Avowed

Avowed is a perfectly competent RPG that showcases Obsidian’s writing and worldbuilding chops, but has little else to distinguish itself among swords-and-sorcery adventures.

Avowed's impactful and satisfying combat is undone by a widely unbalanced upgrade system and an uninteresting story that wastes its potential.

What Avowed lacks in gloss it makes up for with charm, depth and a playful heart. It's one of this year's most pleasant surprises.

Bigger than it first appears, Avowed is an engrossing and gorgeous action-RPG set in one of the most engaging fantasy worlds going, though it lacks the complex systems of its most beloved contemporaries.

"I'll not soon forget my time with Avowed – chaos, comedy, catastrophe, and all."

With Avowed, the team at Obsidian manages the rare feat of grasping the scope of the project they’re building, and hitting the mark on most of the places it aims for. It’s not the biggest role-playing game, or the most innovative, but as I played, I was constantly aware of how much fun I was having by just letting the game carry me forward.

Obsidian's huge, heavily detailed fantasy world has a lot of variety and texture, and interesting people to meet - but the combat and exploration wear thin

Avowed is a solid action RPG with an entertaining script, satisfying combat and impressively detailed environments. The inability to clean up side quests after the main story is beaten can be frustrating, but take your time with it and enjoy everything it has to offer, and you'll find plenty of memorable moments.

Avowed is not the Obsidian fantasy RPG I wanted, but the decently fun spell-slinging parkour FPS I didn't expect.

In that sense, Avowed is perfect proof of a great proof in all game design and in the execution of all art: you sometimes don’t need to pitch a revolution. Instead, you just need to have something to say, and then use the established tools and concepts to say it well.