Avowed is simply brimming with lore. A bundle of fantasy nations, a pantheon of gods, crystals of magic soul energy — it’s a lot to learn if you haven’t already played Obsidian’s two Pillars of Eternity games and their associated expansions. Luckily, Avowed is designed to make learning that lore as accessible and optional as possible.

While there are plenty of books to read, for most players, it’s the elegant conversation system that will jump-start their lore education. At any time, the player can pause a conversation to click specific, highlighted keywords of lore to learn more. This has the added benefit of keeping most of the dialogue free of clunky info dumps.

But all that lore wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t relevant to your quest, and while the main story is more about the Living Lands, it’s the side quests that teach you about greater Eora and your place in it. These........

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