Obsidian know a thing or two about RPGs. Whether creating one of the greatest sequels of all time in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, or providing evidence that they’re more than capable of out-Bethesda-ing Bethesda with Fallout: New Vegas, they’re now presenting us with Avowed, a first-person, high-fantasy RPG set in their homegrown Pillars of Eternity universe. Their flagship talents haven’t dimmed in recent years, and if you’re yearning for the type of evocative fantasy adventures found in games like Morrowind and Oblivion, this is a thoroughly modern, gorgeously presented adventure that places the Pillars of Eternity universe amongst that hallowed company.
Avowed takes place in The Living Lands, an untamed region of the the fantasy world of Eora. You are a Godlike, a being touched by a God, their watchful eye intended to grant you various boons, and some colourful face ornamentation, but you are unusual, even for a Godlike. For one thing, you don’t know who your patron God is, and for another you keep hearing a voice in your head. Like I said, unusual.
One of the most immediately interesting things about character creation here is that there’s a visible manifestation of the Gods’ power all over your face, with flora and fauna sprouting from your forehead, cheeks or across your entire face. It can be as subtle as having colourful freckles, or as ostentatious as half a tree coming out of your hair and fungal growths surrounding your eyes. I opted my character’s face to appear wholly made of bark, and, unsurprisingly, you spend a good portion of the opening hours shocking everyone you meet.
You can turn the Godlike visual effects off, but it won’t affect how characters react to you and would be missing the entire point of being an outcast, of being visibly different, of a life of hardship and otherness and dealing with how the rest of the populace treat you. Don’t do it.
The Emperor has sent you to The Living Lands to investigate a plague known as the Dreamscourge, a malady that drives people mad, but which has also begun to take effect upon the landscape and the wildlife itself. This relatively simple opening immediately branches into myriad pieces as you talk to every citizen possible, and then help or hinder them with their tasks.
You’re doubly separate from the population of Paradis and the surrounding areas, as you’re the Aedyran envoy. The previous representatives and soldiers of this nation have sought to subjugate and control the people of The Living Lands when this population of outcasts are used to living freely. It’s the frontier, the edge of the world to some, and you are unwelcome, while your compatriots seem to be aggressive, trigger happy and underhanded. The people, quite rightfully, rankle under Imperial rule, but you can decide which side of the conflict you want to support.
You’ll have to balance how you treat and respond to people via the different speech options during each conversation, being respectful, helpful and kind or aggressive and violent; ie. a complete and utter dick. Your character’s stats and background give you access to additional speech options if they’re high enough, letting you fully immerse yourself in role-playing as your creation, while shaping the conversation or the information you gain from it.
Your choices have consequences, sometimes dire ones, but the way they come back into sight will often surprise you. It feels organic, realistic, and unforced, and it ensures that this feels like a living world (heh), one that you can directly affect through your actions and your words.
The writing here is often intriguing and fantastical, while at other times it’s humorous and down to earth. The setting is magical and arcane, but there’s an underlying sense of reality, emotion and the truth of human existence, the trick being that it manages to be affecting and thoughtful even when you’ve got flowers growing out of your face, and you’re conversing with a glowing entity in a cave.
The exceptional writing is complemented by the stellar voice acting you experience through much of Avowed. Your central companion through the opening of the game, Kai, is voiced by Brandon Keener, the inimitable Garrus in Mass Effect, and frankly, that’s more than enough to give you an indication of how the rest of the game will play out. It’s hard to express what it is that grounds each of the performances here, but, just as with the writing and the narrative, it doesn’t forget the human aspect or the reality of each situation.
One of my favourite things about Avowed is how side-quests are dealt with. As you walk through populated areas, you’ll pick up snippets of conversation – a soldier talking to someone trying to get into the city, a friend telling their companion to pull themselves together – and you can then interrupt them, jumping feet first into their business, and likely adding another quest to the creaking, groaning catalogue of jobs you’ve already accumulated.
Clearly, you should be completing these, turning up interesting personal moments, learning more about the world, and gaining unique equipment or extra materials. They are nearly all interestingly framed, even if the tasks themselves centre on killing things, collecting them or, in the interests of variety, a combination of the two.
The game plays as a standard in first-person, but there’s an option to switch to a third-person view if that’s more your thing, especially as it gives you a constant view of your Godlike creation and their current armament. With combat in mind you can set two distinct loadouts, switching between them at the press of a button, so you can opt for a melee centred setup with a two-handed weapon as your secondary choice for heftier damage, or mix an axe in one hand, grimoire in the other, and have a bow or arquebus as your ranged alternate. You can also learn magic innately instead of needing to read it from a book, but having one in hand is a shortcut to a broader set of magic spells.
I chose to play as a magical paladin, as comfortable with a sword and shield as with magic, and I loved being able to move back and forth between them while in combat, particularly against the tougher enemies you’ll come across from time to time. Avowed is no slouch, and combat feels increasingly hard won and rewarding. Your companions also play their part here, taking some of the aggro and with abilities that you can call upon from a quick radial menu, both in combat and exploration.
Whatever task or story moment you’re undertaking, Avowed’s world is gloriously creative, gorgeous to look at, and eternally compelling, begging you to check out every spider-web covered nook and mountainous cranny. It’s not wholly unfamiliar – there’s designs that echo those seen in the Elder Scrolls series, and of course, fans of the Pillars of Eternity games will get a kick out of various elements – but it comes together so well. Vistas will make your heart swell, alien foliage will intrigue you, and the various architectural styles can’t help but pique your curiosity.
Playing on PC, there have been some very long initial load times, and the compiling of shaders happens every single time you load the game, when I’m sure most games normally complete it once, and that’s it. It doesn’t detract so much as force you to sit and ponder what you’re about to be doing, but I’m hopeful that a patch will deal with it. Aside from that, it ran very well on our 3070 equipped rig.
The lengthy loading times are echoed on Xbox Series X, where you have a choice between 30fps and 60fps visual modes. We stuck with the latter performance mode, where the game’s art direction still looks handsome, but it does exhibit some distracting quirks with noisy shadows, bright water reflections in the deepest of caves, and some temporal smearing.