First Impressions: Avowed
What do I think of Avowed after 23 hours of game play?
Avowed
Avowed is a first-person fantasy RPG set in the world of Eora, where your choices carve a path through war, intrigue, and ancient mysteries. Navigate a land in turmoil, forge powerful alliances or deadly rivalries, and wield magic and steel to shape the fate of the Living Lands—and your own destiny.
Intro
Device: Steam Remote play from gaming PC onto steam deck old
Difficulty: story mode
Completed: not yet
Time: ~23 hours
As you may have noticed, I am not a huge 3D open world RPG player, but a couple of my all time favourites are Skyrim, Fallout 3 (I have yet to play more than 2 hours of Fallout 4) and Horizon Zero Dawn series.
So I do have some opinions on what I like in an RPG of the magnitude that Avowed fits in to.
When I first heard of the game and the initial reviews on several podcasts, noone seemed that enamoured by it. But the main criticisms raised were pluses for me. The fact it is not trying to be a 80-100 hours game, it isn’t as open world as Skyrim as it uses areas or biomes to tell the story, and enemies don’t respawn.
I love all of those facets. I personally got lost on Skyrim for nearly 12 hours because I never triggered the initial quest. This resulted in my aimlessly wandering around, clearing some bandit camps, cooking and never seeing a dragon. Eventually I was told what I did wrong by a friend.
So far in Avowed I knew where to go and what to do, and as each story chapter seems to be tied to a main area (at least initially), I didn't get too distracted and am actually playing parts of the main storyline. Another Skyrim anecdote. I owned the game since its release on 11.11.2011 and I finished the main storyline in 2023 for the first time. :D
The storyline is still unfolding for me and I find it intriguing and after 20 hours I have my assumptions and ideas of how it could play out. I think there are multiple endings as well and I think the dialogue options are plentiful to shape your playthrough.
Gameplay
The things I am really enjoying in Avowed are the combat. Magic feels so cool and well done and the melee weapons actually seem to connect and do damage, which is a tricky thing to do an animate in these First person RPGs. I generally play a mage or wizard, so of course I am mostly familiar with the magic.
Movement. You are really encouraged to jump and climb. Something that I haven’t appreciated in the same way before. I actually look up for loot now and look for area to jump and climb over. The way the movement flows has been super fun. While it is no platformer, this gives it an added dimension I am really enjoying.
A couple of things where I can understand some grumblings, are maybe the quest types. I have just arrived in the third area and each area has some sort of fetch quest, and some bounty quests, alongside more elaborate main quests. I can understand why some might see these almost gameplay loops per biome as uninventive but the diversity of the biomes so far has been enough to also keep me engaged. I am also enjoying how the story is unfolding.
In another review I saw that loot is boring. I have not seen it be any more boring than any other game with the odd more special item. Personally I don’t understand that criticism.
A criticism I do have and it is a very subjective one, is that using the lock picks is not a mini game like in Skyrim. I loved those but I do see why it is a game mechanic improvement for many.
Character and skill trees
Elden Ring actually taught me a lot about “building” your character into a certain type but what seems nice in Avowed is that while you select a class type, you have access to many different skills and abilities which you can combine to make a varied character. I have magic and one handed melee weapons for example.
I think it would be fun to replay the game in a different class and focusing on a really tanky build in heavy armour and I have also seen people just use guns.. Not my forte though. I think the variety here is paired down but there is enough for it to be interesting still and warrant another play through (when I finish the story).
Accessibility
The game has some nice accessibility options. The main one being that you can play the game in third person. While it is definitely designed to be in first person it is playable in third person.
I like other options such as reducing head wobbles, as this can help with motion sickness.
The one I think is missing is making the aim marker more visible. I may need to get another eye test but I really struggle to see it in this game.
Sound
A lot of the general sound is ok. I have no complaints about the voice acting or general sound effects. The voice acting so far is actually pretty good and as a side note, there is a huge variety of NPCs that you interact with.
A cool sound effect that is initially easy to miss, is that if loot is hidden or nearby you can hear a shimmering twinkly noise. This can be hard to hear so I would suggest to wear headphones and/or turn the main music down.
With that said, the main music is boring and non descript. To me this is a big let down. The soundtrack doesn’t add anything for me. It also doesn’t take anything away but a nice soundtrack a la skyrim would have been awesome.
Summary
Below is a bit of a summary of the points I tried to make above. These are all subjective of course. Overall I am really enjoying the game and it is very moreish for sure. I keep wanting to know what the next bit is but I am trying to do several side quests before running through the story.
Positives:
I like the story
Nice combat mechanics, especially magic
Third person view is available
Movement - jumping and climbing mechanic feels smooth
Twinkling sound marks loot - turn main volume down
Not as open world - I will progress the story
story told in chapters through the biomes
Each biome (3 seen so far) is unique
Story mode setting
Downsides:
Soundtrack is boring
Some repetitive side quests in each biome
No lock pick game
Aiming marker hard to see
Are you playing Avowed? What do you think so far?
Okay, I need to do some rescheduling because I really neeeeed to play Avowed.
I bought avowed almost immediately because I’m a massive fan of both Pillars of Eternity games, I don’t think it really lived up to what I was expecting. I was hoping for a big more open world in the sense of like, “please let me open every cabinet and drawer I can see even if there’s nothing in there.” But overall I think it’s a great game, I’m still hoping for a 3rd addition to the Pillars of Eternity series though!