About

Avowed is an action role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. The game shares its universe with Pillars of Eternity, with the player assuming the role of the Envoy of the Emperor tasked with investigating a mysterious plague. The game was released in February 2025 to generally positive reviews. Following its release, the game has frequently been negatively compared against The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in a number of viral social media posts despite Obsidian's insistence that the game was not planned to be similar to Skyrim.

History

On July 23rd, 2020, American video game studio Obsidian Entertainment, the developer of Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds among other games, announced^[1] Avowed, its upcoming first-person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora (announcement post shown below).

AvowedObsidian Entertainment's next epic, first-person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora. pic.twitter.com/htN8dMlKQ1

— Obsidian (@Obsidian) July 23, 2020

On February 13th, 2025, Avowed was released in early early access for Windows and Xbox for those who purchased a premium edition, with the full release following five days later on February 18th, 2025.^[2] On February 13th, the launch trailer for the game premiered on YouTube,^[3] garnering over 128,000 views in seven days (shown below).

Reception

The game received generally favorable reviews from critics and mixed to positive reviews from audiences. As of February 21st, on Metacritic,^[4] the game had an 80 average critic score based on over 70 reviews and a 6.7 average user score based on over 620 reviews. On OpenCritic,^[5] the game had a critic average of 81, and a player rating of 80. On Steam,^[6]the game had a "Mostly positive" rating with 79 percent of player reviews being favorable.

Online Reactions

On social media, the game has frequently been compared against The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a 2011 video game in the fantasy RPG genre developed by Bethesda Softworks, despite Avowed's director Carrie Patel repeatedly pushing against comparisons to the game and stating that it was closer to the studio's previous title The Outer Worlds.^[7]

For example, on February 13th, 2025, X^[8] user @MattJonesGames posted a clip comparing the game to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout installments, commenting, "We were expecting the next Skyrim, but got less than Daggerfall". The post received over a million views, 400 reposts, and 850 likes in one week. On February 15th, 2025, X^[9] user quoted the post, clarifying that Obsidian had repeatedly stated that the game was not going going to be like Skyrim. The post (shown below) gained over 250 reposts and 4,300 likes in six days.

Obsidian – “Avowed will not be like Skyrim”Man on the internet who can’t read – “We expected Skyrim!”. https://t.co/bGmeVoUHYP

— Autumn 🦌 (@DoeEyedAutumn) February 15, 2025

On February 14th, 20255, X^[10] user @Julia_CaSsian posted a "Toddroll": meme that gained over 5.7 million views, 5,400 reposts, and 78,000 likes in one week (shown below).

I found a crazy bug in Avowed guys pic.twitter.com/tOmZbYhbni

— Julia (@Julia_CaSsian) February 15, 2025

Search Interest

External References