All Game Series Remade-Which is Hardest

[Death Knight]

I currently am (slowly) getting better at jeff's games while playing Avadon and Avernum Escape from the Pit. Im probably in mid game in both (Avadon being my 2nd time completing) and Avernum my 1st time.

 

One of the things I've noticed about the series jeff's made is that Avernum for the most part is the easiest to play and get through the tough fights, while Avadon and Geneforge have easy fights in between big ones, but the big ones are brutal.

 

Maybe this is just me, but if I were to rate the games based on their challenge (if gene forge series was remade) It would be something like this:

 

Easiest to Hardest- Avernum, Avadon, Geneforge. I think that Avernum so far has the least hardest fights while some of the big fights can be tough. Avadon on the other hand doesn't have some of the hardest, but the boss fights such as The mind taker drake were much harder than Avernum. Then of course there is Geneforge where certain classes have an easy time throughout the game, while other classes is just butchery.

 

Does anyone else have a different consensus for which is the hardest/easiest series if they were all compared. Im talking mostly if it was balanced and Geneforge 1 was remade with new engine.

[Randomizer]

While Jeff tries to balance the game, I know in Geneforge some fights were easier if you were better at range attacks and other were easier for melee fighters. I used to have more trouble with Geneforge until I got used to the game system.

 

Boss fights were about the same, but recent games have Jeff scripting them to be played a certain way. If you deviated from how he thinks the games should be played they may be harder with Avadon's Redbeard being the toughest fight and the only boss fight I've never been able to do as a single character when I've tried one.

[Death Knight]

Thats what Ive heard some people say. I think someone else said on here that Avadon is tougher than Geneforge and Avernum as you really need to think before each action and make at least 2 attack actions per round. My recent battle with the mind taker leaves me with the idea that just like last play through, a dexterity high, ranged attacker with regenerating on for enough rounds, can take the heat, while the rest of the party destroys.

[Student of Trinity]

None of Jeff's games are hard, once you know the tricks of the trade, except on the highest difficulty setting. But to be honest Jeff's games aren't really challenges of tactical skill. If combats are too hard, the best thing is just to drop the difficulty level. With a lot of experience, it'll start to get boringly easy, and then you'll want to raise the difficulty up again.

 

The Torment difficulty setting does generally make Jeff's games pretty hard. But it's not usually that it makes them hard in any interesting, tactically challenging way. It just forces you to be quite fussy in building your character(s), and to use a lot of tedious delay-and-avoidance tactics in fights. So it adds some replay value for people who have played a lot of his games — I've had a lot of fun playing Torment singletons in a couple of the second Avernum series — but it's not really a sensible achievement to aim for, to be able to beat his games on Torment. It's just something you'll eventually get around to if you keep on playing Spiderweb games enough.

 

You should just feel free to adjust the difficulty in whatever way it takes to make the games more fun, without worrying about whether it somehow reflects on your hormone levels or whatever.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

You should just feel free to adjust the difficulty in whatever way it takes to make the games more fun, without worrying about whether it somehow reflects on your hormone levels or whatever.

i still play on torment so i can confirm that this doesn't make any difference

[Juan Carlo]

I haven't played them all, but I've played most (all on torment) and I'd rate them from hardest to easiest like so:

 

Avernum 5 (this has some insane and very sudden difficulty spikes in it, plus most monsters have tons of hitpoints. By far the hardest of the games I've played, I think)

 

Avadon (limited leveling and party build options make this one really hard on torment, especially if you don't play dexterity based characters)

 

Geneforge 5: I think this is the hardest of all the Geneforges just because so many cheese skills (e.g. parry) and magic (especially AOE spells) are nerfed. Plus, there are some pretty hard optional boss battles in it.

 

Avernum: EFTP--this isn't too bad, but it can be really difficult if you do things in the wrong order. It necessitates a bit of grinding and feeling your way around to get by on torment.

 

Geneforge 3, 4--these aren't too hard, but I think each has a few optional battles which are super hard to do on torment depending on what your build is.

 

Geneforge 1, 2--both of these are pretty easy

 

Avernum 4 -this one is super easy. If you ever want to try a Spiderweb game on torment play this one as it won't give you much trouble.

 

In general, though, I actually think that the Geneforges are easier than Avernum/Avadon just because most of the super hard battles in Geneforge are optional and there's always more than one way to get by. I know some disagree, though.

[RaustBlackDragon]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

The Torment difficulty setting does generally make Jeff's games pretty hard. But it's not usually that it makes them hard in any interesting, tactically challenging way. It just forces you to be quite fussy in building your character(s), and to use a lot of tedious delay-and-avoidance tactics in fights. So it adds some replay value for people who have played a lot of his games — I've had a lot of fun playing Torment singletons in a couple of the second Avernum series — but it's not really a sensible achievement to aim for, to be able to beat his games on Torment. It's just something you'll eventually get around to if you keep on playing Spiderweb games enough.

Yeah, you should be pretty careful about saying stuff like that, because if it isn't true, then you're needlessly depressing people who may be excited to play torment for a real challenge, and if it IS true, then that's not something that we should be resigned to, but should rather bring to Jeff's attention.

At any rate, I've been playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit on torment while completely ignoring the advice of strategy central, and it's by no means impossible. I'll be sure to let anybody know when and if that changes, but my paladin/ninja/amazon/spellslinger party has been doing fine so far, though it has been a bit annoying at times

[Death Knight]

I would say of the games Avernum 4 would be the hardest game I played and just quit playing because I couldn't stand it. Melee is awful and spells and bows are the only way to take down enemies from afar. Plus the undead are extremely annoying.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Death Knight

I would say of the games Avernum 4 would be the hardest game I played and just quit playing because I couldn't stand it. Melee is awful and spells and bows are the only way to take down enemies from afar. Plus the undead are extremely annoying.

Pro tip: Parry is a very powerful skill in Avernum 4, since it greatly reduces melee damage received in addition to having a chance to block attacks entirely. Unlock it and pump it on your front-line character and you shouldn't have to worry much about most fights.