Games to look forward to in 2025: Avowed
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Fun combat, breezy banter and colourful characters promise to make this role playing game from Obsidian a must-play for fans of Skyrim. There was a long-running joke that Bethesda’s Skyrim had become so ubiquitous that it would run on anything. Starting life on the humble Xbox 360, it found its way on to Nintendo Switch, virtual reality headsets, PS5 and even Amazon’s Alexa. After more than 13 years, its sequel is still nowhere to be seen, so role playing game veterans Obsidian are offering fans an alternative in the form of Avowed.
![[Refreshingly jovial … Avowed.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6d90bc1a068dee1e3f420b8e0b9fe9aa0621e434/0_0_3840_2160/master/3840.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
I’m taken aback by just how fun and breezy it is, given that it has been spun off the somewhat stuffier computer RPG Pillars of Eternity. Entering the game’s colour-saturated world, Eora, I explore a luscious overgrown cavern with my alarmingly athletic mage, and find myself leaping across chasms and climbing rock faces without breaking a sweat.
Where Skyrim’s dull colour palette and clunky combat betray its 2011 origins, Avowed’s kineticism and vibrance make first-person spellcasting feel fun. As I unleash bursts of acid at a horde of charging skeletons or fling a barrage of ice missiles at an apocalyptic cult, chopping and changing between spells is as easy as holding down a trigger and pressing a button, and each attack is animated in an explosion of light and colour.
“I think players are going to be really pleased with how fun the combat feels, moment to moment,” says game director Carrie Patel. “We wanted to take the momentum and sense of impact from more action-forward games, and add that player-driven progression and choice from our RPG roots.”.
