Avowed

Super mediocore RPG fodder. Shame because I really wanted to love this game, but everything just falls flat. Storyline is barebones, falling asleep during dialogue. Art direction seems all over the place, like there's not a solid direction the world building is following. The graphics and texture details are nice, but not enough to redeem the game.

I've played Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, multiple times, for hundreds of hours. What happened to those writers? This game's dialogue choices absolutely suck. Clearly pigeonholed. Aedyrans = bad. Colonization = bad. Absolutely worst companions in any RPG i've played. Atleast at the end with INCREDIBLY SPECIFIC choices can you defy the intention of these writers.

After reading plenty of reviews I got this on a sale, and it's... a decent enough game. It leans more into the action-adventure genre, throwing you into a world filled with treasures and secrets to discover and solve, but it doesn't feel much like a "real" place. You can't attack any friendly NPCs, nobody cares if you loot their homes or businesses, it's sad how lifeless all the towns feel... The combat isn't that great either, it feels very, I dunno, floaty and slidey? Like, your character moves so fast (especially with some +movement speed gear/buffs), that it becomes silly, you just slide from one enemy to the next... I'm not sure how playing a spellcaster feels, but melee isn't that fun, and ranged, well, it's not the best either. Not so awful as to make you quit, but not good enough to make you think "damn, I can't wait to find the next group of 6 skeletons to fight!" either. There are some choices in the game, but your companions seem way too quickly to forget and forgive whenever you do something that they are totally against. In the end, it's not a terrible game, it's mostly average with some positives and negatives, but it's worth picking up on a sale if you enjoy running around looking for treasures. If you expect a deep RPG with plenty of choices and a well-built world (Skyrim, BG3, KCD2), you won't find it here. Just know that if you don't enjoy the first 2 hours, you probably won't enjoy the rest either, so don't be afraid to hit that "Refund" button if you do decide to give it a try!

I remember being over the moon when this dropped. I was already a big fan of the Pillars of Eternity world, and I loved the Godless and their lore, so I was excited to explore more of it. I originally stopped playing when it first came out because I ran into a glitch that wouldn’t let me finish one of the quests the way I wanted to. I thought maybe the next patch would fix it, but when it didn’t, I kind of fell off. Now, over a year later, I decided to hop back in. I built a new character, looked up some recommended builds, went with a gun mage, and had a fantastic time. I cared about the choices I made, and I really enjoyed the companions. My only downside is that I wish there was more party dialogue while traveling instead of most of it happening at camp. I feel like I missed a lot because I wanted to keep moving with the story, and just standing around camp waiting for dialogue to trigger wasn’t my favorite. Otherwise, I loved the game and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Dragon Age or Fable. Definitely give this one a shot!

A game that unfortunately got caught in the crossfire of the shift in views of modern gaming. It does have its fair share of Marvel writing, particularly with the companions who I wasn't massively in love with (Kai is fun, Marius has surprising depth past the generic dwarf trope, Yatzli is beyond irritating, and Giatta is... there I guess?) But the plot and the lore drops make it worthy to be a Pillars of Eternity spinoff. It delves into some heavy themes, vengeance and forgiveness, all the while adding a genuinely intriguing new addition to the complicated world of Eora's God problem. Combat is a ton of fun, especially as a magic user which is hard to pull off. Exploration and movement is incredible, and a big reason why I stuck around. A lot of games say they reward exploration but this one truly does, even if it's just for a new view. Genuinely excited for Avowed 2 if it survives the mass purge Microsoft is doing to their game studios at the time of writing. At the very least it brings me hope for Pillars 3

This game is what RPG's should be. No bethestda slop, just pure fun and good lore

過高的遊戲售價，糟糕的遊戲體驗，摧殘你電腦的最佳化效能，滿分10分最高只能給4分。 《宣誓 Avowed》這是我近年來玩過最無聊的開放世界角色扮演遊戲，不推薦任何人購買。劇情本身毫無亮點，地圖與任務設計乏味，DEI濃度超高，能對話的NPC幾乎都是黑人好兄弟，還有很多直球的同性戀要素。這款遊戲只有戰鬥手感還可以拿出來稱讚一下。 特別是法術部分打起來很爽之外，這款遊戲可以說是沒有任何優點。黑曜石口碑已經沒救了，就連更晚發售的《天外世界2》也不太行，是否快要被微軟艱難決定了？只希望有生之年的《上古卷軸6》能沿用或精進這套戰鬥系統。

You know, I think Avowed is the final straw for me when it comes to trusting the reviews of others. I adored this game, warts and all - but I also went in with no expectations and a desire to enjoy a title for what it has to offer instead of what it's failing to emulate. I find more and more as time goes on, this seems to be where the fundamental disconnect between a game and gamers hides. Sure, it's true you can't do certain things that you can do in many other "Scrolls-like" games, such as steal or pickpocket - but it takes a Legendary Edition level of irony to complain about TES 5 rereleasing twenty times only to be mad that a different title doesn't offer the exact same experience with a shinier coat of paint. What if we focus on the areas where it excels? The world itself is absolutely gorgeous. I often found myself wondering if they deliberately leaned so hard into the mushroom theme in many areas as a kind of nod to the glory days of Morrowind. The combat by comparison is quite a bit more engaging and fun than say, Skyrim. The ways you can build your Envoy are numerous and can land you with a loadout as simple as "hit things with big stick really hard" or as weird as "raging barbarian with a wizard wand". The story will challenge you time and time again to make difficult and meaningful choices, and the world WILL push back against you no matter what route you choose, highlighting the wide array of grey area between the black and white. Your companions are nuanced and flawed, whether you love them or hate them. Plus, there is some excellent QoL elements many games of similar genres don't have, such as instantly depositing gear to camp, transmogging your gear or respeccing your entire build being doable right from the main menus, the ability to change not only your appearance but your race at camp (admittedly a race change mid game feels like it would be odd but hey, choices!) - there is just so much to appreciate about this piece. Also, in almost 150 hours, my game crashed ONE (1) time. Perhaps it was different at launch - I will never begrudge someone negatively reviewing something based on technical performance alone, considering it is far less subjective - but for me, a single malfunction of that nature in that amount of time might as well be miraculous. Now, there is one MAJOR thing I will dock it for, and ironically, it is a change that came later to address a DIFFERENT and totally reasonable issue people had: the fog of war on the map. I don't know WHO thought it was a good idea to make the map completely eliminate the FoW as soon as you covered about roughly 75% of it, but this is truly one of the worst ideas I have ever seen in an open world RPG. I understand WHY it was implemented (completionists upset about not knowing where exactly the bounds of the FoW end) but now completionists have a totally different problem: we don't know where we DIDN'T explore once you hit that threshold. This resulted in me missing out on unique pieces of gear, fast travel nodes - it's genuinely bewildering how bad of a call a map functioning like that is. In conclusion, Avowed is an incredible addition to the first person open world RPG catalogue and the only thing I am more upset about in relation to this game than the way the map functions is that I didn't get it sooner. Also I give up on trying to understand other gamers.

I really need to learn that a 70% positive rating means it's extremely likely the game is mid, at best. The opening of the game, the first conversation you have, is so bland and uninteresting (which is crazy, because it should have been very interesting, considering you just woke up after being shipwrecked), that I was just bored through the whole thing and couldn't wait to get to the point where I could move around - and then, once I COULD move around, it was just - more bland and boring. There were things to pick up here and there, but - eh, in 28 minutes of play there wasn't anything in it that made me want to play a 29th minute.

Let me start by being up front: I have a strong positive bias in favor of this game as an avid fan of the developers (Obsidian), someone who loved their previous entry in the series (PoE 2), and as someone with a passionate desire to see microtransaction-free single player games continue to be commercially viable. I also just genuinely had a delightful time playing through Avowed. With all that being said, I don’t think this game is for everyone. You need to have played at least one of the Pillars of Eternity games to make sense of the stakes in Avowed (or brushed up on a bunch of lore videos at minimum; “Mortismal Gaming” has some good ones), and it's noticeably shallower than most of Obsidian's work. Here are my pros & cons: [h3]Pros[/h3] • The environment being modified by effects (shock to activate devices, ice to form path-able surfaces on water, etc.) can be satisfying and, while limited, still neat. • The lore is rather good (though I am, as I said, quite biased in favor of this setting) • The writing is mostly between fine and excellent • All of the VA performances are genuinely above average, sometimes outstanding. (Garrus, I missed you!) • The actual gameplay loop, at least for magic, feels fun to play. Though it gets somewhat repetitive, I kept enjoying it the whole way through. • I found the overall narrative & deeper themes rich and satisfying • I feel like I got my money’s worth, with ~100 hours by the time of completion. I totally understand others who don’t feel that way, however. (No disrespect intended!) [h3]Cons[/h3] • It is [b]very[/b] noticeably unfinished. Examples include: a) Normally Obsidian games are renowned for having many different paths to progress the story. This is seldom the case here. b) Noticeably limited polish, with some areas being vastly more populated, lively, & interesting than others. This is especially striking in the parts of the main city/hub. c) Far fewer characters to speak to than you would expect (e.g. characters greet you with unique patter & are staged as though they are significant, but have nothing to say) & those that you can interact with often have much more limited dialogue trees than you would normally get in an Obsidian game. d) Marius’s ability isn’t explained and appears to be completely broken and given up on? I think it’s supposed to reveal treasure with a ping but it highlights stuff that doesn’t exist or has been picked up all the time. • Combat can be cheesed/trivialized extremely easily. The second boss you fight (the infected bear) triggers before you even enter the fighting space, so you can stand in the cavern and easily plink away at it with zero risk. You can do a version of this with many fights by simply walking out of the encounter area, with zero downside. • No interior maps for most caves/dungeons/etc • Various critical bugs in the desert region, including the terrain failing to load if you move faster than the client can keep up with you (which is shockingly easy to do). • You can’t order your companions around (beyond choosing when to toggle their abilities) in a game that revolves around cooperating with your companions!? • Companion AI also frequently launches projectiles into obstacles/walls. Meanwhile, enemy AI is frequently able to fire through rails/trees/obstacles.