Avowed

Not a Skyrim killer...but an excellent attempt!

This game is much easier to enjoy and praise once you find out that it was made by Obsidian's B-Team, who were essentially all college students studying game development. So for what is essentially the teams first proper game, it's absolutely great. So look at from that perspective before you decide to dogpile a game for no reason

This will be my last Obsidian purchase. Everytime I give them a try I am met with the same result- over annoying side characters that won't leave, forced pairing with companions that do literally nothing for the fight, slow motion cut frames during a fight that take you out of it, loot that is sub par at best, and overall just VERY clunky fight gameplay.

Крутая игра

This game is great but they don't allow you to kill Ryngrim

A monotonous drag that could have been so much more! The Story is just a typical run of the mill fantasy narrative that doesn't shape up to be anything special. I do think however that for Pillars of Eternity fans, they're going to have a great time with the amount of lore that this game has on offer. The characters are really bland and offer little to no importance to the overall experience. There is some great voice acting here, but the writing is basically an exposition dump that is insistent on pushing the lore of this world which while really interesting should not be shoved down my throat each conversation. The Setting of the Living Lands and the level design is easily one of the strongest aspects of this title with the game taking place in large open hubs that allow for loads of detail and exploration which was a treat to experience. I was really surprised with how well crafted areas were and the secrets that were discoverable. Visually, its gorgeous. Performance was solid for the most part with there maybe being the little hint of frame drop here and there, but I didn't run into any bugs or glitches. The Art Direction is honestly breath taking with some areas being pieces of art which had me just stop and stare. Sound and Audio were decent with the soundtrack being a typical fantasy vibe and the Audio having a nice impact when it comes to combat and magic. In terms of Gameplay, starts off strong, but gets real repetitive really quick. Combat feels really nice, especially when it comes to wands and magic making it clear that this experience was focused on that primarily with updates improving the basic fighter and ranger classes. While it does feel good to attack enemies, it gets old really quick as there really isn't much variation and enemies themselves having little to no change on how they attack players. I appreciate that the stats for this game and the Pillars series is all made from scratch (which is really impressive), but it doesn't really feel like my character had real major improvements apart from maybe learning a new spell. Finally, the quest design is just boring. It never does anything interesting with some maybe having a choice you can make (mainly from what I've played in the beginning) but the majority being fetch quests. Overall, Avowed was just so tedious and repetitive that it was hard to finish the game. While I do think that the first major area was really well crafted and the best side of the experience, it's clear to see that they couldn't keep up the momentum and ultimately became tiring!

I want to love this game, and I'm sure I would if it was so damn crash-happy

An excellent RPG with some amazing level design, excellent world building (especially for POE heads). The narrative as a whole is great but gets a bit dry. The quests range from decent to really great, with some very nice reactivity within the world, and the orgainc way you can stumble onto them is really well done. The combat is decent, punchy and fast but gets a bit samey as the game goes along but still not really the main draw for me. Love the art direction of the living lands and the game looks gorgeous throughout.