Avowed Review Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think So Far

The Avowed reviews have landed! Xbox's huge first-party release arrives in early access form today, so a whole bunch of critics have been sharing their impressions of the full game - the majority of which have been very positive!

Below, we've gathered up some of these early reviews to give you an idea of what to expect, and we've included our own Pure Xbox review of Avowed in which we gave the game an "Great" 8/10 score. We're loving it right now!

VG247 (5/5)

"That’s what Avowed is: strong storytelling, great combat, lovely visuals, and utterly charming. It’s not going to light everyone’s hair on fire, but that’s fine - because I know for a certain subset of people - refined people of taste, if you ask me - Avowed will enjoy cult classic status. It doesn’t necessarily push the envelope, but nor does it need to. It’s exactly what it needs to be."

Inverse (9/10)

"It’s clear Obsidian once again prioritized quality over quantity. That’s not to say Avowed is a small game, as I still have plenty of side content to get to after two weeks of playing. But everything it presents feels tailored towards making the experience as fun as possible. Avowed is a concise and tightly designed RPG that never sacrifices the ambition of its grand adventure."

Pure Xbox (8/10)

"Pillars fans looking for the sort of depth that comes with that series will need to adjust expectations accordingly, as this is a breezy, spunky, fight-fuelled affair that's more about creating cool loadouts and finding treasure than it is falling in love with an NPC or spending ten hours in your inventory at a time. Come for the fast-paced fights, colourful environs and excellent exploration, and you'll have a great time."

VGC (4/5)

"Avowed is a solid action RPG with an entertaining script, satisfying combat and impressively detailed environments. The inability to clean up side quests after the main story is beaten can be frustrating, but take your time with it and enjoy everything it has to offer, and you'll find plenty of memorable moments."

IGN (7/10)

"With awesome worldbuilding and stellar character writing, Avowed reminds me why I fell in love with Obsidian’s RPGs in the first place. However, the bigger picture is that it plays it quite safe, with a by-the-numbers fantasy adventure that’s more familiar than evolutionary, and there’s bear-ly any enemy variety to keep its swords-and-sorcery battles interesting for long."

TheGamer (3/5)

"Avowed is a valiant attempt at fantasy you can play your way, but while it delivers well enough with combat, the narrative just isn’t there. Too ambitious in what it wants to do, it falls way short. It’s a very mediocre version of the masterpiece it tries to be, but it’s also a solid version of Just Another Video Game. The story goes nowhere and all ends the same way, but maybe the journey is just about worth it."

Looking at the Metacritic score, Avowed is sitting on an average of around 80 as things stand, which is a very decent result for Xbox and Obsidian. The OpenCritic average is actually a little higher at 82 as well.

As mentioned, you can played Avowed starting today on Xbox and PC with the Premium Edition or Premium Upgrade, or you can wait until February 18th when it becomes available via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.