Avowed’s Combat Needs To Be Faster

Avowed has some pretty nifty skill trees. There are three in total, one for each main ‘class’ of Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard, but you’re not locked into any and are encouraged to mix and match, while you also get the Godlike tree that gives you more abilities for progressing the game and finding the Ancient Memories. But when you look at some of the skills individually, they’re a little strange.

First off, there’s the fact that buying spells is mostly a waste of time when you can get them in grimoires, but the grimoire skill itself needs to be levelled up for these spells to activate. However, the complexity around magic is worth it when you see the final results. They can, quite literally, let you work miracles. You also can’t parry (not in a way that will do anything effective, at least) without the skill, despite this being a fairly basic combat element. Then, at Level 10, you finally unlock the skill to switch weapons.

Weapon Switching Is Too Slow In Avowed

Now, to be fair, you can switch weapons before you unlock this skill, as long as you don’t mind getting up to put the kettle on while you wait for your Envoy to slide their wand into their hip holster and grab the sword from their back. My typical loadout was pretty consistent throughout Avowed, though the specific weapon changed. My biggest, hardest hitting weapon in one slot, and my wand and either a grimoire or reach weapon like a spear in the other slot. In theory, this gave me a way to fight whatever the distance. In theory.

From range, I had my wand and a few spells, which I could fire off much faster than a gun or bow, making up for the lack of power behind each bolt. When I was rushed, I could jab with my spear or cast melee-esque spells like Fan of Flames, and when I wanted to take the fight to them, I grabbed my massive sword or hammer and swung like heck. All three of these tactics worked in isolation, but combining them was the issue.

Without the Quick Switch skill, going from wand to big melee thing leaves you standing face to face with enemies in battle just waiting to be pulverised. It takes an age to pull the weapon from off your back, and if you start trying to attack – as you will when a xaurip bandit readies to carve you open – the switch is cancelled and you’re now pew pew pewing from a couple of inches away with that little wand of yours.

I understand part of this is realism, that switching weapons is a tactical decision whose timings must be accounted for, but did you not read the article I linked above about casting magic spells at will? Combat in Avowed is not about realism, it’s about power, and the aching slowness of switching weapons denies you that power. Making it a skill underlines this – things could be faster, but they aren’t.

Avowed’s Combat Is Less Charming Than It Is Dated

There are a few skills like that in Avowed. When you add them all up, you don’t feel superhuman, you feel like this is how things should have been at the start of the game. The fact Quick Switch has a secondary skill point you can waste in it almost feels insulting, though this doesn’t give you even faster switching – which would feel extraordinary and therefore worth it – but instead means arquebuses reload while not in use. I kind of understand that being a perk, but mostly I think that’s just how video games work.

My colleague James Troughton has written in praise of Avowed’s combat, pointing to the way it uses the foundations of The Elder Scrolls but elevates them in a way Skyrim couldn’t – in part because of the magic, which is undoubtedly great, and in part because of the dodging, which is a standard function in most other combat-based games where it’s often not also tied to stamina used to swing weapons leaving you immobile and vulnerable for engaging with its systems. It’s the praise every game yearns for: better combat than a game from 2011 infamous for bad combat.

It feels like the stamina and slow switching and necessity to spend skill points are about keeping you in check, but I don’t see why the game does that when the basic combat mechanics don’t change much apart from giving you more spells, and it’s still of a wonky ‘swing and see what you hit’ mould as opposed to a more focused, combat-heavy design. On its own, that’s fine, especially with magic, but then why make life harder for yourself? You’ve given me a big sword and won’t let me swing it. What’s the point of that?

OpenCritic

Top Critic Rating:
81/100

Released

February 18, 2025