Avowed was ignored – it is a double-A blast of gaming sunshine nicely price attempting on PS5

I really feel for Avowed. It’s a bit like an athlete that goes to an Olympics and makes it to a last however would not place. It’s a terrific achievement, successful by many individuals’s requirements, however historical past would not care.

And Avowed appeared to be successful when it got here out a yr in the past. It had an even bigger second than I anticipated it to, than many individuals anticipated it to, as a result of there have been doubts about Obsidian’s fantasy sport earlier than it arrived. But when it bought right here and folks performed it, all of us appeared pleasantly shocked. I wrote virtually precisely that in my Avowed assessment: “It’s one of this year’s most pleasant surprises,” I mentioned. Yet right here we’re a yr on, because the PlayStation 5 model arrives, and we appear to be asking ourselves the identical factor: is Avowed price our time?

I get it. Last yr was robust for a role-playing sport as a result of there was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and it bewitched everybody and devoured up all of the awards. It vacuumed the air out of the room. And even when there wasn’t Clair Obscur, there was Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, one other large hitter, and there was Oblivion: Remastered and Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. There was lots in or round that RPG house. Even Obsidian, developer of Avowed, launched one other RPG in The Outer Worlds 2 – there’s nothing like tangentially competing with your self. It meant that 2025 was so busy that when it got here time to replicate upon it, Avowed was ignored – it solely simply squeaked into our ‘greatest video games of 2025’ checklist.

It’s a disgrace as a result of we all know the sport is sweet, and it is unfair that Avowed, regardless of success, appears destined for all times as an underdog. Though in one other manner, it helps reframe Avowed in what I feel is a extra interesting manner, as a result of I consider it is a good instance of a contemporary double-A sport – greater than most, certain, but in addition with an deliberately restricted scope in comparison with your mega-blockbusters. Avowed is not fairly on the top-end and neither is it anyplace close to the underside. If I’m being actually unkind, I’d say it was dated to take a look at and stiff in animation. But it would not matter in a double-A sport, as a result of what a double-A sport lacks in seems to be, it normally makes up for in character.

This is not meant as an insult Avowed in any manner. There are loads of moments the place the sport is able to wowing with magnificence, notably environmentally, as you discover its fantasy land that is been seemingly doused in psychedelic-laced Miracle Grow. Exuberantly colored crops of colossal proportion combat for management of the sunshine, overlapping one another whereas delightfully framing your view. It’s a trippy sort of paradise, and it is a refreshing sight in a market clogged by melancholic grimdark fantasy. And lengthen that thought slightly bit and also you get on the sport’s character itself.

This is a fantasy role-playing sport that is admirably clear-headed about what it’s. Avowed is escapism and journey. It is romping and clambering round a paradisiacal island whereas thumping hordes of baddies and leaping off excessive ledges into small swimming pools (shout-out to whichever developer hand positioned these). The sport is not sophisticated. There’s no convoluted social sport to play, little or no tactical mastery to make use of, and little to gradual you down or get in your manner. It’s a sport about doing. There’s no style subversion, no po-faced advanced that means between the strains, no heavy emotional burden. Avowed is a sport in regards to the easy pleasures of play.

That doesn’t suggest it is dumb – please do not get that impression. Avowed may not have the courting sport that is in, say, Baldur’s Gate 3, however that does not imply you possibly can’t develop near companions, or that they do not have deep and significant storylines. Kai particularly, the fish-faced fellow from the promo photos, has a very touching story to inform, and I believed Yatzli, the small furry woman, was hilarious. There’s humour right here, a variety of it. And whereas there is not any heavy tactical facet to the sport, there’s loads of theorycrafting in the way you combine and match weapons and talents in freeform fight and customisation. And the realisation of fight, the physicality of it, is large. There’s heft and wallop, and whenever you begin combining freezing magic with hammer blows, say, techniques converge in splendidly damaging methods.

Avowed is a sport preoccupied with enjoyable, I feel, and with play, maybe as a sport ought to be. Even exploring the sport’s world, which is damaged right into a handful of areas, there is a sense you are exploring purposefully designed playgrounds that are deliberately populated with climbing frames and hidey holes masking subterranean worlds – or eccentric NPCs ready to regale you with nonsensery. You can virtually really feel the designer’s eyes on you wherever you go, and I get pleasure from that, I discover it reassuring. Adventure appears to be in every single place.

This is a great distance of claiming do not overlook Avowed once more – it deserves greater than that, and sure it’s completely price your time. And a yr has handled the sport nicely. There are new skills to play with, new races to play as, a brand new weapon sort, a brand new sport plus choice, a photograph mode, and myriad tweaks and fixes. It’s the kind of stuff I’m sore about not being within the sport after I performed it – not that it’s going to make a basic distinction, however nonetheless, these are the grace notes and prospers and expanded choices I respect. In quick, Avowed is healthier than it as soon as was, and it was already higher than I feel most individuals give it credit score for.

Look, February is a grim month the place I reside, chilly and depressing and dreary, and that is precisely what Avowed will not be. This is a a lot wanted dose of gaming sunshine. It’s solely a disgrace there aren’t extra video games prefer it.