Matt Mercer’s Avowed quest sold me on the game’s lore system

I love good world-building in my video games: pouring over fantastical geography, untangling the relationships between the people who live there, learning the intricacies of its arcana. While video games often contain great world-building, the way you learn it through a game’s lore often leaves something to be desired. Clunky info-dumps from NPCs get tiring and, as much as I enjoy YouTube lore deep dives, not every game can (or should) weave together a tragic mythos via item descriptions.

Avowed, the latest action RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, not only has excellent world-building and lore, but a near perfect system for engaging with that lore. This is especially impressive for a game set in the same world as Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity games, which players (like me) might not have any experience with. And it was the “Dawntreader” quest, featuring the exquisite voice talents of Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer, that sold me on Obsidian’s multi-pronged approach.

I went through the early side quest (spoiler warning!) in the video above to demonstrate how elegant this system is and why it even benefits players who don’t particularly care about lore. If you enjoy this video be sure to check out the rest of our deep dives on our YouTube channel!