Avowed Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Top Features

Avowed from developer Obsidian Entertainment is a highly anticipated, heavyweight effort with backing from Xbox Game Studios. 

An action role-playing game (ARPG) with some of Obsidian’s hallmark staples, such as impactful dialogue and player choice, Avowed represents a critical exclusive for the Xbox brand, releasing on Windows and Xbox Series X/S. 

The hype is more than warranted, given Obsidian’s extensive history—think, Alpha Protocol, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Fallout: New Vegas, to name a few. 

Perhaps most interesting now is how Avowed can stand on the modern market after similar efforts from other studios have come up short as of late. Fun factor, impact of player choice and properly modernizing past key features will decide Avowed’s fate almost instantly upon arrival. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Like it or not, Avowed won’t escape comparisons to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Being able to flick between both first-person and third-person perspectives plays a big role in this, as does the general appearance and flow of gameplay. 

Aesthetically, Avowed is a colorful, eye-pleaser that is never not interesting to enjoy. It isn’t trying to be photorealistic, which works to its benefit. Instead, it’s got a nice whimsical touch that gives off the proper fantasy vibe. Things like character models, facial animations and combat effects are properly stylized to the world and backed by modern-feeling lighting and shadow work. 

Sound design is also a major highlight, with most everything a delight to the ears, from the voice acting to ambient sounds out in the world and beyond. 

The game technically doesn’t offer an “open world” like some would expect. But the explorable zones are so massive that the difference is negligible. Said world and zones run the gamut of expected locales for a game like this, from lush forests to hydration-sapping deserts, dark and gloomy caves and quite a bit more. 

Exploration is worthwhile and rewarded for many reasons, though loot and materials used in crafting might just top the list. It just feels good, too, as players have a nice suite of parkour moves available to them. Think sprinting, sliding, climbing, dodging and a strong mantling feature. 

Combat follows a similar vibe. Players have an impressive amount of options at their fingertips when just detailing weapons. They can mix and match all types of items, choose to dual-wield them and even loop in shields for defensive efforts. 

All that before looping in magic via castable spells. Similarly, these are not totally unexpected given the genre and style, ranging from fire to ice and everything in between. Tack on elemental weaknesses to juggle for good measure. 

The combat loop itself is an interesting mix of past ARPGs and might even vibe similar to fighting games for some players. There is stamina to manage, plus enemy stagger bars to consider, giving a weight to each and every decision. 

For those who loved their Skyrim from a stealth-oriented perspective, Avowed very much offers that up, too, as slinking through the shadows or tall grass before striking for big damage feels great. 

Overall, it’s a responsive, engaging system that is a lot of fun, and experimentation seems encouraged. While it’s not doing anything wildly new, Avowed’s combat system and sheer parkour of a good-looking, immersive world is refreshing for simply sticking the landing. 

Story and More

Set in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity, Avowed, like its combat and world, hits on some of the expected notes. 

In short, players take the role of an envoy tasked with helping to investigate a plague dubbed the "Dream Scourge." Think, hearing voices and infectious fungi. A rather limited character creator still hits the familiar notes while also providing story-critical choices for character backgrounds. 

Within the world’s lore, there’s a “godlike” attribute going on, meaning people of any of the world’s races who brushed up with any of the world’s gods before birth. It’s an interesting idea narratively and mixes well with the obvious gameplay and appearance happenings throughout. 

Conversations themselves are a little limited in terms of player dialogue choices. But there is so much of it and all of it is voice-acted, so it’s easy to forgive the shortcomings while being so immersed. 

Companions also hit on some expected notes, both in characterization and combat applications. In the latter, there’s a healer, while another acts as a tank and yet another is a sort of glass cannon offensive type, to name a few. 

Like similar big names in the genre and similar spaces, Avowed does have a morality system of sorts that shapes relationships with NPCs and party members via player decisions and actions. 

Some will bemoan the lack of romance options given how in-depth Avowed goes in other familiar areas, which is more than fair. But player freedom to be as morally good or evil is refreshing and feels impactful, which is welcome after other recent releases in the genre.

Overall progression is handled about as expected, including skill trees. At their most basic, these are fighter, ranger and wizard trees, to name a few. These range from defensive and damage prevention to weapon specialists and magic users, in that order.

Enhancing gear while leveling up is critical to progression because this isn’t a game where enemies level up alongside the player. That makes for fun romps through the world and also enables experimentation with new gear combos and the like. 

Accessibility and overall options are solid, arguably highlighted by the ability to fully remap the controls to one’s choosing. The game runs well, too, looping in good performance despite the draw distances and number of things that can happen on screen at once. 

Conclusion

Avowed sits in a super-interesting space. Fresh off Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s disappointing writing and restricting role-playing, Avowed feels fresh in its openness to player choice. There are nitpicks, like surefire murmurings about not being as open as Baldur's Gate 3 (what game is?), but they ultimately fall flat. 

“Skyrim but smaller” doesn’t have to be a bad thing, either. Avowed is a narrower experience with pinpoint laser focus that is simply fun. As such, it expertly avoids any Starfield good-game-wrong-era accusations, too. 

It’s a shame to throw out so many comparisons, but it’s important to establish a contextual footing for a new IP like this. 

And that’s the thing—Avowed is a fun hit that separates itself from the pack for being a polished, enjoyable ride that is almost a throwback to the glory days of its genre.