Avowed Review

Avowed is Obsidian doing what Obsidian does, in a new shape. Set in the Living Lands, a colorful frontier of its Pillars of Eternity world, it is a first person RPG built around flexible combat: a sword in one hand and a spell in the other, a wand and a shield, a gun and a grimoire, swapped on the fly. The fighting is the star, quick and physical and endlessly reconfigurable, and the companions who travel with you are written with the studio's usual sharpness and react to the choices you make.

It is also smaller and more contained than the marketing implied. This is a set of handcrafted regions rather than one seamless continent, the faces and animation lag behind the environment art, and players expecting a Skyrim sized sandbox will find something tighter and more curated. That is a fair trade for many and a disappointment for some.

What lands is a confident, colorful RPG that knows its strengths: reactive writing, real choice and combat you actually want to repeat. It is not the studio's grandest work, but it is a very good one, and on Game Pass at launch it was a simple yes. Come for the fighting and the factions, and set the scale expectations aside.