Relle

I've previously done video reviews of Escape from the Pit and Crystal Souls, and I was fortunate enough to get a review copy of Queen's Wish from Jeff (big thanks!) courtesy of the Gaming Outsider podcast. I've been playing these games since I was a teenager when I started with Exile 2: Crystal Souls (I didn't play the original game until it became Avernum).

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror was an interesting conundrum, because while I liked the building aspects and the new world, it makes a lot of changes to the established formula that I knew a lot of long-time players might not be happy with. I think it's a worthy addition to the Spiderweb catalog, but I also understand that some changes (no XP for regular mobs, dungeons that respawn, etc.) can be polarizing. I personally think the only thing really wrong with that system is having mobs roaming the overworld. I feel like they should either be confined to side areas you can explore, or give more of a significant reward when you fight them besides some coinage. All in all, I've been having a lot of fun with my party of baldies, and I look forward to seeing how our decisions in this game translate to the next!

8 hours ago, Randomizer said:

Edit - I didn't even consider the cheat codes that are at the end of the Hint Book.

Oh my god, I got the hint book with the press release...

*facepalm*

The way it works in this game is that if you enter enemy territory (a dungeon) you have to kill the leader in one go. If you leave before you kill the leader (I'm being very specific here, it doesn't require a full clear, but of course the leader is usually behind a bunch of mobs) then everything respawns.

I know, I'm just impatient and I'd rather not leave and respawn the mobs in the dungeon I'm clearing. I'll try and wait until tomorrow.

Where are the cheat codes usually found in the game files, though? I have a review copy, so I can look for them myself.

Some of the cheat codes from previous games (like the gold-giving code) still work, but others don't. Where you do usually find cheat codes in the game files, anyway?

If nothing else, it's something to show people if they want a quick word on whether Crystal Souls is worthwhile. If you have any suggestions for when I finally get to Ruined World (won't be until the new year, I have other games on the docket) let me know!

The review!

Here's how I found the various specializations:

Melee - Weakest in the beginning, because you can't dual wield effectively without some investment in traits/skills. Once you start getting able to hit things reliably, it's solid damage, but it isn't until end-game when you get top-level swords that you start pulling away from the pack. My melee dude was dropping 300-ish damage per round, assuming both weapons connected. That's with a level 3 cloak of blades buff, though.

Polearm - The better option early on, even without heavy investment into the polearm skill. Even weak spears are stronger than a sword, and they have a high crit chance, enabling some easy OHKOs. It's only much later on that dual wielding pulls ahead, because while polearms can do 150-200 damage per swing, eventually dual wielding can do 150-ish per weapon!

Archery - Really only strong in the beginning. Very viable alternative to spells for your casters, even if you only drop a point or two into bows. You get some pretty good bows early on, too. They drop off in usefulness fairly quickly, though.

Magic - Always powerful. It isn't until later on when spell energy stops being a huge factor, though. Without Cloak of the Arcane, my casters do lag behind my melee in terms of damage, but they're very useful for AOE, as always.

Right now I have the standard party of one melee unit (currently my best damage dealer), one polearm (with the Black Halberd, no less), a priest, and a mage. I'm debating using the editor to turn my dual wielder into a polearm user, if for no other reason than to have someone who can use the Jade Halberd...

I had the exact same thing happen to me. I was fortunate that I had a save from prior to going into Spire, though I actually just restarted the game entirely after 2-3 years of letting it sit (and beating Crystal Souls). I'd suggest doing the same if you don't have a saved game from before going through the portal.

It's simply amazing to see your guide being used after nearly a decade.

That said, a few item locations have changed in Ruined World. I know for sure some items have been removed from certain areas (Faded Tower no longer has a Monkey Band, for instance).

I actually finished EftP recently myself, and it's the first time since the old Avernum that I managed to beat the first game of the trilogy. I started playing from Crystal Souls and never went back to the first game until they were remade.

Speaking from my own experience, polearms are very powerful. Just the lava-fired spear does over 200 damage on a crit. Granted, I'm only at the Isle of Bigail, but it's significant damage. Dual wielding may do more damage overall, but I still haven't found any good swords. My other melee is still rocking a crude broadsword. My polearm user is also a much better tank, since I'm not having to dump points into quick action and dual wielding.

That said, I have a feeling they'll even out more as the game progresses, with magic probably winning out due to enemy resistances.

I actually ran into the alien slime after the third spawner, completely forgetting that there were braziers to extinguish. Still managed to kill it, but the spine shield was not fun.

Oh dang, how'd I miss that? I miss the days when you could make the various key shortcuts pop up with tab...

...or can you still do that and I'm just pressing the wrong button?

Wondering if there's a save editor or just a way to rename your characters. I'm four hours in and suddenly hating the names I picked (I went with a theme and that theme now seems pretty lame). Granted, I could just start over, I haven't gone that far, but if there's an easy way to rename characters, I'd rather do that.

RPing is awesome.

I'm absolutely paralyzed at the party creation screen purely over which race to pick. Do the extra traits really matter enough to take an all-human party? Are there, in fact, quests you can't get without a Nephil and Slith in your party? My min-max nature is in conflict with my completionism streak.

Since doing the original review/look at Avernum, I've since figured out what I want my review style to be, and I wanted to take another look at Avernum: Escape from the Pit. My overall opinion hasn't changed, but I made a point of trying to present the game from a standpoint of "is it worth your money?" Let me know what you think, because I'm intending to do Crystal Souls and eventually Ruined World.

https://youtu.be/8EXTRV5hvQc

I'm hoping I did the game justice and didn't leave out anything important. I'd like to try and get the word out about this awesome game series.

My bad, then. Any way to get this moved there?

Okay, so, past Spiderweb games were completely unplayable on a netbook because the games had a resolution setting requirement that couldn't be met with a netbook (minimum of 1024x768, apparently). This one, thankfully, has a DX exe file that at least opens the game. Problem is, the bottom half of the game is hidden off the bottom of the screen and there's no way to move the window or adjust the resolution.

Now, is there any way to get the DX exe to go fullscreen on start-up, or make the regular exe work with netbook resolutions? (I tried opening the regular one first, it didn't have a resolution selection in the window).

Edit: I just tried setting the graphics options in the regular exe to have the game in fullscreen, then opened the DX exe. Total black screen, supposedly it goes to the main menu because I can press ESC and quit, but I can't see anything. Opening the regular exe gives an error saying I didn't specify the resolution and the game doesn't actually open, so I think I'm going to have to reinstall.

P.S. I'm on Windows 7, 32-bit.

I tried Intel's program to see if my CPU would support hardware virtualization, and...nope. I'm guessing there's no other way to get Geneforge working on a netbook, which makes me sad.

Any tips on how to set one up? And does the Windows 7 'XP Mode' qualify as a virtual machine? My netbook is running Windows 7 rather than XP.

Neither game will open because of the resolution. Any way to force them to open in the netbook standard resolution?

I may as well abuse them, then. Despite my conformist streak, I want to help bring down the regime.