There's good banter in the levels as well, six combinations of companions adds a lot of replay value. That aside, the subway 'choice your companion' section has some great back and forth between the characters. Because there's no combat system, the only reason to take a certain one is if you favor their personality. I could imagine a version where there's more weight behind the decision to take one NPC over the other. The choice is there to give the companions opportunities to interact with the world and aid replay value. The only issue-there's no choosing the right companions for the job. Each mission can be completed with each combination of companions, making for some head scratching development I'm sure. In traditional RPG fashion, you can choose two companions to accompany you on any of the missions. Speaking of, the companions are one of the central elements to the game here. It adds so much to the story and presents some great drama for the characters to react to. There's a twist towards the end that's just *excellent*. The initial hours aren't spectacular, but it's interesting enough to chug along with until the big plot pieces fall into place. But in Avowed when you're being chased by a sea monster in the back of a speed boat, it's not unfair to ask for a little more pazaas. In the Blackwell games, all you did was walk around and talk to ghosts, so no need for any big set piece animations. It's an unfortunate result of the setting.

The way they reuse the same handful of character animations for every scenario is efficient, but ends up making the otherwise nice looking game look cheap.

The animations, while nice enough, are too few and too awkward for the scope of the game. If I could grant myself one wish to change something about the presentation, it wouldn't be about the audio issues.

So some issues are worth it given the whole game is voiced. Probably a budget issue, doing a huge cast of VO for an indie game is already tough. Many takes had big proximity effect issues, with a booming low end resulting from the actor speaking too close to the mic. But there are some issues with levels and consistency. Voice acting is decent as always, with a couple great performances. It's pretty moody with it's color, lot's of dark orange and browns, but knows when to brighten things up here and there. The artwork is well realized, pretty on par with their other games. Presentation wise, it's clearly an 'Adventure Game Studio' game. It's a worthy sacrifice in exchange for some delicious player choice. While it is an adventure game, the puzzles have been paired down compared to the developer's previous games. Most of interaction with the world is talking, investigating, using items on other items, and telling your companions to do the work for you. It's a decent setup, maybe a little weird that the fire wizard guy and magical genie chick want a regular schmoe to join their outfit. We join the group and go on our way to undo all the havoc spread by the demon that once possessed us. The game opens with our character being exorcised by the titular 'Unavowed'. The setting is urban fantasy, magical beings living hidden among the mundane in New York city. But it's nice to have one that's branching out a bit. It's a welcome shift, I've come to terms with most adventure games being linear affairs.

Unavowed is a PnC from Wadjet Eye, this time pushing a little into the RPG space with choices, multiple endings, NPC companions, and character backgrounds.

Unavowed geenie