In a recent session with Avowed (I’m about sixteen hours in), there came a point in one of the main story quests that I thought I had made a huge mistake. Though I thought I had properly followed the game’s tips on leveling my both my character and her gear, I reached a region where, suddenly it seemed, combat was impossible. I had been speccing a wizard’s path with two sets of weapons – a wand and nifty frost-laden axe – that had served my envoy well enough. To make things a little more challenging, and for the sake of mage role-playing, I had her outfitted in upgraded light armor. I had enjoyed the challenge so far, staying out of the fray, weaving and dodging to avoid head-on collisions, attacking from afar, and letting my companions take the lion’s share of fighting. The mage mindset helped me bring my character to life.

Only then, I hit a wall and couldn’t progress. Being a bit dense in the moment, I figured that I simply had to equip my envoy with sturdier gear and stronger weapons, some of which I had saved in my camp’s storage. But, the sudden shift from wizard to fighter did me no favors either. Though I was able to take down hard enemies at my first encounter, the path forward was littered with several more packs of the same foes, and I had no sustainability. I retreated back to my camp, returned to my envoy to her wizard form, and pondered what to do next. My initial thought was that I had to level up. There are no “recommended levels” attached to quests or regions in Avowed, but it seemed clear, to me at least, that the farther one traveled from the game’s starting point, the harder things got.

I went to my journal to see what side quests lay in wait, and I also did something that, in hindsight, should have been my first go-to after failing: I read the text of the main quest objective I had been trying to pursue. Simply, it implied that maybe I didn’t have to fight my way through all those difficult adversaries. Ooooh… So, be sneaky, eh? The game’s “stealth” system is little more than the “hide in tall grass” trope, but it works fine. I’m sure some players have made very good use of it; me, I’m not so good at being sneaky when upgrading a character’s own stealth capabilities isn’t an option. Had anyone watched me as I both snuck and cheesed my way along the path (by “cheesed” I mean me running to and hiding in the next patch of tall grass while leaving my companions behind to fight, or whatever), I might have been a little embarrassed. But hey, if the game let’s me do it, I’m going to do it!

I finally reach my destination with my envoy unscathed (and my companions, too, as they kind of just showed up, pretending to have snuck the whole way themselves – oh, video games!), and lo and behold, I complete the quest objective with no bloodshed. And as an extra reward, my envoy ably walks out of infested territory without any problems. All the enemies are now friends! Well, not really…but they are for the sake of the quest. We hightail it out of there, and move on with our lives.

As a quick second side story, my husband recently asked me what I thought of Avowed, and specifically, how it compared to Dragon Age: Veilguard. My short answer to the latter was that Avowed was the better game overall, and that while Veilguard is a very good game, it is not a very good Dragon Age game. With Veilguard, I’ve come to terms. The jury is still out on Avowed generally, but I am enjoying it immensely.

Though I’ve got some Avowed time under my belt, it still feels very much like I’ve only scratched its surface. It plays like the open world of Skyrim combined with leveling systems of The Outer Worlds smattered with a bit of Dungeons and Dragons. I’ll admit that I’m only focusing on my envoy’s skills at the surface, but there’s plenty of extra information hiding under the hood of all her skills. As far as questing goes, there is a captivating main story to follow – I’m hooked for now – side quests that offer more insight into the world and its character, and companion quests, too. While questing is fairly linear, the path to completing quests is anything but. I certainly had to question my approach to bludgeoning, or, rather, casting my way through enemy lines to get from point A to point B. There’s also lots of world to simply find and explore. Going off the beaten path is always the best route, as it’s led my envoy to some interesting discoveries and characters. And I must say, the world of Avowed is so stunning, it’s impossible to not get sidetracked in its lush wilderness or deep underground. Oh, and being able to climb, or “parkour” as the game says, makes traversal so much fun.

With so much to like, are there any downsides to Avowed? Well, of my personal quibbles, combat is so-so. It’s not bad, but it’s also not great. Targeting is especially flaky in large mobs, and more than once my spells have hit the breeze rather than the enemies. Using godlike and companion abilities is a big plus during battles. Of course, it’s up to me to remember to use them in the heat of the moment, and more often than not, I forget they exist while trying to survive. Outside of my combat complaint, the game’s gear is a little dull, visually, anyway. Upgrading anything in quality (from common to fine to exceptional) does nothing to change the look of weapons or armor. Any special-ness as far as looks go lies in unique gear, like the frost axe my envoy has been wielding. Applying unusual visuals to unique gear makes sense I suppose, and one can transmute armor appearance. At the very least, the hunt for unique items does warrant more exploration, either to find such in the wilds or during quests, or to make enough coin to purchase them.

All in all, my experience with Avowed so far has been more positive than less. Do I wish I knew more about its lore from the Pillars of Eternity series? Yes, and not having that knowledge could be considered a drawback. But Avowed has done a good job so far of filling in informational gaps for new players like me. Does it also help that one of my companion is totally not my best bud Garrus from Mass Effect, but, kind of also is? Yes, that adds to the “enjoyability” factor, too. Does it also help that, thanks to being able to choose my envoy’s backstory, her emergent personality make for some thought-provoking character interactions? Indeed it does. Avowed has a lot going for it, and I’m happy to be on my way to uncovering all that it offers.

All images, including lede, were captured by author during Xbox Series S gameplay of Avowed (©Obsidian Entertainment).