Avowed Thoughts
67 Hours Playtime. 43/50 Achievements. All Side Quests Except 2-3.
Very much enjoyed it and thought it was great. The first-person melee combat is one of (if not the best) for an RPG, it was brilliant fun and is now the bar that The Elder Scrolls needs to hit at minimum. Everything was fun to play with from the swords, to the guns, the grimoire spell casting, it made me want to try out multiple different builds, I wanted to be everything.
Graphics were great and really a looker at times, the performance for me was almost entirely smooth with very little framerate drops on balanced mode. I only encountered a single notable bug in my entire playtime, which was just a side-quest that I couldn't finish in a peaceful manner despite there being an option to do so.
Loved the exploration, I actually wanted to explore ever nook and cranny, find the chests. The verticality to the game was awesome and unexpected to find myself wanting to climb up everything. Loved the level designs of the "open-zone" regions, the vistas were beautiful and the art-style really popped out at times in a beautiful way.
Core story was solid Imo, I took an interest in most of the dialogue and found myself paying attention, I found "The Voice" to be an interesting character whose motivations are understood better overtime and loved my conversations with them, I found myself sympathising with them. It's a solid told story which has made me even more interested in this world.
I would have liked for the other Gods to play a larger role in the story though, like they do in The Elder Scrolls because I find those to be the most interesting parts, I would have also liked to see heavier politics in the story too as in, more involvement from the Aedyr Empire because I want to learn more about them, more involvement from the Rebels, etc.
Choices felt like they had some weight to them and I did spend a lot of time thinking about some choices, only to revert to a previous save on a couple of them, Lol. But still had to think hard about if this is what I want to do, there's a really difficult choice in the later half of the game. There was also a side-quest where I saw the consequences of my choice later and felt like shit. Other choices I questioned if I made the right decision. I liked a few of the heavier tones involved in some side-quests. Deciding to forgive a certain character was a good complex decision, I even found myself agreeing at one point with the obviously bad guys, the Steel Garrote, it felt like the better of two bad choices.
Companions are fine but could have done with more fleshing out, I didn't care for Marius at all and he does improve in his final quest and you understand why he is such a moody dude but by then it's too late to care that much. I liked Kai, Giatta and Yatzil. Giatta was my favourite. Kind of wish Giatta and Yatzil had companion quests even though their stories were woven into the main story itself. Kai's companion quest was well written, but I felt Giatta and Yatzil had the strongest reasons for joining your quests over Kai and Marius who both sort of feel like they came just because.
I think the companions should have been handed out sooner or should have been 1-2 more companions, it would have been cool to have optional companions like the Smuggler at the start of the game or the leader of the rebels, both of these could be more morally grey characters than the rest of the cast who are more clear cut good people.
Loved how easy it was to respec, inventory management was simple, all the QoL things like being able to breakdown in inventory, send to stash wherever you are, makes encumbrance a non-issue, crafting items being weightless, merchants not running out of coin, unlimited stamina outside of game. A lot of the game was simply focused on taking a fun-first approach.
Stealth sucked and there's a lack of enemy variety, the extremely fun combat sort of hides it for most of the game though, I still would have preferred more creatures and doubling down on the fantasy element creature wise, NPCs are a bit too static, I wish they would change up their routines more, have more random dialogue, have different reactions to their environment.
Would have liked deeper customisation and more faction questions, one for the rebels, one for the Steel Garotte, one for the Aedyr, etc. Could have had faction quests for factions in each region too. Honestly it's just because I'm interested in this world now and just wanted more of it.
While playing it, I had "classic Xbox 360" title vibes, like Indiana Jones, it's a title that is just focused on being fun, it cuts out all the extra noise and focuses on its strengths, it's simple and straight to the point, cosy and fun, it knows what it wants to be and with no MTXs or live service shoved in, I had both Oblivion and Mass Effect vibes whilst playing it. But I would describe it as a "Arcade RPG" and agree with others that it's more Mass Effect than Elder Scrolls, it's a narrative/combat focused RPG like Mass Effect way more than a sandbox focused RPG like Elder Scrolls.
Considering this is Carrie's director debut and it went through two reboots, from a multiplayer focused title to a classic Obsidian title, they've managed to set down a very strong foundation that can be built upon for sequels and I very much hope we see more sequels, I am more interested in more Avowed than The Outer Worlds and I liked The Outer Worlds but I find myself now more interested in the world of Eora.
I'd score it around 8.5/10
