Avowed Review – A Streamlined High Fantasy Adventure

It seems that almost every game these days incorporates some form of roleplaying mechanics. Whether that be leveling up, skill trees, or dialogue skill checks, players cannot get away from these familiar mechanics. Some games provide these features as if it were a checklist, which often reflects superficial implementation. While others, like Baldur’s Gate 3, expand what has already been established and create the paramount experience within the genre. However, some games simply identify a scope and stick to it well.

Avowed is an action RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity universe that relies on open-zones, as opposed to open worlds. The game is a long-time ambition for veteran studio Obsidian Entertainment. This is reflected in its release, despite being delayed out of 2024 after being revealed in 2020, Avowed has created one of the most enjoyable and streamlined fantasy RPGs I’ve played in a long time. It knows its scope and does not stray from its meticulously crafted path. 

Developer & Publisher // Obsidian Entertainment, Xbox Game Studios
Platforms // PC, Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass
MSRP & Release Dates // $69.99, February 18th, 2025 (Early Access – February 13)
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X

A Rich Story in a Universe Filled with Rich Lore

Avowed takes place in the world of Eora, the same universe as the Pillars of Eternity franchise. Players assume the role of the personal Envoy of the Aedyran Emporer, leader of the Aedyr Empire. The Envoy is sent to an untamed island continent known as the Living Lands to investigate a mysterious plague known as the Dream Scourge. The plague turns its victims into violent husks known as Dreamthralls. The Envoy themselves are known as a godlike. A human with a soul blessed before birth by one of the gods, resulting in physical traits reflecting their divine patron. However, unlike most godlike, the Envoy is unaware of which god blessed them, an important mystery revealed during the game.

The Aedyran Empire has also dispatched their allies, the zealous and fanatical paladins known as the Steel Garrote to the Living Lands that are wreaking havoc across the continent. The Envoy will regularly have to take sides or walk a fine line between the inhabitants of The Living Lands and the Aedyran Empire and its affiliates that change the course of the story. 

Although the story starts slow, it picks up towards the end of the first zone in Dawnshore. Without going into spoilers, there were key moments that showcased the Steel Garrote’s fanatism that literally had my jaw drop to the ground. As someone who prefers gameplay over narrative that isn’t an easy feat. It also helps that Avowed employs a lore reference that can be easily accessed during dialogue sequences, so you can always brush on the game’s immense lore. 

In typical Obsidian fashion, the writing was on point for the most part. The pacing really took its strides towards the end of Dawnshore. The game’s conclusion uniquely feels like it’s yours because you shaped it with your choices. However, there were some inconsistencies when it came to some of the side quest writing.

Side Quest Inconsistencies 

Despite solid writing overall, there were notable inconsistencies in some of the messaging portrayed in certain side quests. For example, in the “A Lady Never Tells” side quest. There are hints about abortion using a contraceptive herb for working girls in a brothel in the city of Paradis that are subtly woven into the story. It felt too on the nose out of place for a high fantasy setting. I felt it kills some of the immersion of the world because the quest clearly aims to be an attempt at modern political commentary.

Another inconsistency is the addition of modern era pronoun selection. While it is controversial to some corners of the internet, the addition felt ultimately pointless as there is an option to omit the reference to genders altogether.

Dialogue and Choices that Truly Matter

Obsidian relayed that Avowed continued their strong pedigree in their branching dialogue system. In fact, the game’s Creative Director, Carrie Patel, mentioned that it’s the same system employed in all of Obsidian’s previous RPGs.

There’s a lot of agency when it comes to shaping the Envoy’s relations with the different factions of the game. These inter-faction tensions boil over constantly and will put you in the spotlight many times. 

Decisions you’ve made are regularly referenced. For example, and without going into spoilers, there is a secretive, but renowned, character that you can either kill or spare. This decision is constantly referenced later on in the game and even changes people’s attitudes towards you.

Another instance occurs early on in the game. It involves the decision to free a dodgy captive from the game’s opening area. Freeing the captive improves your standing with smugglers to the point that the group is willing to forgo expensive fees during another and unrelated sidequest. That sense of true agency is a rarity these days. But it’s a feature that no doubt enhances narratives and dialogue choices.

Uneven Dialogue Skill Checks

Dialogue skill checks are always fun in RPGs. Despite being present in Avowed, some of the skill checks are quite steep during conversations. There’s usually one skill check that is unique to your specialization. However, some of the dialogue skill checks have very high attribute requirements throughout the game. Most of the interesting skill checks are heavily skewed toward the perception attribute (some checks reached into 7 or 9 points requirement), which is insane. Especially if want to a build that isn’t based on critical chance and ranged damage and speaking of damage…

The Feel of Solid Combat in Avowed

From our early impressions of Avowed, it seems the combat has come a long way. Initially, we were critical of the lack of resonance and impact with the game’s combat. Though comparisons with Skyrim, (especially the classic look of Skyrim hands during combat are warranted) Avowed manages to stand on its own. Now that the game is finally in my hands, I was happy with how the combat feels. 

Every stab, slash, and slice have resonance to it. It’s a crescendo between different elements that are woven together beautifully. Deep resonating audio cues, satisfying controls, and multi-facet controller vibration reverberate when you block, parry, or when your strike connects with an enemy. Moreover, these different cues are extended when unleashing heavy attacks by holding the triggers for some time.  

Casting spells is also just as satisfying as melee weapons. The use of grimoire books that provide four spells is a clever way to organize what spells are available to you. If four spells book sounds complicated, don’t worry, if there’s a particular spell that you love to use (looking at your lightning bolt) you can bind that spell in the Wizard skill tree and can cast it at any time. 

Aiming a bow or firearm slightly slows down time and highlights enemy weak points which just feels incredible. Though firearms have a long reload sequence after every shot, so you’ll need to make a specific ranged weapons build that might not be viable if you want to mix up your build.

In addition to melee, spells, and abilities, players can also press the LB button to pause combat and bring up the action radial. It’s this menu where you can pull off companion abilities, select which grenade to use during fight, consume food items that can restore your health/essence, or provide buffs to attributes like your stamina or damage reduction. It’s a nice way to take a breather especially when fights become hectic. Though sometimes, I did notice that when my adrenaline was high during an intense fight, I would sometimes select the wrong command when trying to navigate the dial.   

Stamina and Essence Rule Them All

Similar to soulslike games, stamina governs every aspect of combat. Light and heavy melee attacks, and ranged weapon attacks like pistols, rifles, heck even wands. This forces you to manage your stamina bar and keeps combat from being a bland slugfest. Of course, you can mitigate this by increasing your character’s stamina attribute or by equiping gear that grants additional stamina as well.

Being Stealthy is an Option Too

Avowed also provides stealth in its combat. You can crouch down with the B button and hide in tall grass – a common trope in video games. Hitting unsuspecting enemies with ranged attacks from firearms or wands can deal critical damage. Moreover, you can also stealth kill enemies with a godlike ability. Sneaking up behind an enemy prompts a stealth kill/strike icon that does one hit kill weaker enemies or deals significant damage to stronger ones. 

There’s also the tried-and-true stealth indicator is also present in Avowed. There are the usual grey (beginning to suspect you’re around), yellow (suspicious and searching), and red (pursuing you and warning others for help) indicators above the heads of enemies. It’s a simple and effective system.  

Poise Meter and Finishing Moves

Similar to Sekiro, each enemy has a poise bar right below their health bar. Filling it up stuns the enemy for a few seconds and opens them up to a brilliant heavy-hitting critical strike. These strikes vary depending on the type of you are currently using and deal a nice amount of damage. Visually, I love the wand’s critical strike as it unleashes a swarm of purple magical shards on the stunned enemy. Usually, a weaker stunned enemy will be instantly killed when their poised bar is filled. However, for bosses and tougher enemies, it will just remove a decent chunk of their health bar.  

Enemy Scaling is a Thing of the Past

One of the smartest features in Avowed is how the game decided to dump enemy scaling. In its place, enemies have tier levels to distinguish the level of challenge. These tiers are denominated by the number of skulls they have near their health bars. One skull enemies are pushovers, while three skulls will hit hard and be spongey. It’s an easy way to gauge how much trouble certain enemies will present.

Avowed Has Plenty of Bosses and Challenge

One of my favorite things about video games is boss fights. They will often test your mettle, especially in the soulslike genre, and Avowed definitely takes some cues from it. Boss fights have massive health bars, and they will deal out pain, but they aren’t going to make you pull your hair out. 

The most frustrating boss from my playthrough was undoubtedly the Delemgan Queen in the Emerald Stair. I had to put aside the fight and level up and get better gear just to defeat her. It was an intense fight that had many ads thrown at my companions and me, but I persevered. I wasn’t expecting that level of challenge, but it was refreshing as it kept boss fights memorable and enjoyable as they demanded to use every combat mechanic in the game.

A Jack of All Trades

One aspect of Avowed I truly appreciated was the flexibility in building a character. Three main skill trees fall within the Warrior, Ranger, and Wizard classes. Players can freely disperse and respec any time they want (for a moderate price in gold currency). Only more advanced skills have specific level requirements such as reaching levels 10, 15, etc.

The skill tree complements the flexible build system Avowed is going for and allows you to fine-tune which skills you want to pursue based on your play style. All the while provides the avenue to experiment since respec isn’t too expensive. I built my character around wand-wielding with magic and one-handed melee and shield combinations respectively. I prefer to use wands and magic from afar and close in on enemies with my melee build.   

Simple Companion and Godlike Skill Trees

In addition, there are compassion skills trees and a Godlike skill tree. Godlike skills unlock as you progress through the game. The latter comprises mainly abilities and passives that can make a difference during combat such as healing spell that also deals damage over time to nearby enemies. Fortunately, the companion skill trees are quite simple. 

Avowed does a good job of keeping things with your companion management as streamlined as possible. Companion skills trees consist of a few skills at most. Players can simply just unlock new compassion skills or upgrade currently unlocked ones. However, keep in mind that companion skill points are granted every couple of level-ups. I prefer this system because it’s less to manage and helps you focus on your character. Best of all you don’t have to worry about equipping your companions with their gear, another task that doesn’t need to be managed. Also, companion visual customization is limited to the skin packs that come with the premium edition of the game, which feels like a miss.

Rewarding Exploration

Because Avowed employs multiple open zones, it’s far easier to compartmentalize exploration. Best of all, your curiosity is almost always rewarded when exploring. Find a hole in an abandoned house? You’ll probably find a chest with some sweet crafting materials. 

Decided to take a plunge to land into a pool that exits into a cave network, then expect some unique dagger lying around somewhere. I hardly felt that I was wasting my time even if I trekked off the beaten path and that is something that is rare in modern RPGs. Best of all the mini map will highlight any corpse, crafting material, or grenade that you might have missed. It’s also worth mentioning that you can pretty much take anything you want in towns with no consequences at all. So, loot to your heart’s content!

The Expanding Influence of Camps

Video games, like any other media format, take inspiration from their peers. It seems that Avowed wears its influences on its sleeves with its camp system. Players can camp at Arda stones that are found throughout different zones. Similarly found in Baldur’s Gate 3, the camp is where you can chat with your companions, use your workbench to upgrade your gear, manage your camp storage, and enchant your unique weapons. Naturally, you’ll definitely be relying on your enchanted and unique weapons to deal with those pesky 3-skull tiered enemies and bosses.

Enchanting weapons add buffs to your weapons. These buffs include getting health from enemy kills, dealing additional elemental damage, and more. What’s interesting is that you can only select one enchantment for your unique weapons so you have to think strategically about it. Though you can change the enchantment later, you’ll need the same crafting materials to do so. Again, very streamlined and I appreciate that.  

Crafting is also a fun experience. Each weapon and gear tier level can be upgraded as there are three levels in tier level (from common, fine, exceptional, and superb) with a level in between tiers as well. It’s all very easy to follow and streamlined. Best of all, every gear upgrade feels substantial.

Companions Will Let You Know How They Feel

The Envoy’s camp is also where you get to unwind and chat with your companions, of which there are four of them in the game. It’s here where you get to know them better – if they let you, of course and will let you know about the decisions/actions you’ve made throughout the game. Naturally, their viewpoint aligns with the companion backgrounds. 

Each companion has their own unique background that is reflected in their conversations with you, the Envoy. For example, Kai, a Coastal aumaua who served in the Rauataian Navy, is a long inhabitant of the Living Lands will always be naturally suspicious of the Envoy and their Aedyeran Empire ties. So, selecting dialogue choices that counter Aedeyran policies and cultural norms will garner a surprised and appreciated response from Kai. It’s these subtle touches that expand the game’s lore, world-building, and relationships between the characters. 

Again, similar to Baldur’s Gate 3, the party camp is where you will likely encounter dialogue with your deity’s voice. She will regularly hint at upcoming trials and tribulations, while also giving her take on the decision you make as well. Despite her ominous takes, it is refreshing that the Envoy can always respond in a snarky way, which is refreshing and keeps things light. 

Graphics and Art Direction of Avowed

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the tumultuous public relations ride Avowed had every time it was shown. From its gorgeous – but unrealistic– unveiling back in 2020 to its multiple showings at different Xbox showcases and the recent Developer Direct, the game had a dynamic showing to put it lightly. However, playing the game, I can honestly say that the game looks good despite the visual differences.

Avowed has a distinct look to it. It doesn’t look like your typical Unreal Engine 5 game. Instead, there’s a distinctive art style that remains well in line with Pillars of Eternity games. It’s colorful and stylistic instead of going for a realist art style. In fact, it’s almost like the isometric camera from the Pillars of Eternity was taken down to the ground, and thus created Avowed. 

The character models are highly detailed, especially the Envoy and your companions. In particular, clothing textures look stupendous. You can see every single individual stitching and clothing pattern look sharp and vibrant. While different plate armors have a distinct shine to them. Spell-casting effects are vibrant and colorful. However, the fire effects do look flat on console. Some of the fountains found in the different cities have a distinct shimmer to them, which likely shows AMD’s FSR upscaler as the culprit. Fortunetly, it did not detract too much from the experience.

Stunning Environments that Lack Interactivity 

The Living Lands is a beautiful, but wild and untamed land. The environments in Avowed reflect this dichotomy. From the luscious outdoor environments filled with floral rocks to the stank network of caves, misty swamps, and arid deserts, cruel nature is beautifully epitomized and warrants the name of the Living Lands. 

In particular, the arid desert of the Shatterscarp region was my favorite zone. Especially for Leviathan Hollow, which is the skull of a giant leviathan jutting out of the ground. The team behind the environment design really outdid themselves and created memorable locations for the players to remember. 

Lack of Interactivity is Clear as Day

Part of Avowed‘s planned scope means that the world couldn’t be so interactive. In other words, anything in town you can take without any consequences. There are no jailers that will chase after you if go on a stealing spree. Outside of dialogue, NPCs do not react to you at all, which makes towns and settlement feel static. It’s as if the world was based on The Truman Show, but in a high fantasy setting.

Technical Performance

Avowed runs on Unreal Engine 5, which we all know by now can be a taxing engine, even for the beefiest rigs. Though as a gaming daddy, I had to divide my playthrough between the Xbox Series X and PC. The latter of which was used when the family was using the TV. For transparency’s sake, I primarily played the game on Xbox Series X. I must say, I was shocked by Avowed’s performance.

The game provides three options to users: Resolution, Balanced, and Performance, where the first two modes have global illumination raytracing. The first mode prioritizes resolution aiming to hit 2160p (4K). The Balance mode works only with VRR compatible displays aim aims to hit around 40 FPS while maintaining a sharp resolution and texture details. Lastly, the Performance mode aims to hit 60 FPS and is quite smooth, but I didn’t appreciate the hit to the texture details and resolution, and the lack of raytracing. 

I mainly used Balance mode on my LG OLED C1 display. The performance was smooth and consistent with hardly any noticeable frame drops. The only instance of framerate drops I found, was during combat with multiple enemies that usually cast spells. But even that was not enough to deter the technical performance of the game on console.

On the PC side of things, because the game has to optimize shaders for the first few times things can be choppy at first. My rig consists of a Ryzen 7 5700x CPU, Radeon RX 6950XT GPU, 32GB at 3200MHz DDR4 so the specs fit well within the recommended system requirements. After a few boot-ups, the game runs silky smooth even with Global Illumination set to medium settings.

Not All Jank is Created Equal

Let’s not beat around the bush, Avowed has some jank to it. Despite it being smoothened out throughout its development cycle, there are still some awkward movements and facial features. Sometimes during dialogue sequences, characters’ mouth movements look quite exaggerated. Fortunately, it’s just for a line or two and then evens out during the conversation. However, the same cannot be said about combat.

No doubt Avowed’s combat has come a long way, but jankiness is still present. The animations are quite exaggerated, with long wind-ups during heavy attacks and when casting spells. There are almost some awkwardly smoothened motions from enemies during fights. As if soap opera mode was enabled by accident. Seeing the awkward movement does break immersion and often garners a chuckle. Nonetheless combat remained engaging, and more importantly, fun. Except when you get hit during a wind-up, but even the animation canceling didn’t look too bad. 

Avowed’s Audio Design

Avowed made tremendous strides when it comes to the audio department. As we said above, the weapon sound effects have a lot more oomph to them. This adds to the satisfying combat experience. While the game’s soundtrack is mainly comprised of orchestral pieces that suit the high fantasy setting. Even when you’re just wandering around in the wilderness, the soundtrack is always epic. 

Voice actors have done a phenomenal with the role of their characters. They provide enough emotionality to bring their lines to life. Especially your wizardly companion Yatzli (voiced by Anjali Bhimani), who is always bubbly, flirty, and a delight to have around. 

Plenty of Accessibility Options in Avowed

It seems that accessibility was a major part of Avowed‘s development from the get-go. Besides the different difficulty levels, there are a ton of options that players can tweak to facilitate gameplay. From aim magentism, hit detection assistance, different subtitle options, tuning the mini-map assistance, and more. No doubt this will make Avowed accessible to more players.

Final Thoughts on Avowed

Avowed is one of Obsidian’s most ambitious projects to date. They meticulously crafted vibrant zones that culminate into a beautiful, yet wild, Living Lands continent. Best of all, they delivered such an amazing experience while making it so streamlined for players. Whether that comes from the accessible lore glossary, helpful mini-map, or robust and flexible skill trees, Avowed is a joy to play and stays well within its scope. Even its rougher edges cannot deter your adventure in the Living Lands.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Note – Access to the game was provided for the purpose of this review.

Check out our full video review on the Iron Lords Podcast YouTube channel right here.

Pros: 

• Your Decisions Matter 
• Flexible Character Build System
• Great Voice Overs
• Solid Console Performance
• Multiple Graphical Options
• Combat Feels Good Overall
• Helpful Dynamic Mini-Map
• Clever Alternative to Enemy Scaling
• Simple Companion Management System
• Rewarding Exploration
• Meaningful Crafting Experience
• Tons of Accessibility Options

Cons:

• Some Janky Facial and Combat Animations
• Some Low-Resolution Textures
• Uneven Dialogue Skill Checks
• Political Messaging Too on the Nose
• Lack of Environmental Interactivity