Avowed

From the acclaimed developers at Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds), Avowed presents itself as a promising first-person RPG set in a vivid fantasy world known as the Living Lands. The game boasts impressive visuals, with rich textures and fluid animations that reflect current-generation capabilities. Initially, the world-building is engaging, with interesting lore and a solid pace during the first quarter. Unfortunately, that momentum doesn't last.

Gameplay is where Avowed shines. Combat is fast, fluid, and varied, giving players plenty of freedom and avoiding the usual pitfalls of stat-heavy RPG mechanics. The progression system feels balanced, letting your weapons and skills grow naturally as you advance. That said, this strength becomes a weakness later on: weapon upgrades become almost mandatory to proceed, and the dependence on gear progression begins to overshadow skill.

The experience starts to unravel in other areas. Conversations with NPCs begin promisingly but devolve into repetitive and shallow exchanges. Many characters feel lifeless - more like set pieces than personalities - which hurts immersion. Enemy encounters suffer a similar fate. Initially diverse, foes later become repetitive, and the challenge turns into a numbers game, with difficulty ramping up through sheer quantity rather than thoughtful design.

Narratively, the game struggles. While side quests and lore exploration help elevate a weak premise, the central plot involving gods and an internal entity becomes muddled halfway through. Too many concepts are poorly explained, and by the time the finale arrives, it's underwhelming and anticlimactic - a missed opportunity for a story that had potential.

Overall, Avowed delivers exciting gameplay mechanics in a beautifully crafted world. But for a title with such high narrative ambitions, its weak story, forgettable characters, and uneven pacing ultimately hold it back. Still, it's worth trying if you're looking for a fresh combat experience in an RPG setting.

Rating: 7.5/10.

Going into Avowed, I had very low to no expectations. In fact, I didn't even know Obsidian Entertainment (one of my favorite devs behind the amazing Fallout: New Vegas) made this game until a few weeks before its release. In truth, I played this game for no more reason than it was available on GamePass.

With that being said, there are absolutely worse games to play, and because I didn't pay $70+ for it, it just makes things all the sweeter.

The game takes place in the fantasy world of Eora. You play as a "Godlike," people born with the touch of one of the gods in this world. Your quest is to bring an end to the plague that curses the Living Lands. Along the way, you will make friends and foes as you, the player, make choices that will shape the fate of the Living Lands, for better or worse.

Great synopsis, right? Sounds like an exciting time. Well, I'd say hang your expectations because this game isn't all that great.

While Avowed offers a lot of fun in its gameplay and exploration, it has issues and is not as interesting as it may seem.

The story is playable and offers choices that one would expect from an Obsidian title, but the game's events aren't all that exciting, or at least the world doesn't quite make you believe this. Case in point: during some high-stakes events, NPCs don't react properly or at all. During the climax of the storyline of Galawain's Tusks (the homeland of the Dwarves), NPCs just stand around talking of mundane things like it's just another day while quite literally their homeland is potentially coming to an end.

That's what hurts this game a lot. The NPCs in this game don't do anything; they just stand around "looking" like they're busy, but in reality, they don't move or walk or provide any feeling of life in the city you are exploring. Sure, there are plenty of NPCs to talk to as they provide, albeit interesting quests, but it would help with immersion if these characters had any sort of routine of their own. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and NPCs in Oblivion had these things, and those two games are vastly older.

The writing is fine enough; it manages to keep your interest when conversing with companions. Unfortunately, though, the four companions you make throughout the game aren't all that interesting either. My favorite companion was Kai, and that was just because of how much I liked the voice actor, Brandon Keener. He played Garrus Vakarian in the Mass Effect trilogy, if anyone is curious.

So why play this game if it's so average? Well, quite honestly, because I had fun. Right out the gate, the game brought me back to my childhood days of playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The exploration and combat made me feel that nostalgia. Plus, the weapon combinations Avowed has to offer are quite stunning. I couldn't decide how I wanted to play: a dual-wielding swordsman, a warrior mage, or a bowman, or perhaps sword and pistol, or dual-wielding pistols. The possibilities are almost endless, and every combination was satisfying and unique, and the game naturally encourages experimentation as it doesn't limit you to any class or sets of skills.

Finally, I will say this game is way more stable than anything Bethesda has released in recent years. In my 70+ hour playthrough, I encountered all of two, maybe three, hard crashes and almost zero bugs and glitches. However, I encountered plenty of framerate drops and stutters. I saw these things both while playing on my Xbox Series X and PC.

Overall, while Avowed does offer plenty of fun, the story, uninteresting NPCs, and companions dull this game down. Nonetheless, Obsidian has made another worthwhile game, and perhaps with stronger writing and better development, this could be a potential franchise for them.

Final Score: 6/10.

6 out of 10. Not a bad Skyrim simulator. Overall, I liked the game and I don't regret playing it. From a gameplay perspective, the game doesn't add anything new, it's all old stuff. There was one bug where I got stuck in the textures and couldn't get out, and if you explore more, I think you can find more bugs like that. There was also a problem with the spell casting circle, it's terribly designed, you can't always aim where you need to. There's nothing particularly new about the plot either, but there is one thing! In this game, there are no good or bad choices, you always have to choose between two things that combine both good and bad, which definitely adds more depth and interest to the plot. Because of this, I will definitely remember the game and will sometimes recall the plot. If you are a fan of the genre, then playing this game on relaxed is definitely worth it, but it can quickly become boring. If not, and you are not interested or do not want to spend more than 40 hours on a mediocre game with an interesting plot, then you can safely pass it by.

The game is technically and mechanically good, it plays well and it does not have irritating mechanics like stamina loss while exploring or weapon decay that makes them need repair.

... but the writing, oh god the writing and storytelling!

The absurd amount of made up words that we have to memorize to just keep track of what's being talked about is appalling!

Then sometimes different words spoken by different people have the same meaning and we are supposed to keep track of all this convoluted internal structure just because a character one time said that word.

The amount of interruption in the game just to spit a meaningless dialogue in our face is also absurd. After a few hours I just stopped even reading and skipped everything because it was just time lost, it amounted to nothing.

Mind you, I have the suspicion that all the interactions with "the voice" will decide the ending of the game, but they irritated me so much that at this point I'm more eager to get it over with than to care for how the game end.

EDIT: After finishing the game I have to say the writing is even worse than I thought just because it has no actual influence on what happens, it's literally hours of mindnumbing armchair psychology that does nothing but change the slideshow at the game's epilogue.

There are 5 or 6 choices that have minor gameplay consequences, the rest of the dialogue can be skipped and the player would see no difference.

This is everything I had wanted Elder Scrolls Online to be (with the exception of multiplayer mode). I just felt compelled to give this a good review, because of how wonderful of an adventure these last several days of playing Avowed have been.

I love many of the characters. The scenery is gorgeous. The voice acting is excellent. Music is lovely. The towns and areas are stimulating of my curiosity continuously compelling me to explore more and more. I feel like a treasure hunter helping people out around the realm.

I had quit ESO a few years ago, because I found the bad guys that attacked me when I was just trying to get from point a to b, to be just irksome and annoying. In this game though, as was the case for me in Zelda Breath of the Wild; I am actually enjoying the little battles between. Also, very important for me, is that I can run away from the baddies that are in the path of my journey, if I don't want to fight them. In ESO, that one fact that I couldn't get around those skirmishes, was probably the main reason I quit.

Although I did like many things about ESO. In fact, this game has many of the positive aspects, in my opinion in a more well done sort of way.

Another thing to note is that you always have a couple companions at your side. Really makes this game feel less empty than other games. Like you're traveling with a couple of friends.

Can't recommend this enough. Usually I am only into pvp. For a single player game to have grasped my attention for so many days in a row...this is only the second time this has happened despite the many solo games I've tried. The first was botwzelda.