What parents need to know
Set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, in the world of Eora. You play as the emissary of the Emperor of Aedyr who sends you to the Living Lands, an island populated by various independent cities and recently subjected to the invasion of Aedyr. However, this is not why the Emperor assigns us our mission. The Evil Dream is spreading on the Living Earths, a virus that transforms nature (plants and animals, not to mention humans) into violent creatures devoid of conscience.
Between the rebels of the Living Lands who do not appreciate the presence of the Emperor’s emissary, the Steel Garotte, and the violent militia that maintains order with an iron fist on the island, the challenge is great.
Add to this the fact that you are a divine being, touched by an anonymous God at birth and bearing physical marks of your status, which attracts even more distrust from you, and your mission is most complicated.
Luckily, you’ll have the help of many companions you’ll meet along the way, who will fight alongside you and help you solve environmental puzzles.
The combat system is first-person, largely inspired by Skyrim and titles of the same ilk if you are initiated into it. You can equip a weapon in each hand (except for two-handed weapons), from a wide variety ranging from swords and daggers to hammers, pistols, wands, and spell books. You can also upgrade and enchant the weapons and armor you find with the resources you gather during your exploration.
Since the developers of Avowed (Obsidian) are masters of role-playing, the story is complex and you have many choices to play your character to your heart’s content. Want to be a slightly rebellious hero? A zealot defender of the empire? A brute who quickly pulls out his fists? A narcissistic intellectual? All this is possible.
The game was provided by the publisher for free for review purposes. It does not influence our opinion.
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
The fights are violent and graphic. We see blood, dismemberment and evisceration. Some monsters can also flirt with horror.
There is no nudity, but there is mention of sexual relations. We also visit a brothel.
The language is complex and the vocabulary is sustained. There is also a lot of vocabulary specific to this fictional universe. A lexicon is always available to help us decode the dialogues, but we will have to read a lot.
The characters also use vulgar expressions without restraint.
Avowed is a game that resides in the shadows. It’s a game about colonization, and one is undoubtedly a colonizer. What we decide to do from there is up to us.
Several complex moral questions are presented to us. For example, a quest asks us to recover a package that has been stolen. You can kill the brigands to get it back, or negotiate with them. If we betray our employer and look at the contents of the package, we realize that it contains herbs used for abortions and banned by the Empire. We can then denounce our client, help her or blackmail her.
In short, you can play a villain without remorse, but if you want to play a good person, complex decisions await you.
The gameplay of Avowed is not excessively fast, but the fights are still real-time and they will require a certain amount of skill. The menus are cluttered and make it more complicated to run.
The game offers some accessibility options (text size) and difficulty options.
For the moment, apart from very optional cosmetics, there are no additional paid options. However, paid downloadable content in the future seems very likely.
Local game modes
Single-player story mode.
Online Game Modes
None.
Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)
There are a few optional costumes on sale, but other DLCs have yet to be confirmed.
Our opinion
As a fan of role-playing games and the work of Obsidian, I was looking forward to Avowed. The bar was high, but in general, the title lives up to expectations.
First of all, the story. As soon as we arrive on the Living Lands, the complexity of the situation we find ourselves in hits us hard. If the bad dream is obviously a threat, we quickly realize that the political powder keg on which the island finds itself is an even greater threat.
The different companions we meet also have personalities to which we become attached, and we take pleasure in your bonds developing with them. I began to sincerely rely rely on the perspective of Kai, the first companion I met (and perhaps the most endearing) in the face of many moral dilemmas.
The combat system, without being perfect, is satisfactory. The variety of weapons is great, and the different possible combinations (for example, a sword in the right hand and a spellbook in the left hand, or a mace in one hand and a pistol in the other) give a lot of depth to the combat system.
On the other hand, the menus are cumbersome and not very intuitive. There are some skills that I ended up forgetting because I had to go through several menus to use them, which slowed down the pace of the fights too much. Even outside of combat, the menus are complex and dense, making inventory management a chore. Too bad.
That being said, it’s a delight to explore the Living Lands. Adult fantasy universes sometimes tend to be dark and gloomy, but that couldn’t be more wrong in the case of Avowed. The island we explore is overflowing with vibrant and saturated colors, even the enemies are colorful while being scary.
In addition, the universe is rich and captivating. No matter where you look, there’s a treasure or a fascinating story waiting for you.
We must also talk about the extent of Avowed’s universe. Comparisons with Skyrim will be flying from all sides over the next few weeks, it’s inevitable; Avowed shares a good chunk of its DNA with Bethesda’s title (and both developers are now owned by Microsoft!) Skyrim is known for its huge world and lifespan (you can easily spend hundreds of hours in the world of Skyrim).
Avowed is not as extensive. Twenty hours should be enough to complete the main quest, and double that time if you want to complete most side quests as well. The living lands are also smaller than the world of Skyrim.
On the other hand, this more concentrated duration may be appreciated by players limited in time, and if the world of Avowed is less spacious, I found it richer and more pleasant to look at than the one of Skyrim (which doesn’t have to be embarrassed, the game will soon celebrate its 15th anniversary after all!)
Avowed is not a revolution in the world of role-playing games. But it’s a very well-mastered proposal that should charm players looking for a fantastic adventure to sink their teeth into.
