I’m still a bit fuzzy about the lore of Avowed – I’ve not played Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity games, whose world this new RPG shares – but after an hour hands-on at Gamescom 2024, I’m clearer about some of the details. And, happily, I’m a little more convinced this is a world I’ll explore further, when Avowed’s new February 2025 release date rolls around.
AvowedDeveloper: Obsidian EntertainmentPublisher: Xbox Game StudiosPlatform: Played on XboxAvailability: Out 18th February 2025 on PC Steam), Xbox Series X/S
In Avowed, the game’s world of Eora is experiencing some kind of magical plague, and you play as an important envoy from a nearby empire, investigating the cause. The Gamescom demo allows you to play as a beefy Barbarian, stealthy Scout or magic-infused Mage, with locked ability loadouts – I picked the latter – in a dungeon exploration mission where you were tasked with tracking down a lost expedition.
Accompanying you on this quest is Kai, a companion character voiced by the unmistakable Brandon Keener, who many players will recognise as legendary sidekick/romance option Garrus from the Mass Effect trilogy. Kai very much acts as your Garrus here and shares a strikingly similar personality also: an encouraging comrade, with a dry sense of humour. When I wasn’t looking at his blue face, I could imagine it was my favourite turian there beside me. When I did look at his face, I was always a little surprised it was one of Eora’s Aumaura staring back.
For fans of fantasy proper nouns, Avowed has a ton of lore to learn. This is clearly a world with a decade of backstory – perhaps too much, and I say that as someone who loves a good codex. Still, there’s a smart system here to get Eora newbies up to speed, which lets you press a button to quickly surface an explanation for the many places, people and historical events that regularly pepper the conversation.
Visually, Avowed looks impressive, but its graphical style can sometimes feel an odd mix. The dungeon I explored is refreshingly bright and colourful as video game caves go, but it – and everything else I’ve seen from Avowed so far – seems a bit of a fantasy hodgepodge: Skyrim meets Lord of the Rings via a punchier colour palette, with blobs of James Cameron’s Avatar thrown in. I’m reminded of Kingdoms of Amalur, a game made by a starry development team that never – for me – managed to really define an identity of its own.