Start with Avernum 6?

[Krovlar]

Hello all,

 

I know that Avernum: Escape from the Pit is out on Mac and coming to PC soon ( I can not WAIT for this), but my question is: If I buy Avernum 6, will I be jumping into the middle of a characters story? I.E. like playing Mass Effect 2 before 1? Or is it more like an Elder Scrolls game, where it's ahead in the timeline of the world, but it's not like you need to worry about what happened before?

 

So far I've only played Avadon and some of the Geneforge demo so far, but I love the style of Spiderweb games, that old school RPG feel.

[Randomizer]

Avernum 6 is the end of the story. There are places in the game where you can hear bits and pieces of the past story, but it doesn't affect game play. All that happens is that you are missing inside jokes and understanding about why some NPCs are doing certain actions.

 

Avernum: Escape from the Pit marks the start of revising the series to run on modern computers. However if you played the earlier version you will see that history has been slightly altered. New characters have been added so it isn't the exact same story that leads to Avernum 6 and may change even more as the other games get remade.

 

Also it will be two years to the Avernum 2 remake at the current schedule and 2 more to Avernum 3. There is no timeline for remaking the other stories.

 

So go ahead since the games were meant to be played independently of each other without affecting play.

[Alorael at Large]

Unlike Mass Effect, you have a different party for every game. Unlike Elder Scrolls, the timeline doesn't advance as far. Survivors from A1 are old by A6, but there's still some cast left, including a lot of the central cast.

 

However, the stories of the games are fairly self-contained. You can play them out of order, and while you'll miss out on a little bit, the games work just fine.

 

—Alorael, who would, however, advise playing A1, or at least a bit of it, before any others. It gives the best introduction to the world of Avernum, and that helps you appreciate the other games a little bit more.

[Aoslare]

Unless I am forgetting something, the extent of the "central cast" from A1 who are still alive in A6 consists of one wizard who used magic to drastically extend his lifetime. You could also include a second wizard who probably used similar magic, and an apprentice mage, but they weren't really central characters in A1.

 

In any event, internal evidence suggest that very long amounts of time pass between some of the games, especially the last three.

[Yuna Corne]

I played Exile III, Avernum 2, and Avernum, in that order, and didn't lose any story. If anything, working it backwards was more fun because I would have moments of - "oh! so that's what x happened!"

[Death Knight]

I played avernum 4 nearly to 2/3s the way down, but got frustrated when i received no experience from killing anything. Of the games that ive played of the series, avernum 6 and avernum escape from the pit are the most polished. I plan to finish the current A:EFTP and then move on to 6, that way i can see it from both sides.