Avowed

2025-03-01
Listen don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my tour of the Living Lands, shooting a bunch of people in the head with a big ass magic gun as the "god-damned Aedyrean envoy", but I also can't help but be a little let down. When I first heard about Avowed I couldn't be more stoked. An Elder-Scrolls-like game by Obsidian in the Pillars of Eternity world, replete with Furbies (Orlan) and Turians (Aumaua)? Hell yeah. Booting it up and playing for a bit it dawned on me that Avowed is more Mass Effect 2 than Oblivion. And not just because your first companion, Kai, is alternate-universe Garrus. It's a linear action game with some open areas and some role playing elements rather than one of Bethesda's hulking systems-heavy open-world RPGs. Avowed is a game with fantastic, chunky, fast-paced combat, great Obsidian party members, plotting, writing, and shades-of-gray decisions all infused into one of the most beautifully rendered 3D worlds you've ever seen.

Avowed is also a game that trips up every strength it has with several weaknesses. It's combat is phenomenal. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to dodge a wizard's spell and then slow-mo headshot them with a rifle? Can I interest you in a stun system where attacks with big weapons like hammers fill up a stun meter that when maxed allows you to coup de grace a motherfucker like Sekiro? But then you notice the incredibly lackluster leveling system and abilities tree, where level ups were a big shrug for me instead of something to look forward to. Do I want 1% more damage or 2% more health? Do I want small amounts of bleed damage or dodging to use less stamina? Oh, who cares? It's a game with fun parkour and a beautiful, detailed world that makes you want to explore it. But then "rewards" your exploration with one of hundreds of identical chests, each containing one of a million unique-but-boring pieces of gear or a bunch of crafting mats. Yes, crafting mats. Because the game has a tiered gear system like some sort of MMO where you can just slowly, mind-numbingly increase the numbers on your gear to make you stronger. Who cares if I found a new gun, it's tier 1, and I dumped enough tier 1 sticks and rocks into my current gun so it's a tier 2 gun. I'm going to shoot myself with it. And, man, while that combat is good you sure do a LOT of it. Why does every mid-boss have the same menagerie of skeletons that come out of the ground to repeatedly shoot me with arrows as I hear Kai shout "On your left!" for the one thousandth time.

It's a shame then that the game spends so much time shoving repetitive combat encounters and loot in my face because I did love the plot, characters, and decisions. If you're up on your Pillars of Eternity lore then this is a wonderful way to explore that world from a new perspective. Even if not they'll catch you up fast and teach you why Woedica is a bitch and why everyone loves smoking a bowl of Adra to return to the Wheel or whatever. The companions are reminiscent of The Outer Worlds or Mass Effect which is to say they're a weird bunch, each with their own story, with plenty of dialogue and input on your choices along the way. And in classic Obsidian fashion the choices are plentiful and meaningful. There are choices to decide the fate of individuals and even entire settlements and so, so many of them come back to haunt you for better or for worse. I think I did pretty much every side quest and I was kind of awestruck by how many of them ended up mattering in the final moments of the game. Watching a dude I saved hours before and forgot about show up and straight up clap cheeks in the final showdown filled me with the warm and fuzzies. And those final moments are fantastic, one of the better culminations of everything you've done before, a la New Vegas.

Writing this up I only wish I had went into Avowed without preconceived notions. But ultimately any game where you can make the final boss kill themselves with a stat check is good in my book.