Avowed is not bad

Despite the recent trashing of avowed, I decided to download it on gamepass to see for myslef. I've put around 10-15 hours into it at this point and I'm already very pleasantly surprised. I love baldurs gate 1 and 2 and I felt that pillars of eternity was a perfect adaptation of that type of game. The mechanics were there. The story was there. The lore was there. The vibes were there. I love pillars of eternity. With that being the case, I was actually excited for avowed when it was announced. I've read the wikis and listened to pillars lore podcasts and gotten invested in the universe since I played POE 1 and 2. The amount of lore connections that this game provides is great. Like you don't really realize how varied the pantheon is or the real personalities of the characters in the world unless you've played the POE games. How fanatical and straight up crazy Lodwyn and the steel garotte are. I came across the diary of tayn the archimage and read a note next to it and the writer of the note was detailing to the reader that Tayn was in the living lands. They were pondering whether he was just a completely incompetent goofball or one of the most powerful mortals in the known world. If you played POE you know that the answer is both. Anyways, I just wanted to express that avowed is a good game so far. The strength isn't in the gameplay mechanics. It's in the story of the world it's set in.