A new Obsidian Entertainment game is always worth a look. As Obsidian and, before that, Black Isle Studios and, before even that, the internal RPG development studio at Interplay, this group has almost thirty years' experience making intriguing, if often janky, RPG experiences. These range from the original Fallout via Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Knights of the Old Republic II, Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas to Tyranny and the two Pillars of Eternity games.
Avowed is their third game in recent years designed to court a larger, more commercial audience, following on from the solid (if slight) The Outer Worlds and the excellent survival game Grounded (which is their most successful game ever). Avowed is a first-person action-RPG with a very solid story that eschews the current trend for open-world games in favour of more tightly-designed zones. However, any thought that this is "The Outer Worlds with magic and swords," should be banished. Avowed's five zones are each pretty big, there are a much larger number of side-quests and there is a much more elaborate system for gear, including upgrading, enchanting unique weapons and selling.
The game's story follows the Envoy (you design the character, generating their name and stats, and choosing their gender and appearance) as they try to track down the source of the Dreamscourge. Your mission gets off to a bad start with a shipwreck and then being marooned on an island, which acts as a tutorial area. Once you get off the island you are quickly assigned a bunch of missions by the local Aedyran Ambassador but can also take on additional quests to try to win over the trust of the locals. Despite the fantasy setting and first-person viewpoint (a third-person mode is available, but is a bit janky), there's actually a whiff of the original Mass Effect to proceedings. Your status as Envoy give you a wide latitude and special powers in dealing with missions (a bit like a Spectre) and you almost immediately meet a charismatic cynic of a warrior voiced by Brandon Keener (here playing big green man Kai rather than Turian sarcasm-generator Garrus). The wide-open areas and the non-linear questing does quickly dispel that familiarity but it is a sign of how Avowed likes to cherry-pick influences to build itself up.
There aren't any character classes in the game, with you instead picking skills from one of three trees as you level up. Ranger skills emphasis stealth and ranged attacks (Skyrim fans will be happy to know that a Stealth Archer build is viable, though not as overpowered as in that game), Mage skills emphasise magic, and Warrior skills emphasise melee combat and shields. You can mix skills impressively and can switch between wielding a bow, sword or spellbook mid-combat. Avowed's combat is fast, furious and quite ridiculous fun, with different builds allowing you to vary your combat styles immensely. Weaknesses in one area can be mitigated by your companion characters. You have up to four companions and up to two of them can join you in your adventuring (although, apart from Kai, they require some convincing first). Kai favours melee, cynical dwarf Marius prefers ranged combat, Giatta acts as a magical support and healer and Yatzli unleashes high-powered destructive magic. Periodically you can make camp and exchange information with your party-members.
I did find the small size of the party a bit odd. Most RPGs, like Mass Effect, the Dragon Age or Baldur's Gate series, allow you to build up a considerable number of allies, perhaps up to a dozen, and only take 3-5 of them into battle with your. Avowed only having 4 companion characters makes you wonder why you can't just take all of them with you on quests, a possibility given more weight by important major quests which actually allow you to do just that. This feels like the next RPG sacred cow that really needs to be slain.
If combat is fun, then simply travelling around can be even moreso. Avowed uses a parkour-like traversal system, with your character happily yanking themselves up cliff-faces and onto roofs. Movement is slick and enjoyable, though the occasional first-person problem of sometimes getting stuck on a bit of scenery you can't see easily mid-combat does rear it's head from time to time. Avowed rewards exploration, with side-paths often leading to treasure, gear or optional combat encounters your can undertake for more experience.
The main narrative is...fine. It's perfectly serviceable, and sometimes intriguing. Avowed takes place in the same world as Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity series, a more traditional and old-skool isometric CRPG series, and this gives them access to a vast amount of worldbuilding and background lore. Familiarity with the earlier games is not required but it does add more depth to events. My main complaint about the narrative is that it does rely a bit too much on the "mysterious voice in your head" trope. Cyberpunk 2077 handled this well, Baldur's Gate III not as well but that game had so much going on it wasn't too much of an issue, but here it feels like the idea is painfully overused. I can easily go another twenty years at this point without ever exploring this idea again.
Though the story is fine, it's nothing special. The theme of colonisation is handled in a thoughtful manner with lots of arguments and ideas floating around it, but it's nothing revelatory. Dialogue is also fine, sometimes over-expository and occasionally clunky, but with a wry sense of humour and the ability to spin on a dime and become more serious. The problem is that Obsidian are known for excellent writing, more thoughtful exploration of themes and much more in-depth storytelling, so for those elements to be downplayed here feels odd. Still, maybe the recent Dragon Age: Veilguard'svery poor writing and dialogue will flatter Avowed in the comparison here.
In fact, that's a good assessment of Avowed: excellent combat, traversal and exploration but so-so storytelling and dialogue is the complete inverse of their normal approach, which is to have brilliant storytelling but janky gameplay mechanics. Given that approach may have won them a small group of hardcore fans and complete indifference from the mass public, perhaps inverting it is the right idea (it certainly paid off hugely in Grounded).
I also appreciate the game's breeziness compared to recent games (particularly as I played this immediately after Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's interminable, seemingly never-ending cavalcade of quests, side-quests, battle challenges and minigames). At about 40 hours - rather more for full exploration and achievement-hunting - it's not a short game by any means, but it doesn't outstay its welcome, and the shorter size means a replay with a different build becomes a more tempting prospect.
The only other complaint I can muster here (temporarily, at least) is technical: Avowed launched in a splendid state and playing the game was absolutely smooth sailing, with the game being probably their most polished ever on release. Unfortunately, something broke in one of their updates and the game started crashing, some quests became incompletable etc. Obsidian have promised to fix that quickly, but I ended up having to finish the game without using elemental status weapons (which kept causing crashes after 35 hours of being fine) and had to replay half a dungeon with a different companion to properly trigger an ending cut scene. Sigh.
Avowed (****) is a tight, focused RPG experience with outstanding combat and exploration. Its storytelling and characterisation is decent and occasionally great. The format of using tighter zones to tell a more constrained story results in a much less flabby game than some recent ones. But there is a slight feeling here that Obsidian are not playing to their strengths, and maybe next time around they can couple great gameplay mechanics to a stronger narrative. As it stands though, Avowed is a very good time, but not a classic.
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