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I remember the first time I tried Avowed on Normal difficulty, thinking it would be your typical action RPG experience where I'd feel powerful after a few hours of gameplay. Boy, was I wrong. The combat system transforms what should be impactful encounters into these drawn-out skirmishes where you're constantly vulnerable to quick flurries of attacks while slowly chipping away at enemies who feel like they're made of stone. I found myself in this one particular cave fight where just two enemies who were only a couple of gear levels above me turned what should have been a straightforward encounter into a twenty-minute ordeal. The worst part? Large groups become incredibly dangerous not because of clever AI or tactical positioning, but simply because of the gear disparity and how easily they can flatten you with a couple of hits.

What really surprised me was how the combat scaling works. The game seems to assume you're keeping up with gear progression effortlessly, flooding skirmishes with larger waves that quickly overwhelm you and your two companions. I can't count how many times I watched my AI companions get wiped out in seconds while I desperately tried to whittle down what felt like an endless stream of enemies. And the checkpoint system? Don't get me started. There were moments where I'd spend forty-five minutes carefully navigating through multiple encounters only to die and get thrown back not just one fight, but three or four encounters back. I actually timed one particularly frustrating section - it took me thirty-two minutes to get through initially, and when I died at the final enemy, the checkpoint sent me back to the beginning of that entire sequence.

The game offers five difficulty settings, which sounds generous until you realize that even dropping down to Easy doesn't fundamentally fix the core issues. I tested this extensively in the late-game areas, and while Easy mode certainly improved my survival odds in many battles, it didn't alleviate the tedium of fighting enemies with vastly superior gear. I remember this one boss fight where even on Easy difficulty, I spent nearly fifteen minutes just chipping away at this enemy's health bar while dodging their attacks. The combat lost all sense of excitement and became this mechanical process of attack-dodge-repeat. It felt less like an epic fantasy battle and more like doing paperwork.

Now, I want to be clear - I don't think every game needs to be a straightforward power fantasy where you feel invincible after a few hours. Some of my favorite gaming experiences come from titles that challenge players and make them earn their victories. But Avowed's current balancing creates this persistent frustration that undermines the otherwise interesting world and story. The difficulty doesn't feel earned or strategic - it feels arbitrary, based largely on gear levels rather than player skill or tactical decisions. There were multiple occasions where I'd enter an area that looked visually identical to previous zones, only to get completely destroyed because the enemies happened to be wearing slightly better armor.

What's particularly telling is that I found myself avoiding combat encounters not because I was scared of the challenge, but because I dreaded the time investment required. In one three-hour gaming session, I estimate that about two hours of that was spent in combat that felt unnecessarily prolonged. The game seems to mistake longer fights for more engaging ones, when in reality, it just makes each encounter feel like a chore. I started noticing patterns in my gameplay - I'd check my phone during fights, I'd get up to grab snacks more frequently, I'd even find myself planning my grocery list while mechanically going through the combat motions. That's not a good sign when a game's core gameplay loop becomes background noise to real-life errands.

The gear system compounds these issues significantly. I tracked my progress through one particular dungeon and found that enemies took approximately 25-30 hits to defeat with my current weapon, while they could take me down in 3-4 hits. Even when I managed to find a slightly better weapon, the improvement was marginal at best. I remember finding a legendary sword that I was excited about, only to discover that it reduced the number of hits needed to kill basic enemies from 28 to 24. That's not the kind of power progression that makes you feel like your character is growing stronger - it's the kind that makes you wonder if the development spreadsheet got its formulas wrong.

I've played through the game twice now - once on Normal and once on Easy - and my experience suggests that the fundamental balancing issues persist regardless of difficulty setting. The game currently sits in this awkward middle ground where it's not challenging enough to satisfy hardcore players looking for a tough but fair experience, yet it's too tedious and punishing for casual players who just want to enjoy the story and world. I found that about 70% of my total playtime was consumed by combat that felt more like work than entertainment. There's a sweet spot for game difficulty that many developers strive for, but Avowed seems to have missed it entirely in its current state. The potential is clearly there - the world building is interesting, the companion characters have personality, and the core mechanics work - but the balancing issues create this cloud of frustration that hangs over the entire experience.