Avowed Review (PC) – Black Rock More Like Black Magic

Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed is here, and I’ve had the pleasure of playing it for the last few weeks. After spending many hours with it, I can confidently say that Avowed will capture RPG fans far and wide. However, I haven’t been able to finish it yet, and that’s a shame because I’ve fallen in love with what I’ve been able to play.

So, what does Avowed do that I enjoy so much and why haven’t I finished it yet? Let’s discuss that and more in The Outerhaven’s review of Avowed.

Game Name: Avowed
Platform(s): Xbox Series X|S, PC (reviewed)
Publisher(s): Xbox Game Studios
Developer(s): Obsidian Entertainment
Release Date: February 13th, 2025 (Premium Edition Early Access), February 18th, 2025 (Full Release, Day One on Gamepass)

What is Avowed?

To start, I want to focus on what Avowed is and what I have enjoyed so far in my time with the game.

If you don’t know, Avowed is the latest first-person (or third-person) RPG from Obsidian, the studio behind much-loved RPG titles like Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and more. As such, it plays largely how you might expect an Obsidian first-person RPG to play—featuring engaging combat, meaningful dialogue choices, and interesting companions. Avowed has all the ingredients to be an amazing RPG.

Avowed is set in the world of Eora, meaning it takes place in the same universe as the Pillars of Eternity games. If you’ve played those, there are plenty of lore references and Easter eggs for you to enjoy.

That being said, I have never played the Pillars of Eternity games, yet I never felt lost or confused by the pre-existing lore. Avowed does a great job of explaining things—whether through conversations with companions and other NPCs or through various lore books you can find in the world. So, if you’re new to this universe, you shouldn’t have much trouble getting up to speed (should you want to). Thankfully, the lore of Eora is more additive than required, allowing you to enjoy Avowed without needing to be a scholar in Pillars of Eternity history.

Avowed Takes Us To Living Lands

In Avowed, you take on the role of the Emperor’s envoy, sent to The Living Lands—a diverse region of Eora that is under threat from a plague. Your job is to investigate the plague known as the “Dream Scourge.” But you are no ordinary envoy—you are a Godlike, meaning you have been claimed by one of the gods. This grants you unique facial features, which can be customized during character creation, along with some interesting abilities. The only problem? You don’t know which god you belong to. So, while trying to save The Living Lands from a terrible plague, you’re also on a journey of self-discovery.

I don’t want to go too far into the story, as you should experience it for yourself. However, I will say that, up to the point I’ve played, the narrative has kept me consistently engaged. The Living Lands also has its own stories for you to uncover across a variety of unique regions.

It’s important to note that this game is not a seamless open world. Instead, each region of The Living Lands has its own map, filled with enemies to fight and secrets to discover. While this segmented design may feel a little dated to some players, I personally found it made each area feel alive and distinct. There is very little empty space without purpose, and even when you do come across open areas, they make sense within the world. Throughout my time with Avowed, I never felt like I was more than a few steps away from something exciting—whether it was a new quest, an interesting conversation with an NPC, or, of course, taking an arrow to the knee.

The Pen And The Sword Aren’t Your Only Options

In just the opening hours I tried many different weapons and combinations. From wands and swords, to pistols or a grimoire spell book and an axe. I haven’t even mentioned the two-handed weapons. There are so many loadout possibilities and what you choose to fight with can impact your playstyle.

What surprised me most of all is that every weapon I’ve used was enjoyable. Nothing felt like it was an afterthought and that made me want to try even more.

Upgrading and Unique Weapons

As with any good RPG, upgrading gear is a major pillar of Avowed. You can collect resources from nearly every enemy you defeat and use them to upgrade even a common short sword all the way to Legendary—the highest rarity available for weapons and armor. At first, I planned to take my original common short sword through the entire game by upgrading it.

That plan changed when I discovered a few unique weapons and gear items. These specially named items come with distinct attributes, such as fire damage or frost buildup, making them even more impactful. The great thing about unique items is that they can still be upgraded in rarity, making them stronger, and they can also be enchanted. Enchanting a unique weapon enhances its special attributes. For example, I found a frost axe, and after enchanting it, my charged attacks now spread frost to nearby enemies—not just the one I’m cutting to pieces.

Upgrading and enchanting items is done by making camp with your companions. The game will notify you when an upgrade is available, meaning you’ll never need to visit a campsite without a reason.

You Are Not Alone!

Let’s talk about companions—because outside of the opening hour or so, you’ll always have someone by your side. Whether it’s Kai, Marius, Yatzli, or others, each companion has unique abilities that help in both combat and exploration. Kai can deal massive stun damage to enemies, but he can also clear obstacles like spider webs by burning them. Marius can entangle enemies in vines while also highlighting nearby items of interest.

What I enjoy most about the companions, however, is simply spending time with them. When you’re at camp, I highly recommend talking to them—not only to learn more about their backstories and the world but also because they can help permanently improve your stats. These stat boosts can make a crucial difference in skill checks during dialogue.

I found this especially helpful when training with Kai, as it gave me an early-game stat boost. This was particularly useful since early leveling can feel slow until more quests become available as you explore further.

Outside of the utility and experiences the companies bring to the game, I can’t simply talk about them without mentioning the fantastic presentation and great performances. Avowed is a feast for the senses, from the excellent character designs and the beautiful environments to the immersive ambient sounds and stellar voice acting.

Vibrant, Clean, and Clear

Visually, Avowed‘s bright and colorful style may not appeal to everyone, especially those expecting something more like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in terms of its color palette. Personally, I’ve had enough of the brown and grey fantasy RPGs to last a lifetime, so Avowed‘s vibrancy is a refreshing change and makes the world feel more alive.

I was particularly impressed by the clean UI and HUD design. In combat, the game also excels, offering helpful visual cues that assist with timing parries, dodges, and more. Despite the action on screen, the presentation remains clear and straightforward, allowing me to always know exactly what was happening.

Of course, the visuals are enhanced by superb audio. While exploring, ambient sounds combine with the game’s musical score to create a sense of wonder, fear, hesitation, and more. In combat, weapons sound familiar yet are given a nice fantasy stylization that fits the world.

The audio, like the visuals, contributes to Avowed‘s built-in accessibility. From audio cues for nearby chests or special items to excellent directional audio design, it helps me pinpoint the location of enemies before I even see them.

To complement the fantastic audio mix and direction, the sound shines on a good audio system or a great pair of headphones.

You’re Speaking My Language

Of course, these performances are supported by the terrific writing throughout Avowed. I would often find myself stopping to chat with random NPCs just to see what they would say or eavesdropping on conversations as I walked by. The quality of writing isn’t reserved just for the main quest and characters either. I’ve interacted with NPCs only once during my many hours of play, yet I still remember them because of what they said. If that isn’t a sign of good writing, I don’t know what is!

Crash, Bang, Wallop?

You’re probably wondering, “Jordan, this sounds like an amazing RPG. So why haven’t you finished it?” Well, there’s one reason — the only negative aspect of my experience so far: technical issues! Unfortunately, during my review period, Avowed on PC (via Steam) had several problems.

Many of these issues were minor and could be quickly fixed with a reload, such as textures not loading properly or allowing me to walk right through them. However, the one issue I couldn’t resolve was the game crashing after several hours of play. Obsidian Entertainment is aware of this and is working on a fix, but as of writing, it hasn’t been resolved. That’s why I haven’t finished the game yet.

It’s worth mentioning that there will be two patches between this review and Avowed’s full release. The first patch will come with an early access period for premium edition owners, and the second will arrive five days later for the full release. So, there’s a good chance you may never encounter these technical issues, and I truly hope you don’t.

Let’s Talk PC Performance

What makes this even more frustrating is that the game runs quite well depending on your settings and hardware configuration, which is typical for PC gaming. I played Avowed on a PC equipped with an Intel I9-14900kf, an Nvidia RTX 4090, and an absurd amount of memory. Admittedly, it’s overkill, but it’s the only PC I have.

At 4K with the highest available settings, including Ray Tracing enabled, and no upscaling, I was seeing framerates between 40-50fps. Enabling DLSS at its Quality setting pushed those framerates to a solid 60fps. Each step down the DLSS ladder improved performance by about 20%. For example, DLSS Balanced gave me around 75fps, while DLSS Performance reached the high 90s to low 100+fps. I also tested with ray tracing off but kept the settings at 4K max, which seemed to boost all framerates, regardless of native or upscaled resolution, by 20-25% in the early game.

Again, I did play on a beast of a PC, so your experience may vary.

Avowed Is A Land Worth Living In

In the end, despite the crashing issue on my PC, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with Avowed. Obsidian has crafted another fantastic RPG that, while not doing anything revolutionary, is an absolute joy to play. It sets itself apart from similar RPGs with an abundance of combat options and meaningful dialogue choices that truly have consequences. In my opinion, Avowed is a must-play for any RPG fan, but if you’re playing on PC, it might be worth waiting for a patch to resolve the crashing issues.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Avowed was provided to us for review purposes by Xbox. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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