What Avowed lacks in gloss it makes up for with charm, depth and a playful heart. It’s one of this year’s most pleasant surprises.
It took me a while to warm to Avowed. There’s a feeling early on that it’s all rather old-fashioned, a bit stiff and a bit wooden. It’s there in the ambition of the game too: it doesn’t seem to be doing anything grand or headline-grabbing. This is a big new role-playing adventure from a renowned first-party Xbox studio, but I just seem to be running around whacking lizard people. Where are the bold new ideas? Sometimes it feels like playing a game from the Xbox 360 era, albeit one with ray tracing and DLSS 3.
Avowed reviewDeveloper: Obsidian EntertainmentPublisher: Microsoft Game StudiosPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out on 18th February on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store, Battle.net) and Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass. Cross-buy on PC and Xbox by linking your Xbox and Battle.net accounts.
But as I stuck with it, that cynicism melted away, its Xbox 360-ness feeling more like a strength than a weakness. Unlike so many po-faced RPGs of today, Avowed feels blissfully unburdened by complication. It’s an adventure in the warm sea air of a strange and fantastical island, and it never loses sight of that – of being an adventure. It’s a game about climbing around on treasure hunts, striking out into the unknown, and revelling in the absurdity of its super-powered combat. It’s a game that enjoys being a game – and I don’t think we say that enough.
Avowed is an action role-playing game in the same way Skyrim is an action role-playing game: a first-person (though there is the option of a third-person view) swashbuckling spell-flinger where you run around picking up apples and wedges of cheese. But the similarities stop there. Far from being a sandbox, Avowed is a more authored kind of game where characters and their associated stories are deliberately placed to direct you around the world. It’s also an experience where the few companions you meet aren’t optional and aren’t romanceable, which feels delightfully novel these days. They’ll fight alongside you in battle (two at a time) and weigh in on decisions you make, both in the moment and when you’re back at camp.
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The adventure itself takes place in an island region called the Living Lands, a mysterious new addition to the world of Eora, which is the setting of Obsidian’s acclaimed Pillars of Eternity games. It’s a standalone area so you don’t need to have played those games to understand this one, but there’s an undeniable thrill for returning players in seeing this previously isometric world through the eyes of a character who lives there. There are also several nods to characters and events from previous Pillars games. It’s nice to be back.