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When I first loaded up Avowed last month, I was expecting a classic power fantasy RPG from the team behind Pillars of Eternity. What I encountered instead was a combat system that consistently challenged my expectations—and not always in ways I found enjoyable. The game turns impactful combat into drawn-out skirmishes where you're constantly vulnerable to quick flurries of attacks while slowly chipping away at enemies. This design philosophy creates tension, but after 40 hours with the game, I believe it crosses the line from challenging to frustrating far too often. The balance issues are particularly noticeable when facing large groups where even just one or two enemies being a few gear levels above your own can completely change the encounter dynamic. I remember one specific cave mission where I spent nearly 45 minutes trying to clear a room with three elite enemies that were just two levels above me—the time it took to dispatch them and how easily they could flatten me turned what should have been an exciting battle into a tedious war of attrition.
What makes this particularly problematic is how combat encounters scale in a manner that suggests you should be keeping up with ease, yet the reality feels quite different. During my playthrough, I noticed larger waves flooding skirmishes and quickly overwhelming me and my two companions in tow, often within seconds of an encounter beginning. The game presents you with five difficulty settings to choose from at any time, and I experimented extensively with all of them. On my second playthrough, I decided to test what impact knocking things down to Easy had, and although it improved my odds at survival in many late-game battles by approximately 30-40% based on my rough calculations, it still didn't alleviate the tedium of whittling down enemies with vastly superior gear. The fundamental issue remains regardless of difficulty: the combat pacing feels off, transforming what should be epic battles into prolonged slogs that test your patience more than your skills.
The checkpoint system compounds these frustrations significantly. Checkpoints are not as forgiving as you might expect, sometimes throwing you back multiple encounters that you might have tediously slogged through just to have to suffer through them again. I lost count of how many times I had to replay 15-20 minute segments because the game placed checkpoints before particularly challenging multi-wave encounters. These hurdles were prevalent on the game's default Normal difficulty setting, which surprised me given that this is supposed to be the balanced experience for most players. During my third week with Avowed, I actually tracked my deaths across 12 hours of gameplay and found that approximately 68% occurred in encounters where the level disparity between my character and enemies was the primary factor rather than my tactical decisions.
Now, I want to be clear—Avowed doesn't owe you a straightforward power fantasy. Some of my most memorable gaming experiences have come from titles that demanded mastery through difficulty. But Avoved's current balancing issues create a different kind of challenge, one that feels less about skill and more about endurance. The combat is woefully balanced currently, to the point of persistent frustration that detracts from the otherwise fascinating world and story. I found myself pushing through combat encounters not because they were enjoyable, but because I wanted to experience more of the narrative and exploration elements, which are genuinely excellent. There were moments, particularly around the 25-hour mark, where I considered putting the game down entirely despite being invested in the story, simply because the combat felt like work rather than play.
What's particularly interesting is how these design choices contrast with other recent RPG releases. Where games like Baldur's Gate 3 offer multiple difficulty options that genuinely change the experience, Avoved's difficulties feel more like adjusting enemy health pools and damage output rather than addressing the core combat flow. I estimate that reducing enemy health by about 15-20% across all difficulties while improving the checkpoint placement could transform the experience from frustrating to challenging in the best way. The foundation is there—the spell combinations are creative, the weapon variety is impressive with over 50 distinct weapons in my inventory by the endgame, and the companion AI is generally competent. But these positive elements are undermined by balancing that punishes experimentation and encourages overly cautious, repetitive approaches to combat.
Having completed the main story after approximately 52 hours and spending another 15 on side content, my perspective has evolved but my central criticism remains. Avowed presents a fascinating world with deep lore that kept me engaged despite the combat frustrations. The environmental design is some of the best I've seen in years, and the character writing for companions is genuinely memorable. But I can't ignore how the combat balance issues affected my overall experience. For players considering diving into Avowed, my recommendation would be to approach it with adjusted expectations—this isn't the power fantasy the marketing might suggest, but rather a methodical, often punishing experience that requires patience above all else. The game has tremendous potential, and I'm hopeful that future patches might address these balance concerns, but as it stands, the combat frequently works against the otherwise excellent elements rather than complementing them.
