I am enjoying Avowed a lot!
It is a bit demeaning for everyone to constantly call this one "a Skyrim," I imagine, but I am really pleased to be Another One Of Those, and for it to be as good as it is.
In particular I'm loving the dedication to first person platforming - it feels like every collection of structures can be climbed, and there is always something nice for you hiding out on the roof. I have spent about half my time so far just climbing on roofs.
I am also a big fan that the lore dictionary has made it into this game as well. It allows the NPCs you encounter to speak in an extremely dense and "naturalistic" way - they can refer to the things they know and believe without having to onboard you onto the concepts as heavily as they would have to normally.
It does make the early-game dialogue a lot snappier and more direct and authentic-feeling than in a lot of similar games I've played, where the main character must be allowed to constantly interrupt people and ask questions like "who is god?" or "who am I?" or "can you explain this obvious thing about the world to me?" The dialogue still onboards the player gently to concepts about the world, but it's allowed to be less obtuse, and the player gets the joy of being able to roleplay a person who is clever and informed rather than... amnesia-afflicted, haha.
I'm also really enjoying the grimoire gameplay. It really does capture what it would be like to be a wizard slinging spells out of a spellbook. Equipping a spellbook allows you to cast a set of four spells "in" that book, in addition to whatever wizard abilities you have equipped in your hotbar. In general, the combat is extremely juicy and has a lot of extremely loud and flashy "impact" audio and visuals, so it makes the wizard shit feel quite powerful rather than vulnerable. I like it a lot!
In general, the setting is a lot of fun, and very colorful. I played quite a lot of Pillars of Eternity, but never finished the campaign. It's fun to come back to this setting and see what they've been doing with it since then.
Anyway! That's what I did for hours and hours last night!