Preview: Avowed bewitched us during a presentation

This demo, organized for Paris Games Week on the same build that Gamescom 2024, you may already be familiar with through the writings of our colleagues. But let me share my personal experience. Avowed only revealed here a secondary quest adjusted for the occasion. The enemies were relatively weak (except during the boss fight), our avatar was rather well built. I could choose between the barbarian, the wizard and the ranger; not very fond of Harry Potter, but very favorable to complex characters, I quickly turned to the magician and his magic wand.

Ses magic wands, I should add. Because if comparisons with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim abound in the trailer comments section, Avowed enjoys shaking up our preconceptions. To build a wizard, for example, simply upgrade the relevant stats then equip a wand in the right hand and an arcane tome in the left hand; the wand defines basic attacks (as well as possible passive bonuses), the tome defines our active abilities. And we can exchange with another loadout at any time. You can also wield two wands at once if you feel like it. Here, one volume was rather versatile, with four different elemental spells, while the second volume mainly allowed you to summon arcane scepters and spears with magical properties to fight in close combat. Rather original, you will agree.

• Also read | Our interview with Carrie Patel and Berto Ritger, creators of Avowed

Avowed indeed promises great playful freedom, and this is discovered quite quickly in the proposed secondary quest. We explore ruins discovered in the Living Lands in pursuit of a settler expedition. If we do discover some traces of the soldiers sent, it is above all the ascetic Sargamis, descendant of the hated god Eothas, who awaits us in a small temple of odds and ends. We quickly learn that a holy relic is found in the depths of the ruins, that our fellow settlers were looking for said relic, and that friend (or enemy?) Sargamis would very much like to obtain this sacred artifact for his own projects, notably to complete a automaton statue of his god. The veterans of Pillars of Eternity will have reacted strongly to the mention of Eothas; We will avoid specifying why, just to preserve the surprise for newbies, but let us say that the encounter is far from trivial.

The structure of this small dungeon turns out to be relatively classic: we go down until we find the relic by defeating enemies, a pseudo-boss fight drains us of some health potions, then we go back up to Sargamis via an alternative path – here , in this case, a landslide blocked our access route for the theatricality. Avowed always reminds Skyrim in his way of approaching spaces, where you can climb lots of things without much interest, but above all poke around in the corners to unearth thick dusty volumes listing both ancient poems and the recipe for the perfect blanquette of veal. Chests punctuate our discovery of the place. In the context of this demo, it is difficult to judge the relevance of the lootyou can imagine.

Failing to play a completely new score, Avowed defends itself rather well in the genre, especially thanks to the freedom of approach to combat with good systemic interactions. In the sunken caverns of the Living Islands, using lightning spells can often clear waves of enemies while they are in the numerous puddles. Handling the elements also allows you to unlock certain secret passages; Obsidian plays it safe with an icon system that quickly indicates which element to use for a given interaction. It is especially practical to remind us that our companion also knows spells, and that he can therefore help us. A radial menu allows you to give some orders to your companion, which is very useful in combat, where you can easily get overwhelmed otherwise – especially when you are a frail mage incapable of blocking attacks.

We can choose to completely ignore Sargamis and his relic, or follow his religious delusion by bringing him his divine bone fragment. As is often the case with Obsidian, the conclusion can be either a duel to the death or a warm handshake depending on the dialogue options chosen, which partially depend on your statistics, skills and character traits. Thus, a mage can understand what Sargamis is up to and confront him if he disagrees with his goals. And since we're really at Obsidian, clever players can simply push Sargamis to commit suicide to loot his corpse without having to get tired. It's raw, it's daring, it's the spirit of Fallout: New Vegas; It’s just happiness on this level.