4.5/5 ★ – ohmightyqueen's review of Avowed.

Playtime: 36.9 hours (May contain spoilers) I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Avowed. For something that was not on my radar AT ALL until a week from its release, and even then i was very meh about it, i have been so surprised with how much i have loved this game. First off, the game is absolutely stunning however, i did find that it started pretty damn slow and i really wasn't sure about it. I did find myself coming back to it again and again and really vibing with the combat (using magic is crazy cool btw) then slowly getting in to the story and then craving playing it. I haven't felt like this about a game since Skyrim back in the day. To me, it felt like the developers had taken many other games, squashed out all the bad stuff and melded together all the great bits. The quality of life mechanics in this game were really appreciated, such as the two load outs and the storing of things in your camp while out and about. I think i only became over encumbered once while playing and was always carrying a lot of loot i had yet to sort through. The idea of setting up camp and taking time out to hear your parties thoughts was such a good idea and really brought a good change of pace to the game play that at times, could feel a little repetitive while exploring. Exploring itself has never been so rewarding! I felt like i could go round this corner and look here and look there and was ALWAYS rewarded with something whether it be a dead body to loot, a plant or a chest. I always found myself wandering off the beaten path to check out what was going on elsewhere but it never felt too attention grabbing and i always ended up where i needed to be again. Im generally someone that gets overwhelmed with quests given out in a game then get choice paralysis and bored when i try to tackle them but Avowed paces side quests with the main story perfectly. There was never too many side quests at one time and each one felt like it was genuinely part of the story and lore surrounding the story. Four large areas instead of a massive world map felt much easier to digest. My choices as Envoy felt real, choices in games always tend to feel like they generally point to the same ending but in this i felt each choice of dialogue was vastly different and counted towards different outcomes. Often in games that have the choice of 3rd person or 1st person, 3rd feels like such a second rate way of playing but i played all the way through in 3rd person (due to 1st person motion sickness) and it was really well optimised and and no point did i feel like it was a last minute decision to add in. The lore option during dialogue completely changed the way i went about understanding the story. Generally i get lost in these games, the politics is too much for me and the background info gets lost however, having the option to check up on a particular word or phrase mid conversation was game changing. Personally i think this should be an absolute must for any type of game like this. It meant i was able to stay engaged and understanding of the story at every stage of the way. I never googled for help which is something i usually do regularly in games! Dialogue in general was fantastic, the actors were great and getting to know your companions throughout with camp fire conversations and end of area catch ups was such a nice touch to keep up to date with what was happening in the story. Getting the choice to ask for their opinion throughout was really helpful for me too, i often struggle with making decisions in games but they leveled out the options well. I never felt like my choices were clear cut, i really did feel torn most of the time what i was going to do, even right up to what to do with Sapadal. The few cons i have of the game; - The music isnt anything special, its perfect background music but never at any time did i feel it got stuck in my head and even know i have no idea what the music sounded like - Jump and dash... I saw this everywhere i read about the game, the jankiest part of the game imo and maybe needs to be patched out to be different buttons on the controller. - Enemy variety which although it got a little better as the game progressed i did feel overall the variety wasn't really there. Overall, this has probably entered in to one of my top games of all time and although not perfect it was an incredibly fun experience and i liked the story enough to wonder more about the world. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that likes an rpg.