Ahead of Avowed’s Xbox Game Pass launch early next year in February, the latest round of previews for this upcoming action-RPG have now gone live.

Based on this latest build, the consensus seems to be it’s looking quite promising right now – with most outlets and critics talking up the game, and mentioning how they can’t wait to get their hands on the full thing. So, here’s a sample of what’s being said so far…

Starting with our friends at VGC, who “can’t wait to play more”:

“When our brief time with Avowed came to an end, we were disappointed. Not with that we’d played, but rather because we’d felt the game getting its hooks into us. Avowed feels like a game that would have been perfect for the period between Christmas and New Year. It doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything sparklingly new, but everything it is doing makes us want to play more.”

Windows Central was even more excited after this second round preview – mentioning how it could end up being a “favourite” of 2025:

“Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios may not be aiming for the top with a massive and ambitious magnum opus (let’s wait for The Outer Worlds 2 for that), but Avowed has soul — a crucial ingredient missing from a lot of modern games made from corporations chasing mainstream demographics and trends. I do wonder how many will feel the same, but it won’t matter if I’m completely alone — I’m still fairly certain after two previews and two interviews that Avowed’s going to be one of my favorite games of 2025.”

Kotaku thinks it could already be “one of 2025’s best games”:

“Avowed feels rock solid, deep, and hugely cared for. This has “labor of love” oozing out all over, and if it can deliver a story as strong as those in the Pillars of Eternity games, we could have an all-time classic on our hands.”

In IGN’s preview, it called Avowed “a lot of fun” and said it was a nice contrast to Dragon Age: The Veilguard – allowing you to be as “evil” as you want:

“Coming fresh off of trying out Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I was so happy when I discovered just how evil I could be to people I met along the way right from the start of Avowed – something Veilguard just didn’t fulfill. From the start I had one NPC dropping f-bombs because I was going to leave her in prison. A short while later a duo would try to intimidate me on a bridge – only to meet a swift demise. I wasn’t in the mood for their nonsense. I just wanted to be evil. And while I could have handled it the nice way, sometimes being evil is just more fun.”

And Engadget summed it up as “classic Obsidian fantasy” on a ‘AAA’ budget:

“For me, everything felt right once I found the wand. I closed out the preview with the bow in one loadout, and the grimoire and wand in the other, and I was starting to feel like a real badass.”