Happy about: Avowed

When Avowed was first announced half a decade ago, I was mildly curious, but somewhat concerned about the idea. After all, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has shown a significant drop in writing quality for Obsidian Entertainment, even if it was ultimately still an alright game. Going full on first person action RPG?.. Not the direction I wanted the series to go in. But then again, The Outer Worlds wasn’t terrible, even if still a clear drop in quality for the team, so maybe they were onto something. And so a year ago Avowed was finally released to somewhat positive reviews and after seeing some people play the game online, I’ve decided to grab it sometime later when it gets patched a bunch. Year later, the game received a massive update that added a few nice elements and quality of life features, so I’ve decided to finally give it a go.

Avowed is a first person action RPG set in the world of Pillars of Eternity games and while it is a side story, its events take place just a couple of years after the end of Deadfire. The story is quite important in the game and Obsidian do delve into things they’ve been known for since Black Isle Studios days, with choices that have consequences for entire towns and all that stuff. Just in a far simpler and “dumbed down” version than what you would’ve gotten even from Sith Lords. Which doesn’t mean that the story is stupid or bad, just much simpler, with characters also being far less nuanced than what you got in Pillars of Eternity. Though, I would say, as far as party members go, Avowed is quite a bit less absurd than Deadfire. Here, characters are one-dimensional, but at least their stories are told well, unlike Deadfire where everything regarding companions felt shoved in at the last minute. That said, Avowed does feel not fully polished and slightly unfinished too, with later areas lacking the depth and nuance of the first two major areas, but at least the story isn’t rushed.

What I did not expect from Avowed, and what motivated me to keep going the most, was the way the game plays. You see, I was afraid of getting something very Borderlands-esque, with primitive exploration and focus on combat, or at most something like The Outer Worlds. Or The Elder Scrolls, but in “open levels” instead of fully open world. But instead, the level design, especially in the first two areas, is really smart and exploration is far more involved than in a typical wide open action RPG game. To the point, where I started thinking more of the Deus Ex level design or something closer to the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Now, to avoid confusion, this game isn’t really built around immersive sim concepts, nor is the combat as dynamic and hilarious as in Dark Messiah. But it’s deep enough to keep you engaged, feeling properly handcrafted, instead of pasted over the typical open world geography.

The overall gameplay is just in general feeling like an oddly well balanced mix of classic role playing with purely action driven hack and slash. To the point, where I’ve caught myself thinking that the game felt like a proper re-imagining of what it felt like playing as a Fighter class in the original Baldur’s Gate. It has the same adventurous feel as the classic. Though, I’d say, the choices you can make in quests typically go farther than in the original Baldur’s Gate. Apart from being able to aggro the whole town, of course. But, really, even The Outer Worlds or Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t give me the similar feeling of playing that late 90s-early 00s BioWare-style adventurous RPG and that’s counting for something.

Of course, flaws are still aplenty. Some of the big choices aren’t built up properly and come out of nowhere. Some frustrating design choices and bugs are still in the game, the most frustrating being the sound bug where things may become muffled until you restart the whole game or wait a long time. Second half of the game, as mentioned, feels far weaker compared to the first and drags on somewhat. The loot/equipment system feels odd, as usually there’s no reason ever to not use unique equipment, because there is way too much of it, but you’re still being showered with items all the time. And all of the crafting, skills, upgrades and the rest feel more like a chore than they could, sometimes with confusing UI as well. Though, at least, the game is mostly stable, looks and sounds really good and utilizes the Unreal Engine 5 really well in general, which is, sadly, not something that can be taken for granted.

Avowed is a title that I cannot fully praise, but also one, that I really enjoyed playing. It is closer to being “mediocre” than to being great, but the level design is genuinely great, exploration is fun and the fact that it does everything it can to be closer to late 90s RPGs, than to the modern looter shooters it could’ve been elevates it above so many other similar titles. The music is neat too, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as for the PoE titles. Not a game I would recommend getting for full price and “premium” content seems utterly pointless, but the game is definitely worth keeping in mind.