Avowed review: Long live the Living Lands

For Avowed, developer Obsidian Entertainment is heading back to Eora, the world featured in the Pillars of Eternity series. Though the setting is familiar, Avowed forges its own path with an engaging story, memorable companions, and an evolution of the two-hand fighting system.

A plagued land

In Avowed, players assume the role of an envoy sent by the emperor of the Aedyran Empire to the Living Lands to investigate a rapidly-spreading disease known as the Dreamscourge. It’s affecting not only people, but animals and the land itself. As the envoy investigates the Dreamscourge, a bizarre mystery begins to unravel.

Narrative has always been a strength for the team at Obsidian, going back to the post-apocalyptic thriller Fallout: New Vegas, and even 2019’s The Outer Worlds, a sci-fi romp that took aim at capitalism and corporations. Avowed presents a straightforward fantasy adventure that may not have the cutting edge of Obsidian’s best, but its characters and world-building leave a meaningful impression.

Not only is the protagonist an Aedyran envoy, but they’re also a Godlike, a person blessed by the gods who inhabits powerful abilities. This background frames nearly every interaction you have in the Living Lands. As the ultimate fish out of water, the envoy is often scrutinized and distrusted because of their empire ties. Several NPCs will comment on your godlike features (even if you choose to hide them), and the handful of Aedyrans you come across may see you as a potential ally. Obsidian does an excellent job at playing up the dynamics between the various races and religions in Eora, and how the constant conflict only exacerbates the issues plaguing the Living Lands.

If you’ve played an Obsidian RPG before, the role-playing aspect of Avowed is right in line with the studio’s previous offerings: every conversation presents multiple dialogue options, some exclusive to specific character backgrounds or gated behind attribute requirements. They may or may not impact the outcome of a quest and/or an NPC’s relationship with the envoy. While doing a quest in the Dawnshore region, I was faced with the option to kill an assassin or let them live. Against my better judgment, I let them walk away, and it was a choice that had lingering effects as I continued to investigate the Dreamscourge. Even a dozen hours later and in a different region, I had characters mentioning my decision to let the assassin live, either chastising or praising me for it. There are multiple decisions of this magnitude throughout the story of Avowed, and while it’s not a game with 20 different endings, Obsidian makes you feel the consequences of these choices through the interactions that follow.

Swords, spells, and guns

Of course, the envoy’s journey across the dangerous Living Lands brings them a healthy flow of adversaries to deal with, which brings us to my favorite aspect of the game. Avowed’s approach to combat is simple and familiar: you have two hands, and you can use them to wield any two weapons with few caveats. You can go for a wand and a gun, a shield and a grimoire of spells, twin daggers, or whatever other fun combo you can come up with. There are no traditional classes, so players are free to experiment with how they build their character.

You can equip two loadouts simultaneously and swap between them with a single button. For most of my playthrough, I used a bow for stealth and distance, and a sword and grimoire combo for standard encounters. Casting spells is endlessly fun in Avowed, as elemental spells provide utility both in and out of combat. An ice spell can temporarily freeze an enemy, but can also create a solid platform on the surface of water. Electricity can zap multiple enemies at once, and fire can be used to burn down vines and cobwebs obstructing a path.

Blending combat styles like I did means you’ll be spread thin when it comes to upgrading your skill trees (Fighter, Ranger, Wizard) but it’s worth it for the hilariously fun results you’ll get. Abilities can be cast from a wheel-style menu or assigned to the hotbar. What’s really dope is that you can assign your companions’ abilities to the hotbar, too, making NPC allies much more helpful in battle. Kai, the first companion to join the party, has an attack that deals heavy stun damage. I’d often combo this with a heavy attack of my own so that I could trigger a critical strike on an enemy. These unique, slow motion attack animations never got old. As companions level up, you can unlock upgrades and abilities in their personal skill trees.

Enemies in Avowed do not scale with the player’s level. Instead, they have their own predetermined stats, abilities, and attributes. Enemies with weapons and/or armor higher than yours will have a skull icon next to their name, with an additional skull for every tier they have over you. If you find yourself in over your head, your companions will bark that your weapons or armor are too weak for the current fight. These enemies are still defeatable, but it’ll require a masterful use of dodging, blocking, and a whole lot of health potions.

To even the odds, you’ll need to upgrade your weapons and armor to new tiers. At the party camp, you can use resources found around the Living Lands to ascend weapons from Common to Fine, Fine to Exceptional, and Exceptional to Legendary. This also requires Adra, a rare mineral that can be found on enemies, in chests, and at shops. While I like the decision to not scale enemies with the player level and instead put an emphasis on upgrades, this system doesn’t feel properly balanced. The requirements to upgrade get expensive quickly, and you’ll find yourself spending too much time foraging for branches and scraping gold together for incremental upgrades, only to find a better sword, helmet, or bow in a chest during your next quest anyway. In most cases, I found that it was a better use of my time and resources to just buy better gear outright rather than upgrading the lowly equipment I was using before. It’s not usually how I like to play an RPG, but Avowed constantly puts you behind the 8 ball if you prefer to manually upgrade your arsenal.

From the look of things

I’m of two minds when it comes to Avowed’s visual depiction of Eora and the creatures within. On one hand, the world is quite beautiful, with lovely landscapes, colorful skies, and a vibrant color palette for structures and creatures. On the other hand, the humanoid characters vary a great deal. While some of the models look good or even impressive, it’s their gestures and speaking animations that look uncanny. This is worsened by some of Avowed’s cutscenes, which are rendered in engine. As someone who’s played (and loved) his fair share of janky RPGs, this wasn’t a major detractor for me, but it’s something that stands out given how advanced facial and body animations have become in modern games.

Playing on PC (NVIDIA RTX 3070, i7-9700K), I was able to get fairly decent performance out of Avowed after adjusting the in-game settings. For folks with strong rigs, the game offers ray tracing and other settings that can be tuned up to make the Living Lands as beautiful as possible. On consoles, players can opt for Balanced, Quality, and Performance graphics modes.

Next to godliness

Avowed delivers where it matters: an interesting world with memorable companions and a rich combat system that rewards experimentation. Pillars of Eternity fans will feast on the various nods and references to the beloved CRPGs, but newcomers to Eora will still find plenty to enjoy with Obsidian Entertainment’s latest RPG.

This review is based on PC and Xbox versions of Avowed provided by Xbox Game Studios. Avowed launches on February 18, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_