With an Evil Empire’s Power Comes Great Responsibility

Most video games are power fantasies. You might have endless lives or be capable of shrugging off mortal wounds and clearing out dozens of bad guys with superhuman prowess.

The role-playing game Avowed wholeheartedly embraces the fantasy, yet stands out as a game that encourages the player to think about what it means to be so powerful. It asks us to engage with our power rather than simply benefit from it.

At its most predictable, Avowed manifests this empowerment with the typical medieval fantasy fare of swords and shields and wands and guns, which you will use to blast your way through any impediment blocking your path forward. But these battles are only a colorful distraction next to your character’s real source of power: your mandate, as the envoy of a distant emperor, to decide how things should be run in the wild and untamed Living Lands.

Composed of a few independent fiefs, the Living Lands resemble the Caribbean islands before their settlement by European powers, complete with piratical touches like aquamarine coves, waterlogged ruins and flintlock pistols. You have arrived to root out the source of a mysterious plague and to soften the ground for your expansionist benefactor’s future colonization efforts.

It’s novel to play a game as, if not entirely a villain, an unsympathetic tool of power. Your empire, Aedyr, has a downright awful reputation in the Living Lands, exacerbated by your bloodthirsty colleagues known charmingly as the Steel Garrote. Throughout the game you’ll be tasked with defusing diplomatic flare-ups caused by the Steel Garrote and its nasty leader.