The litmus test for any great high-fantasy game is how easily it hooks you into its world. How it makes you lose all sense of time as you explore. And how gameplay mechanics position you as an active part of the story's formation.
Avowed is an action role-playing game that has consumed all my free time this past while. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios, it is a game of immense scale, imagination, and ambition. If you're hungry for some new kind of Baldur's Gate 3, Skyrim, or Dragon's Dogma 2 experience, this is the game for you.
Set in the world of Eora, you play as a 'Godlike' sent to the Living Lands as an envoy by the empire. Your initial task is to investigate the spread of the malignant plague. But in true fantasy fashion, not everything is what it seems.
As a godlike, you have a special disfigurement on your head that brands you as a chosen one. While some marvel at your innate divinity and help you on your quest, many will shun you. It seems that the Gods and the empire you represent aren't too popular with the local, ungoverned folk. As such, your quest to help save them becomes all the more suspenseful.
Familiar role-playing experience elevated through combat
Avowed starts on familiar role-playing territory. You're on a boat that gets shipwrecked. Cast asunder on a deserted island, you find mangled bodies littering the land. You're left with a single ally to survive and a tiny dagger. The mysterious plague you're investigating is right before you, turning everything berserk. Great.
The game throws you into combat almost immediately. And it's here that you realise that immersive action is something Avowed is keen to sell to you. Now, I never was one for first-person fighting. But this kind of combat quickly became almost addictive, balancing strategy and chaos in one. Avowed has converted me. While a 3rd person option exists, it remained off for my entire playthrough.
From swords to maces, bows to guns, an endless supply of weapons is ripe for picking, allowing you to hack, slash, shoot, or deploy a combination of the two. Special weapons and armour come with abilities and enchantments that offer new, novel ways to fight and synergise different fighting styles.
It wouldn't be fantasy without a sprinkling of magic. Players can equip grimoires, which unlock magical abilities. With the click of a button, you can incinerate foes with cones of fire, blast them with lightning, or, my personal favourite, summon icicles to slice everything apart.
Whether you fancy yourself a warrior, a ranger, or a wizard, a choice of four companions will join you throughout your quest to flesh out your party. You have the tank, Kai, who has quick reflexes that help keep you alive and an equally sharp tongue to keep you laughing throughout your quests. Brandon Keener, who plays the fish-like man, delivers a truly exquisite performance throughout, cementing him as the game's breakout star.
You also have the level-headed hunter, Marius, who can assassinate foes from long and close range, the healer Giatta, and the fiery wizard, Yatzli, whose powerful magical abilities are only trumped by her eccentric banter.
Though your chosen party members will try to act autonomously, they're often moving shields that you'll hide behind to survive. At times, you'll stop and stare at them miss virtually every skill imaginable in a fight, and sigh heavily.
To counter this insubordination, you can assign specific character abilities to your toolbar to ease some frustrations and direct them. Though companions may feel a little hollow at the start of the game, their witty dialogue throughout helps flesh out their backstories. Over time, they'll be a welcomed sight on your screen.
Choice-based narrative trusts players to make their own world
Avowed is a narrative-driven game where your choices have consequences – good, bad, and in between. Most won't hit you until you replay the game or find some resolution hours later.
This 'butterfly' can affect most quests. In the starting area, for example, you meet a prisoner, Illora. Despite hating Godlike people, she's willing to overlook her prejudices of you to survive. Trapped in a cell with a spreading plague, she asks to strike a deal – let her go in exchange for safe passage off the island. Sounds too good to pass up, right?
And yet, your sidekick at the time warns you that she could betray you. She is in prison, after all. It takes me five minutes to finally trust this fictitious stranger, who, true to her word, escorts us off the island. Several hours later, I discover her on a beach as part of a smuggling mission, alive and well. At that moment, it hit me – the game is entirely made up of my choices. What would have happened if I left her to die?
This kind of choice mechanic is everywhere in Avowed. You'll have multiple ways to approach events through actions or dialogue. You can use might and threaten people. You can use perception to trick someone. Tell lies to keep secrets or keep items you were told to retrieve. Or you can skip the dialogue and go straight for the jugular. It's your game. It's always going to be your choice.
A healthy helping of fantasy – without the bloat
Open-world games have earned a dicey reputation in recent years. Some promise hundreds of hours of content but offer nothing enjoyable outside the main storyline. Pointless fetch quests can be a sour point in any adventure.
Avowed is one of the few open-world games in recent memory where I cleared almost everything I could when I could. This is helped by the beautiful environments you find yourself in. From the bustling city of Paradis to the famine-struck Emerald Stair, your curiosity will always get the better of you. There will always be some abandoned castle in the distance to venture toward. A lighthouse to climb or a secret temple that promises treasures.
The fun and enjoyment of these side-quests is very welcomed, given the game's difficulty ramps up considerably with every new area you enter. You'll quickly find that you're criminally under-leveled and out-geared against most new enemies. As such, completing supplementary quests is almost compulsory.
My advice? See a quest – do the quest. See a spot on the map that's still undiscovered? Visit it. You never know where or what it may lead to. Avowed has at least 20 hours of main storyline, but this can easily treble if you take stock of all the adventures and opportunities around you.
Beautiful world-building and challenging gameplay make this a fantasy feast
Avowed looks, feels, and plays like any great high-fantasy game should. It promises a rich story that captures the imagination and leaves you yearning for more. Slick combat will always hold your attention, no matter what weapon or demeanour you adopt.
Diverse narrative choices help keep you in the driver's seat throughout your campaign, and a first-person perspective fully immerses you in the chaos you're no doubt creating. Ultimately, Avowed is pure escapism - where every event in the Living Lands feels like yours for the making.
Avowed is available to play on February 18th on Xbox Series X/S and PC (Reviewed on PC)
