Avowed’s amazing lore refresher should be a standard in all RPGs.

We’ve all been there: playing an RPG in a fictional world when suddenly you’re lost in a swamp of made-up proper nouns. Where is that place? What is that faction’s whole deal again? And what exactly is going on in this side quest that I started a week ago?

Avowed has a surprisingly elegant solution. The new dark fantasy RPG from Obsidian Entertainment is very good with its lore, and one of the most crucial ways it accomplishes this is by having easy-to-access lore refreshers. When you’re speaking to other characters in the game, its unique vocab words are highlighted a different color. That’s because you can press a button to activate a pop-up screen where you can quickly refresh yourself on the various people, places, and concepts critical to Avowed’s setting and your hero’s quest.

It’s somewhat similar to Final Fantasy 16’s Active Time Lore mechanic, but a lot easier on the eyes and less overloaded with info. And it’s been extremely helpful for me as someone who doesn’t always have the easiest time retaining new lore, but also because I’ve been playing Avowed at the same time as Citizen Sleeper 2. Both games involve a second consciousness with mysterious intentions lodged in your head, and hard decisions about the people and environments around you. I’ve mixed up details between the two more than once while playing, and this tool has really helped me keep them separate.

But it’s not just useful for remembering lore you’ve forgotten — Avowed’s lore reminder feature also allows for a natural building of the world, its people, and how they speak. A variety of curse words and slang is woven throughout the adventure, giving color and personality to individual characters (for instance, the ranger companion Marius swears like a sailor). Because those slang and curse words are also highlighted as vocab words, the characters don’t have to stop and explain to your player character what they mean. And, if you’re struggling to pick up the meanings of these fictional words through context clues, you can just read the definition through the lore tool.

It’s the kind of small but meaningful quality-of-life improvement that has greatly deepened my appreciation for Avowed, especially when I’ve had to take a week away from the game. I bounce off of most open-world RPGs due to boredom, being overwhelmed by too many things to do, or because I took a break and now I feel lost. Avowed avoids all three of these problems for me, and the lore reminder feature is a big reason why.