Avowed

Avowed review - Eora surprise. 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 see...

Avowed's impactful and satisfying combat is undone by a widely unbalanced upgrade system and an uninteresting story that wastes its potential. In a similar way to how Obsidian's The Outer Worlds played very closely to a space-faring Fallout, Avowed sticks closely to the sensibilities of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Its fantasy world isn't as expansive and seamlessly stitched together, but you'd be forgiven for confusing the two at a glance, especially when you're engaged in its first-person com...

Avowed is a perfectly competent RPG that showcases Obsidian's writing and worldbuilding chops, but has little else to distinguish itself among swords-and-sorcery adventures. On the heels of an insect-filled survival game and a 2D detective story straight out of the 16th century that were pleasantly surprising departures from what developer Obsidian does best, Avowed is a return to that traditional action RPG comfort food we know and love. Set in the fantasy universe of Pillars of Eternity, this...

Bigger than it first appears, Avowed is an engrossing and gorgeous action-RPG set in one of the most engaging fantasy worlds going, though it lacks the complex systems of its most beloved contemporaries. Avowed is undeniably a product of the studio responsible for The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity. It spins a gripping fantasy yarn, balancing existential severity with arch humour, while retaining that most enduring and fascinating Obsidian quirk: this is an admirably flawed achievement. I...