Avowed — one of the most anticipated is a 2025 game from Obsidian Entertainment. After five years of development, the game promises to combine the best of the developers’ previous projects, adding real magic and immersing players in the world of Eora. With a first-person view and an emphasis on a deep storyline, without multiplayer, it draws comparisons to TES: Skyrim and Baldur’s Gate 3. But does it meet the expectations of the fans?
Pluses:
an interesting world with a deep lore and a well-thought-out story; freedom of exploration; charismatic partners — each has their own story, influences the plot and has unique fighting skills; visual style; simple but effective parkour elements; variability of passage — the ability to resolve conflicts through dialogues or brute force
Minuses:
insufficient plot variability; simple side quests; lack of romantic lines; graphics for amateurs - the style is closer to The Outer Worlds than to something epic and serious; limited physical interaction: you cannot attack NPCs or interact with all objects; lack of real plot surprises
Content
The plot and the world
Avowed takes gamers to the Pillars of Eternity universe, but to a new region — the Living Lands. A magical and environmental disaster has recently broken out here. We, in the role of a high-ranking emissary of the Aedir Empire, arrive here to find out why everything went wrong. If you were expecting another story about «the chosen one who saves the world of», then… well, you’re right.
Classic fantasy settings are all around us. The world of the game is diverse: from port cities and temple ruins to deserts, volcanic wastelands, and divine gardens where everything around you is trying to kill you.
If you’ve played Pillars of Eternity, many things will be familiar to you. But Avowed is not a continuation of the series, but a separate story with new characters and the ability to influence the course of events. This is no longer just a «tabletop RPG in digital format» as it was in PoE, but a full-fledged action game with a research bias.
The spirit of adventure is perfectly realized in the game: not only game design solutions, but also in-game tasks contribute to this.
For example, you can buy a treasure map, or take on a quest to painstakingly collect the totem particles of a god from their numerous pantheons. You will not be led by the hand from point A to point B. They’ll give you a visual or textual poetic hint, and then you’ll have to find it yourself on the location. This is old-school. Here, the issue of benefits fades into the background, but the sporting interest can keep gamers in the game for hours.
Avowed is unlikely to surprise anyone with its plot. There are no wow effects from the plot twists. But the general narrative «control your destiny» works. Players are free to choose their path, but this does not change the situation dramatically. For example, the key denouement of the first act is whether to kill, pardon, or bring your murderer to justice. This is not a spoiler because the character here is godlike and cannot be sent to a wooden mackintosh.
It depends on the choice how the faction «naked and bosses» anti-imperial guerrillas will treat the protagonist. Pardon: they will not touch you and will give you a reward, kill — their «fellow party members» will raise your first tutorial partner, the eared Garrick, on a branch in response.
However, none of this is particularly engaging. This is not the level of the side quests of the third «Witcher», where you really grab your head, fascinated by the story and characters, run to poke the saved save and play through it again. But what is similar to Mr. Sapkowski’s universe is the ambiguity of the protagonist’s choice and the attempt to catch up with the dark fantasy wave And Avowed sometimes succeeds quite well.
Thousands of lines of dialogs are ready to reveal the knowledge and lore of the universe to an interested gamer, but it takes time, a lot of it.
The player’s diary even has a special place for the game’s life, its history, and important events. This is also an element of the old school — deep immersion in the game world through reading. And what unobtrusively helps is stylish loading screens between locations. The artists know their stuff, and they also spice it up with accompanying text: a game story or tips for the player.
Character editor: who am I?
You are godlike, which means you can be born as a member of any race in any corner of the Eora. These are children who, even before they were born, received «blessings» (or curses, depending on the social or personal perspective) in the form of a physical manifestation of the divine spark given by the gods.
The attitude of the common people is negative rather than positive. But the royal court has a pragmatic and respectful attitude because where can you find a better tool for solving any extraordinary issues?
In addition to increasing the characteristics, leveling them up opens up new opportunities in dialogues. They are indicated by the icon of the corresponding characteristic and the number of points required to use it. If there is a lack of points, the line will be closed. This will not «stop» the passage, but some interesting phrases and conclusions will be unavailable and instead of pushing «with soft power» you will have to take up arms and engage in combat.
Unlike classic RPGs, Avowed doesn’t tie the player to strict class restrictions. It allows you to freely combine skills from the Warrior, Ranger, and Mage guilds.
The character development system in Avowed is not as deep as in some other RPGs, but it gives you enough options for maneuvering. And the developers have kindly provided the opportunity to reset all the skills and abilities of the hero for a moderate fee. A small thing, but necessary.
In addition to the previously mentioned skill branches, there is a separate one: god-like. The latter is replenished with new skill sets in the course of the main story. There is also some variation there, depending on the choices the player makes in the dialog with key characters.
Gameplay
If you’ve been waiting for another Baldur’s Gate 3, congratulations — you’ve got the wrong game. Avowed plays more like Fallout: New Vegas.
В Avowed there is an interesting «Second Breath» mechanic that allows you to be reborn right on the battlefield. It is also possible to bypass battles through stealth or dialogues. Sometimes enemies even surrender if you’re convincing enough, which is a great way to save resources.
The combat system gives you the freedom to choose: you can fight like a knight with a sword and shield, shoot a musket, or shoot fireballs like the main character of the Slayers anime. This adds variety to the gameplay and encourages experimentation on the go. Slo-mo is available during a critical hit, and you can easily and effectively throw an enemy from a height to eliminate him.
Obsidian tried to make the combat exciting by including a variety of fighting styles, magic attacks, and an evasion system. However, does it work in practice? If you’re a fan of tactical RPGs, you might find that the battles don’t have the same depth as in Baldur’s Gate 3. For fans of dynamic action games, there may also be a lack of speed and spectacle. But fans of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic will love it.
Not only the first-person view adds immersiveness to the game (switching to the third person is not a problem, just press the «U» key), but also interaction with the environment. I’m talking about fantasy parkour.
I can’t help but think of the pioneer of this subgenre — Mirror’s Edge, in which the feeling of running is simply incredible. And this comparison is a compliment. You will feel a certain flow not only when running, but also when conquering heights that are not obstacles. The level design, as mentioned earlier, is very vertically oriented. Or «multi-storey».
And as a brave explorer, we can’t do anything without climbing skills. The creators of Avowed also realized this. Is there a Lara Croft syndrome here, when you try to jump onto a ledge ten or twenty times in vain? No, the game even sometimes cheats and «jumps» the required distance in the interests of the player. User-friendly, so to speak.
Brothers and sisters
One of the huge advantages of Avowed is the idea of giving the hero partners. There are four of them available throughout the game, each of which has its own destiny and can help in every way possible in battle. However, do not expect romantic stories — Obsidian decided that they «had no time for this». Instead, the developers decided to focus on the protagonist’s partners:
«We wanted each of them to have a key role in the story, different party roles, unique personalities, and ways in which they complement each other and tell the player the story of the Living Lands», — game director Kerry Patel.
In practice, this motley crew really livens up the gameplay. We have the opportunity to set up a classic RPG camp: rest (fully restoring health and aura), improve or enchant equipment and weapons by crafting the necessary items for upgrades from previously found items. In the bottomless chest, you can sift out items that can be sold to merchants. It is also possible to install the found parts of the god totems, which will give nice bonuses. But to do this, you need to sweat searching for them. An unexpected opportunity to level up your game skill is a simple conversation with your teammates. There are many variations of dialogues, through which the authors reveal the game’s lore and the background of each of the characters.
Kai is a former mercenary and a daredevil who is not at peace because of his dead friend. Marius is a dwarven tracker who is a hermit and does not want to return to his small homeland. Giatta is an animal magician who plans to sacrifice her life to science and cannot let go of her parents’ tragic past. And finally, Yazli is the future heroine of fanfiction and player art, who will definitely fall in love with this devilish coquette with remarkable magical potential.
The player can freely combine them and choose only two active companions at a time during the passage. The rest remain to rest behind the scenes in the camp. Their choice also depends on what useful skills the players have developed in them. There are four for each of them: there are active and passive skills. Someone aims accurately between the eyes of the enemy, someone regenerates the health of allies.
Graphics and atmosphere
Avowed’s graphics received mixed reviews from players at the release stage trailers. As for me, the game has a nice, recognizable style and conveys perfectly the atmosphere of a fantasy world. It looks more like an improved version of The Outer Worlds than a technological breakthrough.
The game world pleasantly surprises with its detail. How beautiful is the morning fog over the water near the port lighthouse, or the camp under the open starry sky? Bustling cities, dense forests, deserts, ruins, magical anomalies — everything looks alive and thoughtful. But a bit artificial, with sometimes strange interaction with the environment: a noisy chicken at the local market cannot be sent to the broth. Even if you hit it with a sword or a spell, it will continue to peck at the grain at the counter. A trifle, but the amazing effect is lost at such moments.
Avowed’s visual style is similar to The Outer Worlds: bright colors, simplified textures, and sometimes even a cartoonish style.
It’s not bad, but the game looks less serious than one would expect from a dark RPG with gods, a terrible plague, and geopolitical intrigue.
The game manages to entertain the player quite well with «physical» interactions: if the enemy is far away from you but standing in a puddle, a light charge of electricity from the magic book will reach him and shock him. Or, you can overcome the water surface by throwing special grenades that create iceberg islands and jump from them. Puzzles and traps are also found here, but they are rudimentary. Prince of Persia was more inventive.
Avowed’s soundtrack does a good job of creating the right mood, but that’s about it. Some might call the music a typical generic fantasy. This is not the case when the melody stays with you after the final credits, like in Bloodborne or The Witcher.
There is nothing wrong with the atmosphere in Avowed: it gives the player a real sense of adventure. After all, this is a fairy tale, albeit with a PEGI-16 rating.
Is this rating justified? More likely yes than no. In addition to existential and philosophical questions, the characters in the dialogues often do not hesitate to make low jokes or swear. Outright violence is regularly shown on the screens, and murders sometimes seem to be just events for the sake of events. We are not a moral commission, but it is worth mentioning.
Optimization and localization
The Avowed engine is the well-known Unreal Engine 5. For a comfortable game, you will need an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X / Intel i7-10700K processor, 16 GB of RAM, and an AMD RX 6800 XT / Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card. The game will take about 75 GB of free space on your SSD.
The game is well optimized, unlike RoboCop: Rogue City on the same engine. And on cards of the GTX-series, for example, it will allow you to plunge into a fantasy journey without any problems. The author of these lines did not experience any crashes of the game engine, dramatic fps drops, or other anomalies during the entire time of playing the game. Shaders compile faster here than in Stalker: literally 10-15 seconds. Don’t forget about downloading between locations. Sometimes they are annoying, but not critical. All quests work and allow you to complete them.
I completed the main story of the game in 20+ hours. Completing all the side quests will significantly increase this figure. Now I’m playing it for the second time, playing a badass guy, completing all the quests and exploring the locations up and down. And in terms of time, it will definitely be x2 or x3 compared to the first run.
The difficulty level here can also be a challenge: I recommend the first three (story, easy, normal) for the first playthrough, but if you want to complete the game with all the side quests and look under every stone, welcome to the hard level or «path of the damned». This will give you an old-school gaming experience. It’s been tested on ourselves.
And about Ukrainian localization. There is no such thing. Of course, Microsoft would like to scold for this. After all, the equally expensive and anticipated February project Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has a Ukrainian translation at launch. Yes, given the amount of material, it would have required year or two, but Baldur’s Gate 3 — is a vivid example of how it should be done. Here we are offered a russian translation of the interface and subtitles. But nothing prevents you from simply switching to English and having fun. I even tried Polish and got a bit of Witcher vibe.
Prices
This is where the problem arose, at the stage of pricing. Last year, Steam met Ukrainian players with a high price tag — UAH 2999 for the standard edition and UAH 3499 for the premium edition.
Currently, the prices look like this: UAH 1999 for the standard edition and UAH 2499 for Premium. Is it worth paying for it? It’s up to everyone to decide for themselves.
The premium includes: the first set — Eora Collection Set — is inspired by the characters of the Pillars of Eternity universe, where Avowed takes place. The second set — Obsidian Collection Set — adds stylish dark costumes for companions.
Players also receive a digital artbook and the game’s soundtrack. Owners of the standard edition will be able to upgrade to the premium version for an additional fee.
For collectors, there is a special tabletop edition that includes a physical map of the world and a metal case, although the game itself will still be in digital format And Game Pass owners will receive the game by subscription.
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