Avowed Review – Surprisingly Meaty, Unsurprisingly Deep

Around four and a half years (the standard time to develop a triple-A game nowadays) after The Outer Worlds, Obsidian is back with Avowed. Like The Outer Worlds, this is an action roleplaying game, although the setting is fantasy rather than sci-fi. Indeed, Avowed takes place in the world of Eora, which the most devoted fans of the California-based development studio will already know from the Pillars of Eternity games.

Those were crowdfunded isometric cRPGs, though, while the game that’s being released now is a triple-A title that targets a very different audience. It also comes with much higher expectations for presentation and polish, especially since it is the first Obsidian game wholly developed under Microsoft. As you might remember, the project’s original design, as admitted by CEO Feargus Urquhart, was to craft a sort of Skyrim-like experience before the studio pared back the ambition and returned to its usual smaller scope. After finishing the game, despite being generally pro-open world design, I’m convinced they did the right thing. Avowed largely succeeds at doing what it seeks to do while also managing to make players forget about its shortcomings, for the most part. Once again, the companions and the overall writing are arguably the highlights of the experience, and there are several improvements compared to The Outer Worlds.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, however. The game is set in a relatively remote corner of the world that hasn’t been touched in the Pillars of Eternity titles. This allows newcomers to the series (such as myself – despite my usual love for fantasy RPGs, I haven’t yet found the time to play those games) to enter Avowed without too much trouble. The game also adopts a similar feature to Final Fantasy XVI’s Active Time Lore: whenever you’re in a dialogue, you can not only go through the dialogue history but also check a brief lore explanation of key names, places, factions, and so on that were just mentioned in the conversation. It’s hard to overstate how useful it can be, and honestly, I believe this should become a standard feature in conversation-heavy roleplaying games. My only complaint in this regard is that when using a controller, you can’t scroll the dialogue history; I’m not sure if it’s a bug, but I had to temporarily switch to keyboard and mouse to manage that upon need.

The dialogue system will be familiar to those who’ve played these games before, with some options only available depending on the character’s background or how much of a specific attribute your character has. One major differentiator is that you won’t always be able to scroll down every available option before finishing the chat with the non-playable character. Often, selecting a sentence will progress the dialogue in a way that won’t let you return to previous options. I’m a bit conflicted about this, to be honest. On one hand, it helps lend a greater sense of urgency to the conversation, as well as making it feel like these characters aren’t simply encyclopedias waiting for your input. On the other, I felt that it was not always necessary to skip ahead and forego earlier dialogue options, at least in some of the conversations.

As a whole, though, the dialogues are excellent, and that’s mainly thanks to the writing. Over the years, Obsidian has built for itself a reputation in this area, and Avowed certainly reinforces it. The writing is absolutely fantastic, providing greater nuance to most quests and characters than you’ll find in most roleplaying games. I’m sure many fans will agree that this is one of the most important aspects of an RPG, and this game passes the test with flying colors.

The main narrative manages to be both very personal for the main character (an envoy of the Aedyran empire, who can be human or elf depending on the player’s choice at character creation) and yet also grander in how it touches on universal themes, such as forgiveness, personal freedom, and the importance of connections. More than once, I stopped to ponder what would be the right thing, and the answers were far from easily found. When even the supposed villain makes a few decent arguments, you know that the story has a touch of brilliance.

Ultimately, I believe that the heart of any narrative depends heavily on the strength of the characters. Thankfully, the companions of the Aedyran envoy are complex, memorable characters. There’s only four of them (down from the six in The Outer Worlds), but at least they feel like real people, which is the best compliment anyone could give a fictional character. However, I do have to note a slight disappointment at the fact that only two of the four characters (Kai and Marius, the first ones you encounter in the game) have proper questlines. Marius’s even triggered very late for me, nearly at the very end; only Kai’s has appropriate pacing and progression.

That’s not to say the other characters do not have plenty of things to say to your character and to others. In fact, I forgot to mention earlier that the two companions you choose to bring into exploration will very often interact in a meaningful way during conversations. For example, when talking to healer Liviana with Giatta in the party, the two friends will be delighted to see each other and will catch up with one another. Conversely, Giatta will be particularly hostile when talking to certain Aedyran representatives after events that I won’t spoil. Needless to add, this greatly enhances immersion while also contributing to the narrative. Still, as I was saying, perhaps Obsidian could have done more with Giatta and Yatzli, which is especially aggravating precisely because they’re so well-written.

I should also add another minor complaint: companions can only be chatted with when you’re at a party camp, and there are only a few of those in each region. It happened more than once that the icon about a companion wanting to chat appeared when we were far away from any camp. Despite the lack of any foes in the vicinity, the game didn’t allow chatting. This also meant that sometimes, multiple conversations on different objects ended up appearing whenever we actually got back at camp. On another note, it is regrettable that Obsidian continues to omit romances in their games. They’ve said it is a lot of work, and that’s undoubtedly true, but it can also elevate the relationship with the player’s companions when done well, as evidenced by Baldur’s Gate 3. I can only hope they’ll reconsider in the future.

Earlier in the review, I mentioned that the developers had reduced the size of Avowed compared to the original vision. Indeed, they hinted that it would be only around the size of The Outer Worlds, which was honestly very concerning to me as that game is among the shortest role-playing games you could find. It turns out that was a bit of a bluff, though. While this is no open world game, nor is it a gargantuan 100-plus-hour behemoth, I’m pleased to report that the four zones (Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galavain’s Tusks) are fairly large and include more than enough content to satisfy even the most hardcore RPG aficionado. Moreover, there’s a lot to explore throughout the well-designed maps and just as many rewards, be it with loot, story, or both, for those interested in doing it. There are even lots of great encounters with NPCs that aren’t really part of any specific quest but still contribute to the game world with their presence.

One downside is that, sadly, this is not at all a simulated game like Bethesda’s, CD Projekt RED’s, or even Larian’s to a lesser extent. This means the world and its NPCs won’t dynamically react to what you do, such as, for example, robbing them blind in their own houses. Granted, Avowed is far from the only game guilty of this particular sin, but it is all the more jarring because of the aforementioned writing. When you’ve just talked to a highly mistrusting Pargrunen (dwarves in Eora) who wants nothing to do with you or the Aedyr empire and yet you can loot everything in the room without them blinking an eye, it’s bound to feel a little off.

Additionally, you cannot really attack any NPCs that the game did not open up for conflict. While most Western RPGs put protections around a few NPCs, in several games, it is possible to attack most humanoid NPCs of your own volition, regardless of whether there is a quest that requires it. There was at least one instance where I wished that were true in this game. While there is a dynamic day and night cycle, do not expect to see NPCs go about their routines and perhaps head to sleep. There’s no weather to speak of, either.

Returning to the topic of length, I was expecting Avowed to be between 30 and 40 hours at the most, but I finished the game (granted, after doing practically everything) with nearly 52 hours of playtime. Actually, Steam provides an even higher figure: 63.7 hours. That’s likely because the game does not account for all the times I had to reload after dying.

This segues perfectly into the area of The Outer Worlds I criticized the most in my review of that game: combat, specifically, its challenge level. I’m happy to say that my impressions from the preview build have been confirmed in the final game; Avowed offers much more engaging combat encounters than Obsidian’s previous RPG, although there is still room for growth.

One big improvement is simply that the highest difficulty level does not add mandatory permadeath for companions, unlike Supernova in The Outer Worlds. But there’s far more: the enemy AI is much more aggressive, constantly keeping you on your toes with dodges and blocks, as well as dodging on their own to avoid your attacks. Furthermore, whenever there are multiple enemies to deal with at once, you will need to pinpoint the most dangerous foe and focus on that to have success.

Those vary depending on the enemy type as well as your group composition and your own character specialization. Barbarian types of enemies can be particularly nasty if you’re a caster as they will continuously charge you and disrupt your casts, not to mention dealing a lot of damage if they hit you, but rangers and mages deal devastating damage. Arguably, the first target should always be the priest since they will keep healing their group for as long as they are alive.

On the other hand, bosses themselves are not what I would call a highlight of Avowed. They’re rarely impressive with their own mechanics and abilities, usually relying on the so-called adds to make the fight hard. Still, memorable bosses are some of the greatest memories you could make in an action RPG, and in this area, the game falls a bit short. I also have to question a bit on the ubiquitous skeleton adds that so many bosses appear to have in their pockets. Does it really make sense that a diseased bear would call upon skeletons to fight with them?

The combat itself is fairly simple in that there are no combos to make. With melee weapons, you only really have the standard attack and the charged attack. You can block, and talents can unlock a perfect block that triggers a counterattack opportunity, although it doesn’t deal much damage. Still, the animations are well-made (in first-person; the third-person view is really only there for accessibility, and it’s welcome for that, but I advise playing with the former) and the combat feels fun and meaty enough, especially when you mix in the many options available to players.

There are many weapon types in Avowed, each with slightly different quirks. With dual wielding, you can mix and match axes, maces, swords, and daggers, and that’s just for melee. For ranged combat, you have one-handed options like the slow-charging pistol and the quick wand, as well as the grimoire, which allows you to cast a specific set of spells depending on its type. Finally, there are also two-handed ranged options like the arquebus and the bow; the only missing weapon type is staves. Each weapon can be further improved through the talents, which players can freely unlock through a classless system. There are trees for Fighter, Ranged, and Wizard archetypes, and players can experiment with both skill points and attributes by respeccing as they see fit (for a cost). Wizards are peculiar in that they can learn to cast spells outside of the grimoires they own through talents; they can also choose to augment spells of grimoires they own by picking the relative talent and casting them as if they were a rank higher.

During my playthrough, I changed my dual setup several times, starting with a mace and shield plus a grimoire and pistol and ending up with a two-handed sword and grimoire plus a wand. All options felt satisfying in their own ways, so I mainly switched depending on the loot that I got. In this area, perhaps the game could use some improvements. Right away, Avowed starts handing you some unique gear, which offers additional perks compared to standard gear. You’re therefore enticed to seek out unique gear, but as it turns out, it’s not at all easy to find certain types of gear. For example, I only got a really good unique two-handed mace towards the end of the game. I don’t think loot distribution is random, so the developers could have placed a few more uniques for certain weapon types and fewer standard gear that you’re going to break down anyway. By the way, there’s no crafting to speak of, though you can gather resources to improve your existing gear to higher quality.

A key component of combat is managing your companions. In this area, Avowed is very similar to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as both games let you pause the action to issue commands to the two companions. However, unlike BioWare’s game, you cannot order a companion to focus on a specific target with their basic attacks, which diminishes the player’s ability to whittle down a specific foe as fast as possible. Again like in Veilguard, companions have exploration abilities that unlock certain areas; for example, Kai ignites webs and Yatzli dispels illusions.

Unlike in the latest Dragon Age game, though, you can only use them if you have the corresponding companion in the active party. While that makes sense from a realism standpoint, it is more of a nuisance than anything else: if you need to get to an important area, you’ll have to head back to the camp to switch, but if it’s just a side area that would offer some extra loot, you’re probably just going to forge onward and miss on the opportunity. Another command that I would have liked to see for companions is simply the standard follow. This would have been very useful to recall them whenever you’ve inadvertently aggroed a few enemies while roaming the zones.

When it comes to their progression, companions do not level normally like the main character (who levels up until 30, I think). They have their own set of four predetermined skills to unlock, and those skills can subsequently be improved with skill points that are awarded at specific levels reached by the player character. Companions also lack gear of their own. Overall, their customization is limited, and they can only really be a tank (Kai), a mage DPS (Yatzli), a healer (Giatta), or a ranger-type character (Marius).

Lastly for this section of the review, a few words about stealth. Avowed does support stealth gameplay, although it is clearly not a focus. You can’t really improve your stealth proficiency aside from a talent that makes you invisible for a few seconds, and the AI is not that well-tuned for stealth detection, always seeming to be more aware than it should be. You also cannot trick the enemies by throwing rocks or anything like that. With that said, you can take advantage of the familiar ‘stealth grass’ to sneak up on a single foe and deal increased damage with the player character’s innate ability. Just don’t expect to be able to vanish and do it again; it’s mostly only useful to get a headstart at the start of a combat encounter.

Avowed is powered by Unreal Engine 5. Early on, the game didn’t quite impress visually, but I already knew differently from playing the preview build. The full game is even better. While not a technical showcase, it’s definitely well-made in every area. Characters are extremely detailed, the lighting is great, and the performance (which I’ll analyze in a separate article) is also very good on a high-end PC with everything tuned to the max.

The artists need to be praised, too, as the biomes are extremely varied and visually striking in their own ways. Dawnshore, a serene coastline area; Emerald Stair, a mysterious forest; Shatterscap, a blazing desert full of canyons and the likes; and lastly, Galawain’s Tusks, which reminded me a lot of Morrowind with its volcano and giant mushrooms.

On the technical front, I encountered just two proper bugs: in one instance, I had killed all the foes I needed to collect a bounty, but one of the enemies did not drop their item, making it impossible for me to finish the quest. In another, a quest was marked on the map, but nothing would trigger once there.

Finally, the audio component is also worth commending, particularly for the impressive performances of several voice actors.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).

8.8

WCCFTECH RATING

Avowed