We’re more than halfway through 2025, so it’s safe to say that Avowed is one of the year’s best role-playing games. Its blend of satisfying combat, superb storytelling and world-building, and a runtime that respects the player proved to be a winning formula that I hope we see more of soon.
When Avowed was released, however, players weren’t starved for big, meaty experiences, and it came up against some stiff competition in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii. Unless you were an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, players likely had to choose one of these massive releases to sink their money and time into. For players who missed out on Avowed, developer Obsidian just released a new update, and it's an excellent reason to double back and experience this complex fantasy world for yourself.
Avowed just got update 1.5, which adds some significant changes to character classes, tweaks to early game loot, and a handful of other improvements. The update also makes the RPG Steam Deck compatible, an increasingly important feature for reaching more players.
The biggest change is new additions to the Ranger and Fighter skill trees. Rangers now have access to smoke bombs, ice traps, and poison daggers, while Fighters get a kick capable of breaking enemy blocks, a smash that allows you to create a chain reaction of enemy stuns, and the ability to immediately recover your stamina while temporarily halving the stamina cost of special actions. According to the developers, these changes are meant to “round out” the viability of these classes compared to the wand-slinging Wizard.
Update 1.5 also adds some unique new loot to the game’s early areas. “We found that players were not able to play specific builds that they wanted to early on in the game,” the patch notes read, “so, we added more unique gear through these regions to assist with that.”
With players being more capable than ever, Obsidian made some adjustments to enemy AI, too. They now have access to some of the same magic abilities that players cast on them, so you’ll need to watch out for the icy Blizzard and the earth vines of Tanglefoot amid skirmishes. Additionally, enemies can now put up physical barriers to block melee attacks, and magical barriers to foil spells.
Outside of gameplay, the most consequential change is the game’s newly minted Steam Deck verification. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that an Xbox-published game was further optimized for gaming handhelds, considering the company’s broader plans in the space, but it’s still nice to see. Running on a Steam Deck today suggests it’ll run well on the Xbox Ally, which is set to release later this year. And if Microsoft sticks to its grander multiplatform plans, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Avowed also pop up on Nintendo’s Switch 2; games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Yakuza 0 have proven that the console is a great home for big, open-world RPGs.
Avowed cuts most of the bloat that many other games in its genre have bent over backward to include, leaving behind a concise experience laser-focused on delivering fun every second you’re holding the controller. It’s still available on Xbox Game Pass, and considering what a tear Obsidian Entertainment is on this year — it’s set to release survival crafting sequel Grounded 2 later this month and sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds 2 in October — you’d be doing yourself a favor by catching up.
