Avowed review – It’s a kind of meh-gic

There’s a lot to love about Obsidian Entertainment’s new fantasy game, Avowed, at least at first glance. It’s essentially an Elder Scrolls balm for the soul meant to soothe that itch for a new Bethesda game full of swords and sorcery. However, with it being set in the same universe as Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity series, it still has a distinct flavour. Instead of a classical CRPG, you’re getting a first-person spellcaster, full of dangerous monsters, ancient gods whipping up schemes that mere mortal minds cannot comprehend, and several fantasy tropes.

But don’t expect Avowed to be in the running for Game of the Year once award season starts. It’s a decent enough game at best, but it won’t a-wow you with its safe and predictable gameplay. Obsidian has dipped into a familiar bag of tricks with Avowed, with the end result being benign, lacking in surprise, and occasionally frustrating thanks to some odd design decisions.

It starts with the plot. Avowed offers an uninspired adventure throughout its main campaign. Something strange is afoot on an island under the jurisdiction of the Aedyran Empire, and as the Emperor’s trusted fungal-faced problem-solver, it’s up to you to get to the bottom of why everyone in the Living Lands is coming down with a bad case of homicidal insanity. At first glance, it looks like nature is fighting back with a plague that spares no one, but there’s a deeper conspiracy at play here.

The question is, what kind of person will you choose to be while investigating the Living Lands? Will you be a noble diplomat who uses violence as a last resort, or a silver-tongued rogue who takes a long-term view and isn’t afraid to make a few sacrifices to safeguard the greater good? That’s up to you to decide, and Avowed is enjoyably non-binary with the choices it presents to you. Sure, if you’re impatient you can solve a dilemma with some cold steel, but I was surprised to discover just how many “third options” there are hidden away behind walls of text. While there’s clearly no wrong decision to make here–if you can live with the consequences, that is–a hero’s path can be discovered by staying your sword hand.

Fortunately, for those occasions when you do need to get your sharp point across, Avowed offers a meaty dive into action. It’s nothing revolutionary, but Obsidian has put together a combat system that’s heavily influenced by the sci-fi big brother of Avowed–The Outer Worlds–to create a fun combo of melee and magic systems to master. Alongside your companions and their talents, which you can utilize in the thick of battle, combat is consistently satisfying.

The clash of steel on armour, the retina-searing visuals behind the conjuration of fireballs, and the cathartic sensation of a well-timed parry all combine to provide a riveting sense of action in the game. You’re free to customize your Godlike avatar through several skill trees as well, mixing melee-focused brawler, stealthy ranger, and savage sorcery abilities to fine-tune an arsenal of talents and powers that suit your tastes.

But where this system falters is in the overall challenge, as Avowed asks you to keep your gear up to date against increasingly demanding enemies, and barely gives you any tools to do so fairly. Sure, you can buy better weapons and armour to help you out, but with resources in short supply and rewards for completing quests absolutely pitiful, you’ll hardly ever have the necessary funds to upgrade.

This is only exasperated by enemies having a distinct advantage if your arsenal is below a certain quality threshold, and even on lower difficulties, you’ll find yourself being trounced when you’re thrown into a meat-grinder of reptilian warriors and undead soldiers. It essentially invalidates the flexibility of loadouts in Avowed, as you’ll barely have enough materials to keep your sword or shield up to snuff while your companions constantly yell at you to upgrade your armour.

There’s a neat nod to The Outer Worlds throughout Avowed in the form of large zones that you’re free to explore–biomes full of peril and plunder. While there’s a clearly defined path to travel in the main campaign, some of the best stories in Avowed take place off the beaten track as you can interact with colourful characters and dive into a library of scrolls to give context to the side quests you find yourself on. Like the core campaign, each one of these diversions offers multiple outcomes for you to choose from. Like that one mission where I made a moderate sum of cash by ratting out deserter scavengers to the fantasy fuzz after they’d misplaced their trust in me.

There’s a good adventure to be had in Avowed, but it’s also a game that feels extraordinarily by-the-numbers in its design. It’s comfort junk food at best, an experience that makes you feel like you’re going through a very familiar set of motions. It’s good but not great; enjoyable but not memorable.

But in the grand scheme of things, a passable action-RPG might be exactly what Xbox needs before it brings on the main acts. Microsoft in 2025 is off to a pretty great start, as after years of acquiring studios and promising a regular flow of high-quality video games, that promise is finally coming true. Looking ahead, this is a great time to be a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber thanks to all the day-one releases on the horizon, like South of Midnight, Doom: The Dark Ages, and third-party games like Ninja Gaiden 4. Avowed is the opening act to a star-studded line-up this year, and whether you’re playing on an Xbox console, PC, or maybe even PS5 thanks to Microsoft’s new multiplatform direction, Avowed sets the stage. It just doesn’t overshadow the main event.

Sure, there are bound to be Pillars of Eternity fans who can’t wait to do multiple playthroughs as they tackle the story from various moral standpoints. However, for most, Avowed only has enough fuel in its tank to last for a single playthrough before it’s consigned to a dusty corner of your PC or console drive.

Avowed releases for PC and Xbox Series X|S, as well as Xbox/PC Game Pass, on 18 February.