So how awesome is this game on a scale of one to ten?

[reality paroxysm]

Im considering buying it when it's out for the PC. I didn't like Avernum 4. It was just way too damn linear. And, though Im not one of those hardcore people that actually enjoy playing as ascii characters, the superior gra.phics WERE welcome.. they nevertheless came at a cost of gameplay and strategy. Plus, what little I saw and heard about the plot seemed disappointing and uncharacteristically imaginative.

 

That all being the case- am I gonna like Avernum 5? Im willing to make peace with the Geneforge engine, if I wind up getting half the freedom to roam around and be awesome that I had in Avernum 3.

[Randomizer]

Avernum 3 was the last game where you could wander almost wherever you wanted. There are enough areas where you have some freedom.

 

This game restores most features that were lost from the earlier games in Avernum 4. Keyboard controls for spells and targeting them, boats, elevations, a better plot are a few changes. Mostly after you leave the demo, it's a whole new world with almost no preconceptions about what you will find. There's plenty to explore and the fights are more interesting. Even when you face hordes of chitrachs.

 

About a 9.8 since there is some room for improvement.

[Alorael at Large]

You don't have the freedom of A3, but I never felt constrained like I did in A4. The areas are large enough and interesting enough that I never wanted to move on before I was allowed to. You may feel differently, of course, but it's at least worth trying the demo.

 

—Alorael, who isn't sure what you mean by loss of strategy. A4 is quite strategic, and A5 has even more interesting combat challenges. (Although yes, they're technically tactical challenges, not strategic.)

[Ociporus]

Buy Avernum 5. I'm just at stage 4 and it is fascinating, a great leap over any of the games that came before it.

 

Lots of tricky puzzles, bad bosses with lots of variety. Try the demo and see if you agree, but the game gets better and better as you go through it.

[Khyryk Eye]

definitely buy it. A5 is my favorite game by far.

[General Chaos]

My first game was Avernum 4, and while I liked it a great deal and spent craploads of time last year procrastinating by playing it, I agree it was awfully linear. Good while you were in it, but not much replay value. Avernum 5 is far richer and full of more detail, and there's so many paths you can take that I expect plenty of replay out of this puppy. So buy it? Definitely.

[Bill Ramey]

A5 doesn't feel linear at all. There is, of course, a general path to follow, but there's a lot of leeway about how to pursue that path.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, A5 so far is in the 8-10 range. It blows the dull Neverwinter Nights out of the water and is right up there with Fallout and Arcanum.

[Ephesos]

As someone who started with A2 (which I think many around here would argue is the best), I am wholeheartedly endorsing A5. It knocks the stuffing out of A4, in just about every category.

[Lucheiah]

It is awesome. A5 is made of win! I'd give it 8.5/10 (only because I was expecting Dorikas to drop some AWESOME loot and he didn't lol).

 

There are lots of side quests and heaps and heaps of replay value - there are several different options you can take that, I would imagine, affect the plot differently.

[scottk]

I did not feel constrained by Avernum 5, but honestly I could not think of a more linear way to present a game. You explore one area for a while, do some quests, clean it out, then unlock the path to the next area. Repeat. If you don't believe me, just look at the fully-revealed world map.

 

Please don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed playing the game. For many reasons -- the moral choices, the story development, the teleportation pillars, the huge areas, the interesting battles and dungeons -- it works.

But, I wouldn't say non-linear is the right word for it.

[DarkTreader]

I'm already through the demo, and in general I'd also give it 8.5 out of 10. A1,2,3 all had better interfaces. A4 was an experiment of taking a lot of the Geneforge interface and applying to Avernum and then Jeff saying "hey, what if I went in this direction?" A4 was not as good as the previous ones. Jeff learned from a lot of the mistakes in A4 and has created a much more engaging plot and polished the interface a bit.

 

A1 thru A3 were based on his exile trilogy, and it was a superb trilogy. Quite possibly the greatest and most engaging plot of an RPG I've ever seen. Jeff, you almost jumped the shark with A4, but A5 brings the series back on track

[zizban]

I never played 1-3 to AV4 was awesome.I purchased AV5 ten minutes after I downloaded the demo.

 

I just restarted AV5 after being hopelessly lost and utterly decimated by the Sentinel Workshop.

 

So a 10 for me.

[Bryce]

Quote:

Originally written by Adrian:
Jeff, you almost jumped the shark with A4, but A5 brings the series back on track

Plot wise, I'd say this comment is right on. A5 has a great, interesting plot and is pretty original. (Of course, there are some non-original things, e.g. the obligatory chitrach nest and undead-infested honeycomb, but at least they are done in different ways each time.)

I think the engine needs some work, especially with consistency (e.g. the 2 summon cap), but it doesn't get in the way of the game too much.

[Txgangsta]

A5 does seem much better than A4 by about the time your done with the demo, but other than that, I can't say much. I haven't bought it yet. Gotta wait for some super-special deal like the trilogy package or something.

[Lilith]

What I like about A5 is the way it brings back so many of the good things about earlier Exile and Avernum games that were lost in A4 -- and not only did Jeff bring them back, but he built upon them and integrated them into the gameplay in new and exciting ways. I'm thinking specifically of the elevator in the caves in chapter 3; it would have been cool enough in its own right, but the rat fight reminded me of tactical challenges in some of the better BoE scenarios. The river/wheel thing in Khora-Vysss was the second thing to really impress me in that regard; Avernum 4 was really lacking in terms of changeable terrain.

 

It's nice that he brought back boats too, although I'd like them better if their pathfinding algorithm didn't suck so badly.

[VCH]

I found the 2 summons to be more powerful than the multiple summons of past Avernum games.

[Cheeseball-Seven]

Quote:

Originally written by VCH:
I found the 2 summons to be more powerful than the multiple summons of past Avernum games.

Agreed. Although you don't get a lot of them, the summons in A5 are actually worthwhile.