Avowed Review: A Vibrant World That’s Missing a Trick

I’ve never really wondered what my life would be like had I been born with mushrooms sprouting from my head, or foliage forming around my eyes. I’m sure it would have been a difficult childhood, at the very least. Thankfully, Avowed lets you skip over all that and thrusts you into the world of Eora — the very same that we visited in Pillars of Eternity — as a being “blessed” by an unknown God, sent to uncover why a soul plague has infected the lands. It’s Obsidian Entertainment’s first first-party AAA title since being acquired by Microsoft. Needless to say, the expectations are high.

A Stranger in a Strange Land

Avowed centers on a strange island called the Living Lands. Known for its harsh environment, chaotic inhabitants, and aversion to order, the Living Lands is a test for all those seeking a new way of life. It also seems to be entangled in a problem known as the Dreamscourge. Our main character, known as the Envoy, has been sent to the Living Lands by the emperor of the neighbouring imperial realm of Aedyr to determine what’s causing the Dreamscourge. 

The game opens with a shipwreck. The imperial Envoy is washed up on the shore of a small island off the coast of Paradis, a port city in the Living Lands. Nearly all of the accompanying crew is killed in the wreck except for a small fuzzy blue guy called Garryck. He informs the Envoy that the island is home to an imperial outpost, but it seems they’ve turned on their own countrymen as if they were rabid. It’s quickly revealed that the Dreamscourge has infected the outpost, causing those plagued by it to experience bizarre dreams, hallucinations, and eventually lose their minds. Strange fungal growths appear on their faces, not too unlike the one our Envoy has on their own face, being a Godlike and all. 

Yes, our hero of the hour has a unique… condition? In the world of Avowed, and Pillars of Eternity, exist Godlikes, those “blessed” by one of 11 Gods before their birth. This blessing grants strange physical features that relate to the deity in question, however in Avowed our main character has no idea which God their features come from. What we do know comes from the game’s character creator, which imposes colourful mushroom or fungal-like growths on your character’s face and hair. These range from small facial markings to a full tree-like covering. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to look a bit freaky. 

After navigating through the outpost, learning the basic mechanics, our protagonist eventually makes it to Paradis as originally intended. We soon learn that the Aedyrian empire isn’t liked very much and those with mushrooms coming out of their face are liked even less. We also meet the first of four companions, Kai — another blue guy, only this time he’s less furry and more scaly. With a companion in tow, it’s time to see what the Living Lands has to offer and the newly formed alliance sets out to uncover exactly what the Dreamscourge is, and how to stop it. 

Just a Visitor

From the outset, it’s clear Avowed isn’t supposed to be an epic-scale RPG akin to that of Skyrim or Baldur’s Gate. It’s much more inline with what we saw with The Outer Worlds, aspects of which certainly work to its advantage. For one, the game doesn’t feature a sprawling open world, instead opting for defined zones. The zones are still pretty large with plenty to explore, like caves and ancient structures, but these defined zones help establish a good pace. You can work through one zone, completing side quests or bounties, before continuing on with the story and moving onto the next. Even though you’ll encounter some enemies that are above your current capabilities, you’ll know that the zone contains all the tools needed to improve your abilities and gear to reach their level. The environments are vibrant and initially intriguing, but cracks start to form when you look a little closer.

One of my main gripes with Avowed is its limited immersion. When I first stepped foot in Paradis, I stopped for a minute to wonder what sort of things I would discover, what sort of surprises were awaiting me. What I very quickly found was that surprises and chance didn’t really come into it. Everything that you can interact with is highlighted in the world, be it items to pick up or texts to read. There’s plenty of strange plants and foliage in the Living Lands, but only a small amount of them can actually be used. The same goes for doors, chests, NPCs. Anything you can use is highlighted, and for anything not I quickly conditioned myself to ignore it. 

Outside of quests, the world doesn’t really react to your presence at all. There’s non-hostile wildlife throughout the Living Lands that serves little purpose outside of being set dressing. I attempted to hit a boar-like creature, thinking it might drop some upgrade materials or cooking ingredients that I’d previously only found in chests or enemy drops, but the swing didn’t even connect. My weapon just phased through, and the creature just carried on grazing as if I wasn’t there. For somewhere called the Living Lands, it had started to feel a bit lifeless. 

A similar situation occurred when I came across some NPCs huddled over a crime scene. I noticed a dagger on the floor (highlighted so I knew I could pick it up), wondering if the NPCs would turn on me for meddling in something I obviously had no right to meddle in. Essentially, I had stolen evidence and the NPCs remained where they were, simply saying something to the effect of: “That’s the imperial envoy. Stay out of her way.” No repercussions, no scolding or affinity changes. Nothing. I felt like a Mary Sue who could do no wrong. Not even my companions cared. 

A Means to an End

Actions having little to no weight was, unfortunately, a common theme during my time with Avowed. Even in quests, the choices I made had very little impact on the overall outcome. An expedition party has gone missing in a cave. In one playthrough I found them, in another I didn’t. It actually didn’t matter; they were dead regardless. I spared an assassin instead of fighting them. Again, it didn’t matter; they died regardless. Even dialogue options are mostly just different ways of phrasing the same thing. Using your Attributes or background to influence a dialogue option doesn’t actually net you any advantages or disadvantages, it’s just another way to get through the conversation. In The Outer Worlds you had reputations to explore with certain factions, opening up quests or turning certain NPCs hostile based on your actions. Here, there’s none of that. Without any consequences to your actions, suddenly the narrative and world building loses intrigue. I found myself completing quests just for the XP or to tick it off the list, rather than any investment in characters or outcomes. 

Fight How You Like 

Speaking of XP, Avowed features an interesting combat and progression system that lends itself to fairly dynamic encounters. In lieu of committing to any set Classes, players can mix and match their abilities to create their own playstyle. For example, you can improve your magical abilities while also exploring upgrades to your melee combat. This is largely facilitated by having two weapon loadouts you can swap to on the go. You might opt for a sword and shield in one loadout then, with a push of a button, swap to a wand and grimoire for magical attacks, or a two-handed axe for that extra damage. Swapping between weapons is a little slow and clunky at first, but can be improved through special equipment or passives. 

Abilities come under four different skill trees: Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, and Godlike. Players can pick and choose various abilities in the first three skill trees as they become available to really build out their combat style. The Godlike skill tree includes abilities that are unlocked over time, either through progression or by uncovering “memories” of past Godlikes across the world. Improve your bow and sneaking abilities with Ranger, and then mix it with some Fighter abilities to bolster your health and resistance. You can also respec pretty much any time at the cost of a few coins. It’s a nice way to work out what’s working for you and what you should be boosting without committing too heavily to any set path. 

Combat does come with a few pain points, however. The strength and level of enemies you face across the Living Lands is represented by tiers. These are the same tiers that your armor and weapons use. The tiers range from 1 to 5, with three upgrade levels within each tier. Perhaps you’re using  Common- or Fine-tier weapons and armor at upgrade level 1, but the enemy you’re facing is Fine-tier level 3. As far as the game is concerned, you’re outmatched. Your companions will begin yelling things at you. “Get some better gear!” or “Try a better weapon!” If I had that, surely I’d be using it, Kai.

Finding decent weapons and armor out in the wild that matches your playstyle isn’t too common. You can buy some, or upgrade them with some limited resources, but a lot of the time you’re going to be facing enemies that are a level or tier above you. Which is great — we like a challenge and we want our combat encounters to feel significant. What we don’t want is every companion quipping about how terrible your equipment is every time you land a hit on something.  I’m going to hit this walking-mushroom-thing with my ‘gets-the-job-done’ sword and we’re all just going to have to deal with that. 

You can upgrade your equipment at camp, providing you have the right amount of upgrade plants, hides, metals etc, but it’s rarely enough to level up your gear to that of a zone’s enemies. Or at least not until you’ve seen all there is to see in that particular zone. You will find a few Unique gear on your travels, which are more powerful items that often have an enchantment tied to them. You can level up these Unique weapons like normal, and you can adjust and improve their enchantments at camp to make them more effective. What you can’t do is enchant normal weapons, only upgrade them. A consequence of that is once you find a Unique item that fits your playstyle, you don’t really have any use for normal items anymore. All you can do is scrap them for parts, store them or sell them. Oh, except for gloves and boots. You can only sell or store them, for some reason. You can’t upgrade or enchant them, either, even if they’re Unique. There’s also no helms — we wouldn’t want to hide those lovely fungal growths now, would we? 

Lifeless in the Living Lands

I had high expectations for Avowed. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Obsidian Entertainment’s other ventures, from The Outer Worlds and Grounded, to Fallout: New Vegas. When I heard that the studio had another RPG in the works I was more or less on board from the get go. But, ultimately, Avowed has left me feeling a bit dissatisfied. Don’t get me wrong, it is a perfectly serviceable game and a good portion of it certainly grew on me (hah!), it’s just missing too many elements that would have helped me immerse myself completely. Combat is enjoyable and dynamic, making it one of Avowed’s clear strengths, but it’s the RPG elements that fall short. There’s a lack of customisation in gear, not just for our main character but also our companions. You also only get a choice of two races in character customisation, human or elf, despite the Living Lands being inhabited by all sorts of races. Dialogue and quest choices carry little weight to them, making it hard to engage with the story as a whole. The Living Lands also feel, ironically, lifeless. If these are elements that aren’t sticking points for you, then you’ll have a decently enjoyable time with Avowed. 

For me, all of the above was coupled with a few bugs and some noticeable jank. While companion character models look pretty decent, the world’s NPCs don’t fare too well. Facial animations are a bit plasticky, and hair textures leave a lot to be desired. This might be a symptom of me playing on PC, however. As for bugs, there were times I had been left unable to complete quests, owing to necessary items not being dropped when they were supposed to. Bugs aren’t a dealbreaker for me (we all remember Skyrim when it launched on PS3), but it’s important to mention that this wasn’t all smooth sailing.