Avowed Review
An Empire of Mushrooms
Obsidian Entertainment is in a much different place today than when it Kickstarted the original Pillars of Eternity. A move that ended up saving the company after a string of cancelled projects, it was also one of the first wave of titles to bring isometric RPGs back into the popular sphere. That game was filled with Obsidian’s fingerprints, from its verbose musings on existentialism to a somber setting where mortals live under the gaze of meddling gods. In the decade since, the company has been acquired by Microsoft and placed in a much less precarious position, one which has given the opportunity to craft something on the scale of its newest title Avowed. Re-envisioning the world of Pillars of Eternity as an action RPG is a task that loses some of that game’s charm, but forges its own identity that’s worthwhile all its own.
Taking place in Eora some time after the events of Pillars of Eternity II, Avowed sees the player taking on the role of the Envoy. Tasked by the Aedyran Emperor with uncovering the truth about a potential plague, the player sets off to The Lost Lands, an outlying island outside the jurisdiction of all the major powers. Upon their arrival, not only do they learn that the plague, known as the Dreamscourge, is real, but they must also contend with hostile natives, an encroaching imperial reach, and the brutal efforts of the zealous paladin order the Steel Garrote. There is also the voice in their head that keeps talking to them in their dreams.
Avowed‘s people-sized lizard guys aren’t everywhere on the Living Lands, but they are indicative of the eclectic kinds of people the player will run into.
The setup for Avowed is actually quite interesting, especially in the context of the player character. The Envoy is a Godlike, a being touched by one of the gods before birth bearing the markings of that patron god. However, the Envoy’s patron god is unknown, meaning that even those with preconceptions about Godlike are a bit at a loss of what to make of them. As an arm of the Emperor, many of the locals are understandably wary. That said, the freedom of the position offers a lot of leeway for players to make their own decisions with little repercussion, at least in the short term. Avowed tends to highlight when truly meaningful decisions are to be made, so many of the smaller decisions end up feeling entirely for the purpose of role-playing. In that sense, it fulfills a similar mode to Mass Effect, albeit with more consequential major decisions.
It’s unfortunate that the overarching narrative doesn’t quite hit the highs Obsidian is known for. It’s never bad but does tread in mostly familiar waters. As the game develops and the stakes become more apparent there is both a developing sense of urgency and a heightening of interesting plot points, but the ending still largely breaks down into a series of combat halls, enough that it does bury some of its loftier ideas. The companions are also a little disappointing. Smartly, Avowed is a fairly well-scoped game and doesn’t bite off more than it can chew. As such, there are only four companions: The Everyman, the Loner, the Magic Lady, and the Quirky One, who is also a Magic Lady. They fill out combat roles nicely, but none really succeed in breaking out of their narrative roles. Again, there’s little bad here, perhaps leaving the Loner Marius aside, but it remains perfunctory. Surprisingly, this game still has quite a lot to say, though most of the flowery language of Pillars is lost in favor of a much blunter vein of dialogue. Perhaps fitting for the quickened pace of the game, but perhaps an odd choice to see Obsidian leaning away from its usual strength. The more literary Pillars of Eternity would have been more contemplative, the action-soaked Avowed must end in a bloodbath. This isn’t entirely a fault, for the combat Obsidian has crafted is surprisingly good.
Get a good look at Lödwyn, one of the game’s primary antagonists.
Avowed takes place in first-person and so the impulse is to bring up a comparison to Elder Scrolls, but it begins to distinguish itself quickly. To start with, combat is refreshingly weighty. Quick weapons feel swift, heavy weapons connect with ferocity, and a well-placed musket shot sparks smug satisfaction. Combat generally involves large quantities of enemies, with numerous combat roles, trying to overwhelm the player. Positioning, crowd control, and targeted attacks become crucial to success. Mastery over the Accumulation and Stun systems also come into play. Stun is a secondary meter that builds with all attacks which, when filled, disables the enemy for a time and leaves them open for a damaging special attack. Accumulations work in a similar manner but with effects that vary by their element, such as frost freezing an enemy for a time or shock creating a slow, damage-over-time effect that can hit nearby enemies as well.
Mix this together with a suite of player options, both weapons and skills alike, and fights quickly turn into a sea of chaotic charm. Character builds are basically free-form. There are no limitations on what weapons and armor can be equipped and no traditional classes, just three skill trees based around the Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard archetypes. There are some level thresholds and some prerequisite skills required for later ones, but largely skill points can be placed wherever the player likes. Respecing is also readily available and cheap to do, so the impetus seems to be to give players as much freedom as possible. And it works great, especially when it comes to learning spells. Players cannot naturally learn new spells, they must first acquire a grimoire with it. Afterwards the spell can be learned permanently, but keeping a grimoire equipped will treat any learned spell in the book as a level higher than what is known innately. This is such a clever way to make equipment feel more meaningful beyond its printed stats that elements of it should be adopted for other types of skill systems.
Spellcasting in Avowed is incredibly satisfying and feels just differentiated enough from regular attacks.
Companions aren’t the most fleshed out in combat, mostly serving as another set of abilities at the player’s disposal but not an unwelcome one. Combat often has so many enemies that unless the companions are somewhat micro-managed they are easy to lose in the shuffle. But even modest utilization can help to turn the tide of battle or set up bigger strikes. It would be nice if there was a bit more depth to the party member’s combat details, their equipment cannot be changed and there are only a handful of skills to choose from each, some of which seem difficult to play around with as they require certain triggers that the level of control isn’t conducive to. The only other real knock against the combat is that there is just a bit too much of it for how little variety there ends up being. Most of the encounters play out in similar manners, including secondary waves of enemies appearing out of nowhere mid-combat. Still, the combat never got tedious and the desire was often for new challenges and not lamenting another familiar encounter.
Where Avowed surprises the most is in level design. One small but meaningful design decision was to have the Envoy be a speedster, quickly able to traverse the game’s maps and vault up the numerous buildings and landscape that fill the horizon. There’s no slow plodding or stilted movement here, players will absolutely blast through the game’s four areas while not really diminishing their size and density. Minor points of interest dot the environment, breaking up the combat with light platforming segments and small environmental puzzles. While the jumping and vaulting aren’t exactly tightly designed, the very act of pulling oneself up on a lot of surfaces is just plain fun. It also means that environments have a more present vertical element, which goes at least some way to breaking up the same-y combat scenarios. The only real downside is that often times the reward will be the same, repeated crafting materials and equipment over and over again, stemming from Avowed‘s odd economy.
A wand and a book might be the nerdiest possible loadout.
The game features a fairly simple crafting system but one that unfortunately is pretty necessary to keep on the power curve. Littered throughout the Lost Lands are treasure chests and lost backpacks filled to the brim with not just loose crafting materials but also full on weapons and armor. Players will come across dozens of daggers, scores of swords, and piles of pistols, most never meant to be used but rather broken down for further crafting components. While this does mean that there will rarely be a time when upgrade supplies are truly low, it also means a lot of time spent breaking down leather gambesons whose only differentiation is what tier of quality they are, slightly improving the numbers as quality increases. By sticking to two or three loadouts this system never really got in the way but trying to spread out more than that to experiment could lead to difficulties in keeping weapons up to snuff.
Obsidian Entertainment has learned to operate within their means and Avowed might be the premiere example of that, especially at this scope. While not the most technically advanced game, the team has made great use of the art design to build a lush and distinct-looking world. Technicolor mushrooms accent the environment, which oscillates between bright coasts, murky forests, and sun-drenched deserts. Cities feel slightly underpopulated but the character models that are present look quite good, particularly the companions. Music is ambient, often sitting in the back and rarely coming to the fore so it’s a little hard to remember most of it. Vocal performances are quite good, even when dialogue scenes are directed in a competent but somewhat bland manner. Attempts were made to play the game on Steam Deck and while technically possible, it’s hard to recommend it as loading and streaming issues were consistent.
Avowed is a surprising title, less in how entertaining it is and more in the ways it is entertaining. Obsidian set out to take the Pillars of Eternity franchise in a big, dumb action direction and largely it succeeded. It’s a blast to play, reducing a lot of the friction in the RPG mechanics while gaining strides in the action department. It feels good in the hands in ways that its contemporaries don’t, zipping the player all around the map. Even with a less-intriguing script, the decision-making doesn’t feel compromised. Every other issue with the game feels as though it can be addressed without having to crack the foundation open, leaving curious thoughts of what a sequel might be able to accomplish. Ignoring that, Avowed is still absolutely an adventure worth the time.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Maybe the best first-person action RPG combat
A surprisingly nimble and agile move set
Strong level design
Storytelling isn't quite up to Pillars of Eternity
World is fairly static
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