Avowed: We Finally Played Obsidian’s First-Person RPG and It’s Fantastic

Playing Avowed was a surprising pleasure for me. After many questions about the change in art direction from the trailer, questions about the length, and a combat demo on the Xbox stage that had many wondering if the game was earlier than expected in its development, I’m happy to report that Avowed feels great, looks great, and offers a compelling story based on the first installment I played at an event.

My journey began right after Avowed’s opening main mission, and we were sent on a mission to find an Aedyran expedition team. As it turns out, as is often the case in RPGs, fate had other plans for them. Kai, our green-skinned companion, voiced by Mass Effect actor Garrus Vakarian’s Brandon Keener, keeps things light with jokes and remarks about this new area we’re exploring. The jokes are welcome and rare, only occasionally interjecting to make a point, like when I stopped to admire the view.

Avowed – Screenshots from Gamescom 2024

And the view is very pretty. Avowed did a great job of building on the art style that the Pillars of Eternity series is known for, making me stop and admire the distant waterfalls and moss-covered structures that set the aesthetic tone for this mysterious cavern we’re diving deeper into. Avowed’s world design is also taking shape, and as I delved deeper, I discovered walls that could be destroyed to traverse a new path, or puzzles that would open up a new secret area with a large chest if I threw my shock explosives at a few hidden circuits I found while exploring off the beaten path, eventually finding a hole in the wall. These puzzles have the added bonus of revealing coveted loot like a powerful ring that would provide some choice stat bonuses for my character.

When I wasn’t exploring the depths of the ocean cavern, I had to swim through it to find myself facing a Xaurip. These are lizard-like creatures with your standard human weapons like swords, shields, and bows, and they’re good fodder to help you learn your first attacks. The combat in Avowed is much better than I expected. You quickly get used to using vials to regenerate not only your health, but more importantly your essence, which allows for your most powerful attacks. As a Barbarian, I found myself stalking spiders in the caverns and planning my attack. To start, I use Kai’s Fire and Ice ability via the radial wheel that you access by holding down the left bumper (if you’re playing on a controller, obviously). Fire and Ice sees Kai teleport towards the target, then unload a powerful bullet into the spider’s Chelicerae, aka its face. Next, I command him to use his area-of-effect attack, Daring Leap, which sends him crashing to the ground and briefly stunning everyone around him. In the meantime, I had closed the gap and used both weapons. I first charged my right axe which offers a powerful attack that deals a stack of freezing damage to nearby enemies. After holding the right trigger to empower this attack, I manage to freeze my opponents for a moment. Next, I unleash my more powerful essence abilities. I first shout to push back the smaller spiders that are also surrounding me, and while I’m stunned, I then select the charge and charge hard at the biggest guy in the room. Then I follow up with a flurry of strikes with the left trigger, which keeps my sword nimble for a small flurry of strikes that culminates in taking out the last spider standing in the room.

Later, I would return as a mage, which was described as the most difficult of the three available classes. This character’s abilities included an ethereal staff that you could materialize with essence, orb projectiles that tracked your target, and standard attacks that had you swinging your wand back and forth while smaller spells dealt damage to your target. Additional Essense abilities included a spear that was a bit faster than the staff (as you might expect), and several different protection or buff spells to help your blows land with a slightly louder thud. My personal favorite, however, was an ability that had you close your magic book to send out a wave of aura that dealt damage to everything around you. It was just cool to see a book destroy everything in its immediate vicinity.

But make no mistake, the combat was also a challenge. I was drinking potions carelessly because I knew it was just a demo, but it was clear that you’d have to master the balance between spellcasting, defense, and gear options for maximum effectiveness. Digging into the menus, I discovered that you could equip your character with a second set of weapons that you could access by pressing the Y button on the controller. The potential of something so simple excited me because with a single press, you could access a significantly different playstyle. The combat was clean, intuitive, and had a depth that I didn’t expect. I can’t wait to dive into it more. And thankfully, the punch to your attack animations that many felt was missing from a demo on the Xbox stage earlier this year seems to have been implemented; Enemies react as you would expect when you slash them with a sword or blast them with a spell.

Eventually, during our journey, Kai and I met Caedmon, a young explorer who had managed to survive Xaurip’s assault. His friends on the expedition team, however, were not so lucky. After lamenting that he had “never touched a girl” and that his impending fate was unfair, we were offered several conversation options:

• “Kai, we can’t let this kid die a virgin. Can you help him?”
• “Give Caedmon a healing option. We’ll get you back on your feet!”
• “Be strong, boy. I won’t waste my supplies on you.”

Of course, I chose the first one.

Kai replied, “Not with that… OH you mean with the healing.” He then asked me to offer him my potion instead. Caedmon was back on his feet and offered us some advice that would help us continue our journey.

But since I also wanted to try the fight as a mage, I got to see what happens if you always choose the bottom option. “Toughen up, kid!” my character yelled. Caedmon said something that Kai called absurd and begged me to help him. I refused to offer him the life-saving potion, however, which resulted in his immediate death. Did I loot his corpse? You’re right.

It’s situations like this that will really make Avowed stand out if there are enough of them. Can you really be that mean? Apparently so, and I’m looking forward to doing a playthrough as a sane person where I don’t kill everyone if I can help it, and a playthrough where I’m the biggest asshole I can be because… well, that’s where the fun lies now, isn’t it?

The demo ended with an encounter with Sargamis. Sargamis is a golden-skinned godlike creature who sent us to retrieve an item and return it. But like our explorer friends from earlier in the demo, other plans were afoot, and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves face-to-face with the Skeleton boss and a pesky Skeleton Priest who would heal the large group of enemies we were facing. All of this kicked in immediately after reaching the item Sargamis sent us to retrieve, to which Kai quipped, “It can’t be that simple… can it?” No, Kai, it apparently can’t.

Once in combat and realizing I was heavily outnumbered, I exited the room to survey the battlefield. After taking out a few lower-ranking skeletons just outside the priest’s healing aura, I identified the one that was thwarting my murder plans (can you kill a skeleton?) and turned his bones to ice and dust. Just as I had taken out the grunts, I was finally ready to take on the skeleton boss with Kai, but just as I had him on the ropes… The power in the building went out for everyone playing the demo.

But it’s not all bad, because Avowed made a good impression. My doubts about it have vanished and I can’t wait for it to come out in February. This little piece that Obsidian gave us the chance to test was a treat, and even though it’s only a small preview, our 50-minute demo session went by in a flash. And that’s always a good sign.