Avowed is an expansive RPG by Obsidian, the folks who developed Fallout New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series. Set in the same world as PoE, Avowed places you in the boots of a Godlike who has been chosen by the Emperor of the Aedyr Empire to figure out what is going on with the Dream Scourge, a plague affecting the Living Lands.
I am not considering this post as a full “review” of Avowed as I am writing it several months after completing the game. My memory is flawed and I don’t think it is fair to pin a review on incomplete or inaccurate recollections. That said, based on my memory of playing the game I would rate Avowed as a solid 8 out of 10 experience.
Story
The people of the Living Lands are generally independent, free-spirited, and often somewhat sketchy characters. The Empire wants to control these new lands, bringing law and order as well as extracting taxes and resources. Most people you meet are pretty negative about your role as a representative of the very Empire they are often trying to escape from.
You will manage to gather a group of companions despite the general negative response to your presence. Your little team will start to uncover the effects of the Dream Scourge, your own nature as a Godlike, and the unusual characteristics of the Living Lands themselves. A dark side of the Empire and the gods of the other lands will be revealed as you progress, and your Envoy will have to take sides and face consequences.
The choices you make will have consequence. The Living Lands may thrive as a home for independent thought and disparate groups, or become a law-abiding and compliant member of the Aedyrn Empire. Along the way you may cure the Dream Scourge, uncover the secrets of an ancient people and the God they worshipped, and unlock the secrets of your Godlike capabilities.
Mechanics
Avowed can be played from the first or third person perspective and works well either way. I generally find third person provides me with a better view of the battlefield and is less prone to making me motion sick, so I played third person. I found no need to switch to first person view at any point in the game.
There are a total of four companions in the game that you can encounter over time, but only two of them can join you in combat. The others ostensibly remain at your camp which also acts as the place for socializing with your teammates. Avowed has no mechanism for player – companion romance, although there are some moments of mild flirting.
Combat is played out in real time with no tactical pause. However, the game does pause while you use the action wheel to choose from your and your companions’ abilities. I found this approach to combat to be quite workable: I couldn’t plan out a sequence of moves for myself and my company, but I could take time to respond to what was going on as it happened.
Avowed presents a choice of classes or “archetypes” to pick from for your character, each with its own ability tree
- Fighter (close quarters melee),
- Ranger (distance melee, stealth),
- Wizard (spells).
You can through the ability trees for multiple classes if you choose to, but generally it is easiest/best to focus on one to maximize the benefits from the assigned points. There is also a ‘Godlike’ ability tree with a smaller number of abilities: these are gained at specific points in the story automatically.
Zoned structure with “gateway” quests or actions tied to progression to unlock new zones. Generally speaking, if you can’t go somewhere you aren’t ready for the challenges of your destination. I have no problem with this kind of ‘level’ or story locked progression, but those who prefer a truly open world may find this behaviour frustrating.
Crafting in Avowed is, so far as I understand it, limited to upgrading items in your inventory with different tiers of upgrade materials. There are no potions, item creation, or similar complexities. I used the crafting system periodically as was necessary to keep my gear updated, but never found it to be particularly engaging.
Avowed has five difficulty levels: Story, Easy, Normal, Hard, Path of the Damned. I played on “Easy” as is my usual procedure when difficulty options exist and found the game to be fun without being too challenging. I experimented a bit with Normal difficulty as well and found I was dying a bit too regularly for my tastes. The number of difficulty levels, however, suggests that there is probably a suitable challenge available for nearly anyone.
Conclusion
Avowed is a solid single player RPG with good story progression and interesting combat. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys earlier games in the Pillars of Eternity series as well as games like Outer Worlds or Fallout 3.