Avowed: First Impressions

I was wary of picking up Avowed at release for a couple of reasons. The first is that I’ve not played the Pillars of Eternity games so I was totally unfamiliar with the world I’d be stepping into. The second and more important reason was that I really wasn’t a fan of The Outer Worlds which, despite liking the setting, I found the general plot and quests dreadfully boring, the characters dull and/or insufferable and the gameplay to be serviceable at best.

But after seeing some footage of Avowed during its ‘early access’ release I decided to take a chance and pick it up and after putting about 10 or so hours into the game, I’m really glad I did. First of all, the game does look gorgeous. It’s bright and colourful and there’s a nice attention to detail all throughout the environment.

The game also does a decent job of easing you into its world – there’s a helpful pop-up glossary you can access during conversations if any words, phrases or names elude you. It’s not perfect because stopping mid-conversation to read additional text does interrupt the flow of things – but the game carefully front loads all of the important stuff early on, so it’s something you just have to get out of the way.

It’s still too early for me to talk about the general plot, but I’m intrigued by what I’ve seen and I’m enjoying my interactions with the characters I’ve met and the writing for the small number of quests I’ve completed thus far. I only have one companion at the moment – Kai – voiced by the same actor as Garrus from Mass Effect. And everyone loved Garrus, so it’s not a surprise he’s one of the first characters you’ll meet.

But I think I’d like Kai even without that voice. If anything, I’d say the voice (initially) detracts a little from the character – at least for me – because it’s hard to disassociate it from Garrus and see Kai as their own, unique character. But you do get there, after some time and some more conversations.

What’s really surprised me about Avowed though is how good it feels to play. Some of the early footage made the combat look a little rough, but I’m pleased to say the final game has some of the best first person combat I’ve played. The game does a good job of dropping all the various weapon types into your hands early on so you can get a feel for what you like.

There’s no ‘classes’ as such, just stats and skill trees relating to melee weapons, ranged weapons and magic, but you can mix and match as you please. And everything feels fun to use. There’s a nice sense of impact and feedback to attacks whatever you pick. It actually makes it hard deciding what to stick with and upgrade.

I’m mostly sticking to magic because that feels really good and I like how the spell system works, but I also have an alternative weapon set I like to switch to with a 2 handed rifle – I’m a mage who also likes to shoot and it’s great that the game gives me the freedom and flexibility within its skills and stats to let me do that. This is one of the those games where I’m actively seeking out enemies because it’s just so fun to fight.

I also really like the exploration aspect. The ‘zone’ I’m currently in isn’t massive, but there’s a lot of places to see and explore and every time I’ve seen something that looked interesting no matter how small, I’ve always found some treasure tucked away. I also love how there’s no stamina for sprinting, very generous fall damage (because there’s a fair amount of verticality to environments so you’ll be doing quite a bit of climbing as you explore) nicely spaced fast travel points, and the ability to send items directly to your camp stash.

I’ve still got a long way to go with Avowed but I like what I’ve seen so far. Hopefully I’ll have a review up next month.