Victory over dreams: Avowed — a hidden diamond or a passing story

Over the past year and a half, fans of the RPG genre have not had to complain about the lack of choice — just have time to update the vishlist. After the super-successful Baldur's Gate 3, the long-awaited but controversial fourth installment of Dragon Age has been released. Japanese novelties are also constantly appearing. Against this background, Avowed got lost. The game's marketing campaign was not large—scale, and the announcements were particularly loud. Nevertheless, Avowed is a full—fledged role-playing adventure, albeit with a specific setting and some nuances. The project has already received positive ratings on review aggregators: an average of 80 out of 100 points. Izvestia investigated whether this release was worth paying attention to.

The plot

The events of Avowed take place in the fantasy world of Eora. The game takes place in a region called the Living Lands. The user assumes the role of an emissary of the Aedir Empire, sent to investigate a mysterious plague known as the "Scourge of Dreams" that drives people crazy and destroys everything around them.

The main storyline consists of 11 missions. The story begins very traditionally, almost like in Morrowind — the player is shipwrecked and finds himself near the fort. At this point, he receives his first weapon, learns the basic mechanics of combat, solves simple puzzles, and meets the storyline character Ilora, who is imprisoned.

The main character is faced with political intrigues, factional conflicts and the secrets of the ancient gods hidden in the Living Lands. According to the laws of the genre, he has to make difficult decisions that affect the development of the story and relationships with various characters. Companions play an important role, each of them has a unique background and motives that can significantly affect the course of events.

Avowed is both praised and scolded for its plot. Some critics believe that the game borrows so much from Skyrim and Dragon Age that it ends up becoming a predictable adventure that lacks unique ideas. But the opinions of the players were divided. Some of them admit that the story does not look like a masterpiece, but they compare it with the narrative in Dragon Age: Veilguard — far from favoring the latter. Gamers note that the Avowed scenario is richer and deeper, it's interesting to follow, and various narrative details, such as notes and books, help immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the world and make it voluminous.

World exploration and immersion

Although Avowed is not a completely open-world game, it offers several extensive areas for free exploration. Each NPC has its own story — merchants, extras, companions, and plot characters help reveal the idea in one way or another.

There are four companions here: the warrior Kai and the tracker Marius, whom the player meets at the Dawn Coast location, the healer Giatta from the Emerald Staircase and the magician Yatsli, who can be found in the Rift. All of them are not just pawns helping in battle, but also personalities with their own complicated biographies, as well as their opinions about the actions and moral choices of the protagonist.

Each companion has a drama behind his soul, as well as a personal quest, which, if desired, can be completed. You will be able to establish relationships with your companions not only as you progress, but also at rest stops. However, unlike Baldur's Gate 3 and Dragon Age, Avowed does not have an emotional component twisted to the maximum and dizzying romance novels, so they feel rather bland.

Combat system and magic

The Avowed combat system refers to an old-school RPG and is not overloaded with mechanics. Players can use various types of weapons and magic spells — all of these can be combined with each other to create powerful attacking formulas.

You can quickly switch between weapons, shields and magic, which will make the battles dynamic and not boring. Equipment can also be upgraded. In general, Avowed gives you a lot of freedom in terms of development — you can try almost the entire range of skills at almost any time, and it's quite difficult to block an interesting branch.

There are virtually no familiar classes here, you can freely mix the abilities of a warrior, mage, ranger, healer and use any weapon and armor without compromising skills. The only important thing is the biography of the hero, which directly affects the plot and dialog options. The developers have tried to make the game friendly in those aspects that usually limit the user, for example, regarding the inventory limit. If you collect more than you can carry, the surplus will automatically be sent to the camp's warehouse.

Magic plays a significant role in combat, allowing you to freeze enemies or entangle them with spells. The spell animations are spectacular and add extra atmosphere to the battles.

Visual and bugs

Now a huge number of games are released in early access and have been finalized over the years. Everyone has come to terms with frankly crude releases of large—scale action games and RPGs for a long time - remember at least "Cyberpunk", which did not sink the shaft of criticism and bugs at the start.

In this regard, Avowed is a unique case, because technically Obsidian studio has polished the project. There are practically no bugs in it, all animations are smooth (except for the third-person camera view). Visually, the novelty is fascinating: the game world is bright and saturated.Some of the designs of characters, flora, fauna, and buildings are unusual for fantasy settings and really reflect a unique environment unlike what gamers have seen in other role-playing games. Modern games of the genre tend towards a darker, more realistic palette. And although Avowed's visual solutions may seem too provocative to some, they are memorable.