There’s something undeniably familiar about Avowed, yet it owns its space with confidence. From the moment I set foot in The Living Lands, I was pulled into the world — one rich with lore and layered with choice. The dialogue, the exploration, even the music — it all comes together in a way that feels immersive and exciting.
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It’s not a 100-hour epic, and that’s exactly why it works. Avowed again proves that an RPG doesn’t need sheer size to leave a lasting impact. Instead, it delivers a focused, rewarding experience where (almost) every discovery matters.
I’ll admit, it didn’t grab me in the opening moments. After a stock-standard character creator and a contained first area, I was waiting for my mind to be blown. But the second I stepped out of my small boat onto the docks of Paradias, nothing but evil thoughts in my mind, I was hooked.
The Living Lands
You are an Envoy of the High Crown of Eora, sent to The Living Lands on a mission to stop the Dreamscourge, a deadly plague. But nothing about this journey is simple.
The game begins with disaster — a violent storm wrecks your ship off the coast, leaving you washed up on the shore with nothing to your name. No armour, no weapons, no magic. Just the unknown ahead of you and the remains of a grim and bloody battle in your path.
The Living Lands is unpredictable, filled with factions at war, hidden ruins, and a creeping sickness that changes everything in its wake.
My first steps into the city of Paradias were unforgettable — and not for the reasons I expected. This moment set the tone for the journey ahead. Not to mention the voice inside my head — cryptic, insistent, urging me to find it. Who is it? What does it want? That mystery kept me pushing forward; each story beat left me wanting more.
But before any of this, Avowed asks you one important question: Who are you?
Shaping Your Envoy
Character creation is always a game in itself — why is it so hard to decide!?
In Avowed, you’re able to customise your body shape, skin, hair — down to the roots — and individual eye colour. There’s plenty of options to give players a personable experience.
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There’s also a lot of fungi options, which was a little unsettling at first; a few options scream The Last of Us. What’s with the fungi? It’s a feature of the game’s godlikes. Godlikes are powerful beings that have connections to one of Eora’s many gods — and there’s not many left.
Thankfully, if you’re not feeling the head full of colourful mushrooms, like me, you can turn off these visuals. That said, NPCs will still react to your unique fungi skin.
After you choose your look, you’re able to distribute some attribution points and your background — whether that’s as an arcane scholar or a war lord.
Typical me went down the wizard route, meaning Arcane Scholar was the ideal choice for me. These background choices each unlock new dialogue in most conversations throughout the game.
I’m The Bad Guy
I chose to be an absolute asshole. The baddest I could be — a killer — and while it hurt me to do this, it was undeniably the best way to play.
From the beginning, I abandoned a woman in a jail cell to die… did she come back to bite me? Well, she certainly tried and I ended things pretty quickly.
On two occasions, I left helpless people to die, begging for a health potion or healing spell — which I could’ve easily done. I sacrificed lives because I could, I turned on friends and cast spells made of chaos.
Other evil things I gone and done:
- I dobbed in an elderly couple looking to escape manslaughter charges.
- I saw the destruction of a dwarven city.
- I read personal diaries and then told the owner.
- I killed many people for petty reasons. As soon as the “attack” option appeared in conversation — it was on!
I had to remind myself a couple of times that these are just digital characters with no real heart. But I was determined to stick to character.
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As the Envoy, you’re sent to The Living Lands with authority, and it’s almost expected of you to take no nonsense.
Then there’s the ultimate ending of the game, which all comes down to the decisions you make — I played through this ending a couple of times to make sure I got the most destructive outcome, but I’m not certain I did.
Many of the “bad” choices I made along the way didn’t have overly negative impacts on my progression. You may piss off a companion here or there but they seem to get over things very quickly.
Lands & Lore
With Avowed being set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to keep up — there’s so much lore in this game. But the deeper I dove, the more I connected with The Living Lands and Eora.
Every scribbled note, the thousands of voice acted conversations you can have — fantastic. That said, there was the odd side quest that I would have rather seen finish sooner than later. There are also collectible quests in each zone with little clues on where to find things. I enjoyed these hunts and they were often very rewarding.
Avowed isn’t open world, but the explorable zones are large — so much so they need various fast travel points.
You’re able to travel between unlocked zones at any point. After exploring hours ahead in the game I decided to travel back to Dawnshore to complete some quests I left behind. I was killing enemies in one shot — zones are all level based and don’t adjust as you progress. This is explained in game, as the further you travel from Dawnshore the more the plague has spread, making enemies stronger.
The world design is versatile and exciting. From large dwarven halls to mystical gardens and expansive plains. Each zone you travel to offers something different.
One town is a Japanese-inspired, desert, pirate cove — a combo I didn’t think I’d see — but it was a highlight.
I took over 300 screenshots and video clips during my 50 hours or so in Avowed. Every battle was worth clipping and every vista worth snapping a pic of. I’d love to see a photo mode for Avowed in the future.
The game’s lighting hits at all the perfect moments. Whether that’s through the treetops of a forest, peeking over the top of a mountain as I ran through the desert or hitting the water perfectly at an ocean reef.
Exploring is a must — there’s a shiny piece of loot around every corner! In fact, there’s probably too much. I got to a point where I was pretty much picking up everything, even though I didn’t have use for it.
Gameplay: What Makes Avowed Tick?
Avowed is a very player friendly RPG. For hardcore RPG fans and casual gamers alike, there’s many ways to shape the game to your style. You can also play the entire game in either first or third person. First person is my preferred way to play — combat and exploration is much more accurate this way. Though, some attacks look so much better in a wide shot.
There’s multiple difficulty settings, including one to make your life hell, and another for you to simply enjoy the story.
Running around the map, climbing ledges and leaping across broken bridges felt fantastic. The parkour worked surprisingly well, and while it did take a little bit of trial and error to nail it, once I had a groove it’s all I wanted to do.
It’s a very typical RPG in the sense that you find a quest, it’s added to your log, you complete the quest and move on to the next one. They’re all quite straight forward: go here, find this, kill that. Which is fine, I didn’t need anything overly complex.
Along the journey, you’ll pick up new companions who aid you in combat and offer input on certain plot points. Each companion has their own move sets and special abilities. They all have their own side quests — I didn’t end up loving any of these characters, they were all a little dry for me — apart from Yatzli — but appreciated their hands in battle.
You gain experience points from every kill, exploring new locations and quests.
Each level grants you a skill point to unlock new abilities or improve ones you may already have. In addition to Skill Points, you also gain Attribute points to expand on your Might, Constitution, Dexterity, Perception, Intellect or Resolve.
As it’s technically a classless game, you build your abilities over time. There’s five skill trees, including one for your companions. You’re primarily adding points to Fighter, Ranger or Wizard — then there’s another tree dedicated to Godlike abilities, which you unlock organically as you play.
It can be worth putting points into multiple ability trees, though I mostly expanded my wizard arsenal; spells like Ranger’s tanglefoot are handy for holding enemies in place while you spam spells at them.
You can also respec your abilities at any time and completely change your build.
Arm Yourself
Charging up my wand and blasting a group of giant lizards with a missile of light never got old. It’s like Hogwarts Legacy on steroids. With a spellbook (or grimoire) in one hand and a souped-up wand in the other, combat in Avowed is fast, flashy, and satisfying.
Grimoires play a huge role in spellcasting. Not only do they enable a quick spell menu, they also unlock jewels spells for you. While you can learn spells through the skill tree, certain spellbooks grant access to abilities you might not have acquired yet. This lets you experiment with different magic styles before fully committing. Finding a new grimoire always felt exciting — it meant fresh spells to try and a potential shake-up to my strategy.
Some fights demand more than just brute force. I got skill-checked hard only a few hours in, forcing me to rethink my approach.
My tips? Dashing and dodging are essential, power attacks need to be timed just right, and enemy healers always need to be kill first.
I messed around with all the weapons at some point in the game. Shields are fun. Bows are fun. Two handed-swords are really fun. But wands? Wands were my favourite. Upgrading each weapon took time, but each upgrade made a real difference in battle.
I died… a lot. But every tough fight made me appreciate the game’s combat even more.
Making Choices
Each decision you make will impact the current quest or story in some way. It may be as simple as a dialogue option or alter the course of a character.
Sargamis the Godlike was a particularly interesting quest line, one I first experienced at the hands-on preview in October last year.
Knowing so much more about the world of Avowed, the choices felt so much more impactful.
I approached this quest multiple times for the best outcome. That said, I’m on an evil playthrough after all so… Sargamis got his wish.
Later on, I met a pirate who had seemingly lost touch with his crew and begged for my help to find them. I then uncovered a sinister plot by the very same person to kill them. When I confronted him about it, I simply offered to help him get away with it — now we’re besties.
But at the end of the day, none of the little things truly mattered. Sure, my companions may have had something to say, but overall I got on with it… Even if it did eat me up from the inside.
I also found the ending to ultimately come down to your final choice, so you could essentially back flip on previous decisions to get the outcome you wanted.
Graphics & Performance
Avowed on Xbox offers both Quality and Performance display modes, though switching between them requires a full restart. Visually, the game delivers some stunning moments, with rich lighting effects and atmospheric environments that make The Living Lands feel alive.
It’s not without its quirks. I stumbled into a couple of out-of-bounds areas while exploring, and the game froze once while I was reading a letter. There were also the occasional frame rate dips in dense combat, but nothing that seriously impacted gameplay.
Then there are the smaller, more amusing bugs — like characters casually flipping their hair every time you speak to them. It’s a little rough around the edges, but in a way that adds charm rather than frustration.
On Xbox, there are a strong suite of accessibility features, including adjustable text size, loot shimmer, head bobbing, camera sway, and aim assist. Overall, Avowed runs well, with only minor hiccups along the way.
Should I play Avowed?
I loved my journey through Avowed — the exploration, the combat, the richly detailed world of The Living Lands. But when it came to the story, something didn’t quite land. Even after rewinding to try a different outcome, it still fell flat.
That’s not to say the game isn’t worth the ride. The moment-to-moment gameplay is engaging, the RPG mechanics are rewarding, and there’s plenty of choice in how you approach combat and conversations. It just never quite reached the narrative heights I was hoping for.
At around 40-50 hours, it’s a respectable length — long enough to feel like a meaningful adventure, but without the bloat of a massive open world RPG.
Avowed delivers a compact, choice-driven RPG experience with all the qualities of an Obsidian game. Skyrim fan? You’ll love this. It’s not the next genre-defining epic, but it doesn’t need to be — it’s a solid adventure, and for many, that’ll be enough.
Quest Daily scores Avowed:
8.5/10
Avowed is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC on February 19th. It’ll also be available on Xbox and PC Game Pass.
A copy of Avowed was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
