Avowed Review (Xbox Series S|X) – A Godlike Is A Pretty Fungi
There’s something tickling in the back of my brain every time I sit down to play Avowed. Upon taking control of my Aedryn Empire envoy Dextral, choosing my loadout, my squad and heading out on adventures that will take me who knows where – probably into a cave – I can’t help but feel something nagging at me. It’s not really a complaint, more of an observation. I really want to play The Outer Worlds 2.
It’s probably impressive of Obsidian that their shiny new RPG has me so incredibly hyped for their next one. I was hugely excited for it anyway, but Avowed has made me want it so much more, more often than not because The Outer Worlds living world is as exciting and full of life as this one. Avowed feels to me like a stepping stone on the way to returning to Halycon and that is going to be sooner than it’s ever been. I want to live in Obsidian Entertainment HQ. How do we make that happen?
And that’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed Avowed. I love it. It’s so, so good. The first five or six hours I was hopelessly addicted. I was thinking about it when not playing it, hugely tempted to pull up Remote Play on my phone just to get my fix. I kept imagining what scenarios the game was going to throw me into next, what bizarre creatures I’d find and best in battle. I was determined to get home to my little Xbox – which had remained largely unplayed since I finished Indiana Jones – boot it up and get lost in the Living Lands all over again. It was an addiction, there was so much to enjoy.
And the game gives you so much to do. Each time you reach a new settlement the side quests will pile up like the corpses of Xaurips, you take a big intake of breath, say out loud ‘well ok then, this is more for the next few hours’ and get cracking on the list. And each side quest is an absolute delight. Avowed’s primary campaign is fairly serious in tone so it’s nice to break off and do some dumb side quests that keep you entertained away from the main plot – though you’ll find they all tie in together rather beautifully by the end – and was certainly worth your time. If you’re the kind of player that likes to just main the story quest, I get it, but don’t miss out on all the extras Avowed has to offer, it’s there you’ll find some of the games strongest content.
In the desert environment of Shatterscarp a side quest literally asks you to stand guard while a soldier runs off and takes a piss. Brilliant.
And there’s been plenty of talk regarding Avowed’s credentials as an RPG. No, it’s not as in-depth as say, Skyrim. No, you can’t romance your companions – though I’m not sure why you’d want to – and no, you can’t grow old or shoot the shit with your teammates simply because you are bored.
If anything, Avowed plays its RPG cards by simply giving you a metric ton of things to be getting on with. As mentioned above, there are a mountain of side quests for each location you’ll visit, plenty of involving story quests along with bounties for local badduns. I’ve had a huge amount of fun taking on boss-level enemies in the bounties, they’re well worth doing as they offer huge amounts of currency you likely won’t find anywhere else. It throws weapons and armour at you like you’re playing a Borderlands spin-off, and the characters learn and grow with you throughout. It may be an RPG that doesn’t quite reach the sentient levels of Baldur’s Gate 3, but it has more than enough within it to at least claim itself a worthy member of the family. Whether or not you listen to those on X who say otherwise, is up to you.
Much like so much in Avowed, your decision making and efforts are going to be remembered and spoken about by the townspeople. As an Aedryn Envoy, you are born with godlike powers – though which God plays into the game’s narrative – and as such, people are either wary of you or very excited to have you amongst them. It could swing either way depending on certain choices you’ve made throughout, and it’s very fun to run into a random NPC 30 hours into the game to remind you of a choice you made in hour 3.
A big decision near the beginning will have huge consequences throughout the game. You’ll know what it is when you get to it. I debated for a long time over it and I’m glad I made the decision I did. It was nice to actually root for a villain when you felt like one yourself.
The story as a whole is strong, and it’s what kept me going throughout. Yes, like a typical RPG it swings in wildly different directions depending on the choices you make, but that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it? It’s your story after all, and the bliss of Avowed is that your decisions follow you everywhere. Luckily, there’s enough in Avowed’s story to keep you engrossed and wanting to do what you think is the right move at all times. There were heavy consequences for actions, but maybe I felt like it was always going to be that way regardless. Much like a deeply rooted narrative choice in a Telltale game, you were buggered either way, just maybe somewhat less-so if you chose the move you made.
As for the aforementioned weapons, there are a ton and they’re all fun. Well, they are if you’re a wizard. It was a tough decision right at the top and creating my fungal tarnished character, making me look like a clicker just before the infection fully takes over. If you choose a wizard you’ll be casting some insanely cool spells on your unsuspecting enemies throughout.
Instead of turning over your weapons every half hour, I found it best to stick with two mighty death makers and persistently upgraded. Upon killing a certain bounty I gained access to an amazing pistol which would kill most of my enemies in one well timed and accurate headshot. It stuck by my side for several hours until I came across yet another amazing pistol that put mine to shame. And the joy of Avowed is you can dual-wield any one handed weapon. So a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other had me slicing and popping fools left right and centre with little regard for their mortal existence. I became attached, and it never left my side until I saw the credits roll.
Talking of credits, that’s one thing to remember about Avowed. When the game ends, that’s it. You can’t jump back in to tidy up your side quests. The story is over and there’s nothing you can do about it, Envoy. Again, mop up everything you want to do beforehand jumping into the final mission, which will give you a heads up that you’re about to walk into a point of no return, and get those sides finished. You never know, you may be rewarded with some badass weaponry / armour if you make the correct choices.
From a technical standpoint Avowed is a stunner. I’ve been playing the game on Xbox Series S (and some cloud gaming thrown in there because of my aforementioned need to explore this gorgeous world) and had precisely zero technical hiccups or visual issues. Well, the audio pops in and out whenever I bring up the Xbox Guide but I think that’s more the console than the game .
The Living Lands is a stunning world to explore.. The bright, bioluminescence gives a burst of neon colour to all of the areas you explore – except for maybe the desert locations, though the sheer scale is something to behold, and you can get very lost just looking for the prettiest views. Draw distances are quite spectacular considering you can just keep walking and end up wherever the hell you like, and there’s a ton of gorgeous underground locations that deserve to be pillared just so you can see them. It looks terrific and is half the battle for a game like this. You want a gorgeous world to explore and Avowed delivers in spades. It’s all so weird, and doesn’t make a huge lot of sense all tied together, but you can’t help but be excited by what could possibly be around the corner. The environmental design of this game never gets old. Exploration is vital.
Whilst it’s solid damn near all the way through, there’s very little to dislike about Avowed, to be honest with you. We need to talk about the damn spiders. I know it’s like ‘number one fear’ for a good portion of humans and if you’re looking for some kind of arachnophobia mode in the settings you aren’t going to find one but come on, can we mix it up a little bit? Through Hogwarts Legacy I had to suffer the fuckers and here they are again, absolutely everywhere.
‘But Ross you can just kill the Mum spider and most of them will disappear!’
Yes I’m aware but do you really think I have the mental capacity to deal with one giant bitch-ass spider to repeal suffering them all? No, I don’t think so. Even writing this is making me feel like something is crawling on me and if I’m being real, I’m rather tired of all my favourite video games dropping them in like it’s not a big deal. It really is. It has to stop. I loved The Outer Worlds because there were interesting designs for spider-like creatures and that was much easier and more enjoyable to navigate. Yes, it’s fine if you want to add a little bit of fear and creepiness into proceedings, but it really drags the excitement down when I’m fully aware of what’s to come ahead of me.
OK. Just had to get that out.
Avowed can also be fairly demanding. Certain coloured weapons are necessary to access areas or to take on enemies that will rip you to shreds in a heartbeat if you’re not upgraded enough. Your NPC friends do enjoy shouting at you during battles that your weapons or armour aren’t upgraded enough even though you’re doing alright regardless. It can be frustrating when you’ve spent lord knows how many hours exploring and picking up the endless amount of crap you find strewn across the dead bodies you leave behind and the chests in every crevice of the Living Lands, only to find a fully upgraded ‘Exceptional’ or ‘Superb’ weapon just sitting there in a cave waiting to be picked up. Despite the love of the weapons I chose to explore with, I did think to myself I may not need to upgrade if I get lucky and come across a badass weapon nearby. Lo and behold, I did. It was kind of annoying but it’s hard to be too disappointed with a shiny better version of the weapon you already have just given to you because you decided to look inside a cave.
So Avowed is a whole lot of RPG and you’ll get back as much as you’ll get in with this one. The narrative is strong, the dialogue fun and very well written – I do love how sarcastic my Envoy could be given the choice – and the world of the Living Lands is gorgeously realised. That nagging feeling of wanting to play another Obsidian RPG never disappeared for me, and I think that’s testament to how their formula just works for me. I’m so excited to see what comes next from them.
If you jump into this one expecting the breadth and depth of Bethesda RPG’s (well, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout at least, Avowed is a greater achievement as an RPG than Starfield could ever dream to be) then you’re probably looking in the wrong place.
This is an RPG for people that work full time hours and want to get lost in a wondrous, dangerous, interesting and exciting world in their minimal spare time. It comments on social, political, ethical quandaries and has you meddling in morality in certain moments. I’ve not delved into the story in this review for spoilery reasons, safe to say it’s best to go in not knowing an awful lot about the characters or the overarching story like I did. It brings it all together in a far more satisfying way. And talking of the story, when I say it’s not as in-depth as Skyrim I’m talking mechanically, from a story standpoint it’s firing on all cylinders and deserves it’s place atop the best the genre has to offer.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to start a new save, head back into the Living Lands and go asshole mode just to see what happens.
It’ll do just nicely. Until The Outer Worlds 2, at least.
Avowed is available now on Xbox Series S|X and Xbox for Windows.
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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