Avowed

I picked this up on sale because I love fantasy RPGs, and this really seemed like an ARPG with the bones of a CRPG. Dialogue trees, a long deep story, a fully realized world... I was not disappointed. I had heard negative things about this game, such as poor dialogue, and I have to say I feel this might have been a bit of a mass hallucination. Maybe people didn't give the game a chance for some reason? I went in completely unspoiled, completely blind and found a beautiful world. I understand that "weird" fantasy might not be for everyone, and the game is definitely weird. It is a world of color, and mushrooms, guns and spellsplinging, a break from the over reliance on LOTR derived trops (though they are still present). I have never played pillars of eternity, but from what I can tell from the in game glossary pillars fans will find much to appreciate in the story. I got this on sale because I was on the fence due to some negative reviews, but knowing what I know now I would recommend it to anyone who wants an action RPG they can really sink there teeth into. A great game to play between college semesters when you have the time to explore its very expansive world. On a few specific points: Companions: The companions are great, especially Kai the first one. They all have good pacing in the time it takes for them to open up to you and unlike many RPGs it doesn't feel like there is a "drought" of character development in the latter half. The characters have TONS of dialogue for every choice in every quest, and it was a breath of fresh air compared to some RPGs where your characters become very flat at the end because their stories are "wrapped up" and they stop asking you questions or interacting with you. This party is small, but deep. Additionally, if you are just idling in camp there seems to an almost bottomless amount of companion dialogues to experience from friendly banter to backstory building emotional melodrama. I would say everyone but Yatzli has more going on than whats on the surface. Yatzli annoys some people, maybe the "wine aunt" personality just doesn't appeal to a lot of gamers. RPG mechanics: Surprising number of options from a simple system. There are plenty of ways to either focus all in on one playstyle or mix and match options. I played a gunslinging shock mage. One really nice thing is that ANY unique item you find in the game can be upgraded all the way through the end of the game. This means loot in the first area is just as relevant as the last area which is great. The downside of this is that anything that isnt a unique reward is just stuff to be sold off, so only the Unique loot is very exciting. Traversal and Map Design: The game world is easily the best part of this game. Not only are there beautiful with some amazing views where you can see the map sprawling into the distance, but they make good use of verticality and the games parkour/mantle system. There are so many secrets and hidden chests around its almost like an entire other game to itself. I spent 2 hours in the first city just exploring every nook and cranny, finding all the hidden loot and listening to the well written NPC dialogue that really fleshes out the world. A really nice diversity of environment types too. I almost wish Dawnshore wasn't the first zone because its the most grounded and "generic" fantasy of all of them. If people don't make it past the first area I think some might not realize just how diverse the zones in this game are. There is some level of repeated assets, the game makes HEAVY use of glowing mushrooms plastered over everything, this is the Living (mushroom) Lands after all. But I would see it as doing a lot with a little, rather than laziness. Additionally the mushrooms and coral aesthetics kind of weave through all the zones so its sort of a unifying "mushroom-punk" aesthetic. Themes: The game deals a lot with the themes of colonialism and offers you a few ways to approach this. Your player character is from Aedyr, an expansive empire who is trying to make inroads into the living lands to exploit them economically. This conflicts with the frontier free spirit of the territory, made up of cast offs, runaways and refugees from all over the world. This creates a melting pot, maritime series of city states who aren't eager to experience the military muscle of a bigger empire. As the envoy, you have a decent amount of authority to influence Aedyr's presence as cooperative and helpful or opportunistic and militaristic. The companions are all locals, so they will generally have some friction with you as you represent the power causing a lot of problems in the region. This is very engaging to me from a story telling perspective, and I think players who want to be forceful or nice will get a lot out of this. The other layer is that of man versus nature, but I think it would hard to explain those ideas without major spoilers, but it also ties in to the colonial aspect.