Developer Obsidian Entertainment is used to creating dense, excellent open worlds, exploring and enchanting story experiences to remember. Fallout: New Vegas still stands as one of my favorite games, so their latest project, Avowed, quickly caught my attention.
While it doesn’t necessarily change or redefine the current RPG structure, Avowed offers a gorgeous open world for a decent storyline and solid characters in full exploration. It’s also packed into a variety of functional combat, giving you a wide range of character skills and upgrades that keep things fresh in the long run.
It’s falling to you now
Players rule the Emperor’s envoy, chosen by higher powers, and ingrained in special abilities. You must head to the living land, investigate and ultimately eliminate the world of the dream world, a deadly fungal disease that infects the host and ultimately drives them crazy.
Generally, it is a premise I would have encountered before, a chosen person, and is sent to remove the land of evil and save the day. But at the same time, I am grateful that the story has dived deeper into later times, acting with some solid voices, supporting the characters, and advancing the development of the characters in general.
You will be choosing different conversation prompts for your conversation, making choices based on missions at hand without ruining the story itself. Keep in mind that your choices can have a variety of consequences. Some results are emphasized immediately, and only when everything is said and done. There were several opportunities that I felt immediately regretting my choice or that I had an outcome that I had not yet anticipated.
It sometimes feels convenient that most of these choices fall on you, but the fact that despite the fact that the game has to come to these specific crossroads, there is always an element of freedom at its heart. You can understand it. The story itself develops over 11 major missions. This feels like a reservation chapter.
By playing these major missions, you will also come across four of your teammates: Kai, Marius, Jatta and Yatzli. They are all wonderful, from the acting and character abilities in their voices to the emotional roles they each play in the main story. A little later we’ll be touching on their gameplay mechanics, but it’s always been bothering to choose only two to take on a mission.
Overall, Avowed throws you into an interesting open world and discovers lots of lore, but rarely defeats you without your input. The main story is on the short side for a game of this size and clocks in about 20 hours, but it is certainly worth playing. Thanks to a set of minimal and important choices, there is a greater chance of leading players on different branching passes.
Put your skills in the test
You will spend most of your time on various weapons, looting areas, enemies fighting enemies with fallen enemies, talking to characters of interest. There’s nothing normal for Western RPGs, but I can’t criticize Avowed for this because they use these existing ratios to their advantage.
As far as combat goes, things feel pretty tight. From daggers, swords, hammers to staff and guns, several brawls and ranged weapons can be used. You can buy weapons with in-game currency, but you can simply play the game and defeat enemies and find most arsenals. The game also does a great job of encouraging people to confuse things, depending on whether they are using one or two-handed weapons.
Either way, there was a confusing bundle and I found myself mixing my Arsenals all the way through and matching them. The weapon also offers certain statistical benefits such as damage and attack speed, allowing you to use less or even more stamina.
Like most of the Avowed, your weapons can even be upgraded as they progress. Early in the game, players are given the ability to set up party camps in certain areas that act like checkpoints and safe areas where weapons can be upgraded in the workbench. You can create upgrades in five categories: general, fine, exceptional, great, legendary, and each option requires much more difficult objects and resources.
If that’s not enough, envoys can also upgrade their abilities with a huge skill tree that spans three categories. Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard abilities. Fighter abilities upgrade melee combat skills, while ranger abilities enhance ranged weapons. Finally, magical abilities increase effectiveness and add new elements to abilities such as magic items, spells and wands.
Once unlocked, you will also have access to two companions during the mission, each one can assist in combat and puzzle solved. Though it spends more time than the former, each member’s unique abilities change the approach slightly, ordering them to target the enemy and use the ability with the tap of the directional button.
Unlike in the Dragon Age, the only real problem here is that these party members don’t have other implementations, like Belgard, for example. You can talk to them, but that’s about it. There are no romances or specific character building missions. Thankfully, you can upgrade your companion abilities too, so I think there’s something to work on.
Please look at the parts
Exploring the lands that are openly living is also a real treat. It’s a sight to be honest, with almost every region filled with colorful funggi. Towns, cities, and even characters are filled with style and flare, so it’s a joy to be there.
Most side quests generally help you plunder and fetch valuable items, but there is even a light parkour system that helps you explore every corner that is out of reach of them. Unfortunately, the bigger the enemy will not be revived. So, after running around for a few hours, things can feel a little empty.
Avowed features both 30 fps quality mode and 60 fps performance mode (PC and Xbox Series X only), the latter backing back certain textures to draw distances. The 30 FPS options look good visually, but they still lean towards that smooth performance option, even when slight frame rates fall all over the place. But overall, this was solid on the Xbox Series X.
Final thoughts
Avowed may not feel as big and bold as the RPGs that came before that, but it certainly takes those existing ratios and makes good use of them. It’s certainly worth checking out as there’s a gorgeous open world to explore, decent stories, great characters and voice acting. Combat is also very functional and varies based on the amount of weapons and abilities you can use at your disposal.
The story feels a little short, and sometimes open worlds are vacant, but there’s no doubt that both RPG fans and newcomers will find something to enjoy in Avowed.
3 and a half stars (out of 5)
Highlights: A great story with lots of choices and results. Fun battles and companions. A gorgeous open world
Lowlight: The main story is a bit short. Certain open areas can feel a little empty. It has little to do with allies beyond combat.
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher: Xbox Game Studio
Platform: Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC, Game Pass
Available: Now
Reviews conducted on Xbox Series X use pre-release code provided by the publisher.
