Avowed feels like comfort food to me. A dish that’s not novel or experimental, but something I’ll always turn to if gaming-to-chill is my intent. It’s set in the Pillars of Eternity universe Obsidian created for their isometric CRPGs but Avowed feels like a companion piece to The Outer Worlds: a compact and thoughtfully designed first-person RPG, with narrative themes, companion archetypes, quests, and player-choice mechanics you’ve seen before. Just like The Outer Worlds, it’s a great “AA+” style RPG for those without the time to tackle bloated and overlong “AAA” RPGs from publishers that, without any sense of irony, complain about the cost of making modern games that only a fraction of their audience complete.



Avowed expands upon The Outer Worlds’ framework to the point it could provide a temporary home for Skyrim fans disappointed with Starfield’s sci-fi trappings. It’s still an Obsidian RPG mind you – with a linear main plot and new regions revealed as the plot demands – but the hand-crafted environments feel larger in scope and more exciting to explore without ever feeling overwhelming.



The beautiful and diverse biomes are intricately detailed, with a ton of environmental storytelling and unique creatures; there are more fleshed-out side quests and companions that reference events from the Pillars of Eternity games; and there’s a seemingly endless supply of lore documents and loot chests secreted away. It feels like a proper adventure with something new to see or find around every corner, a sensation helped to no end by improved traversal mechanics that can feel almost Dishonored-like, as your hero deftly leaps over rooftops and chasms, clambers and slides through ancient ruins and catacombs, swims through submerged tunnels, and interacts with ancient machinery.



The high fantasy setting on the cusp of an industrial age means diverse and flexible combat options. In addition to that classic RPG thrill of upgrading attributes, skills, or equipment to dish out higher damage numbers, there’s satisfying feedback to every attack. Irrespective of whether you’re counterattacking after parrying with a shield, charging a power attack to cleave through foes with a two-handed weapon, hanging back to snipe weak points with a flintlock pistol, flinging blasts of magical energy from a wand, or using elemental spells to stack status effects, the combat feels much better than its RPG peers.

Avowed expands upon The Outer Worlds’ framework to the point it could provide a temporary home for Skyrim fans disappointed with Starfield’s sci-fi trappings.

It’s no pure action game and the skill-trees are relatively limited, but I enjoyed playing a Ranger-Wizard hybrid, landing focused headshots on frozen or electrocuted enemies with a pistol in one hand and grimoire in the other, before switching to a light shield and high crit-chance dagger to dash about in close quarters stacking poison damage.



Of course, Avowed is still a streamlined RPG. Completing quests and slaying foes feeds into a traditional XP-driven levelling system with points to invest in attributes and class skills, but you can refund them for minimal coin to re-spec at any point. A tiered gear system is used as a form of gatekeeping – with lower quality weapons doing minimal damage to higher quality armour and vice versa – but there are no attribute or skill requirements, and upgrading and enchanting equipment to stay on top of the difficulty curve always felt manageable.

High quality unique weapons and crafting materials are common loot in later regions, and you can break down anything you don’t use into more materials should you ever hit the generous weight limit. Companions also look after themselves and mostly serve as useful distractions or support roles in combat, with only a handful of skills to level and no equipment to manage. They’re primarily there for unique dialogue interactions and abilities that aid exploration (think burning barriers, charging devices, creating floating ice platforms, etc.).



Familiar yet fun and satisfying is how I’d describe the exploration, combat, and upgrades systems. Avowed’s distinctive elements are its unpredictable narrative, the beautiful but deadly setting, the diverse and quirky populace that inhabits it, and role-playing opportunities that don’t involve choosing whether to stick a dagger, arrow, or ice shard into something.

Companions also look after themselves and mostly serve as useful distractions or support roles in combat, with only a handful of skills to level and no equipment to manage.

You begin by creating a “godlike” avatar – one of a dying breed of mortals whose soul is “blessed” by a deity, in a world where souls undergo a cycle of death and rebirth - but aside from a fondness for fungi, little is known of your patron god. That mysterious background hasn’t stopped the Aedyran Empiror from entrusting you as his envoy to the untamed Living Lands, in the hope of discovering the source of a plague known as the “Dreamscourge”. Having always drifted on the sidelines of society, it gives your character plenty of flexibility in their diplomatic endeavours.



The Living Lands are a frontier region populated by outcasts from almost every society in Eora, most looking for second chances or fleeing authorities, but the Aedyran Empire and their zealous Inquisition have clear colonial ambitions. Several settled regions – most built atop the ruins of an ancient “Godless” civilisation – have spent decades struggling to survive against nature. Unsurprisingly, they’re used to a chaotic existence and not receptive to colonial masters and enforced order.

As with all good RPGs, your arrival goes awry. You’re shipwrecked, forced to battle deranged soldiers and wildlife under the influence of the Dreamscourge, and an attempted assassination reveals the entity bound to your soul is both intrinsically linked to the Living Lands and intent on keeping you alive to free it. What follows is a gruelling trek through increasingly hostile regions to seek information on the source of the Dreamscourge and potential allies from the surrounding settlements. All the while, you’ll have to decide if any of the factions and the entity bound to you can be trusted.



You’ll work alongside new companions in each region, gathering quests in hub areas and heading out into the surrounding countryside; you’ll engage with factions that’ll help you achieve your goal through different means, and you can tackle side quests that further alter the outcome of major events at the culmination of each act. It’s not so much a case of good vs. evil, rather diplomacy vs. extremism, community vs. authority, or preserving traditional values vs. the cost of progress – and your companions on are on hand to advise and criticise during dialogue or when you camp for the night.

It’s not so much a case of good vs. evil, rather diplomacy vs. extremism, community vs. authority, or preserving traditional values vs. the cost of progress...

There are few stereotypically evil antagonists and attribute- or background-checks tend to add flavour to dialog, rather than miraculously resolve unreconcilable differences. As a result, Avowed scores bonus points for not making me feel like I only had the choice of being a pathological altruist or sociopath. In fact, I’d argue Avowed’s story is incredibly player-centric compared to most RPGs, as it’s clear the unknown entity you might unleash upon the world is constantly watching and learning from your actions and responses, giving those moments added weight.



As this is both an Unreal Engine 5 game and there was furore around it initially being capped to 30fps on consoles, it’s worth noting Avowed is one of the most polished Xbox review-builds I’ve played. I experienced no crashes and only one bounty quest bug out in over 40 hours when a creature’s remains disappeared. The vibrant, lush, and stylised setting avoids the typical “UE5 look”, the global illumination system and time-of-day shifts accentuate the stunning environments, the character models and voice work are mostly excellent (if forcefully weird at times), and the dynamic music enhanced exploration and battles.

For those concerned, the final release offers a 30fps “Quality” mode, a 60fps “Performance” mode, and a 40fps “Balanced” mode for those with 120Hz displays. The fluidity and responsiveness of the Performance mode made it my preferred choice, even if that meant no ray-traced reflections and more obvious upscaling artefacts at times. Oh, and a third-person mode was added that I’d not recommend, but it works well enough and provides an option for those who struggle with first-person games.



Wrapping up, Avowed is an easy “recommend” to fans of The Outer Worlds, anyone looking for an epic-feeling RPG in which you can tackle everything on offer within 50 hours, and maybe even Skyrim fans looking for another fantasy RPG fix (just don’t expect the same scale and lack of urgency). The Pillars of Eternity setting offers a familiar but unpredictable world; traversal and combat feel slick and satisfying; and although the player-centric story follows some familiar beats, decisions feel less forced, and the stakes are much higher. That said, fans of Obsidian's traditional CRPGs might find Avowed’s flexibility a weakness.

You’ll eventually realise the core story moves forward regardless of your choices, you can explore every area and find every secret regardless of your attributes or class skills, and every combat build is viable. Avowed feels great to play with little friction, but the lack of mutually exclusive outcomes outside of big set-piece moments can cheapen the experience of role-playing.

*Xbox review code provided by Xbox Game Studios