomes boring as HELL. I'm not trying to be mean to the devs or anything, but the last two areas of this game, I had to zone out whenever I was doing fights so that I could just push on past to the interesting bits that the game wanted me to get to. I'm not entirely certain if I just had a busted build or something, but it really felt like everything just died if I so much as sneezed at it...but with stamina concerns and the fact that I have to watch a lengthy animation any time I shoot someone who's stunned, it made combat start to feel sluggish. Worse, the game does something I don't really like, which is throwing hordes of enemies at you whenever you're on your way to a quest objective. Here and there is fine, but too much and it starts to feel like you've got to fill out more paperwork. Great, more enemies? I'm already starting to feel burned out from the combat and I'm only at the very end of Fior mas Iverno, the 2nd area of the game. Once you're at the end game, and the quality tier of the enemies matches your weaponry, its like you just get stuck in warm asphalt with how slow things start to go. You're dealing massive amounts of damage, maybe even one shotting weaker enemies, but it just feels like such a chore every time you turn around and see that 8 more dudes have popped up. If the combat were more engaging, I obviously wouldn't have a problem with this, but I checked out near the beginning of Shatterscarp! (The third area!!!) I could say that turning up the difficulty solves this easily, but I was playing on hard mode! Playing on anything higher only raises enemy health bars and damage thresholds to such a huge extent that it just becomes unfun, so I'm not really sure what to feel about the combat here other than to say that as it stands, its just not great. A shame considering how strategic it feels at least initially.

I'm just not a fan of how games have all decided that what we need more than anything is to do 945 quests, spending all our time running around a place before we can get to the main story. I get side quests aren't required to do, but look. I like doing side quests. I don't really see anything wrong with side quests, either. My issue is that after 3 huge maps each stuffed to the brim with a whole game's worth of quests to do, getting to an even larger area, really starts to make me feel tired. The sad thing is that a lot of these side quests are really good. Some of them have genuinely interesting decisions to make that feel weighty and impactful...but there's just so many. Maybe this is a me problem, but after a while, given the fact that I was starting to feel that this game was just so-so, I started to regret the fact that I'm a Chronic Side Quest Doer.

Okay, but really, the biggest travesty of this game is its writing. I can't forgive a game that introduces fun concepts that intrigue the mind only to ruin them by being as strange as humanly possible with the way they write these conflicts out. Why do I have so many people trying to remind me my actions have consequences? Why do people keep pointing this out to me? Like, they're still doing this by the time you're in Galawain's Tusks (the fourth area), and it feels very strange to me. I don't think anyone who actually plays this game is going to be completely out of sorts with roleplaying in this kind of environment, but even further than that, I feel a little insulted as a player that the writers keep trying to trick me into making a choice I'll regret. You might say I'm being a little harsh, but seriously! The game is so intent on trying to subvert the expectations you might have that it actively undermines its own conflicts and story. Oh, the god that suddenly came into being has anger issues? The people they harmed trying to stop the gods trying to imprison them (**unjustly, might I add) are angry that they killed them? Oh nyans, you better be careful. Sapadal is like a wild, chaotic animal. She killed us, you know. That's why she's bad, because she killed us. Like, who killed you? Was it Sapadal or the Maegfolc, story? Seriously, what kind of story is this? All this pomp and circumstance to maybe make me question whether letting a god — whom, mind you, was not aware that they were becoming a deity — go free is a good idea, and for what? You let them go free, actions be on your head, and as it turns out, they're lovely. They care about the land they live in and everyone lives happily ever after. This kind of sloppy writing really gets on my nerves in a way that's really hard for me to pin down. Oh, the people you meet have all sorts of sides to them. The pargrunen councilor who wants to save the people of his keep also wants the whole island to be a fucking colony of the people who worship The Evil Woman, and he is so serious about this that he is willing to blow up the actual home they live in. This somehow feels even worse than Mass Effect's tendency to have Good Option and Bad Option: at least those things were clear cut. The game goes out of its way to try and make you think about the motivations of the people you're loyal to, and for what? In the end, its always like 'oh well it turns out that person you had to question was actually a stalwart and beautiful person and opposing them DOOMED AN ENTIRE NATION'. It just feels completely out of line with the kind of writing I know obsidian to be capable of. I just wish we would have seen more of the interesting conflict, gotten to know Sapadal a little more, had more interaction on their behalf with the people of the Living Lands. No one ever gets to have an opinion of them that's more than 'Wow, they sound like they could be amazing' or 'wow, they sound like they could be a loose cannon, better be careful', and I just thought that games that cared about their stories had come further than this. Its really frustrating.

Its strange. I was really liking this game until the conflicts started to annoy me, the strange way they wrote sapadal and basically everyone else in this game. I love Yatzli and Kai, but I almost wanted to find some way to hack the game and murder him when he told me I should have blown up solace keep. All these weird little things, the fact that combat feels so sluggish after your character gets busted, the enormous amounts of quests...I don't know. I was expecting more from this game. I'm a little sad to give it a low score, but hey, them's the br8ks.