[Trending News] 5 games like Avowed to play while waiting for the Xbox action-RPG

We’ve rounded up 5 games to play while waiting for Avowed. Even though that February launch is almost here, the wait to get started with the Avowed achievements, and to try out one of the most-hyped upcoming Xbox exclusives, is a tough one. If you’re looking for something in the same vein to play in the meantime, this list should hopefully help.

• Release date: February 18, 2025
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Windows
• Avowed will be available on day one with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass

Avowed launches on February 18, although players who preorder the Premium Edition can start five days early. Obsidian Entertainment’s fantasy action RPG will see us heading to the Living Lands to investigate a strange sickness, before becoming embroiled in the island’s dangers and secrets. We’ll be gathering companions, wielding magic and other weapons alike, and exploring everything the Living Lands has to offer. We have all the info in our round-up of everything we know so far about Avowed, but for more on what to play while you wait, read on!
If you can’t wait for the RPG and want something to keep fuelling your high-fantasy obsession, we’ve picked five games to help tide you over. There should hopefully be a little bit on here for everyone: the important thing is simply that it feeds into some part of what makes Avowed unique.

So, if you’re after something magical, full of interesting companions, or just epic action, then here are 5 games to play while waiting for Avowed.

Baldur’s Gate 3

• Release date: December 7, 2023
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S
• Available with Game Pass: Not available with Xbox Game Pass

Baldur’s Gate 3 seems like a pretty solid pick if you’re excited to play Avowed. It’s got magic, an epic story, and a big focus on your companions. This last point is especially relevant from what we’ve seen about Avowed so far: interviews, trailers, and deep dives all point to the relationships you’ll have with these companions (these will be strictly platonic, though), the importance of their quests, and how they can help you on your adventure.

If you’ve ever played something like Stardew Valley, you might have suffered from the contempt that your fellow villagers don’t even bother to hide whenever you give them gifts they don’t particularly like. It sometimes feels a little like that when trying to gain approval from your BG3 party members: one or more of them is sure to be disapproving of your actions left, right, and center, and some can be just impossible to please (looking at you, Astarion).

Avowed will have us traveling with mercenaries, wizards, and fighters alike. Some companions, like Kai, have featured pretty heavily in trailers and deep dives already. We don’t yet know what they’ll be like personality-wise, but in the meantime, Baldur’s Gate 3 can give us plenty of experience in traveling with an unruly, unpredictable, and often-squabbling party.

Sure, they’re at each other’s throats sometimes, they wield enormous power, and they’re not always too sure about you, but they make the adventure far better. Here’s hoping we’ll have a similarly unpredictable time in Avowed!

GreedFall

• Release date: September 10, 2019
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
• Available with Game Pass: Not available with Xbox Game Pass

This one, too, feels like a good fit, especially story-wise. In Avowed, you’re sent as an envoy to a far-off magical island known as the Living Lands to investigate a strange sickness: the Dreamscourge. Spiders’ magical RPG Greedfall has you embark on a similarly high-stakes mission, as you leave for a strange island to find a cure for a rapidly-spreading plague.

You need to juggle the differing factions on Greedfall’s island of Teer Fradee as well as its dangers while searching for a cure for the malichor, with the choice of relying on deception, working through diplomacy, or focusing on combat.

Each game looks to explore these ideas in entirely different ways, but if you’re counting down the days to Avowed and are keen to tackle a magical new land, navigate complex diplomacy, and build relationships with your companions, Greedfall would be a good one to try.

Pillars of Eternity

• Release date: August 29, 2017
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
• Available with Game Pass: Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Standard

Since Avowed is set in Eora, the world of Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity franchise, taking a crack at the Pillars of Eternity games seems the clear choice when it comes to preparing for Avowed.

With in-depth character customization, difficult choices and consequences, and a party of companions to tackle it all with, these games offer plenty of RPG excellence. You play as one of six races (Human, Aumaua, Dwarf, Elf, Godlike, and Orlan), so we can get an idea of Eora’s customs and peoples alike before starting a new adventure in Avowed.

The Pillars of Eternity games are much loved in their own right, but they’ll also function as a handy intro for those of us looking to familiarise ourselves with the background of Eora. Big, ambitious RPGs are always an inviting prospect, but it’s also nice to have a bit of a way in to get to grips with a complex magical world — whether you’re new to that world, or looking for a refresher.

The Outer Worlds

• Release date: October 25, 2019
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
• Available with Game Pass: Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Standard

The Outer Worlds is another Obsidian Entertainment baby. Its sequel is set to launch this year, and the first game seems an excellent choice to play before Avowed.

This is partly because of that Obsidian DNA, but also because, from what Obsidian has shown of Avowed so far, we’ll have an unpredictable adventure ahead where you need to “choose your side.” If anything’s going to give us an idea of dealing with different factions and the chaos that brings about, it’s The Outer Worlds.

Firstly, there’s the differing beliefs of the factions in Aedyr. An Avowed story trailer from last year hinted that our quest to investigate the Dreamscourge wouldn’t be a simple one, with different people having different ideas on what should be done about it.

The emperor wants us to find a cure and end the plague, but Inquisitor Lödwyn, leader of Aedyran paladin order the Steel Garrote, thinks he’s wrong and something else is going on. Once on the island, there are other tensions to take into account, such as the distrust the locals hold for Aedyran forces.

This all sort of sounds like the theme of “save the worlds, or don’t” which The Outer Worlds was marketed with, and the freedom and casualness of this idea is part of what made it so bizarre and so much fun to play. Hopefully we’ll see the same freedom (and consequently similar shenanigans) in Avowed.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

• Release date: October 28, 2016
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
• Available with Game Pass: Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Standard

When Avowed was first announced five years ago, that reveal trailer gave some serious Elder Scrolls vibes. Whether it was the war-torn fantasy setting, the narrator’s talk of heroes, empires, and oaths, or the player-character wielding a sword in one hand and casting magic with the other: there was just a lovely Skyrim-esque feel to the whole thing.

Since then, we’ve seen that Avowed does run with that idea, and our character can mix and match abilities for weapons and magic and use everything from firearms to wands. We can use elemental abilities both for attacking and for traversal (such as freezing water to reach out-of-the-way areas). We can, for instance, freeze an enemy with a wand, and then whack them with a sword to shatter them.

The freedom when it came to wielding magic or weapons was one of the most enjoyable bits of Skyrim; you could go for ranged combat, hiding and getting in an incredible shot with a bow, or charge about with destructive magic. It gave you greater room to make your own story, and I’m hoping we see some of that freedom (with a more modern feel) in Avowed. Either way, if you’re looking for a meaty, magical RPG to distract you while waiting for Avowed, you can’t go wrong with Skyrim.