Avowed (2025): The Review

Overview

Avowed is an absorbing RPG that thrives on its storytelling, world design, and the weight of player choice. A strong narrative, adaptable progression systems, and thoughtful combat come together to create an experience that’s easy to stay invested in. Some elements, like the mana system and aspects of the quest design, can feel a bit limiting, but they’re overshadowed by sharp writing, a vivid setting, and consistently rewarding gameplay. 

Score: 8,5 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Avowed thrives where many RPGs struggle, it makes its world feel genuinely alive. From the moment you step into the Living Lands, there’s a strong sense that this place exists beyond your presence. The environments are vibrant, varied, and filled with history, while cities like Paradis feel active and believable rather than static hubs. It’s not just about visual fidelity, it’s about atmosphere, and Avowed nails that consistently.

The narrative is easily the game’s strongest pillar. Obsidian leans into layered storytelling, building a plot around the mysteries of the Dreamscourge and the Voice while weaving in political tension and personal identity. The result is a story that feels both expansive and intimate. You’re not just solving a world-ending problem, you’re navigating prejudice, colonization, and your own place within a conflicted society. It gives the game a sense of weight that sticks with you long after key moments pass.

What really elevates the experience is how central your character feels to everything. The protagonist isn’t reduced to a glorified errand-runner, a trap many RPGs fall into. Instead, your connection to the Voice and your role as an envoy ensure that you remain at the center of the narrative. Your decisions carry real consequences, and the game does an excellent job of making those choices feel meaningful rather than superficial.

Role-playing depth is another major highlight. From the character creator to dialogue systems, Avowed encourages you to define who your character is. Background choices influence interactions, and dialogue options are clear and intentional, avoiding the common issue of misleading responses. Conversations feel natural, reactive, and often lead to different outcomes, making even small interactions feel significant. Combined with flexible class systems that allow hybrid builds, the game gives you a satisfying amount of freedom to shape your playstyle.

The Negatives ⚠️

Despite its strengths, Avowed isn’t without its frustrations, particularly in its gameplay systems. The essence (mana) mechanic can feel overly restrictive, especially for magic-focused builds. Without passive regeneration, you’re often forced to rely heavily on potions or enemy kills to sustain your abilities. Early on, this can make combat feel unnecessarily punishing and disrupt the overall flow of encounters.

Combat itself, while engaging at its best, can also present uneven difficulty. The game doesn’t always scale with the player, which means that skipping side content or neglecting upgrades can lead to sudden and harsh difficulty spikes. This creates moments where progress feels less about skill and more about whether you’ve prepared enough beforehand.

Quest design is another area where repetition begins to show over time. While individual quests are well-written and often interesting, their structure tends to follow a familiar loop, travel, investigate, and confront a final obstacle. It’s not immediately noticeable, but as you progress, the pattern becomes harder to ignore. Even side quests occasionally fall into this routine, which can make the overall experience feel a bit formulaic.

The progression system, while flexible, also has its own limitations. Ability points are scarce, and while hybrid builds are possible, spreading yourself too thin can leave you underpowered. This often nudges players toward specializing rather than experimenting, which slightly undercuts the freedom the system initially promises.

The Experience 🎮

Playing Avowed feels like stepping into a world that doesn’t just exists, it reacts. There’s a constant sense that your presence matters, whether it’s through the way NPCs respond to your background, your appearance as a Godlike, or the choices you make throughout the story. It creates an experience that feels personal in a way that many RPGs aim for but don’t always achieve.

What stood out most to me was how natural everything felt once I settled into it. Switching between first-person combat and third-person exploration gave me flexibility in how I approached the world. Combat felt more intense up close, while exploration benefited from a wider perspective. That ability to adapt your playstyle, even in small ways, added a layer of comfort to the experience.

At the same time, there were moments where the cracks started to show. Running out of essence mid-fight, hitting a difficulty wall, or noticing the repetition in quest structures, it didn’t ruin the experience, but it did pull me out of it occasionally. These weren’t dealbreakers, just reminders that the game isn’t perfect.

Still, I found myself wanting to keep going. Not because the gameplay constantly pushed me forward, but because the world and story did. I wanted to see how things unfolded, how my decisions shaped the outcome, and how my character fit into everything. That sense of curiosity carried me through even the rougher patches.

In the end, Avowed feels like a game that prioritizes narrative and immersion above all else, and for the most part, that works in its favor. It’s not the most mechanically refined RPG out there, but it doesn’t need to be. What it offers instead is a rich, engaging journey that rewards those willing to invest in its world. And if that’s what you’re looking for, it absolutely delivers.