Avowed Review - Pillars of Excellency

If there's one thing Obsidian Entertainment is known for, it's for fantastic writing. That was true with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II in 2004, true with Fallout: New Vegas in 2010, and still true all the way in 2022 with the release of the incredible game that is Pentiment. In 2025, we have Avowed.

Fear not, for Obsidian's quality of writing is still there with Avowed. It is, in essence, Obsidian doing what they do best: Adventures with gripping narratives and fleshed-out characters. Avowed is an epic fantasy in the truest sense, giving us one of the best RPGs this decade.

In this ambitious role-playing experience, players can expect to travel across the continent of The Living Lands. A terrible fate awaits those who live in The Living Lands, with an enigmatic malady called the "Dreamscourge" affecting not only its people, but the continent's wildlife and terrain as well. All of these elements are a recipe for a grand adventure.

Avowed: A Wonderful Continuation to Pillars of Eternity's Lore

First things first, I'd like to acknowledge the setting of Avowed. Yes, it takes place in The Living Lands, but the world itself -- called Eora -- is one that has a great deal of existing lore. Avowed is set within the Pillars of Eternity universe -- the first game of which was released in 2015 and following that several years later in 2018, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

As a result, Avowed feels like a living world. The lore has had time to develop over the course of a decade, and in doing so, we see a masterful display of worldbuilding in Avowed. Indeed, Carrie Patel, one of the lead writers for Pillars of Eternity, is the director for Avowed, and her love for the lore is evident here. It's treated with reverence. 

Of course, you, the player, are the star of the show here. You'll have a great deal of agency over how the plot develops throughout the 40+ hour campaign, with a myriad of side quests with equally excellent writing to string players along.

The most impressive aspect of Avowed's writing is the ability to roleplay. At the start, you create a character, but two things are persistent across all playthroughs: we're Godlike from the Aedyr Empire. Godlike are a race of individuals touched by the gods before birth -- they are extremely rare in the world of Eora and that is a very important aspect of your character.

Godlike's appearances are jarring for some. As a side-effect of being a Godlike, your features reflect the characteristics of your deity. In this case, we have fungal growths covering our face and head. This leads to our character being extremely recognizable among the crowd in Avowed, but also sometimes reviled.

In any case, you can also choose a backstory for your character, all of which tie you back to Aedyr. I chose to become a noble, and throughout my campaign, I was a selfish, somewhat emotionless individual with undying loyalty for the Empire and hellbent on completing my duty of discovering the cause of the Dreamscourge.

The most impressive aspect of Avowed's writing is the ability to roleplay.

The Empire wants to colonize the Forgotten Lands, because that's what empires do, of course. As the representative of the Emperor himself, you're often thrust into awkward situations. The locale does not like you, and you can either play as a sympathetic ambassador, a ruthless inquisitor, or anything in between.

Choices, Choices...

Indeed, it was refreshing to see the amount of dialogue choices in Avowed. At any point during a conversation, I'd consciously decide how I would respond, and nine times out of ten, there would be a dialogue choice that fit exactly what I wanted.

This goes back to my original point: You have a great deal of agency over how the story develops. There are a myriad of choices, some inconsequential and some substantial. Many choices will come back to rear its ugly head many hours after the fact. 

The impact of your choices varies in severity, but rest assured: Avowed is a game where choices do matter. Even your companions (of which there are four) remember your decisions, and they aren't afraid to either shower you with praise or chastise you for your actions.

As for companions themselves, we have a likable bunch of characters. From the reclusive scout Marius to the chaotic wizard Yatzli, these characters will go through arcs of their own, which make them feel more realistic and relatable. They are beneficial in combat too, of course, but writing is what truly makes these individuals shine.

Loot? Yes Please!

Really, I could gush about the narrative for days. Still, Avowed also has excellent combat, loot, and exploration. The way in which Obsidian Entertainment designed these systems makes for an engaging game in both narrative and gameplay.

Avowed's gameplay is designed to be versatile. There are numerous weapon types like spears, swords, bows, axes, and uh... guns? Yes, there are guns, and they are awesome. Of course, we can't forget magic and the abilities that come with it, which is just as fleshed out as the other weapon types in Avowed.

A very smart design decision on Obsidian's part was to incorporate two separate weapon load-outs players can switch on the fly. In the middle of combat, I might want to engage the enemy by sneaking up with a bow. Upon getting the enemy's attention, it takes but a moment to switch to melee and fight back.

Some weapons take up two slots, but for most weapons, they are one-handed. This means you can duel-wield, and you are most certainly encouraged to take advantage of this. Holding a pistol in the right hand and a tome of magic in the other allows for a gun-and-sorcery type of build, giving you plenty of combat options.

Yes, there are guns, and they are awesome.

For the most part, I stuck with two swords as one loadout and two pistols on the other. Leveling up allows players to spend points into simplified skill trees, so I ended up creating a duelist type of character.

Engaging the enemy with two shots from my pistol either outright kills them or deals a great amount of damage. Enemies, which are often found in packs, would then charge at me. I'd jump into the fray with my two swords and slash away furiously. Increasing my attack speed and damage with one-handed weapons made me a fearsome opponent.

While I'm on the topic of enemies, that's one part of Avowed that needs work. Enemy variety leaves me wanting; I could probably count on my hand the number of enemy types. Most of the foes you fight comprise xaurips (lizard men), spiders, keth (an encompassing term for humanoids), skeletons, and bears. 

Enemies do vary in power, and that is where I find the level system to be quite engaging and innovative. Enemies are not assigned a level, so they don't scale to you as you level up. Instead, enemy power is reflected in item quality.

A Quality Way to Handle Scaling and Gear in Avowed

The whole enemy level/item quality system can be a bit confusing to grasp at first, but once you start picking up loot of better quality and encountering enemies that are a bit stronger, everything clicks. I love the way loot is handled in Avowed, making gear seem just as important as your character. Perhaps my favorite aspect, however, is unique items.

Unique items are, well, unique. Swords, axes, maces, guns, whatever it is, there's a chance you'll find a unique item in your travels. These are hand-made by Obsidian Entertainment and one-of-a-kind pieces of gear that all have different "unique abilities" attached to them. They also have individualized flavor text to make them stand out.

I love the way loot is handled in Avowed, making gear seem just as important as your character.

These are especially exciting pieces of loot to find, and as a result, exploration feels exceedingly rewarding in Avowed. While you can purchase some of these items from vendors or receive them as quest rewards, it's through exploration that you'll get the bulk of these uniques. You'll find them tucked away in various ruins or stowed in treasure chests.

With the incentive to explore, it makes Avowed feel like an exciting adventure -- you never know what you'll stumble across. Of course, it's important to pick up other, regular ol' items as well because of Avowed's loot system. It's in this crafting where the game also shines. Basically any item, no matter how low in quality, matters.

Items are broken down into resources (you can also find some of these resources in the world) and are used to improve your weapons and armor. Even if you find junk, it has value because of the resources gained from scrapping them. From there, you can use it to improve the quality of your weapons. 

You could improve that one unique you found in the starting zone and have it carry you through the whole game, so long as you keep improving on it. I know this because I used a pistol from the first area throughout my entire 40+ hours of play, and it was consistently a great weapon. Items you enjoy using don't become obsolete, which gives more agency to the player to use what they want.

Fighting for The Living Lands

All this talk about gear and I've barely touched on combat. Sure, enemies are repetitive, but being able to use the gear you like against your foes makes for a satisfying combat experience. Fighting is fast-paced and simply fun, especially when switching between loadouts. 

Buffing my attack speed with a perk I unlocked allowed me to eviscerate foes. Enhancing my ability to dodge made me untouchable. I became a force to be reckoned with, and if you're looking for that sort of power fantasy of being the biggest badass in all the realm, well, you can do that here. 

Items don't become obsolete, which gives more agency to the player to use what they want.

For the most part, everything I tried felt viable, and you can respec really quickly if you find that you don't like your current perks. Since you're likely to find so many different weapons, Avowed encourages players to experiment and try different builds, which means combat will always feel fresh if you like trying new things.

Avowed Review | Final Thoughts

Avowed is a gorgeous game, with some of the best environments I've seen in gaming. The art design for The Living Lands is absolutely on point, effectively portraying this fungal-infested, untamed wilderness. There are certain key moments during the game where the overall aesthetic took me by surprise -- moments I won't spoil but you'll know when you see it.

Though I won't be surprised if others experience some instability in their game's performance on PC, such is the price of such a beautiful game. FPS tended to fluctuate on my rig - especially in cities and towns -- which made me a bit too reliant on DLSS and frame generation. Performance will definitely depend on your rig, as always, but it's worth keeping in mind.

The art design for The Living Lands is absolutely on point, effectively portraying this fungal-infested, untamed wilderness.

That, and there are a lot of bugs in Avowed. Obsidian Entertainment's been very responsive to any bugs and issues reviewers encountered, and there will be a patch to fix many issues, but still... for a game as ambitious and big as Avowed, expect bugs. Just as an example, I wasn't able to complete a few side quests, but that was the worst of it.

Avowed impressed me in many ways. The way it handled gear and enemy scaling, its rewarding exploration, and unparalleled storytelling and world-building are most certainly the highlights, but its combat is also immensely fun. What more can you ask from an RPG? Obsidian Entertainment is one of the best in the business, and that's proven with Avowed.

Avowed was reviewed over approximately 48 hours of gameplay on PC with a key provided by the publisher. All screenshots were taken during the review process.