We’ve been burned before. Pillars of Eternity was brilliant but cramped. The Outer Worlds had charm for days but lacked lungs. Every time Obsidian teased “our open-world fantasy RPG,” the gaming public crossed its fingers, held its breath, and prepared for disappointment. Then Avowed booted up, and fifteen minutes in I realized I hadn’t taken a note – I was too busy wandering off the critical path to investigate a glowing mushroom that turned out to be a sentient merchant who only accepted memories as currency. By hour five I’d forgotten review deadlines existed.
This is Skyrim’s fantasy made literate. The world of Eora never felt this alive in isometric form; now it breathes in first-person, with faction politics that shift based on dialogue choices you made forty hours earlier in a completely different zone. Magic isn’t just a combat tool – it’s a negotiation tactic, a lockpicking method, even a flirting language. One companion romance requires you to master an entire school of illusion just to understand her love letters. Another companion will permanently leave the party if your character ever casts mind-control magic, even on enemies.
Combat lands in the sweet spot between Skyrim’s weightless hack-and-slash and Kingdom Come’s brutal realism. Dual-wielding a grimoire in one hand and a flintlock pistol in the other feels exactly as ridiculous and empowering as it should. The “Godkiller” weapons – legendary artifacts that literally rewrite reality when equipped – come with downsides so severe most players stash them after one use. I watched a speedrunner accidentally erase an entire town from existence trying to sequence-break a late-game dungeon.
Obsidian’s writing shines brightest in the quiet moments. A random NPC mourning his dead wife can, six quests later, become the linchpin of a civil war. The game tracks over 3,000 persistent NPCs, and yes, you can actually kill almost all of them. The difference is that Avowed makes you feel the weight of every corpse. After fifteen years of waiting, Obsidian didn’t just make their Skyrim. They made the Skyrim we pretended the original was all those years ago.
