Avowed Review: frenetically fun gameplay meets a boring world

There is a rule to stick to when playing playing: Compare it not constantly with Skyrim. Obsidian’s game is in a tough position and is constantly compared to Bethesda’s most beloved titles, so it’s important to watch the game on his own profit – plus, Skyrim is 14 years old now. Sorry. So it’s time to let go, even though it’s hard to shake the feeling that you are playing a modern takeover of it many hours into the promised.

Avowed’s match, however, leaves Dragonborn in the dust. You have two loadouts to switch between during combat with the touch of a button so you can focus on two of the fighter, ranger and wizard types rather than just one. It alone makes the fight feel so much more dynamic as you do not have to fade around menus to change your tactics. You base a monster’s head in with your ØKS, then seconds later you call a thunderstorm out of your grimoire to turn everything else in sight.

The Stamina system gives you plenty to think about during combat. Each attack and block drain drains it, but it regenerates very quickly when you stop performing actions, creating a system that holds matches fast while still forcing you to constantly consider your tactics. Combine it with the fact that basic actions like sprinting do not cost any endurance, and a very satisfying Dodge-Dash that does, and it makes any fight a fun encounter with smooth movement and satisfactory strikes, though weapons don’t have that much Weight behind them as you hope.

Avowed’s magic system is one of the best that has been in an action RPG. Usually playing like a wizard sounds fun on the paper, but boiled down to just using the same or two spell for the whole game. Avowed has a brilliant way of bypassing this. You can permanently unlock spell forms via the ability of ability and assign them to one of six action slots to bust out during the fight-but you also have grimoires, off-hand weapons containing four additional magic forms where each grimoire houses a unique set .

This means that you always have a wide range of magic forms at your fingertips, which lets you loosen the full magical potential of all the interesting spell in the game. So many games fall into the trap of making their tool forms too much trouble to use compared to straightforward offensive magic forms, but the easy accessibility of everything in this system means you never have to compromise.

As for the world where you make all these battles, the living countries are a vibrant place to explore, and while it does not show its full potential before the later areas, you feel driven to just hike. If you explore each area, you will be rewarded with fun little adventures and mini -sailing.

However, the world that is segmented by region hinders this feeling. This is not a massive open world, so the original wonder of exploration will soon fall out when you realize how limited these cards are. The discoveries you make as you explore are fun, but you rarely get the amazing feeling of throwing a tray, looking something interesting on the horizon and going out on a journey to explore it.

What’s worse is that each region follows the same formula, each having only one capital where you pick up the vast majority of tasks. It makes it all a little bland, with all regions that feel disconnected, which prevents you from embracing the world to the fullest.

It does not help that none of the characters or their stories stand out. Avowed’s role crew of companions has straightforward personalities and no interesting quirks. By the end of a conversation with any of this party, asking for Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s aggressively quirky crew, which at least had strong enough personalities to be useless.

The main story is also nothing worth shouting about. A strange new evil strength is to laugh in the countryside, and you, the chosen (called a “god -like” in this world), must go on a quest to stop it. Just in case that wasn’t enough to make you special, you are also envoy of the emperor yourself, which means that all of the meaning you meet must do what you say. So many characters shower you in reverence and all it does is remove any interesting friction in the narrative, as well as killing the great feeling that RPGs can give you to rise from being no one to a powerful warrior. Not everyone likes the Empire, but Avowed’s themes of colonialism are all superficial.

There is no fun conflict to invest in when every time you show up in a new city, the red carpet is rolled out and no matter what authority figure lives immediately with your plans. The few times people have a problem with you, each character around them touches and tells them how amazing you are, and soon enough they also have an apology. Even your attempt at Assassin says they think you’re pretty good when you confront them – it’s ridiculous and robs you of a character journey.

Still, these questions with the story and the world do not overshadow how funny core struggle is – it alone is so fun that it will keep you on the hook of ages even when the writing lets you down. It settles in a strange position where it fails by being a great RPG on many levels, but is still an excellent gaming experience that we would thoroughly recommend.