Avowed

Sure, Avowed has a sense of the familiar in its squad RPG tropes. It draws on a long lineage that stretches from Skyrim to Mass Effect to, more recently, Dragon Age Veilguard. But it playfully weaves its elements into an enthralling fabric that wraps you up and won’t let you go.

Obsidian has created something exceptionally special with Avowed. A smaller-scale Skyrim-like set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, it's an entirely accessible first-person RPG that ditches a lot of obnoxious fluff and doubles down on what makes big role-playing games great. The writing and storytelling is phenomenal, the crunchy combat lets you make a sick build whether you're into swords, axes, guns or spells, and the problems your character faces feel unexpectedly touching and relevant. It's a perfect entry into this genre for new players and the RPG-curious, but top-tier comfort food for us old-heads.

That’s what Avowed is: strong storytelling, great combat, lovely visuals, and utterly charming. It’s not going to light everyone’s hair on fire, but that’s fine - because I know for a certain subset of people - refined people of taste, if you ask me - Avowed will enjoy cult classic status. It doesn’t necessarily push the envelope, but nor does it need to. It’s exactly what it needs to be.

Obsidian has once again created a world with an engaging story, unforgettable characters, and gameplay that is both fun and challenging. A videogame that defines the Xbox generation.

Avowed marks another triumph for the folks at Obisidan. Through its gorgeous world, memorable characters, frenzied combat, and intuitive yet deep customization system, it highlights player agency. Everywhere in its gameplay and narrative, ensuring that each playthrough offers something new. More importantly, it does so while never compromising the strength of its core story.

Avowed is impressive in almost everything it sets out to do. It has sharp writing, captivating companions, an intriguing story and a varied world that is just thrilling to explore. It's visually stunning, too, with high production values including satisfying audio that makes the Living Lands feel bustling with life. Where many games falter in offering "bigger and more", Avowed smartly focuses on its strengths, making for a breezy yet vibrant RPG that feels polished and intelligent, offering lots to do but never outstaying its welcome. Obsidian Entertainment has once again proven they are skilled storytellers, offering a must-play adventure for anyone who has a love for the fantastical.

With Avowed, Obsidian confirms itself as one of the best RPG studios around, capable of reworking a now-classic formula by rejuvenating it, lightening it up, and combining it with first-rate storytelling, world building, and gameplay mechanics. We are undoubtedly in front of a true gem of the RPG genre, to be played without hesitation.

Avowed stands alone as a hugely enjoyable experience that scratches the RPG itch without tearing off your arm. If you haven't got a huge amount of time on your hands, that's worth its weight in Skeyt.

Avowed isn't what I expected, but I loved every second. It's the type of game I'll gladly play through again and again, a feat made easier by its somewhat short runtime. Avowed proves that bigger isn't always better. Instead of making a game that tries to outsize everything on the market, Obsidian stayed true to its vision and delivered a polished experience that I fell in love with. As someone who replays Oblivion every year, it'll be hard to go back to those older Elder Scrolls games after enjoying my time with Avowed's combat and characters. This is the RPG experience I've been wanting on Xbox, and Obisidian delivered big time.

Avowed is a gripping, utterly absorbing adventure that strikes a pleasing balance in the genre. Once picked up, it’s hard to put down.

A huge RPG, at the height of the legend that Obsidian has already forged in its 30 years of history. Avowed is an RPG that uses classic recipes to make us fall in love with a new story and an outstanding artwork. Its lore, its world, its stories and its setting catch and do not let go and its combat system and progression have made us fall in love with it.

An early contender for RPG of the year.

After two very diverse works, Obsidian returns to their "bread and butter" with Avowed, an RPG with a taste of the past. Although in some areas the game feels too outdated, especially by today's standards, the studio brings diversity to a combat system that is simply outstanding, and with combination of brilliant writing and a world design that is full of secrets they make Avowed a amazing experience for all fans of the genre that I cannot recommend less.

Obsidian delivers a new RPG that will be remembered for a long time. A unique adventure in the already rich world of Eora, a game that excels in respecting the player's choices, with tangible stakes, flawless writing, and a memorable group of characters. Avowed gives players everything Dragon Age promised: a true role-playing game.

Avowed is one of the best RPGs I've played in 2025, and I'm not even much of a role-playing genre fanatic.

Over the years, Obsidian Entertainment has been known for delivering some of the best experiences the medium has to offer, and with Avowed they have proven that they are still capable of doing just that. The story, while it has a couple of points that need to be fulfilled, offers enough freedom for the player to be able to create their own adventure, achieving a unique experience compared to others. The journey of the Envoy is entertaining, and the characters we meet along the way are memorable, to the point that surely more than one person will identify with Kai, Marius, Giatta or Yatzli.

Avowed delivers where it matters: an interesting world with memorable companions and a rich combat system that rewards experimentation. Pillars of Eternity fans will feast on the various nods and references to the beloved CRPGs, but newcomers to Eora will still find plenty to enjoy with Obsidian Entertainment’s latest RPG.

The result of all this is that I’m pretty much obsessed with Avowed. After overinflated maps, exploration without reward, and other frustrations encountered in the last few years, Avowed feels like a dream to play. It fully embraces the fantasy elements for a wonderfully old-school RPG, and I can’t wait to keep playing.

With Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment once again flaunts its writing chops with a fantasy story that is contemporary in its themes and combat that feels better than most other first-person western RPGs. Whether you've experienced a Pillars of Eternity game before or not, this is a must-play.

Avowed is a strong RPG with its own identity, deep story and impactful choices. The Living Lands invite exploration, but the combat system lacks a bit of finesse. Despite a few flaws, highly recommended for RPG fans.

Its world and story are among the best of the recent RPG genre, and its 60fps combat system, with a variety of styles for tackling each fight, exploration and situation resolution make it one of the best experiences of the year so far.

Avowed is an incredibly dense game, and one that encourages you to invest in its world. You won’t need much pushing, though – its strengths sing on their own, and they’re easy to see from the jump. Those looking for the next big fantasy RPG, rich with lore and opportunities to engage, will find it here.

I won’t claim Obsidian has reinvented the wheel, for it’s stuck to what it knows well and does best. Still, it’s easy to tell a finely crafted RPG apart from a mediocre one. Avowed solidifies Obsidian's mastery of bringing intoxicating worlds to life and tangibly close. All you need to do is reach out and touch it to be transported to The Living Lands.

Avowed is a concise and tightly designed RPG that never sacrifices the ambition of its grand adventure.

Avowed is a smartly and tightly designed RPG, which affords the player a number of conveniences that make it easy to become ingrained in its world. Writing and world-building are particular strengths, both of which elevate the Envoy as a character ripe for actual, narrative roleplaying. Avowed can't avoid some terminal pitfalls of first-person RPGs, but its missteps are so minor compared to its triumphs that they're easily overlooked.

Avowed is more than it might seem at first, it is an RPG that is accessible to everyone, but that shows above-average quality from the hands of Obsidian.

Avowed is a deeply immersive RPG that excels in storytelling, world-building, and meaningful player choices. Its rich narrative, flexible character progression, and strategic combat create an engaging experience that keeps players invested. While the mana system and quest structure can feel restrictive at times, the game’s strong writing, vibrant world, and rewarding gameplay more than make up for it. Obsidian delivers a compelling adventure that stands as one of the best narrative-driven RPGs in recent years.

Avowed is an excellent game. One major issue that keeps it from being an all-timer for me, with the gear progression system being as restrictive as it is at launch. They can patch that, and I hope they do as the rest of the game is excellent. Obsidian’s top-tier writing has finally been matched with gorgeous visuals and satisfying gameplay.

Xbox exclusives have been a swing and a miss recently, with even the likes of Starfield splitting fanbases. But Avowed has changed the tune—perhaps benefiting from reduced expectations after those that came before. I admittedly overlooked Avowed on the release calendar, with my eyes firmly set on other upcoming titles. Having dived headfirst into the adventure across the Living Lands, though, it’s safe to say I’ll be sticking around for the foreseeable future.

I love Avowed, which excels at being nearly flawless. This is largely due to making safe choices in terms of gameplay systems and a story that is never allowed to become grander than the characters themselves. The downside is that on paper, heavy story choices feel like something out of a children's book in practice. For some, this risk aversion is a price they are unwilling to pay, despite the reward being highly entertaining writing. But since the rest of the game flows along at a comfortable quality level, the average Obsidian fan has little to complain about.

Like The Outer Worlds before it, Avowed is Obsidian’s truncated spin on a well-worn genre—and a genre they’ve got plenty of experience in. For those eagerly awaiting the next Elder Scrolls, this is a satisfying scratching of that itch even if its role-playing elements are stripped back to make room for more action. It’s a bright, boisterous adventure full of politics and a fluid combat system that marries all manner of might and magic.

Avowed doesn’t aim to make you a superhero in an epic story on great battlefields. Instead, it wants you to listen, uncover the narrative page by page, find characters who reveal something important, and perhaps keep you uncertain about your final decision until the very end. A vast array of dialogue and combat choices is somewhat hindered by a lack of enemy variety. Minor visual and technical shortcomings slightly impact the otherwise unique aesthetic of a game that challenges you to reflect on your core principles and values.

Even though it took a while for the story to hook me, Avowed managed to bring a truly unique world to life with creative combat and stunning settings.

Avowed takes a few hours to find its feet, but once it does, this RPG provides an unforgettable journey that never outstays its welcome. Avowed features a jaw-dropping world to explore, complete with a solid cast of intriguing characters and choices that will remain with you long after the credits roll.

Avowed is a confident and fulfilling fantasy adventure without pretension, accomplished by a studio that knows what it’s delivering. It may not change your world, but its world should be more than enough to satisfy.

Avowed is a solid RPG offering from a studio that clearly knows how to flex its narrative muscles, and who have leaned into their strengths hard to produce a game that might not be groundbreaking, but that will certainly make you think.

Avowed is not Obsidian's masterpiece, but it is a competent and very enjoyable game that will please those looking for an RPG adventure that doesn't overwhelm with endless content. Perhaps it could have offered new ideas, but the familiarity of its approach does not detract from its quality. Only the ending may disappoint.

Avowed has a lot of strenghts, from its worldbuilding to its RPG systems, and it entertains for at least forty plus hours thanks to them. Obsidian didn't reinvent the RPG wheel, but considering how cold is Bethesda's first-person RPG throne, and how far still a new The Elder Scrolls game might be, this is a very solid effort that any RPG fan should try.

Avowed is just comfort-food adventuring all ’round, and if there’s more of this universe to come in the future, I’ll signing up for the next journey in a heartbeat.

Obsidian's signature is evident throughout Avowed, from its richly crafted setting to its deep role-playing mechanics and meaningful quests. That said, Avowed remains an AA title, lacking the extra budget needed to realize its potential fully and if you're expecting vast open worlds, ambitious design, or cutting-edge visuals, you may find yourself disappointed.

Avowed is the perfect example of Obsidian doing what it does best. Choice and consequence runs deep through its veins, while the sheer variety of playstyles on offer is pretty damn impressive. While the lore and story won’t win any awards, Avowed is a great way to while away a good 30-hours or so.

If only for the exceptional combat, solid party members, and beautiful, vibrant world, I highly recommend existing and newcomer fantasy RPG fans to give Avowed a try, especially since it is available through Game Pass.

Avowed may not be the most advanced RPG in the world and there may be games that offer unparalleled levels of depth by comparison, but that doesn’t stop Obisidan’s new fantasy game from being great. It offers a dense world bursting at the seams with beauty, compelling characters, consequential choices, and gripping combat that rewards players for being creative. It’s one of my favorite RPGs in quite some time and is one that I am going to continue enjoying for the foreseeable future. If you have Xbox Game Pass or have some money to put toward a new game on PC, I encourage you not to sleep on Avowed.

Avowed doesn't reinvent the wheel and it isn't the most deep or complex RPG, but thanks to strong writing, storytelling, world-building, combat, and exploration, it succeeds in delivering an engaging experience that fans of the genre will want to check out.

Avowed is forceful, solid and very powerful visually but, after almost sixty hours running around the five zones that include the Living Lands, the end catch me off guard and without having fulfilled many of the expectations I had made with its release. After the gems of Grounded and Pentiment, Obsidian fails to offer that personal and unique touch of previous titles. With Avowed, Obsidian has opted to reach the widest possible audience by creating a powerful and very pretty product that doesn't trust the player and softens too much everything we expect to find in a game from the company.

Avowed is full of consequential player choices, meaningful side content and rewarding exploration all backed up by slick movement and some of the best combat in a first-person action RPG. It might not reinvent the genre, but Obsidian has achieved everything they set out to by creating a super fun adventure worth your time.

While balanced in a way that forces the player to experience almost everything the game has to offer, Avowed is still a lot of fun. A great story, fun companions, and a richly designed world all contribute to an overall good time. Just remember to take your time early on, because this game wants you to see everything, and it will punish you for trying to skip ahead.

One of the most beautiful, most polished games in the story of Obsidian. Also, one with the weakest characters, dialogues and design for a studio that uses to excel on that. An entertaining ARPG (with focus on the 'A'), that hopefully won't get in the way of a proper Pillars of Eternity sequel in the future.

It might take you a while to really get into Avowed, but once the story steps up a gear you'll likely want to see it through to its end. In any case, there's a fantastic sense of adventure here, as well as a brilliant combat system that makes each and every encounter a blast.

Visually and playfully attractive role-playing game in a varied world with an extensive lore. The many dialog options and interesting characters as well as the powerful combat system are among the highlights. However, not recommended for Xbox Series S.

Avowed is a fantastic action-RPG that focuses on its combat and exploration first and foremost, which you'll either love the sound of, or not so much. Yes, Pillars fans looking for the sort of depth that comes with that series will need to adjust expectations accordingly, as this is a breezy, spunky, fight-fuelled affair that's more about creating cool loadouts and finding treasure than it is falling in love with an NPC or spending ten hours in your inventory at a time. Come for the fast-paced fights, colourful environs and excellent exploration, and you'll have a great time.

Avowed is an excellent first-person fantasy RPG that features slick combat feel and moreish exploration. Its setting of the Living Lands is rich in atmosphere and has an ethereal quality that made me want to uncover every nook and cranny. Obsidian’s writing is as sharp as ever, and the cast of party members is both charming and highly memorable.

Despite these flaws, Avowed offers a fantastic RPG excursion to the Living Lands, with an intriguing world to explore, a gripping narrative that'll keep you hooked, and sumptuously satisfying combat against a varied cast of enemies. With a few bugs to address and a requirement to grind out crafting materials for upgrades, it's by no means perfect, but Avowed offers a further iteration on the tried and tested RPG formula loved by so many, and will no doubt be played for years to come.

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 takes us back to the world of Eora from Pillars of Eternity, and The Living Lands is the most eccentric, colorful, and wild adventure yet. Obsidian Entertainment has done a wonderful job capturing the "magic" of RPGs like Skyrim that makes exploring every crevice fun, and immersing yourself in this world is stupendously easy. You can still find the limits of this more focused RPG, though, and performance isn't flawless, even on Xbox Series X.

This game just clicked with me and felt like the perfect marriage of stuff like Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect. Great story, great characters, and a world that is fun to explore with combat that never got old. I had a great time in the Living Lands, and I cannot wait to go back to a previous save and explore some more.

A nicely told story of life and its ups and downs completed with hand drawn art and well picked indie music by a local band.

All things considered, Avowed is an Action RPG with all the trimmings enhanced by high-quality writing, as well as a solid gameplay recipe and an artistic direction worthy of praise. The gaming experience is not yet at an optimal level of polish, the combat system is not lacking in slightly anachronistic traits and we did not fully appreciate some structural characteristics of the adventure. Yet, Obsidian's title manages to capture the player with a fascinating and cohesive universe, and if you are a fan of the genre or are looking for a journey capable of transporting you to a fantasy world of rare beauty, you may have just found bread for your teeth.

Avowed is a game full of fun exploration, an interesting story tied to lackluster combat, and an annoying equipment system that keeps it from reaching its full potential. When I was engaged in Avowed, I would spend hours wandering around, talking to NPCs, and completing quests. However, when the game wasn't firing on all cylinders, I was frustrated and frequently bored. It's a game of high highs and low lows, but the highs were enough to keep me engaged despite the flaws.

Avowed is a marvelous role-playing game built on a wide range of choices and deeply impactful consequences, written with great care and surprising complexity. It leans towards an old-school style while being firmly rooted in a setting that is both captivating and richly detailed, featuring uniquely distinctive fantasy elements and, above all, an exceptional level design. Obsidian Entertainment's talent shines through in all the studio’s classic strengths, yet at the same time, it clashes with evident rough edges such as an inconsistent progression system, monotonous combat, various bugs, and a lack of attention to detail—ultimately weakening an adventure that could have stood among the finest in recent years. This is an experience that any fan of the genre should dive into without hesitation, yet it remains a rough diamond—one that, in our opinion, Xbox as a publisher should have supported with more resources and greater attention.

For the first several hours of Avowed, I was properly transported to its world of artificial gods and colonial strife. Obsidian Entertainment, one of gaming’s most celebrated narrative houses, was meeting high expectations...Then I noticed something I’ve never felt before during a game made by Obsidian, the studio that made “Fallout: New Vegas” and the Pillars of Eternity franchise, all writerly role-playing games focused on character-driven narratives that react to player choices. I stopped caring about the characters. My story choices didn’t matter much, either to the narrative or, more fatally, to myself.

Avowed gets better the more you commit to it, but when there are many RPGs that fly out of the gate with memorable opening gambits, it’s comparatively a bad indictment for Avowed to drone along in an uninteresting way until you plough a handful of hours into it. Don’t allow these negatives to diminish the positives though, Avowed is a strong RPG that will please anybody looking for a good and tasty role-playing steak to tuck into, it just deserved to shine as bright as its beautiful setting, instead of wallowing in middle-tier purgatory.

An RPG with very good writing and memorable companions, that lacks in terms of presentation and game mechanics.

Avowed is not the juggernaut RPG some may have expected, as certain crucial aspects fail to rise above mediocrity, such as the writing in many side quests and the rather derivative character design. Be that as it may, Obsidian's talent in the genre still shines through in its rich world-building, clever level design, and fun combat system, though against large groups of foes, it can feel a bit too chaotic for our tastes.

If we manage our expectations, Avowed proves to be an enjoyable game that fulfills its goal of entertaining. However, its gameplay leans more toward action than RPG mechanics, with noticeable simplifications. Many of the tasks feel repetitive, as they’ve been seen countless times before. On top of that, narratively, it’s far from Obsidian’s magnum opus.

In the absence of a new episode of Skyrim, or even an opportunistic remaster, Avowed immediately positioned itself as a perfect replacement candidate. It must be said that for years, the Obsidian Entertainment studio has shown its appetite for old-school RPGs, with a strongly assumed Bethesda-style coating and formula. But from Skyrim, Avowed doesn't borrow much, except for its old school, so 2011 side, which could be likened to a comforting feeling for the most nostalgic players. Because despite appearances and an intriguing first part of the adventure, Avowed subsequently reveals its true face, that of being an RPG for dummies, or a chatty and more complex than average action-adventure game. It is somewhere between the two and a bit nowhere, since it tries to hit both categories at once. The result is a game that displays some pretty blatant game design inconsistencies, with on one hand more flexibility in its class and progression systems, and on the other a completely frozen world where interactions have been reduced to next to nothing and NPCs reduced to inert and uninteresting green plants. We still manage to have fun with its more open combat system, but we have to get past the ultra-rigid animations that take us back to another time. The lack of staging and the slightly too rainbow artistic direction also contributed to spoiling the party and it's a shame because Avowed had a great story to tell us. An adventure that will find a nostalgic or unobservant audience, but a game that will not go down in history, that's for sure.

Avowed offers a strong atmosphere, colorful personalities, and a gameplay loop that is entirely serviceable. However, it fails to excel in any particular area, including the character-driven narratives that Obsidian are known for. And so, Avowed fails to fully deliver on its potential.

With awesome worldbuilding and stellar character writing, Avowed reminds me why I fell in love with Obsidian’s RPGs in the first place. However, the bigger picture is that it plays it quite safe, with a by-the-numbers fantasy adventure that’s more familiar than evolutionary, and there’s bear-ly any enemy variety to keep its swords-and-sorcery battles interesting for long. Even if it doesn’t swing for the fences or leave a memorable mark on the genre, though, it’s still perfectly competent with all the tried-and-true stuff I expect, including chaotic combat, leveling systems and a loot progression that lets you build the kind of character you want to play, and meaningful decisions that can have a massive impact on the world. Plus, the whole thing’s surprisingly technically stable compared to its reliably unreliable peers. I enjoyed my time parkouring my way through Eora and think you will too – just don’t expect Avowed to show you anything you haven’t seen before.

Despite a very engaging first part, Avowed disappoints and will never completely satisfy RPG fans or action-adventure fans. For a title that lasts between 30 and 40 hours, the writing is not provided enough and the action and exploration phases struggle to renew themselves. It's frankly a shame, because in the first hours, we feel that Obsidian was on to something. The adventure is still worth the detour for certain plot twists, the pleasure of seeing one's curiosity rewarded and the adversaries fly away with ragoll, and the artistic direction, capable of beautiful flashes of brilliance.

Avowed delights and disappoints. This mix of RPG and action adventure offers a great deal of freedom in terms of exploration and character development in the beginning, only to fail to exploit the full potential of the systems implemented later on. Such a shame.

Avowed ought to have been a more linear action game. Combat is good enough that a streamlined and direct experience could serve it well, but as an RPG there’s simply not enough of anything. It feels like vast chunks are missing, with an initial promise of adventure that rapidly shaves off expectations until you’re left with a toothless story and a frustrating dearth of material...It’s fun to create a snowstorm and jab lizard men with spears, but the shallow trudgery between fights is consistently disappointing. I don’t think it’s unfair to have expected far more from Obsidian. Thanks to Avowed, I know I can expect far less.

Avowed has a beautiful world full of things to discover, but there's a lot of caveats in the experience.

Obsidian has delivered an action RPG with a weak technical component, in which it doesn't do anything exactly new or epic, but its combat gameplay is exciting and the story interesting enough to deliver an entertaining game.

Avowed started out as Obsidian’s answer to Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series, and it did remind me a lot of Oblivion and Skyrim in the exciting moments where I stumbled across something unexpected in the wilds. But it also shares those games’ tendency towards repetition, and the weightless feel of their fighting. My first 15 or so hours in The Lands Between felt rich with potential, but I got fed up with it long before the end.

If you fancy a slow burn of exploration, and you’re willing to wait quite a few hours for a fun companion, give it a go and make your own mind up! It might be more of a hit for you than it was for me, and that’s OK.

Avowed can be fun, but if you've finished even a few popular RPG titles, Obsidian Entertainment's new game won't surprise you with anything new or brilliant. It's a decent game with impressive visuals, but ultimately a bit shallow, without that magical spark that fires the imagination and makes us return with our thoughts to the game world and plan our next steps while we're at work or in class. Experienced gamers will tend to think about what other titles this game reminds them of.

A modestly ambitious action role-player, that’s very good at making you feel you have an impact on the world, but it’s let down by endless reams of mundane dialogue and predictable mechanics.

Avowed is a valiant attempt at fantasy you can play your way, but while it delivers well enough with combat, the narrative just isn’t there. Too ambitious in what it wants to do, it falls way short. It’s a very mediocre version of the masterpiece it tries to be, but it’s also a solid version of Just Another Video Game. The story goes nowhere and all ends the same way, but maybe the journey is just about worth it.