Avowed On Game Pass Reminds Me How Weird Xbox Achievements Are

I generally ignore Xbox Achievements altogether, but when I recently beat Avowed, the sheer silliness of how these digital milestones represent tasks in video games really hit home. When a major game like Avowed is released on Game Pass, millions of players might try the game out, but relatively few will stick it out to the end. This can create several misleading impressions where Achievements are concerned. It might appear that completing a game is far harder than the percentages indicate, or that hardly any players are taking highly intuitive actions in the game. Achievements badly skew many players’ perceptions.

Some fans seek out the easiest Achievements in Xbox video games, as if there was some kind of value in having a high Gamerscore. When Achievements were introduced for Xbox games and Trophies for PlayStation titles, I never really understood the appeal, beyond some vague novelty value, but Achievements clearly hold meaning with some players. It would never have occurred to me that a fan might choose between ecosystems and storefronts based on something as nebulous as Achievements, but clearly the system resonates with certain players. For those not bought into the Achievement life, they are often an unwelcome distraction.

Avowed's Achievements Can Be Fun, But Immersion-Breaking

Achievements Can Make Players Second Guess Their Choices In Games

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There are plenty of great Fighter tree builds in Avowed, and making a straightforward martial character suited my playstyle. I was surprised that when I maximized Might, I received an achievement for maximizing any statistic, but I was even more surprised at how rare this achievement seemed to be, clocking in at less than 5 percent at the time I unlocked it. Abilities only go up to 15 in Avowed, and the game is generous with ability points and the ability to respec for a low price. This Achievement had me briefly second guessing my choices, instead of Achievements themselves.

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When a game like Avowed has a very rare ending that requires specific choices made throughout the playthrough of the story, I expect that to be a rare Achievement, not basic things any player would do in the course of beating the game. Avowed was a perfect length, at 28 hours from beginning to end for me, so it seemed implausible that more players would not have completed its story than the slim percentage the Achievement showed. It's then I realized that I was spending time analyzing how other players approached the game instead of fully immersing myself into experiencing the ending.

Achievements For Game Pass Games Can Be Misleading

Extremely Uncommon Achievements Are Not Necessarily Difficult To Obtain

The last time I was distracted from enjoying a game due to Achievement pop-ups was when I beat Baldur’s Gate 3 for Xbox, and the Achievement for choosing to become an Illithid had a bafflingly low percentage, a fraction of 1 percent. I'm still confused by this, but with Avowed, it is more understandable. I download dozens of games through Game Pass that I am fully aware are outside my wheelhouse. I might load these games up and try them for an hour or so, just to see if one catches my attention, but I rarely go beyond that, since at this point, I know my tastes in games fairly well. If many subscribers follow suit, percentages will reflect that.

Though Avowed is an excellent Action RPG, RPGs are not everyone’s cup of tea. Many players who are not fans of Obsidian’s signature style of storytelling, or who do not enjoy first-person Western-style RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series and recent Fallout games, may have still tried Avowed due to the buzz surrounding it. These players who dip their toe into a game, but never truly engage with it certainly weigh into the numbers, meaning all Achievement percentages should be taken with a grain of salt. Even with a relatively short game like Avowed, many players will never beat it.

For those who enjoy video games on their own terms, Xbox Achievements are immersion-breaking and irksome; great game experiences like Avowed are their own achievement.

I had every reason to try out Balataro on Game Pass, even though I know card-based games are not my forte. If any extremely simple, low-hanging fruit-style Achievements in Balataro show up for you with strangely low completion percentages, I probably contributed towards that. One could decide to mentally adjust Achievement figures, factoring in the percentage of players who use Game Pass games as a sample cart instead of a meal. My preferred approach is to ignore Achievements altogether, as they are an immersion-breaking distraction, not a source of satisfaction.

A Game Like Avowed Is Its Own Reward

Beating A Great RPG Is Satisfying, With Or Without Achievements Popping Up

Some players did not like Avowed’s humor, though it was positively restrained compared to The Outer Worlds. I felt Avowed found an ideal way to make use of humor to humanize its characters, not to diminish the stakes of its story. I was highly invested in seeing the story of The Envoy through to its conclusion and shaping the fate of The Living Lands. It is entirely irrational to allow an Achievement to pull me out of enjoying the conclusion of a highly satisfying game, but seeing the completion percentage still caused my heart to sink, because Avowed deserves completion.

Related PS Plus Is Finally Countering Xbox Game Pass, But It Needs To Move Faster Game Pass received an amazing day-one released RPG with Avowed. PlayStation Plus getting Dragon Age 4 next month is a solid counter for RPG fans.

Video games are a leisure hobby, and there is no wrong way to have fun with such things, but Achievements will never make sense to me. People enjoyed video games when the only achievement was a high score or making it to the end credits. There are video game fans who enjoy video games on their own merits, and others who chase Achievements and a Gamerscore, without much concern for the quality of an individual game’s experience. For those who enjoy video games on their own terms, Xbox Achievements are immersion-breaking and irksome; great game experiences like Avowed are their own achievement.