Avowed (PC Game Pass)
Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good does far outweigh the bad, yet the bad could so easily have been avoided.
Anyway, it took me 60 hours. I must have missed a few side quests, yet I still hit the level cap right as I entered the final scene. Many journalists have said that you won't get near the level cap, but we all know that games journalists can't play games for shit and can be safely ignored. Best of all, I had no bugs and crashes for the entire game. It ran locked the frame rate to 60 fps and had no performance problems, I set all settings to maximum, but turned Ray Tracing off because I couldn't see any difference except lowered frame rate. The game looks okay, great view distance- but there are still much better-looking games. Overall, though, the game is technically fine.
The best part of Avowed is the first-person melee combat. I don't believe that any first-person party-based RPG has done combat better than this. Normally I play games like this with spell casters, and I began that way at first with Avowed. Soon I was enjoying the melee combat so much more that I re-specced and went full melee, with just a gun as ranged backup when needed. This is a real RPG in that, even at level 30, I only had a tiny fraction of the three ability trees. This defined the way I played- this is total stark contrast to all of the modern action-adventure games that masquerade as RPG's like the Horizon Zero Dawn games where you hit the level cap halfway through the games and everyone has all the abilities and exactly the same character. In Avowed you character and mine will be different and reflect the way we play. I really like this.
The world design is also quite good...not huge and aimless like a Bethesda game (though I do like to play that sort of game too). Here the areas are smaller and more focused, but still open, like in The Outer Worlds- but better. It's all more vertical than expected, but the traversal system works well enough.
I really enjoyed the actual game play of Avowed as above. If the above stuff is what you value most in a game, as I do, then you will enjoy Avowed most likely. The middling aspect of the game is the story. Some people will like it, but for me it's too full of God Bothering stuff- just like the Pillars of Eternity games that came before. Oh yeah, this is a game set in the same world as Pillars of Eternity, I forgot to mention that, and it isn't advertised all that overtly. Anyway, story is one of my lowest measuring sticks in RPG's, so having a middle of the road story isn't a big deal for me.
Then we get to the bad part. The part that has all the games journalists calling everyone "Chuds". Unfortunately, the Chuds have a point. Using simple racial and gender profiling, you can immediately tell what every character is the minute you see them. Evey position of power in Avowed is held by a strong modern woman trying her hardest to do the best she can. When a person in power is male...he's going to be either a bad guy or a weak "soy boi'. Of course your gay party member is a lovely and wonderful person, because how else can you portray a gay person in a modern western game? It's makes everything so boring and predictable, and I hate this shit. Although in a Freudian way, this has just occurred to me, that since the world is totally going to shit in Avowed...it seems that all of those strong modern women aren't doing a very good job! So maybe they are the bad people after all? Anyway, for questioning this I'm told that I am a Chud, racist and misogynist...but games are luxury items bought with disposable income, and I (and anyone) can choose to buy or not buy a game based upon any reasons they choose- even reasons you classify as "ist". I just want games to be normal again, and for every race and gender and sexual preference to get their fair turn at being shits- and I should be allowed to tell them so. Rant over. I'm just a Chud though, I know.
Anyway, Game Pass is a great way to play this.
Post edited March 10, 2025 by CMOT70
