Avowed Reviews
What Avowed lacks in gloss it makes up for with charm, depth and a playful heart. It's one of this year's most pleasant surprises.
Avowed is a perfectly competent RPG that showcases Obsidian’s writing and worldbuilding chops, but has little else to distinguish itself among swords-and-sorcery adventures.
Avowed's first-person combat and respect for player choice make it a journey worth having, but flaws in its story and design make it a one-way road.
Bigger than it first appears, Avowed is an engrossing and gorgeous action-RPG set in one of the most engaging fantasy worlds going, though it lacks the complex systems of its most beloved contemporaries.
Avowed is a valiant attempt at fantasy you can play your way, but while it delivers well enough with combat, the narrative just isn’t there. Too ambitious in what it wants to do, it falls way short.
"I'll not soon forget my time with Avowed – chaos, comedy, catastrophe, and all."
Avowed's impactful and satisfying combat is undone by a widely unbalanced upgrade system and an uninteresting story that wastes its potential.
Xbox's latest RPG streamlines the worst parts of bloated open-world games into something special
In that sense, Avowed is perfect proof of a great proof in all game design and in the execution of all art: you sometimes don’t need to pitch a revolution. Instead, you just need to have something to say, and then use the established tools and concepts to say it well.
A traditional RPG with a lot of charm, Obsidian Entertainment continues to impress with Avowed.
If you like Obsidian RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and Outer Worlds, Avowed will be the game for you. It serves up everything you know and love about the company's games, with plenty of quirky elements and strange characters. Its lore is as profound as it is confusing and convoluted from minute one. But in the end, it's a fun RPG that'll keep you busy for a while.
Avowed is not the Obsidian fantasy RPG I wanted, but the decently fun spell-slinging parkour FPS I didn't expect.
Avowed isn't what I expected, but I loved every second. It's the type of game I'll gladly play through again and again, a feat made easier by its somewhat short runtime.
Avowed demonstrates that Obsidian remains a studio capable of challenging RPG genre conventions. They've created a more focused experience that seeks to innovate in fundamental gameplay mechanics. The combination of vertical exploration, magical combat, and complex narrative points to a title that aims to rise above genre clichés. However, the game suffers from fundamental inconsistencies that prevent it from reaching its full potential. The lack of voice acting, fragmented narrative, limited NPCs, and reduced content variety burden a proposition that promises more than it ultimately delivers. The ability to switch between perspectives, far from being innovative, ends up undermining immersion rather than enhancing it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Avowed embraces what works best about Obsidian Entertainment's games to offer an unforgettable adventure.
Avowed may not reach the level of memorable and Obsidian must continue looking for its next big mainstream hit if it doesn't want to live eternally off the fame of Fallout New Vegas, but this new game is well worth a chance if you're a fan of the company .
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Avowed is an incredible RPG. Its vibrant world and stellar cast make every moment a joy to take part in, enhanced by a script that gives equal measure to drama, action and humour. Coming hot on the heels of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Microsoft's software revival is well underway.
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.
The result of all this is that I’m pretty much obsessed with Avowed. After overinflated maps, exploration without reward, and other frustrations encountered in the last few years, Avowed feels like a dream to play. It fully embraces the fantasy elements for a wonderfully old-school RPG, and I can’t wait to keep playing.
Avowed is a solid action RPG with an entertaining script, satisfying combat and impressively detailed environments. The inability to clean up side quests after the main story is beaten can be frustrating, but take your time with it and enjoy everything it has to offer, and you'll find plenty of memorable moments.