Xbox are kicking off 2025 with a brand new RPG from one of the titans of the genre in Obsidian. However, I had a lot of questions about this game before launch that, and after over 40 hours of playtime and rolling credits, I feel I’ve got my answers.
Avowed is everything I wanted right now from an RPG but that does not mean it’s a perfect game
What works? What doesn’t? Why is there a mushroom on my face!? I’m here to answer all these questions and more in this spoiler free review!
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Story
You start the game being shipped off to the Living Lands by your emporer to find the cause and cure for the Dreamscourge. A delightful plague that takes over the minds of the locals and turns them into fungal-covered husks that attack on sight. Ironically, you are a godlike. Basically a Dreamscourge daywalker - all the fungal looks, none of the murderous tendancies. As you have been touched by a god at birth, somehow only you can cure the world and deal with an overabundance of mushrooms or something. The premise is dumb, but Obsidian take this premise and runs with it.
As you traverse the land, you will meet various races and factions, all with their own motivations. To try and be as vague as possible, the choices you make and how you react to their actions will have far-reaching ramifications for the world and its populace. This is unsurprising considering who we are talking about here. Obsidian are the people behind arguably the best Fallout game, New Vegas, and know how to craft an intertwining story. Throughout my entire time with this game, I also felt like my choices had meaning, the way that innocuous side characters would pop back up later on and various factions having motivations that went beyond skin-deep interactions.
From the side quests to the main golden path, everything had the same care and attention I wanted where by the time I reached the end game missions and saw how my choices affected the final story I was genuinely left unsure if i’d made the right decisions. This again is testament to the writing as there is no clear correct answer. The world is built on the back of moral ambiguity. More often than not I found myself choosing the lesser of 2 evils and second guessing my choices all the way to the end.
Characters
For the most part I will say that writing quality extends to the NPC’s you come across. Throughout the game you will be joined by 4 companions, all who once again have their own reasons for being there.
The only issues I really had with these was 2 fold.
Firstly, It took way too long for Marius’ character to connect with me as it’s not until the final area you start to get some of his backstory.
Second: Kai’s voice actor is the same actor as Garrus from Mass Effect which is totally unfair to the other voice actors.
The other issue I had was while there was a lot of player agency for your character, none of that transfers to the NPC’s. Throughout your time in the Living Lands your companions will be asked to make some major personal life choices. However not a single person on this island can make a decision on their own and it’s always left to you to tell them what to do. While i understand this is just a trope of video games, their refusal to make any decision was in complete opposition to the rest of their great writing. I kind of wish my micro-decisions led them to a conclusion themselves rather than just waiting for me to tell them what to do.
Gameplay
A great story will only get yo u so far and eventually you will have to play the game. Luckily, Avowed manages to land the gameplay side with relative ease. If you are familiar with their other titles like The Outer Worlds and, to an extent Grounded. You’ll have a pretty good idea about how this feels.
you can play the game in 1st or 3rd person - however I stuck with 1st throughout as the combat just felt more impactful that way, and combat is where Avowed truly shines. You will start the game with 1 of 5 backgrounds however you have complete freedom to mix and match skills based on your preferred playstyle. From here you are free to choose how you tackles fights. Do you want to run around with a wand freezing enemies before disintegrating them with a pistol blast? Maybe you want to use a flaming sword to set everyone on fire? Maybe you want to do both? Avowed’s combat system lets you mix and match abilities and swap them on the fly as part of two seperate loadouts. I loved this take on combat as it allowed me to build around both long and short range attacks while also becoming a fungal gandalf!
There are a few caveats to my glowing praise that will vary depending on what you want from this game. This is not an all-encompassing sandbox similar to the likes of Baldurs Gate or Obsidian’s own Pillars of Eternity games. This is a more streamlined experience. certain mechanics within the world you might expect are just not there. Stealing isn’t really a thing - If it’s not nailed down and you want it - well, it’s yours. grab the fruit right off someone’s stall and they wont bat an eyelid. the upgrade system is pretty self explanatory. you spend a skill point on an ability from one of the class screens alongside spending a point into attributes for a nominal gain. There’s no real min/maxing character classes here. Just go with what seems the most fun.
It’s this mindset of fun that I like the most. Building up my magic and strength to be able to crowd control enemies and wreak havoc on anyone I found was a blast.
There’s also background specific dialogue choices that from what I could tell had no real sway on the story and just added some light flair to the proceedings.
I did have some issues with the difficulty spikes as i started traversing through each area. Either I missed it or the game is bad at explaining it, but enemies scale between area and your damage is mostly controlled by the level of your weapons and armor. Avowed has an upgrade system that will see you plowing plenty of resources into those few specific loadouts you love - if you don’t, you will struggle with the higher difficulties so make sure to search every area for items and unique gear.
Exploration and performance
Thankfully, exploration is never a chore in this game. I always found going off the beaten path to be well rewarded. Either by unique gear, a fun side quest. boss fights and more. Avowed always rewards your inquisitiveness. It also helps that the world is beautiful to look at. Whether it be the lush seaside town of Paradis, to the volcanic mountains of Solace Keep. Each one is unique in it’s own right with plenty of screenshot worthy views along the way.
I played Avowed on PC via the Xbox store and, while performance for the most part was smooth, I did have a recurring issue where the game would crash after a few hours of playtime. Luckily the game’s auto save feature is pretty robust and I never lost more than a few minutes at most. Otherwise I was able to run this game at high settings across the board on an RTX 3070 with no noticeable frame drops or other performance issues.
Verdict
Obsidian have a pedigree when it comes to RPG’s and while this is a more streamlined affair than what we’re used to, I still think they’ve produced a wonderful game. In my almost 45 hours with the game I was constantly having fun with the combat, story and exploration, that left me wanting to complete every side objective on my way to the end. Some crashes and some thinner than i’d like companion choices took a little away from my time but I can recommend Avowed if you are looking for a nice pallete cleanser of an RPG while we wait another 10 years for Elder Scrolls 6.
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