Avernum's Text Heavy Style: Not as Uncommon as we may think?

[Doomblob]

Since I have joined the forums I have seen and witnessed many peoples opinions on why Avernum is so good.

 

Although I cannot remember which thread it was from, I read that people especially like the game because of the descriptive text which is found in every Avernum (and Spiderweb) game. This, as the poster there rightly points out, can tell so much more than walking into a room with next-gen graphics which attempts to use the pictures to convey information. The same level of detail just cannot be conveyed.

 

This got me thinking that this is quite a rare thing that will rarely occur outside of sharware titles................or is it?

 

As well as being a huge Avernum fan I am also a huge Metroid fan. Thinking about these two series, I suddenly realised a coonection they both have. Focusing on the Prime series (specifically Metroid Prime 1) the amount of text in this game is something much closer to Avernum, rather than other large games such as Halo, in that these scans provide a depth of information that screens alone cannot provide. (for example at the start of the game, you can scan bodies for it to tell you that they died from spinal damage and other such ways).

 

I'm just curious as to what other peopes thoughts are on this?

Do you see a similarity between the Prime games and Averum in the use of text to add depth to situations?

Are theyre any other large games which also employ this tactic?

[CobaltDragoon]

I can't think of many console games that involve a lot of descriptive text. KoToR II deserves a mention, though.

 

As for the PC, the only one that really stands out in my mind right now that aren't Spiderweb Software creations is Planescape: Torment. The Baldur's Gate series also did this to a lesser extent, though it wasn't as well-polished as its oddly less popular predecessor.

[Doomblob]

I've played Baldur's Gate 2 which was more a hack-n-slash type of game than a straight RPG, though I have heard there are other games in the series which are more RPG in their design.

 

WHats the predecessor to the series your mentioning?

[Alorael at Large]

Baldur's Gate predates Planescape, but Planescape predates Bladur's Gate II. And I really don't understand calling Baldur's Gate hack 'n slash. Yes, there's combat. There's a lot of combat. Still, the combat is turn-based under the real-time engine, it's stat-based, and it's lifted straight from the ur-RPG AD&D. You get dialog choices that matter and sometimes, though not often, multiple ways to approach a problem.

 

Short of multiple paths through the game, which you don't really get, I'm not sure what's missing from the RPG experience.

 

—Alorael, who thought about Baldur's Gate and company and Knights of the Old Republic. Both use a bit of descriptive text, but nothing like the mountains of it for everything used by Avernum. Mostly the graphics do the talking unless you're actually talking to an NPC.

[fractalnavel]

I guess I never really thought SpidWeb games were anything special in this regard, but now that you mention it... I guess that I associate these games more with the (non-graphic) mud & interactive fiction genre than I do (graphical) RPG's, having come more from that direction. I would say that's good company, since that's all those games have to rely on. There's more to text content than mere description, and there's more to description than mere sensory input. That's why even the latest greatest graphics games often seem somehow barren, to me.

 

I have little to no console game background, and my PC gaming has tended more to sims. But here's an odd one that I picked up off the shelf in a software store aeons ago, freshly shrink-wrapped: StarFlight. This was a PC (later console) game that could have a reasonable amount of text, in addition to its graphics.

 

Or maybe it's just that my memory has become as rambling as myself.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Originally Posted By: Alorael

Bladur's Gate II

That game didn't quite live up to the initial teaser the company gave out early in development, I think:

"A great flood is coming. Will the people of Faerûn be prepared when Bladur's Gate opens?"

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: The Almighty Doer of Stuff

"A great flood is coming. Will the people of Faerûn be prepared when Bladur's Gate opens?"

A great flood comes when my bladder's gate opens, too.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Uh, yeah. That was the pun. Congratulations, you got it.

[Doomblob]

@Alorael

 

Sorry I should have clariied this. The Baldur's Gate game I have played was called 'Baldur's Gate II: Dark Alliance'. I played it on a console (a gamecube if you want to know), and the gameplay consisted of:

 

- running through a dungeon killing hundreds of enemies by button bashing (not turn or stat based, apart from your strength, weapon strength and such.)

- go back to town, sell loot, spend exp making your character stronger etc.

- go run and kill more enemies, and so on.

 

Im pretty certain it was hack 'n slash. I've seen a friend of mine playing a Baldur's Gate game that looks completely different to the one I played. Maybe Dark Alliance is a spin-off and there are more than one Baldur's Gate II games?

 

-Doomblob, who is wondering why Aloreal is called so. Was that his original username?

[Alorael at Large]

Alorael, whose original username was Alorael. It was that and nothing else for years. Until he hit 10,000 posts, in fact.

 

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has nothing to do with the Baldur's Gate computer series. The studio, or some corporate amalgamation tied to the studio, had no rights to Forgotten Realms except for the Baldur's Gate license, so they used Baldur's Gate despite making a game that was entirely different in plot, setting (except for the involvement of the titular city), and mechanics.

 

—Alorael, who will note that while Dark Alliance is based on 3rd Edition and the original series is based on 2nd Ed. That is not the major difference.