Console Tribe - 88

An excellent RPG, with some flaws, but many strengths, including an engaging plot, choices that change the game world, and almost total freedom of action. Do yourself a favor: play Avowed, or you'll regret it.

Xboxygen - No Score

Beautiful with breath-taking landscapes and love the artistic direction. Dozens of hours long. Combat is the best aspect of the game. Stable performance and almost no bugs. True choices and consequences like New Vegas.

Main negative: World lacking life and interactivity.

A very good, very classic RPG but not revolutionary.

M!Games - 78

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, combat is better. In Dragon's Dogma 2, exploration is better. However, in Avowed, there are clearly better stories. Decision-making options do not feel forced or clumsy here, but actually feel significant.

Pleased to report that I *love* Avowed, the latest RPG from Obsidian. I expected strong writing and combat, but what’s surprised me (and kept me wanting more even after 40 hours) is the exploration. Everywhere you turn there’s a secret or treasure or rooftop to climb — it’s dense and full of life.

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 13 February 2025 at 14:00

What Avowed lacks in gloss it makes up for with charm, depth and a playful heart. It's one of this year's most pleasant surprises.

Our Avowed review: www.eurogamer.net/avowed-review

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— Eurogamer (@eurogamer.bsky.social) 13 February 2025 at 14:00

Avowed review: Obsidian's latest is a solid, entertaining ARPG that neatly fills a gap.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

vgc.news/review/avowe...

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— VGC (@videogameschronicle.com) 13 February 2025 at 14:00

Avowed is utterly fantastic. Here is our review along with Klobrille's thoughts on the game.

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— XboxEra (@xboxera.com) 13 February 2025 at 14:01

Here's our Avowed review for Obsidian's excellent fantasy RPG!

Review access provided by Xbox and AvowedtheGame

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— TrueAchievements (@trueachievements.com) 13 February 2025 at 14:02

Sitting at an 80 meta thanks to a few 60s. Par for the course for Xbox games.

OpenCritic - 66 Reviews - 82% Top Critic Average - 84% Critic Recommend.

It has hit a bit lower than I expected (85) but still a solid score.

Positives

• Combat +11
• Visuals/Environments/Exploration +9
• Choices and Consequences +7
• Dialogue +3
• Companions +6
• Story/Narrative/World +9
• Side Quests +3

Negatives

• -4 Unbalanced Difficulty/Tedious Upgrade System
• -2 Narrative
• -2 Companions
• -2 No Post Game
• -6 Doesn't Revolutionise The Genre
• -8 Bugs/Jank
• -1 Slow Start
• -1 Enemy Variety
• -1 Side Quests

From the Pros/Cons Only.

Reading the blurbs it seems like the combat has near universal praise, but the upgrade systems are tedious and the game is a bit unbalanced, it sounds a bit buggy on the PC side. Most seem to give high praise to the world building and lore, a lot of praise for impactful choices and consequences and narrative. However there are a few who don't care for the narrative at all. Bit of a whiplash between some adoring the companions/narrative and some saying they're completely forgettable, Lmao. There are more who enjoy the narrative/companions but those who don't, really don't and their brutal scores are dragging it down, for example GameStop's 6/10, Lol.

Seems like a solid start though for the hopeful franchise though, for a first time director taking an isometric RPG with 2 entries into an ARPG. Issues like certain systems being unbalanced can be fixed. Narrative seems more enjoyed than not. They can easily expand on all the positives aside from the complaints that it doesn't do anything to revolutionise the genre.

Meh, just looked up klobrille/Mattyplays and Gmanlives views/videos... Klobrille seemed to like/love it but had some bugs. Matty and Gman felt bummed out tho..

Odd gamedesign, stuff like NPC's not moving around in towns, making it feel like an outdated game that get outclassed by even old obsidian games while asking for a premium price.

I am gonna wait a bit to download , I expect some stuff will be updated and then hope the exploration will be good enough for me.

Avowed is tremendous. I’m over 30 hours in and I’m still loving every second of the combat, story, and exploration. It takes the Bethesda RPG framework and makes everything feel so much better moment to moment.

— Dan Ryckert (@danryckert.com) 13 February 2025 at 14:00

I haven’t run into the issues with feeling underleveled that I’ve seen others mention. I’d recommend doing as many side quests as possible, breaking down all common gear (as opposed to selling), and upgrading armor and weapons regularly. I’ve found the default difficulty to be great.

— Dan Ryckert (@danryckert.com) 13 February 2025 at 14:14

Avowed is very cool so far. Here’s me showing off a bit of the early game and yammering on about it.


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— Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann.com) 13 February 2025 at 14:36

i enjoyed Avowed! i have issues with its character writing, a surprising weak point, but it’s a fun action RPG where combat and exploration are its strongest points.

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

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— Gene Park (@Gene.meme) 13 February 2025 at 14:06

It's actually funny how Xbox gets a lot of these swimming in 8s and a few 9s but then a couple of really brutal 6s tanking the score, Lmao. It's fine with me and not everything will fit with everyone but it is just something I've noticed how a lot of their recent releases are mostly enjoyed but there's always a few who really don't resonate with said game and give it a critical slap around the face.

In some cases I prefer that because it's due to taking risks, in Avowed's case it seems it's more that Avowed is just a solid RPG which doesn't do anything revolutionary so that drags down the score and honestly that's fine with me because I don't really care about stuff being "revolutionary" but despite a lot of praise for the story/writing, those who don't like it, REALLY don't like it, Lol.

Parris doesn't allow Bsky embedding, Lol.

Parris: "I loved Avowed 52 hours later and it's the nerdy RPG I hoped it would be The Living Lands is a beautiful world that rewards you for exploration This is not a game to rush to end, from the main story, side quests and treasure hunts - take your time and enjoy the ride 9.5/10" — Bluesky

I'm a little surprised reading some of these reviews but I suspect that Avowed could wind up like Fallout: New Vegas, where there's a vast gap between the critical reception and overall player consensus

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 13 February 2025 at 14:51

Honestly the criticism that it doesn't revolutionise the genre is a bit bullshit and unfair considering there's hundreds of games that don't revolutionise their genre but don't get docked for it and in fact receive universal praise, Lmao. Why are we docking titles because they aren't the next Witcher 3 or BG3? Might as well dock everything for that reason.

Before people think it's a defensive comment, I will point to Forza Horizon, that is hardly "revolutionising" the genre or its own IP past Forza Horizon 1 but is still swimming in universal acclaim and then there's From Software who largely don't change things up in "revolutionary" ways but instead cater to what people like, they don't get docked for it. The Yakuza series which I love, didn't revolutionise itself for like 6 entries, Lmao.

Praising the story, combat, etc, but docking it harshly because it doesn't revolutionise the genre seems silly. Indiana Jones should have been docked by the same logic, it didn't revolutionise the genre, it very much went back to a classical type of videogame, Lol. Felt like I was in the 2000s again. There's a bit of a unfair application where they pick and choose what games they apply it to.

People wonder why AAA budgets are insane...If every game has to be this massive revolutionary take...

I have an Avowed video coming up shortly but, man, it's a gorgeous game. Far more so than I expected. The world is gorgeous, it runs pretty darn well and the gameplay/writing is absolutely wonderful. I genuinely expected very little from this but I love it!

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— John Linneman (@dark1x.bsky.social) 13 February 2025 at 15:08