Avowed Review

TL: DR - Avowed is the perfect game for people who love Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas, but don't have the time for an open-ended adventure. It is a blend of linear storytelling within a semi-open world. As long as you aren't expecting an open world with endless exploration, you'll be good.

At some point in every gamer's life, we find ourselves chasing the dragon of a specific type of game. For me, it started with Oblivion, and up until Fallout 4, I was content with the games in the genre. But Fallout 4 dropped in 2015, and while I always find my way back to the Commonwealth, I've been chasing that feeling of a new world to explore. And while Avowed isn't the grand adventure I would have hoped, what I found was a game that not only scratched that RPG itch but also provided a formula of what the future could be like for the next open-world adventure.

The Gameplay Loop

Avowed trades open-world exploration for open storytelling. The story advances as you travel to different parts of the Living Lands. When you reach a new area, you are open to exploring the area and completing missions in any order. During my playthrough, I would travel to the main town, collect bounty and side quests, and then venture out to explore before completing the main objectives. It shifted my perspective from aimless wandering to wandering with purpose. This is where you see the evolution of Western RPGs. I'm no longer wandering through various dungeons for random loot; I'm exploring because there's a strange chance that what I believe to be a random encounter is actually a moment that will later affect the outcome of significant points of the story. What I've always wanted out of games like Skyrim and Fallout is for my choices in the world to have an effect on the world as a whole, and in Avowed, we get a glimpse of what this looks like on a smaller scale. Awoved brings combat, lore, and character building together with player choice.

Powerful Skill Trees

Exploration is powerful when a player has agency to affect the story based on their idea of who the main character is. As the Envoy to the Aedyran Empire, I'm a blank slate, and the story I create helps me to make choices. If I'm an asshole, then my dialogue choices should reflect that. Avowed does give us player agency, but the game feels like it wants us to play as the "good guy". Sure, you can be a jerk, but the costs of that play style feel higher than being a person who forgives and forgets. Fortunately, the game doesn't always play out so clearly with major story beats forcing you to make choices that leave you feeling damned if you do, damned if you don't. I wish there were more of these choices to be made throughout the game and dialogue. The lack of depth in morality, however, is made up for in character creation.

The main draw for Western RPGs is character creation. And not just in the physical appearance, but in how you build your character. There are various methods of skill management. Some games use ability points that can be spent wherever you like. Others send you down a set path based on the abilities - if you use a pistol, you'll get better with pistols. However, one element remains consistent: whatever you choose, you're locked in. This has always been a problem for me with RPGs. You spend hundreds of hours in a world, and as you learn systems and experiment with playstyles, you want the ability to reroll a character in the game you're in, instead of starting a new save. In Awoved I started as a mage, and as I learned more about the game, I built my character to be a gunslinger, before finally settling on a frost mage build. What I enjoyed about this freedom of creation is that none of the weapons and armor I found went to waste. If I discovered an axe that I really wanted to use, I could always rebuild my character and use it. As a father to an 11-month-old, these types of design choices are welcomed and celebrated. I might not have the time for multiple playthroughs, but now I have the ability to try various character builds in one go. Of course, all this character-building would be at a loss if the combat sucked.

Exploration and Combat

We've discussed character creation and the gameplay loop. But what's it like to play the game? One area that Western RPGs have struggled with is combat. Earlier games, such as Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas, followed a simple combat loop. Hit a charging enemy with a melee or ranged weapon and run away before getting hit. It was a weird dance of running forward and backward. Avowed has taken a step forward in the evolution of RPG combat. And it starts with the ability to dodge. The dodge mechanic opens up the flow of combat, giving you more strategies and opportunities for attacks. It also gives enemies various attack patterns and strategies. Now, instead of two enemies running toward you, one enemy will lunge at you while another attacks from range. Combat is also faster paced, causing you to make split-second decisions. There were times when I wanted to use a frost spell with a strong AOE, but I had to time it just right or risk taking damage and having my spell interrupted.

Of course, you aren't fighting groups of enemies alone. Your companions are there to assist you in defeating tougherbosses and managing larger groups of enemies. You can always let your fight on autopilot or open a power wheel to select one of you're companions' powers, which deepens the combat experience. During a bounty hunt, I had Marius trap a mini-boss, increasing the stagger meter, and had Kai shoot it with his pistol for increased stagger damage. This combination would speed up the number of times I could pull off high-damage moves.

Tying It All Together

Avowed is an evolution of a beloved formula of open-world RPGs. It trades some breath for depth with exploration not being a feature, but a vehicle for story progression. Story decisions are anchored in the choices you've made leading up to that moment, with unattended consequences if you forget to help a group or faction. Exploration and combat are tied tightly into the game loop. Instead of grinding side quests to become overpowered for the rest of the game, each area is a new space to conquer. There is always a new level to reach and stronger enemies to give you a new challenge, so you don't grow bored with combat while completing quests.

So, who is this game for? If you enjoyed New Vegas, and more recently The Outer Worlds, and you're looking for something to play while you wait for The Outer Worlds 2, this would be worth your time and money. If you're someone who enjoys playing Skyrim or Fallout 4 but is growing tired of the combat in either of those games, this will be something you will want to check out. It's the game that gives you that feeling of exiting the vault with the requirement of 100-plus hours of commitment.