''THE WORLD IS IN MY HANDS''
Developed: Obsidian Entertainment
Published: Xbox Game Studios
Genre: RPG
Release Date: Feb 18th,2025
Platforms: PC/Xbox Family
Review copy provided to me by Obsidian and Xbox Game Studios
Avowed is the latest western RPG to hit the market and it is developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. With Xbox lately having a hit or miss track record, Obsidian decides to step up to the plate and take their swing and attempt to bring us an entertaining time. But do they achieve this goal? or is it another underwhelming venture for the RPG market? Only on way to find out, so lets go!
''DANGER AWAITS''
GAMEPLAY:
If your first thought when hearing about Avowed is to think of Skyrim and what that title implemented back in its hay day, then you're already coming into this game off the mark with your expectations and that's not because Skyrim was this masterpiece, because hot take, I didn't think it was and much preferred gameplay and story of Morrowind and Oblivion if I can be honest. What I mean by my statement is this title aims to focus a lot on gameplay and story over the abundance of interactions you'd expect from a game like this, with one of the things people will be annoyed about right at the start is not being able to attack every N.P.C. you come into an encounter with - trust me, I get it, because my nature has always been, what? you talking crap to me? ok then you die, its the way it has to be. I mean even if you didn't talk crap to me, you're still dying, especially if your name is Adoring Fan from Oblivion, then you just get stuffed underneath a bridge at a lake where you belong. Instead, you have to think of Obsidian's staple of what made the studio great in the first place by looking at titles such as Fall Out New Vegas and the more recent game, The Outer Worlds. Obviously they've made way more than that with honorable mentions of Neverwinter Nights 2, South Park Stick Of Truth, Dungeon Siege 3, etc, you get it - however New Vegas and Outer Worlds is what Avowed mostly plays like, so its best to keep those two titles specifically in mind when heading into this adventure. Here in Avowed you play as a God-like known as The Envoy, an enigmatic being Aedyr and go along with your ruling empire. You're sent to a far off land in order to find and fix the cause of the Dreamscourge in the Living Lands region, a territory that your emperor wants for their own, no matter what costs.
The beginning of the game eases you into the tutorial side of things by letting players experiment and figuring out how specific mechanics work for your combat, letting you roam around for exploration, get an idea of the decision tree and how that works with the narrative, along side how you use it to speak to other N.P.C's, which lets you wet your feet a little and so forth. But before heading into the REAL adventure, which begins when arriving in Paradis, a bustling port town, where everyone seems to hate you since you're an Aedyr, the emperor's puppet who does his bidding. Everywhere you go people stop you and tell you ''YOU'RE A GOD LIKE!'' and then mention your face because as a God like being, all God like have weird figuration of their face that makes them stand out. You're definitely going to get tired of hearing them chirp on about it, literally every kiss ass or jerk in the game is going to mention it at least one time to you and you'll most likely hear it 20 times in the first few areas you traverse. ''GOD-LIKE!, ''GOD-LIKE'', ''GOD-LIKE'', Ok I get it!. however you are VERY wrong, I am not a godlike because I am, AN AMERICAN!. Not everyone is a jerk about it though, there are people genuinely happy to have you on their side and treat you with respect as you traverse the land and make your way through the game and attempting to save people from the Dreamscourge and I.. oh crap someone is locked in a jail cell left to rot? what the hell that's absolutely horrible, don't worry, I'm on my good guy playthrough, I'll go get the key and let you out of here, dont you worry... wait what? IM UGLY? What the heck lady, my face isnt even THAT bad looking, you know what SURE, ill definitely go get the key for you... you just wait here okay?. Grab the key and treasure and OK BYE CHUMP, HAVE FUN ROTTING IN JAIL YA LOSER. The games world is really vast with a large variety of locations to discover and is definitely not for the faint of heart for someone who is borderline ADHD like myself, who one minute will be heading towards the main game objective, but then at the side of my eye see a castle, encampment, house or something shiny and then proceed to lose track of just what the hell i was even doing for the next hour or so. Trust me, its extremely easy to do when this title is divided into multiple zones, each one opening up its expanded land to explore the more milestones you meet as you progress through the main narrative - which may seem like a bummer at first that you cant just go WHEREVER you want all the time and right away, but the zones are so large itself that you don't get the sense that an area is condensed or closed off because there's absolutely so much to explore and discover at any given time.
''BEAR WITH ME!'
While there's a ton to get into that ties into the aspect of exploring this large game, which we will get into it, the narrative itself is also pretty compelling to say the least that has a plot that keeps you guessing just what in the heck is going on in this world as you struggle with your orders given by the empire, seeing citizens of Paradis turn into monster like zombies as an infection takes over the land and destroying it, make choices that determine who lives and who dies, with one specific point in the game asking you, do you save one area and its people or do you sacrifice dozens in their place just so they can survive? it gets pretty dark. Do you let dwarves and their people burn alive after a volcano erupts? or have hundreds of people all over Paradis fall over and die immediately like they get a finger snap of Thanos? that's the type of choices you will make in this narrative that will not please everyone, and will leave you, alongside the cast of characters that join you, questioning if you did the right thing, and above that, makes civilians hate you for a decision you made as well. Meh, whatever, I'll just go find an X.F.L. jersey of HE HATE ME and wear it around town.. cause come on yall, DONT BE HATIN. The cast of characters are ones I actually enjoyed a fair share bit, normally in western R.P.G's, I find it hard to connect with specific characters because most of the time side kicks or companions are written as just someone to fill a gap with no real development at all.. but not here in Avowed, nope, here I found myself mostly loving every companion I was able to recruit. Kai who's very much more serious than the others and a character whos into philosophy and always has something to add to the conversation, Marius, your angry dwarf friend that is a jerk most of the time to everyone because he's so crass, Giatta who works on dark arts within her town to find a cure for Dreamscourge, and Yatzil who is a tad bit crazy and hyper but means well. Each character has varying personalities and do not feel one dimensional. You can get their opinions during quests, which will effect your decision making for a story, create a camp fire out in the open world that houses your storage, blacksmithing, weapon enchantment capabilities and have a heart to heart talk with them one on one to make your journey more personable and learn more about them - then when leaving camp, choose which two to take with you in your party... which is really hard to choose as I like everyone. However choosing them does have consequences because each fulfill the usual R.P.G. role, such as Kai being your tank, Marius your Ranger, Giatta as your magic user to cast barriers and heal you, and Yatzil uses magic that opens up paths that only her magic can do etc etc. The same goes for Kai that uses fire to take down webbing, Giatta uses lightning to open door mechanisms, and so on. Its all really well done.... although Marius is lucky because sometimes this boy be mouthing off to me something fierce and it makes me want to throw him like Gimli in Lord Of The Rings.
Which brings me to the games overall combat. Alongside the characters I mentioned, all of which have their own specific spells and weapons, so to do you with the straightforward action R.P.G. system that will feel a tad bit familiar to you, that again, boils down to what style you want to play as, a fighter who can use a sword and shield, mace, great swords, Ranger who can use bows and arrows, guns such as rifles and pistols, Wizard that can use sorcery via books or use a wand... Oh no... a wand... must....resist...urge.... to..... AVADA KADAVRA. As a fighter you can choose to have a sword and a shield and shield bash enemies to stun or counter them or if you hate playing defensively, simply dual wield any weapons of choice on your off hand or secondary selections. Me personally what I ended up choosing for my main setup around mid game was on my main hand I'd use a large rifle that charges its power up and then gives off one huge blast of energy that hits for a ton of damage, especially when maxing out it stats to superb levels, which I did, then on my secondary selection, I chose a superb level sword and rare shield to stab, block, and slice with when my gun would take too long to reload. You can use any variety you want really, sword in one hand, wand in another, magic in one, gun in the other, whatever you want, go for it. While its not ultra innovative in itself, true, it still encourages you to play an active playstyle that makes you manage your stamina and essence for the use of magical capabilities that makes combat a tiny bit more strategic, but not entirely. Less complex and more ''if its not broke dont fix it'' really. Alongside your combat also comes skill trees, which not only you as a player are able to upgrade but so too can your companions, and each skill tree for your character unlocking more power, rushing attacks, use of fire, electricity, jump and ground smash or equipable move sets that can be set to your hot bar selection wheel that you can use to command your companions with, such as ordering Kai to burn down spider webs or vines that block your path forward, or when you're trying to find a really hard to reach secret treasure chest, use Giatta to find 3 or 4 mechanical devices hidden around a cave or temple and use her electricity to zap them good to open the door you're trying to bypass, or even shut down hazards like swinging spikes or deadly shooting arrows - it makes each character feel vital and not just a meaningless add on like other R.P.G. side characters feel like. But what if you don't have someone in your party when you run into specific obstacles? simple, you can find items that you can throw that will cause electricity, cause fire, blow up a wall like you're KOOL-AID man, or use Everyone Loves Raymond Ice throwables to toss on water to freeze it and give you a ground to stand on to make it across a pond. Ok I know the item isnt called that, but Its like Rygmard or whatever, but calling it Raymond just makes a funnier when throwing it and yelling ''GOOOO RAYMOND!'' like hes a pokemon. Let me have fun yall, sue me.
Combat, narrative and support companions aside, exploration and discovery is where Avowed truly shines by allowing you to open up the map to the point where you can go wherever you wish to go, go into towns and cities and pick up quests for people or just venture off into the world with no goal at all and just run into weird, funny or dangerous situations like while you're searching for materials to gather or rare chests to find, you can walk up on crimes being committed like a group of grave robbers digging up peoples graves to find something they can sell. What the heck, excuse me sir and madam, what are you guys doing? that's illegal you know. Hold up, excuse me!? Ok Kai, hold my Ale, this woman about to get LEARNT. You there sir, the innocent one, you may leave, everyone else, you all die. Alas the filthy thieves have been stopped, justice has prevailed, innocence brought back upon thy land... and... ummm, hmm, I mean no one is around to witness anymore....and I mean they did go through all this trouble.. so... yoink, I'll just take this and be on my way. Listen Timmy, if I catch you grave robbing again, I will find you and I will kill you, and dont you dare tell anyone or I will pillage your village, now go along now, shoo. Well now that there's one good deed done, its time to continue on your journey and explore some more because exploration in Avowed is heavily rewarded with rare items, rare weapons ranging from rare to superb levels of quality and stats, and then there's... oh my god, another civilian in need? don't worry Madam! I, God-like supreme, shall be your savior from this foul beast, never fear! - oops. Moving on to other aspects that tie into exploration are doing side quests for people, in which I've done a ton, but not all of them are exactly amazing either, some boil down to the typical ''hey, I cant get back to this area I was in because some mean monsters wont let me through'', so you just run to the area they tell you to and slay some monsters and come back for a reward, which lets be honest is pretty boring. However there are missions that are more in depth that involve you making hard choices and seeing how well your morals stand up, specifically with a Smugglers Quest. In this quest you're tasked with helping out two refugees who are on the run from a group of smugglers that are trying to kill them, its your job to take the smugglers out so the refugees can get free passage out of the land and escape, hmm, doesn't seem like too much of a problem. So I get what little payment the refugees have left and venture off to find the smugglers, which of course I do. You know, I cant really blame the smugglers for wanting the refugees dead, they are kind of an ass, ''so tell you what my fine friends, why don't we make a deal? ill pay half of what they owe and we'll call it square'' - At least that's what I thought at the time of confrontation, but then I remember at the beginning of the conversation that the main smuggler INSULTED me, so alright, THEN PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD. Ok great, they're all dead, I completed my task and.. thank you very much, dead people dont need their money so they wont mind that I take this... but wait, I got like 1000 gold from the refugees and over 2000 and rare gear from the smugglers... that means theres only one thing left to do. Turn then into the police, get them arrested and profit. TELL MADAM CAPTAIN THERE ARE REFUGEES, MURDERS, HANGING OUT IN THE DISTRICT BEHIND TOWN, BRING THEM TO JUSTICE. Ha Ha Ha, Nice.
''I DROWNED THE ADORING FAN THERE''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, AVOWED ended up a really fun time with a level of immersion I haven't had in awhile for an RPG and gave me memories of the freedom I experienced in titles like Oblivion many years ago in regards to how silly the characters are and the art style chosen for the game. It isnt anywhere near perfect obviously with problems like not every NPC being attackable, not every building being able to go in, glitches here and there like towards end of the game where I fell through the floor that happened only once. But with exploration allowing you to run into some funny characters, questlines or scenarios like one mission where I had to retrieve books for a monk that are sacred, which I do as I climb a tower and then a woman stops me and thanks me and asks if I can give the books to her, only to find out, she's the one that stole them to begin with. I mean I could give them to her and pretend this never happened, but screw that, IM TELLING ON YOU! I say to hear as I run off and tell the monk she stole them, only to find out the consequences of her stealing the books means her immediate execution - oops. IT WAS JUST A PRANK BRO. Alongside that, the questing, exploration, finding secret paths, using skills and abilities, great companions to get to know, choices made that matter in the main story and an immersive atmosphere, makes this game GODLIKE to play. Get it people? GODLIKE... because we played as a GODLIKE? no... not gonna laugh? ok then. My amazing jokes aside, while Godlike is an overstatement, the game does in fact become an enjoyable experience, even if its not overly innovative or possess flaws here and there. I played on PC and other than the glitch through the floor I mentioned, I never ran into any graphical errors, slow downs or crashes and I run on an i7400 with GeForce RTX 4070. But enough with all that. So with all this having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW
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