Strong writing, a world packed with loveable weirdos, and lore for days, Obsidian have managed to transition the world of Eora from the top down to the front on, building a world that'll encourage you to pick at every nook and cranny of the Living Lands.
I've got a confession to make and I'm going to make it right here and now. I backed the original Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter way back in 2012 as soon as it became available.
It's Obsidian right? The makers of some of my favourite RPGs? It was an easy decision. I followed the updates, poured over the piece of art and listened to the music.
You know what I didn't do? Play the game for more than a couple of hours. Whoops sorry.
But playing AVOWED has made me realise just what I've been missing out on as those original games sat there in my Steam pile of shame, and it gently encourage me to explore the lore as a marveled and battled across The Living Lands.
Obsidian have taken so many parts of the first person RPGs that I love and packed it into a rich and enticing experience, even if the roleplaying isn't as deep as some of its contemporaries.
I even installed Pillars of Eternity again...
There is a sort of cop out being a stealthy archer in a fantasy game. You can of course do that in AVOWED, but I really wanted to push myself into some of the archetypes I usually don't favour.
Would I be the magic wielding wizard casting elemental destruction on my foes, or would I be the beefy fighter type swinging bladed weapons to silence my enemies.
I went with both, at the same time.
A magical grimoire in my left hand, a enchanted frosty axe in my right, I chopped and zapped and dashed until it was quiet again.
As soon as you step into the wilds of the Living Lands you're set upon by ne'er-do-wells and creatures intent on bringing your journey to it's end, which they did on many many occasions.
I'd dust myself off, check my equipment, and head back into the fray once again, getting up and personal.
You can keep with a combination that works for you as well, as you upgrade and improve your favourites back in your camp, increasing their stopping power and magical abilities.
I settled into my groove, and I rarely swapped into my secondary weapon a bow throughout my time. See I can't give up being an archer entirely, but I'm weaning off it.
It's even pretty encouraged within the systems of the game, you can keep levelling up the same weapons again and again.
It's loot city in AVOWED, but even though I was finding heaps of cool new items, it still felt better to stick to what I knew most of the time.
The Living Lands are lush. It was gorgeous to look at. So much of the game isn't in the middle distance though it's right up in front of you so it's only once you've taken down everything that you get a chance to appreciate it.
Stroll the streets of Paradis or the farmlands of the Emerald Stair, it's just feels nice to be here.
I actually spent quite a bit of time just looking at things, standing on cliffs and looking off into the distance, there is a clear skill that wraps this world together.
From armour to buildings and people it's starting to feel like we're really into the next generation of games, these many years on from the platform release.
Each of your companions who share this world are enjoyable to be around and add utility to the combat offering skills that you can call upon from a radial menu.
The combat in the game is fluid and pretty varied, with some big enemy tells that'll get you to dodge and reposition yourself in combat, and adding one of those companion abilities into the mix adds a lot of options.
There can be some pretty wild difficulty spikes in parts and my companions often yelled out "your armor is bad and so is your weapon" as I was being pummelled by a beastie.
The only downside is your friends are pretty fragile, and I found myself fighting by my lonesome more often than not, facing that beastie alone as kited them around the room.
One thing that I found relatively simple despite the pedigree of the series creators was the roleplaying itself, in previous Obsidian games it felt like there was a lot more grey.
In this game for the most part you feel like the morally superior friend to everyone who can solve all problems, even if you don't have the required skillset there always seemed to be a pretty good option that didn't feel that compromised.
Sometime that compromise feels good though, I've loved in previous games agonising about what was the least bad of a couple of rubbish options wondering whether or not I missed some crucial element.
That's not really the case for Avowed or at least not what my particular character build experienced.
There were a few moments where I was killed entirely by a single bad choice aggroing every fiend in the vicinity, but the really cheap skill respec saw me drop a few points from one column into the next to pass that skill check with ease when I respawned.
If you're looking for a Baldur's Gate 3 level narrative sandbox to play in, Avowed doesn't seem to be that, but that might be fine if you want a more guided gameplay experience.
The world itself isn't as limitless either, with some pretty large gated biomes to explore, each area feeling relatively big without being completely massive or interconnected, you're going to need to load into the next area when you finish with the previous one.
It's big but not limitless and because it feels more hand-placed than some other larger open worlds each section of the map feels nice to explore.
It reminded me of playing Oblivion, with little moments tucked into a big world, without the hours and hours it took to feel like it was truly conquered.
For some people it might not be everything they need for a big RPG adventure, but for me and for players keen to pick it up on a whim on Game Pass it's probably more than enough.
A copy of AVOWED on Xbox Series X was provided to SIFTER for the purposes of this preview.
