Avowed was "lucky" even before its release. After a public conflict between Obsidian Entertainment's art director Matt Hansen and Elon Musk and the artist's controversial tweets were "found", the champions of sexual purity and right-wing views quickly added Avowed to the list of DEI games they are allegedly boycotting. No, we won't go into detail about this controversy, because we think it's been pulled out of the water, but we suggest that the "fighters for the truth" be consistent and not read or comment on this review. For the rest of you, we advise you to pay attention to another high-quality role-playing game from Obsidian, which, by the way, raises very important and very contemporary issues that concern Ukrainians as well.
| Game | Avowed |
| Genre | RPG |
| Platforms | Windows, Xbox Series X|S |
| Languages | English |
| Developer | Obsidian Entertainment |
| Publisher | Xbox Game Studios |
| Link | avowed.obsidian.net |
The Outer Worlds in the world of Pillars of Eternity
Obsidian Entertainment has long been known as a studio that knows how to take someone else's idea and bring it to perfection. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004), Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006), Fallout: New Vegas (2010) - all these are sequels of other people's games that surpassed the originals. Obsidian's first own IP, Alpha Protocol (2010), was an interesting experiment that, unfortunately, did not find its own player.
And then came the provocative and reckless South Park: The Stick of Truth (2014) and Pillars of Eternity (2015), which brought back the joy of immersing ourselves in the complex and detailed worlds of classic CRPGs, and it became clear that Obsidian Entertainment could not only bring other people's ideas to life, but also generate their own, without being afraid to experiment with genres and formats.
Judge for yourself. Over the past 10 years, Obsidian's assets include: a very cool mobile role-playing game Pathfinder Adventures (2016); role-playing game for bad guys Tyranny (2016); Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire; space role-playing game The Outer Worlds (2019); "survival" of shrunken humans among insects Grounded (2022); "parchment" role-playing adventure Pentiment (2022). An impressive variety, but always with an emphasis on the role-playing component.
Avowed is another experiment by Obsidian Entertainment. Because it's like moving the Pillars of Eternity universe from 2D to 3D, from top-down to first/third-person camera, from tactical role-playing game with controlled pause to action/RPG with... controlled pause, if you need it. Obsidian simply took all the things that players liked about The Outer Worlds, refined them, and reworked them into the Pillars of Eternity fantasy world format. It turned out beautifully.
One empire, one people, one god!
Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment's next game for the bad guys. You are a special envoy of the Emperor of the Edir Empire, a godlike (human, aumaua, elf, dwarf, or eagle with the blessings and visual characteristics of one of the gods of Eora) who must deal with the miracles that are happening on a large island or small continent of the Living Lands, located in the far north of Edir. The emperor hears rumors of a "mental plague" that has broken out on the island, which is very timely, because Edyr has its own interests in the Living Lands, and is going to... annex these territories, inhabited by fugitives, adventurers, pirates, and hermits who value their freedom. These small settlements don't stand a chance against the empire, and maybe it's for the best, because they can't fight the plague or anything more horrific that hides behind the disease.
Apart from you, the emperor's special envoy, who is supposed to act through diplomacy, paladins of the Steel Garrote order, fanatics of the goddess Voidica, your fellow Edirians, appear on the island. Their "diplomacy" is very straightforward and cruel, they are always right and care only about the good of the empire and the goddess. The locals have seen Edyr, the Emperor, and the Steel Garrote in the grave, and you will encounter their "discontent" as soon as you step foot on the shores of the Living Lands.
But the threat of the "spiritual plague" is real, and it seems that only you, the godlike of an unknown god, are able to find a solution to this problem. The only question is who will benefit from this solution and how many people will die in the process.
As we've already noted, Avowed is a game for a bad character, and the plot is somewhat similar to Tyranny. That is, it is very logical for you, as an Eldritch, to remain loyal to the empire, put the natives in their place, and promote the party line. The only thing that gets in the way is your partners. They're all locals, and if you keep making decisions in favor of the empire, they won't like it. And these are bonuses, additional quests, etc. But it's up to you. By the way, I advise you to choose an "aristocrat" as your background, so it will be even more logical to humiliate "serfs".
As is always the case in Obsidian, you can choose either side, and most of Avowed's main and side quests have multiple outcomes, as do the multiple endings to the entire game. All of them are unpleasant in one way or another. Here we sometimes choose not between a lesser and a greater evil, but between a greater and an even greater evil. There will be losses in any case.
In fact, Avowed raises very important and surprisingly contemporary issues. The responsibility of all citizens of the aggressor country for the actions of the military and punitive authorities of that country. The expediency of the existence of colonial empires and the desire for freedom of independent countries, even if this freedom is costly. The necessity of sacrifice and the justification of betrayal if it can save the country and people. Whether to follow traditions that lead nowhere and can lead to disaster. Aggressive eco-terrorism versus aggressive technological progress. Isolation versus openness. Risk versus stability. Even whether we should trust the gods we have created ourselves (or is this a hint of AI?!).
It seems that Avowed is a kind of reminiscence of Obsidian Entertainment on the events of recent years. COVID-19, a full-scale war in Ukraine, a distorted ideocracy that is swallowing up country after country, all of this seems to have affected developers in one way or another.
The slogan "One Empire, One Nation, One God!" in the subtitle is actually heard at one of the game's key moments.
The Outer Worlds but fantasy
As we have already noted, Avowed is really The Outer Worlds, but a fantasy. It has almost the same shooting, but better; similar melee (the first-person camera is more convenient, although the third-person is also fine, switched with one button), the same communication with partners; crafting, rudimentary stealth; you can also get to the goals of the task in two or three different ways.
The role-playing system is simple but quite flexible, with some skills and spells from the original Pillars of Eternity. You can also meet some characters from the previous games here, and the events of the first two parts are constantly mentioned.
I am very pleased that you are not tied to one class, but can combine skills from different classes. Armor only affects stamina and magical essence, but the negative impact can be reduced with some skills. Here, just like in Pillars of Eternity, there is a controlled pause to give orders to your teammates, choose grenades and food (don't forget, it gives significant bonuses), and so on.
I played through the game wearing medium armor, using a heavy arquebus (yes, the world of Pillars of Eternity has magic, firearms, and cannons) as my main weapon, and a one-handed sword/feather/spear and a shield as additional weapons. In addition, I had grenades, godlike skills (unlocked in the story and for visiting special places), a few simple spells, and a grimoire with basic spells for destroying webs and roots and solving puzzles. Oh, and the skills of your partners. If you wish, you can even take a magic wand in one hand and a pistol in the other, and "give out" with both hands.
That is, I turned out to be a kind of jack of all trades, and it's interesting that I played The Outer Worlds with about the same pain. And, by the way, in Avowed I had the same problem as in The Outer Worlds - I got pumped. I usually complete most of the tasks in the open world before moving on to the next area, so somewhere in the middle of the game any enemies and bosses stopped posing a threat to me, so I completely abandoned stealth and went for a frontal attack just killing everything around me. If you're following the story, you probably won't have this problem.
On the other hand, the side quests in Avowed are surprisingly good. Not all of them, because there are plenty of bounty hunts and kill 'em all tasks, but some of them are really good. For example, a task where the main question is whether a person has the right to commit suicide in case of an incurable disease. Or the search for a traitor among the members of the city guard. Or a task on the watchtower, which has been turned into one continuous death trap. Or finding a cure for a troll that has taken a hostage. Or finding another god-like creature on the island. Plus, all the extra tasks are a source of unique weapons, armor, and jewelry, so don't neglect them.
Plus, it's worth communicating with your partners, and if you open some branches of dialogues, you can get access to training that will permanently increase your character's parameters. By the way, regarding the DEI summons... there are no romantic relationships with party members or anyone else in Avowed at all, even the local massage parlor does not offer intimate services. Here we have a plague, battles of gods, and fanatics all around, no time for sexual games. Especially since the protagonist is a god-like "person" who is feared and shunned, and literally has a mushroom on his head.
And to close the topic of DEI. Looking for an advantage of the number of people with a specific skin color in a game where you can play as a dwarf, an elf, a giant with red, green and blue scales, an overgrown yoda with pink/purple fur and leopard spots... are you serious now? As for the damn gay question. There are gays and non-binary people in the game, a few per hundreds of characters, so the percentage is the same as in reality. There are also interracial heterosexual couples. So what? Again, there are no romantic relationships involving the main character in the game.
The world that Obsidian built
Special thanks to Obsidian for the world design in Avowed. Yes, the different zones turned out to be a bit stereotypical - coastal area, jungle with swamps, desert and mountains with abysses and lava, but the design of the locations... our respect.
In every corner of Avowed, and there are five large maps in total, each of which can take up to 10 hours to thoroughly explore (I completed the game in 52 hours), you can find something interesting. Ancient ruins (in general, the history of the civilization that once lived in the Living Lands deserves special attention, it is important for understanding the plot), secret caves, tall towers with acrobatics in the spirit of Far Cry and Assassin's Creed (no need to synchronize), secret passages, hidden treasures, more secret passages, more treasures, treasures, secret treasures, super-secret treasures. Obsidian has built a world that you want to explore, literally pick up every stone and climb every mountain. By the way, they didn't lie about the verticality of the levels, you really have to climb and jump.
As for the visual component, it is, as in the case of the already mentioned The Outer Worlds, a bit cartoonish, but this can already be considered a kind of Obsidian's signature style. Personally, I liked the world, it is unusual and beautiful in its own way, especially at night when it is illuminated by huge mushrooms. But on the other hand, as in the case of... The Outer Worlds, it's also a bit eclectic. Maybe it's for the best.
As for the technical side, I didn't really like the facial animation and face modeling in general, especially for people. Plus, I have some complaints about the Unreal Engine. Every few hours, Avowed would give a fatal error and crash, and every third launch there were problems with shader generation. A few of the gameplay glitches I caught were not critical at all. But I should note that I was playing the pre-release press version, and the day one patch should fix these glitches.
Confident statement
The name Avowed can be translated as "openly acknowledged or proclaimed, real," so Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment's real claim to leadership in the first-person fantasy role-playing game genre. While BioWare is losing ground and laying off employees, and Bethesda has just started working on a Skyrim successor, Obsidian is successfully porting Pillars of Eternity to 3D and, given the good detail of the Eora world, can create any spinoffs and sequels it wants, as there are plenty of continents, islands, countries, and gods on Eora.
Also, The Outer Worlds 2 might come out this year. If it does make it to the end of the year and turns out to be good, and for some reason I have no doubt about it, it will be a kind of head-scratcher. If I were Bethesda, I'd be tense.
Have a great time immersing yourself in Avowed, believe me, this game is really worth the attention. It may not be able to compete with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II in the competition for the title of the best role-playing game of 2025, but it is also a very good RPG. It's a shame that they came out so close to each other.
