As soon as you venture into the realm of Avowed, you will be immediately captivated by its high level of lore, rich world-building, and evocative character development-the stuff that breathed unprecedented life into the world of Eora. Avowed takes place in the same universe as the beloved Pillars of Eternity series and is an RPG that is entirely focused on combat, character growth metrics, and exploration. Having witnessed much of the game during its infancy, one might already start seeing something strange taking place, and that is…wood.
You first notice it concealed within packs of splinters and staves, logs, and branches. And wood proves to be the most essential and important resource once you get beyond the somewhat flabbergasting sight of it in such out-of-place places! Not just wood, of course, but any other essential crafting resource, say metal or leather, plays a critical role in enhancing the weapons and armor you craft. Trust me, eventually you will realize why something as puny as a piece of wood or any other crafting material is the king in this game.
Combat and Leveling: Achieving the Balance
In Avowed, it’s the standard RPG progression: explore, fight, loot, just getting stronger. It’s pretty old hat at this point-the loop of going out and fighting, getting experience points, and getting more abilities as you level up.
Level up and you will have increased stats to spend specializing in Constitution for extra health, or Resolve for endurance, or further improve your combat capabilities with Shield Bash as a warrior or Parry for a rogue.
Well, unlike some RPGs, Avowed lays a higher emphasis on the quality of your weapons and armor: no illusions. The stronger your equipment, the better you are in battle. Lower-tier weaponry may seem like a handicap against foes of higher levels even if you might be a skilled player. The world is full of enemies that will give you unexpected challenges. If you hope to survive, then you need good weapons.
This also segues into a game mechanic that rather frequently makes it feel like you’re out scavenging for materials rather than embarking on a straightforward adventure. And then, all things considered, wood becomes the star of the show.
It’s all fine and dandy that you might have enough leather or metal stashed aside for upgrades on your other gear, but heck, try in vain to compete in battles without that crude branch or log. The moments some figure out whether this piece of rare wood would work for enhancing their equipment may just as well have been moments of gleeful victory. They build an odd-osmotically essential nature into the game-economy.
The Story: Intriguing Then Repetitive
The story of Avowed starts off conjuring images of political intrigue, the machinations of gods, and depths of theme. Eora is a world where a few gods, plague, and human ambition all vie to set the world stage for an equally rich story of building empires and survival.
This game makes allusion to matters ecological, self-rule, and the tension between what man is and what the spirits demand. On the surface, the game seems to offer a complex internal moral existence juxtaposed against beautiful and detailed environments.
Nonetheless, you increasingly lose interest as you progress. At one point, you have to endure three trials: Strength, Wisdom, and then a sometimes unspecified one not too hard to read as filler.
While these trials are intended to put your character through varying exercises, they soon deteriorate beyond the spotlight and instead fix onto worn-out gameplay routine, consisting of combat in places where express varieties are: trap navigation and hallway running-to the exclusion of the elements that presented such an intriguing world of lore and consequence.
They ended up feeling more like absolutely checked-off RPG tropes and stale ways to go through the motions.