Avowed review: Obsidian’s latest RPG is its best
Avowed MSRP $70.00 Score Details Pros
- Excellent writing
- Lots of nuanced choices
- Contemporary themes
- Smooth combat
- Strong art direction
- Performance issues
About ten hours into Avowed, I was eager to leave Dawnshore, the fantasy RPG’s first area. I wanted to discover what nail-biting choices, legendary weapons, and wonderfully designed place were coming next. Before I could do that, I had to deal with a major consequence of my actions: The first NPC I met in Avowed was killed.
Recommended VideosObsidian Entertainment’s latest begins with a shipwreck. Players wash ashore on an island just outside of The Living Lands, and a furry blue Orlan named Garryck helps players gain their bearings and get off the island. He wasn’t a permanent party member but served as my gateway into Avowed‘s dialogue system and setting at large. We parted ways after I got to Dawnshore, and I only occasionally spoke to him when I saw him in the city of Paradis.
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Eventually, I pissed off a rebel organization by getting their leader to surrender themselves to the inquisitor zealots of the Steel Garrote, who executed him. In response, those rebels killed Garryck and hung his body near the exit of Dawnshore, a place I knew I had to walk. I genuinely felt sad and reflected on how I got to this point, which can only be achieved through good writing, a choice-driven dialogue system that doesn’t function on binary good and evil choices.
With Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment once again flaunts its writing chops with a fantasy story that is contemporary in its themes and combat that feels better than most other first-person western RPGs. Whether you’ve experienced a Pillars of
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