In Avowed, I'm being absolutely bombarded by a group of skeletons. Some fire arrows at me from their bows, while others slash and bash me with their swords and shields. When a priest enters the fray who continually heals every enemy I try to take out of the picture, I quickly realize I'm going to have to do some very quick crowd control to get out of this unscathed.
At the beginning of my hands-on demo, I was given the choice of playing with one of three premade character builds: barbarian, mage, or ranger. The idea of flicking a wand as a mage in combat steered my decision, but this gaggle of bony foes put my magical skills to the test. Armed with a wand in one hand and a grimoire in the other, the latter outfits me with four different spells I can fire out. Using RT to bring up my abilities on the Xbox Series X controller, I try out an electric power that zaps multiple skeletons around me with bolts of lightning. As they momentarily fry, I jump back and throw several bombs in their direction. All the while, I constantly fire shots from my wand to whittle down the priest's health. The fight is increasingly frantic, pushing me to use everything I have in my arsenal (as well as a handful of potions). When I take one too many hits, I decide it's time to switch gears and try out the beefier barbarian.
Might and magic
To begin with, I'm pulled into a quest to find an Aedyran expedition team in a cave system, complete with some pretty impressive cavernous vistas. Accompanied by Kai, one of the main companions in Avowed, I'm immediately gleeful to discover he shares the same voice actor with Garrus Vakarin from Mass Effect, which brings a sprinkling of familiarity to an otherwise alien world.
My introduction to combat highlights stealth, with a prompt encouraging me to sneak up on a nearby lizard and stab it in the back with my Divine Thorn. As the mage, I immediately opt to take this less confrontational route, plunging the luminescent blade that extends from my hand right into the enemy.
As the barbarian, I can do the same thing, but I’m far less subtle this time. Instead, I run right up with reckless abandon and bash the creature with my two-handed club. The former approach feels far slicker, while the latter sends the small lizard flying with a satisfying thump.
I stumble upon a poor fellow by the name of Caedman who's in need of some healing. From the off, it immediately feels like an Obsidian RPG, with dialog options that allow for role-play by reflecting my chosen character’s background and strengths. For the mage, I can choose more insightful responses, while the barbarian lets me pick an option that aligns with my experiences in war and battle strategy.
As someone who's completely new to the Pillars of Eternity universe, I've been a little intimidated by the world of Eora, but some of my initial fears have been quelled thanks to a very useful feature you can use during conversations. There's an option to toggle lore keywords, which provide contextual pop-ups for key events or locations in the universe whenever they’re referenced. It’s a very welcome touch, and will hopefully help me get to grips with its story.
Chop and change
When I at first get a taste of combat as a mage, it’s hard not to draw parallels to Skyrim. While it’s similar in the sense that you can wield a weapon of your choice in either hand, there's a bit more going on, with a radial wheel that lets me send out companion commands and access potions (which also can be hotkeyed for ease).
I do give dual wielding wands a brief whirl, but they don't pack as much of a punch as I'd have liked, especially compared to the spells I can channel from a grimoire. Instead of just casting one spell depending on what I have equipped like Skyrim, I can cast four from the grimoire I have equipped from my left hand.
I found the mage trickier to master compared to the barbarian, but I did enjoy how much freedom I had to switch up my loadout for any build I create and gear it towards my preferred way to play. As a barbarian, I frequently switched between loadout from a two-handed weapon to dual-wielding an axe and sword with a single button press, and I could chop and change my weapons in my inventory at any time.
It's difficult to tell from this small slice of the game how Avowed will shape up overall, but as an RPG fan, I’m already intrigued by its fantasy world. And with plenty of freedom when it comes to what approach I want to take in and out of combat, I’m looking forward to finding the right build for me so I can face up more skeletons with ease.
GamesRadar+ is in Cologne playing the most anticipated new games of 2024, and speaking to the developers bringing them to life. For more of our hands-on previews and exclusive interviews, visit the Gamescom 2024 coverage hub.
