Hands-On: Avowed feels like Obsidian’s take on Elder Scrolls and we can’t wait to play more

We weren’t sure what to make of Avowed, prior to having a chance to play the game’s opening two hours recently.

The RPG from Obsidian certainly comes from great pedigree, but delays and infrequent outings made us unsure as to whether Obisidian could follow up its Fallout-in-space gem The Outer Worlds.

It turns out that, much in the same way that The Outer Worlds felt like someone else having a go at making one of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic epics, Avowed feels like the stopgap between Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls 6 that fans have longed for.

Avowed is a first (or third) person RPG that sees the player take on the role of a Godlike, a character that has a mysterious spiritual connection to the land. As the royal envoy, you’re sent out on a task to deliver a message but are soon thwarted by a shipwreck and a poisonous blight that’s taking over the world’s creatures and the landscape.

Avowed seems keen from the outset to establish that there will be a lot of decisions, major and minor, that will shape your playthrough of the game. In the prologue, we come across a prisoner with a backstory that doesn’t quite add up.

After talking to them for some time, we explored the area and found a note that confirmed she was in fact on our side and just a bit grumpy. Freeing her made the next fight significantly easier, and we got access to some rewards.

We could have left here there with little issue, but we enjoyed that the game plays with both large decisions and small ones. Let me decide if the rude Scottish prisoner should be freed or not – not every moral choice has to be ‘slaughter one race of people or the other’.

When we then arrived on the docks of the game’s first major area, we were greeted with multiple side quests. These were about as cliche as RPG quests could be – “my friend has gone missing,” “upgrade your armor” and the like – but the way Avowed gently guides you to these quests, and makes sure that they’re either on the path of your main quest or will introduce you to an interesting new area, is smartly done.

The game’s combat offers a lot of variety. There are swords, hammers, bows, magic – the options seem fairly vast as to how you want to build your character. Indeed, the game’s opening is very clear about encouraging you to experiment. Our character developed into a magic-wielding archer who could use vines to trap enemies in place while we picked away at them with our bow.

The only thing that felt rather awkward in our demo was controlling our companions. The companion we were given for this section had a contextual ability to burn some of the infected roots in the overworld. Doing this was slightly annoying, and we found that our companions didn’t seem to care much for trying to stay alive, but other than that we didn’t run into many issues at all.

Avowed offers a sprawling upgrade system, and the speed with which we were gaining levels suggested that there’s going to be a lot of room to shape your character’s abilities, attacks and more.

The first-person combat did initially feel somewhat clunky with the basic weapons that were available in our demo, but magic and ranged attacks were satisfying to use. Enemies struck a balance between being difficult, but not so overwhelming that you have no time to draw your bow. There’s a very forgiving dodge that will send your character into a different postcode, so as long as you’re paying attention you’re not likely to suffer too badly.

The game seems significantly larger than what’s previously been shown, and the sheer volume of options for each encounter means we expect a lot of potential replayability. We didn’t get a great sense of the overarching storyline or how in-depth the companions will be, but given Obsidian’s track record, we have high hopes.

When our brief time with Avowed came to an end, we were disappointed. Not with that we’d played, but rather because we’d felt the game getting its hooks into us. Avowed feels like a game that would have been perfect for the period between Christmas and New Year. It doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything sparklingly new, but everything it is doing makes us want to play more.

At this point, it feels like the only thing standing in the way of Avowed is its absurdly crowded release window. The game is set to release in the same month as Civilization 7, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and Monster Hunter Wilds.

It feels like a strategic misstep to release a new IP in the middle of such a crowded period, but Avowed’s presence on Game Pass will hopefully point an audience in its direction, even if the conversation is likely to be focused elsewhere at the time.