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Avowed preview – a bold new RPG or just another Skyrim clone?

Avowed – it looks a lot like Skyrim (Xbox Game Studios)

GameCentral goes hands-on with the new role-player from the makers of Fallout: New Vegas, in a game that shares a lot of similarities with The Elder Scrolls.

Avowed still feels like a bit of a mystery. While Microsoft has started to mention it more frequently, as we approach its February release date, what it’s about, what its focuses are, and what makes it unique are still a little hard to parse. While there was a genuine sense of excitement around its reveal back in 2020, a run of disappointing Xbox releases and uneven early showcases of the game has brought an air of uncertainty to the release.

That’s a shame, as Obsidian Entertainment is one of the most celebrated role-playing developers in the world. Their back catalogue is dense with underappreciated gems of the genre like Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick Of Truth, Pillars Of Eternity, and most recently, The Outer Worlds. A new major role-playing game from the team is a big reason to celebrate.

Thanks to a recent preview though, some of that mystery has now been lifted. GameCentral got two hours of hands-on time from the opening of the game, and ‘What Avowed is’ has crystalised into something much clearer. How it carves out its own space in one of the most oversubscribed genres in gaming, though? That question still remains.

Avowed is set in the fantasy world of Eora, the same fictional universe as Pillars Of Eternity, although in this case it’s set in the ominously named the Living Lands. You play as an envoy of the Emperor of the Aedyr Empire. The game opens with a history lesson full of names and countries that have far too many vowels, which does little to counter the impression that the setting is a little generic. If you’ve played five minutes of any fantasy role-player before you’ll pick up the gist pretty quickly.

Not only are you an envoy to an emperor, but you’re also ‘Godlike’. This means that one of the gods within the game’s lore imbued you with special powers in the womb. In the broader world of Pillars of Eternity, this is rare but not unheard of. Unfortunately, you don’t know which god it was but their favour gives you access to magic powers as well as fleshy, elemental features all over your body.

In my instance, I created a character with bark growing out of their head and face, but there are also gnarly-looking mushrooms you can customise to engulf your appearance. While you can turn these features off, characters will still react to you as if your face is somewhat distorted by these growths.

As you start your journey, you’ve been sent to the Living Lands to explore rumours of a plague that is beginning to affect the area. As it turns out, this plague, called the Dream Scourge, appears to be fungal in nature, turning animals and people into babbling and rabid monsters and potentially even zombifying them. If you’re already thinking about the Clickers in The Last Of Us, there is an air of that, but a whole lot more colourful.

Obsidian and Bethesda have always had a close connection, going back decades and including Obsidian working on BioWare franchises such as Knights Of The Old Republic and Fallout. But other games, like The Outer Worlds, also speak heavily of the reverence and talent the two entities share. In terms of Avowed, that link remains obvious.

Avowed feels directly inspired by Elder Scrolls titles, as it has done from the very first teaser trailer. You can dual-wield weapons and spells, you have a dialogue with characters, and you find quests and traverse landscapes. Hell, even the way your hands appear in front of you feels reminiscent of Oblivion’s combat. That’s not a bad thing, since heaven knows when we will get Elder Scrolls 6, so a game that feels deeply inspired by that series, but with new ideas and a different setting, is not unwelcome.

In the opening prologue, you find yourself shipwrecked on your journey to the Living Lands. You’re saved by a little blue lad, who informs you that it was actually your countrymen who attacked the ship. You’re then sent along to investigate why that happened and you quickly learn it has everything to do with the Dream Scourge.

As ever, this being a role-playing game, there are distractions and choices to be made as you find a way off the island. You will find a prisoner, who hates the Aedyr Empire and by proxy, you. The choice of trying to trust and free her to get a ride in her boat or leaving her to find your own path quickly materialises.

Avowed – the graphics are good but not astounding (Xbox Game Studios)

In my time with the game, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for these kinds of choices, let alone the consequences, but it’s nice to get a sense that there are plenty of side quests. Hopefully, that plays out and you will feel those consequences later in your playthrough.

As you explore the opening area, you’ll find a couple of weapons, as well as a book which immediately gives you access to several spells. It’s clear Avowed is going to have a focus on slinging magic, and even before I’d left the prologue island a handful of various spells were already available across several elemental types.

The broader sense of combat actually felt like a strong suit of Avowed, which isn’t always the case with first person melee combat. (The game also supports a third person perspective too.) This wasn’t just whacking a mace on an enemy until they died. Even earlier on, you have a lot of stamina to dart and move quickly.

The nimbleness of combat is great and there’s a sense of heft to your blows against these poor lizardmen’s skulls, as I kept bashing them with a mace. Obviously, being early on, the skills you have unlocked were limited – but with the right builds, there’s a lot of potential here to mix weighty combat and varied spells to make your own unique playstyle.
It also proved to be decently challenging.

Later in the preview, a bear who has succumbed to the Dream Scourge acts as a boss, and it certainly packs a punch. There’s room for evolution here, and hopefully Obsidian does just that.

One of the things that is most striking about Avowed is its vibrant art direction. This is not a gritty, muted hike like Skyrim, but instead a high fantasy world bursting with colour. Some of the races you encounter early are strange, but it’s a blessed relief from more elves and dwarves and it speaks to a team with a clear idea of what this world is and that isn’t afraid to take some big swings with the fantasy genre.

That said, the visuals sometimes tip into garishness. That doesn’t feel unintentional, but there is an underlying grossness to this world, even for all its colour. Your head as a god touched is being taken over by mushrooms, there’s a fungal plague that takes over its host and zombifies them, yet shimmers with the colours of the rainbow. It’s striking and gives Avowed a distinct look compared to other role-playing games (even if it can’t quite escape the Annihilation comparison) but it can feel a little much and may prove quite divisive.

Outside of that, there’s a lot of familiar role-playing staples here, for good and ill. You have ability points to put into stats that help you in moment-to-moment gameplay and also in conversation. For instance, If you have high intelligence, you unlock special dialogue that could have your character put information together better, or you could have a lot of might to suggest using your brawn instead.

Avowed – you need a tree surgeon not a barber (Xbox Game Studios)

Choosing your background is also part of creating your character. This opens up further dialogue options with characters, allowing you to build out who you are and better realise the role-playing aspects. Again, this preview was just the opening section, so seeing how far these systems go wasn’t possible, but it speaks to the potential of defining your character through dialogue and choice.

While the Elder Scrolls’ inspiration is apparent, Avowed appears to have a sharper focus on companions than that series. There are camping sites you can find to sit around and talk to those you gather on your journey. Kai, a brawling fishman, is the first you’ll recruit, and setting up camp was a good chance to get to know him. It goes much further into the realms of Mass Effect in that regard – which is funny, since Kai is very obviously voiced by Garus voice actor Brandon Keener.

If all of this sounds very standard role-playing fare, therein lies some concern. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Avowed is clinging too closely to the expectations of the genre. While there’s potential everywhere, none of it so far has leaped off the screen.

The fantasy role-playing genre is stacked with excellent and revered titles. Even just this year, we’re coming off Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Dragon’s Dogma 2, two very different examples, but two that had strong identities. And of course, the shadow of Baldur’s Gate 3’s inescapable standards loom ever present. Compared to that, how is Avowed going to stand out and make a name for itself?

That is still the question that lingers over Avowed. Even after getting hands-on, it’s not clear how much is new and innovative and how much remains old and predictable. Its bright colour palette and the bizarre Godlike features of your protagonist don’t seem enough at this stage. There is potential in the combat, dialogue, setting, and companions, but nothing about Avowed feels truly distinct yet.

This preview only encompassed the first two hours though. What’s here is perfectly well done. Obsidian is very talented, and it understands what makes a great role-playing game. There’s plenty of time for that to emerge and it’s hard to imagine a world where the developer’s expertise doesn’t eventually shine through. That said, after playing through the opening, the hook that makes Avowed truly stand out in a crowded genre hasn’t yet materialised.

Avowed – at least that’s not an orc (Xbox Game Studios)

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