Avowed is the ‘back to roots’ project of Obsidian as their previous projects were what many considered was a completely different genre to take on. Grounded and Pentiment were nevertheless unique titles in their own right. Now Obsidian is back with a proper triple-A action, RPG set in their own Pillars of Eternity universe. Avowed is set to release on February 18th on Xbox and PC.
A Fulfilling Setting And Environment
The setting of the game is the Living Lands region of Eora, a diverse land with plenty of varying environments to explore such as lush forests, expansive caves and deserts. We play as one of the many beings in the universe called a ‘Godlike’, who are people that have been touched by the gods.
The main story revolves around our character being sent to investigate a rapidly spreading plague called ‘Dream Scourge’, that can bring things back to life but as zombie monsters. This particularly a unique problem as the theme of the game is reincarnation and how multiple different lives are intersecting.
The world itself is incredibly dense with so many things to find and interesting side quests to take on. Anyone playing is sure to consistently stumble upon something useful whether they are on the beaten path or exploring some cave that they spotted from a distance.
Combat And Character Building
As we play through the game we will be upgrading our attributes which are Might, Constitution, Dexterity, Perception, Intellect and Resolve. Upgrading each serves a specific purpose for example upgrading Might will increase the damage we inflict and also increase the amount of weight we can carry.
Constitution increases our overall health, Dexterity for increasing attack speed and action speed, Perception to increase our ability to do critical hits, Intellect for elemental resistance increase and mana increase and finally Resolve for increasing stamina.
This system makes it so that no one is locked to initial playstyle that they picked, usually one would assume that perception is for ranged characters but choosing to go melee in the middle won’t be a detriment as it increases critical hit chances thus the choice to change combat styles won’t need stat reallocation.
But at the same time those wanting to minmax their builds and get the highest amount of damage possible do still have the ability to reallocate their stat spread and experiment to find out what build suits their playstyle best.
Just Phenomenal Combat
The combat system can considered the next iteration of what some might is Skyrim’s combat, this is not meant as a jab, rather a compliment, everything here feels much more natural form swinging any melee weapon, to using bows to pick off enemies from afar, to using a grimoire as a mage and chucking all sorts of magic.
You always have to dodge and move so as to not get overwhelmed, melee and ranged attacks can both be charged which can be used to perform satisfying finishers, the spells themselves feel useful and encourage out of the box thinking to utilize.
This can be considered one of the game’s most admired systems, there is no playstyle that felt like it lacked something. Every type of play felt equally satisfying and just fun to play. One of the best things about the combat is the feedback we get for hitting shots or slashing enemies.
We can also command our companions to utilize whatever spells they have, allowing for creative combos to take down a group of enemies or stack damage on bosses. Choosing which companion should use his or her ability stops time thus making sure we can choose the correct spell to get out of a sticky situation or start performing a combo.
Conclusion
While the game has been released for reviews, journalists and content creators alike are praising the game’s setting and story, not to mention the intriguing combat system. It may not suit everyone’s preferences but for those wanting a solid RPG experience Avowed is a must play.
There are some issues with performance but that is to be expected at this point for any triple-A title, these issues are nothing a small patch update can’t fix. All in all Avowed is sure to be a stellar RPG with even better combat if the reviews are to be believed.
