Done With #9: Avowed

Back in 2020, the world got to see Avowed for the first time. There was no reason to not be excited aboutit, with the vibe looking just right with the sword and spell in the teaser, and it's made by the RPG juggernaut Obsidian Entertainment!

As you know, these guys got all kind of GOATed RPG under their belt. I mean, they made the trans girlies' favourite game Fallout: New Vegas and other classics like Neverwinter Nights 2, The Outer Worlds and the beloved original IP Pillars of Eternity. With them recently being bought by Microsoft at that time, making a high budget RPG game based on their own IP was a no brainer, and that's how Avowed came to be.

With Carrie Patel, the main writer of Pillars of Eternity, at the helm and supervision of the legendary Josh Sawyer (who also directed the first two games and recently directed Pentiment), Avowed was destined for greatness.

Obviously, the biggest difference between this and PoE is that Avowed is not a CRPG. And for the first time ever, they have the budget to make a full fledge AAA game with seemingly all the time in the world to make one. After all, Obsidian had a rather rocky road before being bought by Microsoft (which is still not ideal as they go crazy with the layoffs...). Deadline issues, problem with negotiation and budget problems have been plaguing them for ages, and it's not uncommon for their game last act to be rather unpolished.

But it's also undeniable that they're in the most stable spot they've ever been as a studio. With the success of Grounded and their rather good relationship with Microsoft compared to other studios (I HOPE I'M NOT JINXING IT), it seems like there're way more room for internal errors for Obsidian. After all, Avowed was rebooted internally 3 times. Unlike The Veilguard though, it seems like the higher ups were way more understanding according to many interviews.

However, there were a lot of concerns leading up to the game's release. With multiple delays and gameplay videos that didn't really look great to be blunt, it was hard to keep faith. But now that the game is out, it's time to find out how it actually plays.

Let's jump right into it!~

In Avowed, we play as the Aedyran Emperor's right hand. We were sent by him as an envoy to The Living Land; an island that Aedyran is essentially trying to colonize to deal with The Dreamscourge.

The plague is pretty much like The Last of Us's fungal infection. It makes creatures grow mushroom on their body and they start to lose their mind before becoming violent. It's a tall task that only the good looking envoy (like mine) can solve.... but wait what's on our envoy's face!? AREN'T THEY THE MUSHROOM!? HMM...

The opening hour of this game was a slowburn, where the game essentially tells you what to expect from this game. What I find rather interesting is how they set precedence for how dialogue in this game is a main focus, with a stat check as your first response, or how you can decide the faith of a prisoner you meet on this abandoned tutorial island. You can choose to deal with her however you want, be it freeing her, trick her into giving you information, kill her right away or just simply ignore the dang lady.

Personally, the game hooked me from the start, but I think it's also because I'm used to how Obsidian structures their game. I've talked to a few people who thought the story didn't hook them at the beginning and it took them a hot minute for the all to get rolling, and I think that's quite fair.

I think this is the case because early on there's a lot of emphasis elsewhere that's not the story. It's very clear that the devs really want to get into the habit of exploration, as you can parkour and get so many chests as soon as you land on Paradis. The game also flexes its very well made combat system, and when you think you're just vibing while clearing some early quests, the plot hook hit you in the face, and it hit hard.

The game's writing is really emaculate. After all, it's directed and written by someone who's very familiar with the IP, so the vibes align with other games in the series as well. Dialogues feel natural, and the main plot with strange voice in our head is really interesting (on top of our task as an envoy, there's just so much to keep track of ahhhhhh)

The story deals with three big themes:

• Colonialism and its effect on the native people. The game does not only explore it from the local lens as to how bad the situation is, but also through the lens of you, the envoy to the emperor who wants to take over the land you're trying to save.
• Mother Nature, environmentalism and our relationship with the land we live in. How much do we respect the land really does reflect on our choices throughout the game.
• Facing our fear and overcoming ourselves. Being true to ourselves and what makes us an individual.

I think these themes were explored from different perspectives rather well throughout the main and side quests that progressively gets more and more tense (with choices that give me more and more headache too). I can't go much into the deets, but trust me on this one, the game does not pull any punches to make its point clear.

Avowed is also a game that doesn't forget, just like Undertale. There were choices that make their return way later in the game that makes me go like WAIT WHAT!?

The game also constantly shows you that your choice matters. Be it immediately, or something you tell an NPC immediately effecting their lives. You can tell someone that living with a lizard person is their life calling, and it really becomes their life calling. But on top of that, if you check up on them, you can see how relationship evolves too.

Choose carefully!

But what's an adventurer without some loving companions! In Avowed, we travel with these four sillies:

• Kai - the big brother figure of the group who wants a second chance in life
• Marius - professional hunter who got some nerve issues and panic attacks
• Giatta - a prodigy who lives under her parents shadow
• Yatzli - horny furry and objectively the best character in this game

They're all such cuties and I love just hanging with them at the camp. There're so many dialogues back and forth between the four that really showcase their personalities and their care for each other (and for us). I love the remarks they make on the road, and it's really cool how they are not just bystanders in cutscenes as they would interject to give some comments. At times, we can also ask them for advice during the cutscene as well, which is a nice touch.

But I do think that it's unfortunate that Giatta got the short end of the stick. She's an interesting character that it feels like the developers assume that she will have a permanent spot in your parter (she has some of the most useful companion skills in combat). However, when that's not the case, she doesn't have much going as her story arc only really ties in with a certain portion of the game. You still get to see growth in her character, but there are fewer moments with her when compared to the other three.

Gameplay wise, this is hands down Obsidian's best.

There are many builds you can do, and a lot of weapon choices to pick from. I think that the melee weapons play differently enough to be unique and create diversity in melee playstyle, while the casters get so many power spells early which makes them engaging from level 1 to the end of the game. As for me, I swap between casting and using pistols in two hands as that really fulfill my rebellious scholar fantasy.

But on top of that, I think Obsidian figured out how to make spellcasting and melee combat work in first person. A lot of FPS game feels to make these sort of combat feel impactful, and it's quite a challenge to do that in first person camera after all with the lack of animation. I think that the usage of sound effects and VFX really help; making the melee hits feel chunky while the spells feel like they pack a punch.

While exploration is amazing and getting new unique weapons for your build feel amazing (especially with how great they play) unfortunately upgrading them sucks big time.

Like it isn't THAT bad, but it is pretty much like how Souls upgrade works. You go around finding rocks. You get to a workbench. Cling clang, more damage. It's not the most exciting process and feels rather dated, but it works.

It's a small nitpick that doesn't ruin the fun overall, but notable enough to talk about.

But yeah there're so much going on in this game, and one of them are unmarked quest. The devs really want you to pay attention to small conversations that happen in the overworld. While they are not technically quests, you can actually interact with these NPCs and progress their stories throughout your adventure. Sometimes, you even get some nice rewards for it too.

Minor spoiler but one of the first instance of this is a woman who thought her husband threw their wedding necklace. The guy excused himself by saying that he was rob but she wouldn't buy it.

As I progressed, I found a necklace that gives some stat boost and wasn't marked as a quest item. However, when I read the item description I realised that it belongs to the husband from earlier. Ended up giving back to the dude and they actually got back together. It's super neat and more games should do this.

There are also bounty to collect, treasures to find, and a lot of parkour to perform. I thought this game was Assassin's Creed for a second with how smooth the latter is. That aside, some of these bounties have some hilarious backstory to them and it's incredily fun deducing where the treasures are at without looking it up online.

The game is simply beautiful. I think the way they utilise colour to contrast life and death was clever. And like other Obsidian game, there's a lot of environmental storytelling with item placements, note placements and even corpse placements.

I also love how you can visually see how it becomes less and less habitable the further we get into The Living Land, really nails down the environmental theme it got going.

While Avowed is flawed (like the upgrade system and the slowburn pacing), it's a game that knows what it wants to be. It knows and it is not a sandbox RPG game like Skyrim. It is an RPG where you play as someone with a defined role; an envoy who's here to deal with the plague and has the people's best interests at heart. What we do really effect everyone around us, for the better or worse. Are we here to heal The Living Land from the plague, or are we here to exploit it? That's up to you to decide.

But don't forget that Avowed doesn't forget, and it will make you regret some choices.

Hard to beat this, it's an instant classic for me. Looking forward to The Outer Worlds 2 later this year. Obsidian is seriously onto something with four games in four years.