At that point-Review of Avernum

[Death Knight]

Ive reached the point of Avernum Escape from the Pit where I completed about as much as I could of the game without going too insane.

 

My party is all lvl 26 and have had no real trouble with the game as far as I can see.

 

For a game with high expectations I was really thrown off as I thought the game was fun at first. However, once all my characters reached lvl 15, tactics and things that used to work in the game all run out and the game just becomes a slug fest where you strike, strike, heal, strike, repeat.

 

I was really into the game up until most of the tactics that I used to use-Shieldbreaker (to knock enemies away) Leg sweep (weakness curse) just flat out stopped working. From that point on, the only tactics that were usable and that worked were well aimed blow, Mighty blow, Adrenaline rush and Stunning blow. Everything else was just useless.

 

With that said, I thought that the story was overall not the best and that in reality all the game was was just a giant random encounter over and over again.

 

This is not to say that thats not good, but for me, I did not think that was my favorite part of it.

 

There was a lot of trekking back and forth and this was the one thing I did actually liked quite a bit. At first I didn't because I thought it was lame, but then I remembered that this was like the Geneforge 1 and 2 and I grew to like it.

 

The character customization was good but in reality there was no difference between characters. The only real difference is who deals more damage and who is faster or acts faster.

 

The biggest problems with the game is a few things

 

-Lack of a relative story (nonstop encounters)

-Slug fest strategy where tactics are pointless (just well aimed blow, might blow and thats it). No other tactics work in mid-late game).

-Way too much get item here, and use it over here, next-get item here and use that to get here.

 

I would say that since the game is Jeff's 1st game, I'll be kind enough to give it a 6/10, but not much higher than that. I feel that this was his first game and maybe Im just more used to Avadon's story and how it plays out, but I think I played enough of the game to get an impression.

[kensuguro]

Sort of agree on the slug fest part.. later game battles really becomes a formula for who deals more damage in the shortest amount of turns. So for me it was like haste/battle frenzy, 2 double sword dudes whack, priest does divine (whatever the earthquake thing is called), and mage does arcane bunch of crescents flying out. And the rest is healing/re-haste when needed. Only strategic part I think is which ward you use, and which cloak you use. I usually do ward of elements and cloak of blades. Can also add war blessing and protection if needed. Still, the difference was minimal because most enemies would die very quickly. I was over lv35 by the time I figured out what I needed to do to finish the 3 missions.

 

I also think the situation will be different in torment or hard. I feel that I can get away with this formula because my throughput is so much higher than most enemies in normal mode.

 

The story issue I think is more from the bits being presented in bits and pieces, and not having a good way of piecing them together into a cohesive structure. But it's been discussed before so I won't go into that. (basically just UI to organize storyline will help) Though in terms of content, I do wish that things changed more as a result of your actions. Like the towns changing after you kill off giants (soldiers becoming bakers, fishermen, etc) or even a town's economy changing if you help kill of bandits. For the most part, you just go back, report to the quest giver, and get paid, end of story. That felt a bit dry.

 

I felt that a good portion of the game was search and recovery type stuff, which takes time, but for me wasn't very rewarding since these types of tasks feel like filler material. It bulks up gametime for sure, but just not very rewarding. Hunting stuff down is fun, killing off giants and dragons is fun. Hunting, and taking something from monsters is even more fun. Nephilim and Nephalim, slith tasks were cool because there's actual conflict, and you help resolve it. That's cool content.

[Death Knight]

Well yeah thats true about which difficulty you play on. You see I play on normal and I feel that all it really is is just large gobs of health added onto make normal enemies tanks. The reason why I don't mind with Avadon doing that, is that in Avadon the entire game is just one big boss battle with everyone having gobs of health and armor. That is much more consistent than everyone dies in 1-2 hits and then fight anything close to a boss and you will spend endless time grinding.

 

Thats probably the biggest reason I didn't finish the game because it was just too much grinding mixed with a not so great story.

[The Reverend]

As the first game of the series, set in a brand new world, E1/A1/A:EFTP are all more about exploring the underworld, and learning about it's people, culture, and history. There's a bit of a story, but its really more about immersing yourself in the world and discovering what it is all about. The later games of the series have more overarching storylines, although none of them to the same degree as Avadon. Avadon and E1/A1/A:EFTP are really opposite ends of the open-world exploration vs. linear storyline spectrum, as far as Jeff's games go.

 

Personally, I enjoy both, although I'd lean slightly towards the open-world exploration end if I had to choose. As good as Jeff is at story-telling, computer games have trouble matching books when it comes to story-telling, IMHO.

[Randomizer]

Jeff has added minor quests to help direct the flow without the forced linearity of the later games. He would have faced open revolt if he had eliminated the open world exploration of his earlier games.

[kensuguro]

well, the only issue with avernum for me as far as storytelling goes, was piecing together the story. I think the individual parts are written very well, I just couldn't put everything together into a cohesive story. When the stories clicked, or I triggered things in the right order, it was like reading a book. I played about half way into Avadon too, and really liked to storytelling in that one. I guess some people don't like its linear-ness, but it made more sense to me. Character focus was nice too. I really like Jeff's writing style. Not overly fiction fairytale, very descriptive, and very approachable.

 

If the goal of A1 was just to explore and get comfortable with the area and its societies, then it definitely served its purpose. I am curious as to how the story unfolds A2 onward. There's definitely material for an epic story. (as if A1 wasn't epic already) From A1, I definitely got a good sense of the underworld, the inhabitant's world view, and the overall setting of the game. Sans the people of Spire in the Abyss. I took them all out.

[Death Knight]

Yeah I guess I didnt think of it that way. The problem was that the last game I played and completed was Avadon which I'm just about to finish a 2nd time pretty soon. Avadon was the complete opposite of everything that Avernum 1 is. Avadon forces you to find out the story as it unfolds piece by piece. Avernum, like you all have said is more about the random quests and finding out the world.

 

Its two complete parts of the spectrum and I guess the thing is I somewhat favor Avadon but that doesn't mean Avernum's a bad game either.