Avowed Half Way Review: Are the lolcow's right?

We hear from them every game release. Is this game woke? Is it DEI? According to "the woke ranking" which compiles reviews to give an overview of those types of opinions, Avowed is WOKE for "containing overtly pro-LGBTQ+ messaging and pronoun selection."

Regular reviewers are always more focused on if it elevates the genre, if the entry has good mechanics, is it enjoyable to play, and if it rises to the level of "Best in Category". Spoiler: Most games are not trying to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, it's better to just do a proven concept and make incremental upgrades to the player experience. Does Avowed do this? I'd argue it does.

First Impressions

I'll be real, tutorial island really sucked. The pacing was bad, it had very limited encounters and pigeonholed you into an ability choice that I disagree should be mandatory. In fact, the way you are required to spend your talent points for level one is atrocious and should be scrapped entirely. Isn't this supposed to be a choice based game?

BUT... The first time you hit something with your weapon, you'll understand why people are raving about this game. If you're into Action RPGs or have sunk thousands of hours into titles like the Elder Scrolls series, you'll know there has always been an issue with first person visual feedback for combat. Avowed solves this problem in an elegant and sophisticated way, and it has to be experienced first hand to really understand this element.

Otherwise, I would say that as Act One opens up, we're treated to an interesting take on a whodunit type quest that will take us throughout the city.

Angels and Demons

One of the biggest flaws of this game comes from it's wooden character performances. They are very obviously catering to the "anti-woke" crowd by not utilizing a full range of expressions, allowing for all the characters to look their absolute best as talking statues. You're hard pressed to find any character with wrinkles that aren't an obviously old person. It feels as if we're in a world that consists entirely of 25 and 65 year olds, with no in between.

The game has a huge amount of choice that will give you specific abilities and passives that assist you through the content. The way the game tells you about these changes to the narrative is less than stellar. You are confronted with a dramatic choice at the end of the Act One main quest that effects the life of one of your companions, but after the fact, no one really questions your decision making.

This could be chalked up to the rushed nature of the development cycle or the fact that this is how things work in real life as well. Your closest friends and companions are not generally going out of their way to question your decisions unless they are very outwardly wrong or harmful. Even then, it may be something they decide to keep to themselves. In this way, the game is not interrogating the player for their choices, and thus the player needs to find the self reflection on their own. This doesn't make for a good story, as many stories we find to be extremely compelling put you into this type of situation and then directly show you that your actions have consequences, not just mention it in passing.

Where Avowed shines, however, is that every bit of map exploration is extremely valuable, earning you upgrade materials, unique weapons, treasure maps, and more. In order to get the full experience, you MUST go out of your way to interact with the map and the story that exists within it. This leads to additional choices that will impact game play, unlock further quest progression, and add to the narrative.

We start to more clearly see the issues between our MC faction and the people we interact with, the relationships they have with each other, and our place within the created world. If one wants to get the best narrative experience, they should pay attention to the quests and care about their outcomes. You will be penalized for things you don't do, and rewarded when you do them right.

Qlubhouse Rating

Coming into this game fresh off an Elden Ring play through, I had high hopes for this game based on it's similar nature. I've really enjoyed the amount of hand-holding that the game does to ensure that you are rewarded for exploring the world they created. I'm confidently leaving areas knowing that I haven't missed anything.

I'd give this game a generous 8/10 rating, with the knowledge that I do have a bias toward this type of game, and that maybe other people would rate it about a 7/10. I think this game is definitely worth playing. In fact, you would be missing out on a great experience if you decided to skip it. If you need to wait for it to be on sale, do so. You'll be missing out if you don't give this one a chance.