Avowed Premium Upgrade (DLC)

Let's be clear about what you're actually buying here: this is not a content expansion. The Avowed Premium Upgrade is a bolt-on pack for players who already own the base game (or access it via Game Pass) and want a handful of cosmetic extras plus the bragging rights of five days' early access. Once the game releases to the general public, that early-access perk is dead on arrival, so if you're reading this post-launch, you're really evaluating two companion skin sets, two player armor sets, a digital artbook, and a soundtrack. On the cosmetics themselves: the two skin packs, the Eora Collection and the Obsidian Collection, dress up each of Avowed's four companions (plus your own character) in thematically distinct looks. The Eora Collection leans into the ancient, lore-drenched visual language of Pillars of Eternity's world, while the Obsidian Collection goes sleek and dark. Each set includes five skins total, one per companion and one for the Envoy. Beyond appearance, the companion skins are purely cosmetic, swapped out from the Main Camp Tent at your Party Camp once you've pushed past the prologue. The player armor pieces (the Engwithan Cuirass and the Obsidian Order Cuirass) do carry actual stat bonuses, with the Obsidian Order set boosting companion damage output and max health, and the Engwithan set trading stamina for damage reduction. They're classified Common +1, which means they're useful in the early hours but the main game's loot will outpace them fairly quickly. Don't buy this upgrade primarily for the stat edge. The digital artbook and soundtrack are the items most likely to deliver lasting value here. The soundtrack was composed by Venus Theory, and for anyone who wants to understand how Obsidian built the alien, fungal, politically layered world of the Living Lands from a creative direction standpoint, the artbook is a genuine artifact. Avowed's world is visually arresting, with its saturated palette, strange flora, and Dreamscourge-infected environments, so behind-the-scenes concept work is actually worth paging through, not just a checkbox filler item. As for the base game these extras wrap around: Avowed is a focused first-person action RPG built on Eora's rich history of gods, empires, and plagues. The classless build system lets you mix swords, grimoires, and wands in the same run. The Living Lands zone structure keeps things dense rather than sprawling, and the writing is quintessentially Obsidian: sharp dialogue, environmental storytelling tucked into corpse notes and in-world books, and companions with actual inner lives. The Dreamscourge plague storyline has genuine narrative pull. Some reviewers noted enemy variety thins out over longer runs, and the party combat AI has its rough edges, but the overall player reception has been solidly positive. If you care about Eora's lore, the upgrade's artbook and soundtrack feel like a natural companion to that investment. If you're purely in it for gameplay advantage or substantial new content, this pack isn't going to satisfy. Monika, Scout Team