You didn’t ask for any of this. You didn’t ask to be Godlike, rare amongst your kind and beholden to a mysterious, verbose God. You certainly didn’t ask to be shipwrecked in The Living Lands, adrift and facing hostility on all sides as an emissary of the conquering Aedyr Empire. But here you are, a lynchpin for the movements of greater forces – and peace in the land depends near-solely on you.
So, what do you do? Where do you go from here? In Avowed, that choice is in the hands of players, guiding a tense and layered narrative of dark political machinations, and often terrible choices.
Avowed is an excellent experience for these many layers. In the hands of Obsidian Entertainment, its fantasy world escapes common tropes to become tangible, compelling, rich. There is no corner of its world without history and culture, and it means any steps forward come with notable consequences.
It means you get a pit in your stomach when your companions are unhappy with your choices, or when an impossible decision is noted as having clear consequences. There is cause and impact in this world, and you must tread lightly or the ripple effect begins.
Escaping common tropes
A world at the mercy of the forces of darkness is so common as a basis for fantasy storytelling that it’s easy to think Avowed is treading too heavily in the genre. But the game does well to differentiate itself with its nuance, and in how its sharp writing illuminates multi-sided culture clashes, and the stakes behind determining the fate of the Living Lands.
What’s most striking is how quickly Avowed involves you in its world and its many conflicts. You meet Kai, your first companion, soon after the game’s opening. It quickly becomes clear he’s not just a passive companion – he’s a doorway into the complexity of Avowed‘s world. He’s got an opinion about world events. He’s got a mysterious back story. If you pry, you can learn more about his history, and how he ties into the world. Later, he’ll become bolder, pushing back on your decisions, or encouraging you to make wiser moves.
Marius, Giatta, and Yatzli follow – all intriguing companions in their own right, helping to shape your journey across the living lands, pointing out the flaws in your direction, questioning your leadership. They force you to reanalyse your circumstances, the guiding mysteries of the game: Who is in charge? What does power mean? Who has the power? And what exactly is the mysterious voice in your head leading you towards?
Read: Bioluminescence, blocking and walking the walk: A chat with Avowed’s Ryan Warden
Avowed doesn’t shy away from questions of good and evil, with a spectrum of morality haunting each quest, discussed by your companions. As you travel, you learn how much you’re willing to accept, and how to parse the assumptions and stereotypes that define life in the Living Lands.
All the while, you’re fending off the advances of a mysterious inner voice that makes you question the very nature of reality, and your place in the world. It’s incredibly deft, and Obsidian Entertainment does well to balance these layers in its overarching tale of domineering politics, and the inner darkness of the heart.
Beauty in all things
A good script is only the foundation of Avowed – a game which has many beautiful, moving parts working in harmony. The writing, which is grand and ambitious in scale, is also supported by a genuine beauty in the game world, and a diversity of environments that are a joy to explore – even when you’re facing down creepy roaming spiders or Xaurip guards.
There are breathtaking moments in each new area, as you encounter otherworldly glowing fields, bright mushroom gorges, glittering underwater caverns, and even a red soul-filled area that appears to strongly resemble hell. Perhaps it’s years of wandering through the same sorts of generically-themed worlds, but Avowed was eye-opening for me.
Sure, there are still those same-y, generic areas where there’s grass and dirt as far as the eye can see – but your travel is so often broken up by areas of such detail and beauty that lesser areas are quickly forgotten. Your sight is taken over by glorious, sweeping towers or glowing pods, or twisting vines reaching up to the heavens.
For this particular review, I was playing Avowed on a high-spec
That was another stunning thing – Avowed isn’t afraid of colour. Bright pinks, blues, purples, greens. They make up the main cast’s costumes, their homes, their weapons, their attacks. From every corner, there’s colour – and Avowed is all the better and more texturally interesting for it.
Fighting dreamers
These ample foundations – colour, creativity, flavour, and texture – are also, thankfully, supported by moreish and satisfying gameplay, in exploration and combat. Ahead of launch, early previews flagged Avowed‘s combat as being a standout feature, with many noting its long-range wand abilities being particularly novel.
Personally, I think all of Avowed‘s combat shines, and it was particularly impactful when using an Xbox Series X/S controller. The defining feature of combat is tactility. You can feel every blow that lands, as it reverberates through the controller. Swinging a spiked axe, you get a multi-pressure blow that really emphasises the weapon landing and scrapping, spike-by-spike through opponents. Pulling back an arrow, you can feel the bow straining. It’s brutal in a way that makes you fully lock in.
Likewise, you can feel the ebb and flow of stamina as your hero charges forward, attacks, and then must rest before gearing up to return to battle. In the meantime, you can fire off any number of spells and magical abilities, forcing back enemies until you can find an opening. It’s a wonderful, dynamic system, and adds real heft to your journey.
It’s rare that it feels like a game gets every piece of its puzzle “right.” It’s subjective, of course. But Avowed really is a wonderful pairing of arts, with the expertise of Obsidian Entertainment shining through across multiple gameplay facets.
Solid combat supports many rigorous quest lines. Strong writing gives a reason to swing your axe, to protect your companions, to care about the fate of the world. And beautiful graphics, and a well-realised world tie it all together.
Avowed is an incredibly dense game, and one that encourages you to invest in its world. You won’t need much pushing, though – its strengths sing on their own, and they’re easy to see from the jump. Those looking for the next big fantasy RPG, rich with lore and opportunities to engage, will find it here.
Four-and-a-half stars: ★★★★½
Avowed
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Release Date: 18 February 2025
A PC code for Avowed was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
