When I previewed an earlier version of Avowed in November, I became obsessed with figuring out what kind of game Obsidian Entertainment was trying to make. On paper, Avowed has all the hallmarks that helped make Obsidian one of the greatest RPG developers ever. Its even set in their Pillars of Eternity universe, the setting of two excellent Obsidian games. Yet, the genre pieces didnt quite fit together. I had faith that Avowed had a final form, but it wasnt clear what that game looked like back then.Hours into the final version of Avowed, all was finally revelated to me: Obsidian has essentially made a Borderlands game. They may have set out to make a more action-oriented version of the RPGs that made the studio famous, but somewhere along the way, they ended up with a Borderlands game. How you process that information will determine whether you see Avowed as a strange gem or a frustrating glimpse at what could have been.Avowed Challenges You to Think Beyond Traditional Character ClassesThe heart of Avowed is its character creation system, which is quite surprising given that there is nothing particularly inspiring about its initial collection of cosmetic, statistical, and background character creation options.Shortly into your Avowed adventure, though, youll be blessed with your first pieces of loot. Armor, weapons, and trinkets of color-coded rarity and quality. You wont be looting items quite as often as you do in a proper looter shooter, but you will constantly be canvassing areas looking for more of those sweet, sweet drops.A few hours into Avowed, youll acquire enough loot to start seeing the possibilities the games dual-wielding system enables. Pistols can be wielded alongside magic wands, axes pair well with a book of spells, and two-handed longsword strikes often follow longbow snipes thanks to the optional secondary loadout you can swap to at the press of a button.Avowed challenges you to create your own character class by experimenting with a wide variety of loot and abilities. You can follow the straight paths laid out by its Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard skill trees, but youre missing out on much of the fun if you approach the game so rigidly. Youre meant to mix and match skills that complement the most unique and powerful weapons you come across. Thanks to a fairly generous respec system that only sets you back some coins, you are enabled and encouraged to constantly change your approach to see what works best and what is most fun.The dopamine hit that process yields remains as potent as it is in games like Borderlands, but Avowed laces that experience with just enough variety to keep it potent. Rarely has a game like this allowed us to explore so many different equipment and skill possibilities while swapping between strategies quite so easily. It makes it difficult to go back to lesser RPG-lite action experiences that lock you into fixed progression paths or limit you to fewer combat options that revolve around fewer viable weapon types.The only thing more exhilarating than experimenting with all that loot is exploring the world you find it in.Avowed Is the Cure for Procedurally Generated Worlds With No PersonalityMuch like Obsidians The Outer Worlds, Avowed is broken up into several regions that youre free to explore but that are also separated by progression barriers and loading screens. For those who see open worlds as the necessary modern standard, that may come as a disappointment.Yet, for those who played Starfield and argued that several smaller worlds would have been preferable to hundreds of largely soulless procedurally generated planets, you can certainly enter Avowed as an exhibit in your defense.Avoweds worlds are lovingly crafted, visually vibrant, and packed with scripted and organic discoveries. Theres a Morrowind-like quality to the way the game fuses classical fantasy, medieval design, and downright alien concepts to form a world that feels whole rather than a slapdash amalgamation of themed levels masquerading as a universe.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!The thrill of exploring these spaces makes the fundamentally enjoyable act of looting and leveling that much more rewarding. Too often the primal pleasure of that process compensates for environments that are just elaborate loot boxes in slightly different shades. Playing through that core experience in a rich world youll enjoy simply existing in makes quite the difference.More importantly, Avowed truly values its various items and how you discover them. Drops arent as common as they are in other loot-like games, which means even lesser weapons remain useful for the upgrade materials they offer. The absence of a simple gear score system means you often have to weigh the unique advantages of your gear rather than chase the biggest numbers. Quests will yield valuable items, but some of the best stuff is reserved for the truly adventurous. Few games emphasize rewarding you for exploring that random corner, finding a way to destroy that obstacle, climbing that mountain, or simply ignoring the main quest and going your own way quite the way this one does. Its the rare gameplay loop that is satisfying yet actually takes you places.Its just a shame Avoweds combat isnt quite substantial enough to support everything else the game is doing.Avoweds Repetitive Combat Undermines Its Best IdeasFor all of the options that Avowed offers you when it comes to crafting your character, the combat often boils down to the same formula regardless of your build.While Avoweds gear may not rely on simplified gear scores, its combat is very much based on pulling off big damage numbers against enemies that sadly often serve as damage sponges. Theyre also quite gullible. A little perseverance and the willingness to dance around objects will allow you to pepper your way through fights that your character shouldnt be able to survive. Theres little middle ground between fights that see you melt through enemies and those that see you play peek-a-boo with powerful foes you shouldnt be able to fight but can usually take out with a little patience.The problem is that there are few ways to add variety and strategy to these encounters. Early on, pretty much every character regardless of build will need to rely on Stamina-draining basic and power attacks. Its not until much later in the game that you get the magical Essence required to lean on your spells without having to constantly dip into the games momentum-draining action wheel to refill your resources.Thats a shame, because the Wizard skill tree is the only one in the game that consistently offers exciting new abilities. Too many of the Ranger and Fighter upgrades offer simple +X% upgrades that enhance existing skills rather than enable new strategies. The same can be said of loot, though high-level upgrades to unique items do offer some excitement. Just dont be surprised if you find yourself relying on certain gear for longer than you may like while you hunt for those upgrades.In a game that otherwise emphasizes variety, Avowed allows you to not just fall back on a basic dodge, power attack, and projectile strategy, it lets you ride that strategy to glory regardless of your build until you can finally unlock the most powerful abilities and upgrade the most elaborate weapons. Fights can still feel trivial, but at least the VFX are more impressive.Unfortunately, that thin combat is an extension of the thin role-playing qualities that really drag Avowed down.Avowed Fails to Live Up to Obsidians Incredible RPG StandardsFor a game made by such a talented RPG studio, Avowed offers you surprisingly few opportunities to do any substantial role-playing.For instance, dont stress too much about picking your characters background. Like so many other choices in the game, it mostly results in a few different lines of dialogue that often bring you back to the same conversation. Notable decisions with substantially different outcomes are few and far between. Theres also no morality or alignment system, so the consequences of being a jerk are often limited to hearing a character say Hey! Anyway and then getting back to their more meaningful dialogue.In theory, you may be compelled to take certain actions because of your emotional connection to the story and certain characters. In practice, I dont imagine that will be a problem. Avoweds overall story isfine. Its just that so many of the individual interactions that make up that narrative are pretty dry. Theyre rarely entertaining on their own merits, and there is little incentive to pay attention to them to make sure you make the right decisions when the opportunity comes up. So many decisions seem to lead to roughly the same places.Avowed lacks much of the humor and the clever characters that often highlight other Obsidian RPGs. Its a problem that diminishes the impact of main quests, side quests, and the many conversations youll have along the way. Even your companions stories feel surprisingly dull. Unless you are really into the minutia of this games lore, you too will likely find your eyes glazing over yet another conversation that hides its progression purpose behind layers of surprisingly dry dialogue.Everything about Avowed passes the eye test for a proper RPG, but it all proves to be so thin. Its bizarre to play a game where you are left to drown in an ocean of ultimately shallow RPG ideas. What should have been the aspects of Avowed that amplified the satisfying looting and build experiments at the heart of this game often slow it to a crawl and leave you wanting for the more substantial experience they only hint at.Avowed Feels Like an Accidental Borderlands Game That Fell Short of Something GreaterAvowed throws a curveball at anyone who tries to analyze a work on the merits of its creators intent. If youre going to argue for or against something, you have to build that argument based on what that thing is fundamentally trying to accomplish. The problem here is that its not entirely clear if this is what Avowed was meant to be or what remained when all of the ideas that went into the game finally came together.Avowed will certainly disappoint those who expect it to be a Skyrim-like adventure, but it was never really pitched that way. If you try to judge it as the fantasy RPG you presume it intended to be, youll likely find its narrative, writing, and more substantial role-playing decisions fall well short of expectations.Yet, for me, Avowed ends up being the last thing anyone expected it to be: a pretty great Borderlands game. When youre roaming the world, hunting for loot, experimenting with your character build, and using enemies as target dummies for your power fantasy, it offers an experience that is somewhat simple, certainly unexpected, yet very satisfying.But thats not enough to keep you from wondering what Avowed could have been. If it had been The Outer Worlds with this combat and build system, it could have been something great. If it had been a Borderlands game with the writing and role-playing weve come to expect from Obsidian, it could have been something great.What were left with instead is a game stuck somewhere in the middle of so many more intriguing possibilities. Its a must-play experience for Xbox Game Pass subscribers and a game that will likely surprise people with its pure fun factor after it catches flak for falling short of the expectations we associate with a legendary studio working on what was once touted as its first proper Triple-A project in years.Its a testament to the talent at Obsidian Entertainment that even the studios misses end up being fun projects that at least push for something more interesting. But as an Obsidian RPG, Avowed is a miss.Avowed is out on Xbox Series X/S and PC on Feb. 18. Premium Edition owners get early access to the game starting today.