Improvements Avowed Needs

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home February 28, 2025 10 Views 12 Min Read
Improvements Avowed Needs



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Summary

  • Illegal thievery should have consequences to add life and challenge to Avowed’s world.
  • Progression needs better loot variety to prevent gameplay from feeling stagnant and repetitive.
  • Avowed could benefit from interactive NPCs, faster companion collection, and a truly open world design.

Avowed is an alright game, but for its price point, it’s debatable whether or not it’s actually a stellar game (with a lot of people pointing towards ‘no’.) To rectify this issue, it’s worth looking at the game and talking about what would actually make it a great game.

Avowed skeleton mascot against the backdrop of the afterlife of white smoke and bright lights with floating stones in the background.

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Some issues in Avowed seem relatively small, but they have huge impacts, often breaking immersion or making the exploration feel very dull. Sometimes you don’t need to overhaul an entire game – all you need are a few adjustments to make the world truly come to life and become immersive and fun.

10

Illegal Thievery

Give Us Consequences

Avowed, Kai prepared for a fight, with his gun aimed, ready to fire.

This little nitpick might seem inconsequential at first, but the lack of illegal thievery just makes Avowed feel a bit like a dead world you can kick around for your own amusement. There’s no point to sneaking around, you can’t get in trouble no matter what you do, and everyone just lets you do whatever you want – even if you’re stealing right in front of them.

Suddenly, there is no personal challenge to steal great loot right out from underneath some noble’s nose. The guards hold no threat over you when they just let you do whatever you want and let you get away with it. Making thievery illegal not only adds more life to the world, but it also makes it more immersive and believable.

9

Progressively Better Loot

Level One Items Should Not Last You Until The End Of The Game

Avowed, Yatzli in a defensive stance, ready to fight a wooden tree-like enemy in the foreground.

Yes, there is some great loot in Avowed, but it feels pretty stagnant once you reach a certain point. No matter how far you get in the game, so long as you’re regularly upgrading what you do have, you’re not really going to start finding better loot.

You might run into legendary items here and there, but not nearly enough to claim that exploring dungeons and taking on various side quests for Unique items is worth it. When you can just upgrade whatever you had at the beginning, it makes the game feel like you’re grinding and mindlessly wandering looking for upgrade materials to pick, rather than being rewarded for your exploration.

8

Lively NPCs And Towns

Let Them Do Things

Avowed, Sargamis standing with his arms behind his back, looking at the player with his construct in the background.

Frankly, the NPCs in the Living Lands are incredibly boring and feel lifeless. You may interact with them once for a side quest, but after that, they just kind of… stand there. Very rarely do they actually say something unless you can interact with them for some minor story adjustments or references.

Putting lively NPCs into the game, allowing them to do things or simply stroll around, would go a long way to making the various towns in the Living Lands feel so much more alive.

7

In-Game Appearance Changes

Just One Mirror, Please

Avowed, the godlike sleeping at camp while being spoken to by the voice.

This is such a small change, but it drastically improves the quality of life of the game, especially because you do see your character’s face so often – regardless of whether or not you’re playing in first person or third person. It’s really easy to design a character that you think you like, only to realize that you actually hate how they look several hours later.

Avowed, the item images for the Ring of Prosperity's Fortune, Ranga's Clarity, and the Berserker Ring over a blurred background of the Emerald Stair.

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Adding in a mirror at your camp or perhaps a trader you can go and pay in one of the various towns would be a huge improvement. Avowed has a really good character creator, and being able to adjust your character’s appearance, add scars, or even make your godlike features go from the more minimalist ones to the larger ones would add so much more fun for people who really like to roleplay.

6

Truly Open World

So Few Accessible Areas

Avowed, a sunny landscape overlooking the town of Paradis.

Bewteen the different acts of Avowed, you can travel back and forth between the areas, but the game isn’t truly an open world. There are defined areas that you can be in, but when you look at the larger map of the Living Lands, there’s so much that you just can’t access.

It truly makes what you can explore feel so pitiful in comparison. The main story only needs to progress through a few areas, but by opening up the map, and decorating it with more great side quests, puzzles, dungeons, and ruins that can be explored, Avowed could gain so much more play time and feel so much more immersive.

5

Better Dialogue

Currently, It’s So Dull

Avowed, people reaching for the sky after learning that their goddess abandoned them.

Avowed has some good and memorable lines, but more often than not, it just feels like lifeless lore-dumping. Sometimes companions and NPCs won’t even say anything that feels meaningful and just pads for time.

On more than a few occasions, it doesn’t even feel like the things you say as the Envoy make an impact on NPC dialogue. By implementing better dialogue that’s more reactive, filled with better and stronger personality, and has a genuine flair that makes the lore interesting to listen to, Avowed could become so much better and more enjoyable.

4

Character Factions And Reputation System

Let Us Decide Our Reputation And Allies

Avowed, a former godlike surrounded by elders and advsiors.

Everyone loves the Envoys in Avowed and earning everyone’s favor is way too easy. By having an inbuilt reputation system and distinct factions that you can ally yourself with, it can make your choices seem all the more impactful.

If you decide to ally yourself with the Rebels, have that reflect with the Empire-aligned NPCs by having them call you a traitor or something of the sort. Building in a Reputation System alongside this also works incredibly well, as it can make some factions love you while others hate you – Obsidian Entertainment knows how to make factions and reputation systems, as is apparent in some of its other games.

3

Faster Companion Collection

You Either Hate Them Or Never Want To Let Them Leave

Avowed, Giatta preparing to fight an orc enemy who is weilding a club and standing behind some rubble.

The first two companions you get in Avowed, Marius and Kai, arrive really quickly. You’re going to have them in your party for a while, with absolutely no chance of swapping them out with anyone else – which means if you hate them, you’re going to have a really hard time liking the game.

Avowed, Featured Image, the Thirdborn Gloves, Windwalker Boots, and Ninagauth's Gruesome Grasp on a blurred background of Paradis.

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However, if you love them, you’re going to get overly attached to them, to the point where you might not want to use the other companions when you get them several hours later. Giving players a chance to get their companions faster not only means that they get to experiment with the companions, their abilities, and how they pair together more, but it also means that players have a chance to better develop attachments to them and to get to know them better (e.g. better companion stories).

2

Interactive World

Not Just Set Interactions, Please

Avowed, a grizzly bear enemy covered in Dreamscourge mushrooms.

The only thing you can really interact with in the Living Lands are the things that are set for you to interact with – be that crates and boxes or NPCs. You can’t attack anything besides what the game deems appropriate for you to attack, you can’t read anything besides what the game wants you to read, and you can’t loot anything besides what the game determines to be appropriate for you to loot.

This ‘set interaction’ mechanic makes the world feel really stiff and unnatural. By making the world more interactive, giving players the option to dig through every crate and basket, making it so you can attack NPCs, and loading up shelves with books that players can actually read (even if they happen to be repeats), and more, it makes everything feel more immersive.

1

Enemy Respawns

Not Every Enemy Needs To Come Back… Just Some Of Them

Avowed, an enemy braced for combat while hissing.

Once you kill an enemy in Avowed – even the ones that don’t have much of a challenge and just fill up the landscape – never come back and nothing ever takes their place. It makes traveling through areas again and attempting to grind for materials incredibly frustrating.

The important enemies, like bosses or the multitude of bounty-based enemies, don’t need to respawn but… why can’t the Xaurip Camps respawn? Or why can’t more Xaurips move into those pre-built encampments? It would do a lot to make the world feel alive and make it fun to explore and travel through on foot.

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