Avowed

Steam Reviews

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• Recommended Posted August 30, 2025 on Steam This review is primarily for people who aren't familiar with the series this came from. I waited until I could get Avowed on sale before I purchased it. Even after that, I took a bit more time to play it because I was preoccupied with other games. During that time, Obsidian released several major patches that addressed various issues I'm told it had during and after launch. As of my current playthrough, the game is definitely worth trying out. In Avowed, your character is born a godlike: A special individual tied to one of the many gods of the realm. Godlikes tend to have visual qualities that make their god patron easily identifiable--yours do not. Fast forward to adulthood. You have been conscripted by the Aedyran emperor to be an ambassador to The Living Lands: An area of the world that your people are in the process of colonizing. Something similar to a plague is overtaking the land and you must go there to stop it, as well as deal with the unrest between the land's natives and your colonizing brethren. Sound familiar? Then you must have played Greedfall. Yes, the premise isn't exactly original, but I have been impressed with a lot of the features of Avowed. It is an open world RPG with a lot of nooks and crannies to explore, lore to discover, loot to find, and choices to make. I absolutely love games that let me choose how to handle seemingly delicate or serious situations. It always encourages me to play again just to see what would happen if I made a different choice. Unlike Bethesda games, Avowed doesn't clutter the game world with lootable items; it's still rich and well detailed, but only items that will benefit your character can be picked up. There is no theft system, but expect NPCs to talk about you if you do take something you're not supposed to. NPCs have reacted to things I've done in the game world, much to my amusement. For example: I walked up to a wall in town that could be blown up and threw a bomb at it. It made a hole, but then an NPC nearby berated me for not just walking around the wall. Sure enough, I looked and saw that if I had paid attention, I could have walked around the wall instead of destroying it. Oops. Your gear can also be taken along for the ride with you simply by upgrading it. I like the idea of taking a favored weapon and continuing to use it by making it more powerful. If you decide to switch gear, transmog can at least give you the appearance of your beloved old items. I have felt thoroughly rewarded by just wandering around the area map. Gameplay settings are customizable to make things more fun and challenging, or simpler and more accessible. My particular favorite feature is one that shows when treasure isn't far away from you, and whether or not it is above or below you. I still have to look for it but at least that combined with an audio cue lets me know that I'm not searching in vain. Is it worth $70? In my humble opinion, no game is. I don't say that as a matter of fact; I say that as someone who knows they cannot afford games that costly. Gaming is a luxury, and I am patient enough to wait until the ones I want go on a decent enough sale. But when it does go on sale, I recommend checking it out. The game is good. Not a "Skyrim Killer", whatever that means, but definitely worth your time.
• Not recommended Posted November 18, 2025 on Steam A visually beautiful game with flashy combat and skills. Star studded cast. You want to like this game... but everything is all surface level. When you look into the game mechanics and interactivity with the world, it all falls incredibly short of a proper good RPG. There's no real sense of belonging to the world. The fact that I'm just taking items and looting chests in people's shops and homes without any repercussions is laughable. The NPC's are just walking quest boards with, you guessed it, surface level personalities. Combat feels engaging at first... until it isn't, when you realize there's only several recurring enemy types that don't add anything unique. Sadly, the best way to approach combat is through ranged means, as any hit you take from a evenly leveled enemy takes a third of your HP, and then some. Equipment you gain add very little to a build other them small stat increases. The number of unique skills that do unique things is shallow and limited, with most skills just, again, buffing percentages and numbers. Its all pomp and flashy looking animations and effects without real visceral depth. Companions are honestly disappointing. There are very few real interactions you get with them, beyond events triggered by your progression in the main story. They might say they don't like you being an imperial colonist, or say they like you being nice to the native people's of the world, but they'll still stick with you regardless. Story is either "Side with Imperial Colonial interests for the sake of security and stability" or "Side with the rebels and native people to resist said colonization." Actual impact of those choices is minimal, other then certain factions becoming enemies or friends. Whoopee. In short, the game has a rich, incredibly detailed cover, but the content between the flashy cover does not match the grandiose tale and scope said cover advertises. Its a beautiful, shallow pond meant to be looked at, not swam in.
• Not recommended Posted July 18, 2025 on Steam As others have said, Patch 1.5 has broken the game. There were always engine stutters, but now these stutters bring the game to a complete halt every few minutes. Not sure how this made it past the QA process..
• Not recommended Posted September 5, 2025 on Steam It's not worth $70. For what it is, I'd pay $25 and be like "wow, that was an incredible experience for $25." The high price tag, plus the constant graphics and performance issues, makes this a no for me. Edit: My play time is really triggering people. Sometimes I pause games. I'm also not the only person to use my computer. ALSO I tried to give it a fair shot from start to finish, so yeah, I played it. That's why I'm so confident it isn't worth $70.
• Not recommended Posted December 16, 2025 on Steam The first area is a lot of fun and a great introduction but then you realize every area is basically the same enemies with different colors and the same weapons with different colors. By area 3 everything becomes more tedious and I was completely checked out by area 4. This game is too repetitive with no enough engaging content.
• Not recommended Posted March 26, 2026 on Steam I really, really tried to enjoy this. I'm a huge Pillars fan - they're probably my favourite CRPGs. I expected more of the Pillars DNA to come through here - exploring a really interesting world, an engaging plot, and fun but not excessive character building. I lost interest about halfway through Act 2 for several reasons. The zone itself was bland, the plot was meandering, the gear progression and general player power progression is tedious and relies on you pedantically exploring every nook and cranny in order to not get stat-checked by higher difficulty enemies. The conversations are all like pulling teeth - no expression in NPCs, conversations between multiple NPCs are stilted and awkward (they sort of awkwardly emote and shuffle while side-eyeing each other). It's impossible to get even remotely immersed because you have no attachment to any of the characters at all. Only Kai feels like he even has a tiny bit of life in him. Combat, once you get over the initial learning curve, is stupidly easy even on Path of the Damned. Majorly disappointed that none of the iconic, Pillars-universe-exclusive classes are playable. No Cipher, no Chanter. Just rogue, warrior, wizard. Very very little creativity even in the Wizard line. Again, I wish it was so much better than it was. I really tried to like it.