Unsure about Avadon

[xensaya]

I'm not sure about this game. I thought the story was alright, but the game felt really linear. Unless I missed some sort of faction thing going on it, felt like that your forced into one conclusion with (slightly varying endings?). Didn't have the same feel as Avernum Series or Geneforge Series. Loved both those series. I felt like it differed too much from normal spiderweb design. I would like to see more development of it.

 

What did everyone else think about this?

[Randomizer]

Avadon is very linear and the endings are changed only be whether you fight the hardest monsters and what you do with your companions at the end. Geneforge gives you the biggest differences depending what you do and Avernum in the later games allowed you to change the endings. The first 3 Avernum were determined by how much you did of the main quests.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

I felt about the same way as you, but since I really liked the story and the sub-stories I can't really complain.

[Painted Lady]

When I first played Avadon I wasn't all that in love with the game either, but it has since grown on me. The first time through I played on Normal. Since Jeff has "re-aligned" the difficulty settings, it wasn't as engaging as Avernum and Geneforge were for me.

 

However, I decided to have another go at the game as a Singleton. It was great fun, and the boss fights were a challenge.

 

So, I decided to do one more run-through on Hard, with an eye to building a group that can take out Redbeard. It's been quite an immersive experience.

 

Also, I think it is just plain a little different from Jeff's usual design. Normally there is this huge world to explore. With Avadon it's more like peeling back the layers of an onion - there is always something new to discover - be it another quest or a hidden entrance to a new area.

[Kelandon]

I entirely agree with your sense that it's a different kind of game than Jeff usually makes. So does Jeff, really; he said somewhere (maybe somebody else will bother to track it down) that he made it different partly because he wanted to tell a different type of story. The relatively straightforward heroic fantasy of Avernum 1 lends itself to a general exploratory approach, but the dark fantasy that he was trying to capture in Avadon really requires a more plot-heavy (and therefore more linear) approach.

 

He could've done Geneforge-style factions, I suppose, but it wouldn't have worked terribly well with the plot that he had. He'd have had to change the plot at least some in order to make it play out properly, and I think he wanted to get the game out faster and tell the story that he was trying to tell.

 

Besides, I don't really like factions, because I rarely play the games more than once, so I feel like I'm missing out when I know there are other paths.

 

It seems as though he's taking his sweet time with Avadon 2, which I'm hoping means that we're in for something really good, one way or another.

[xensaya]

I entirely agree with your sense that it's a different kind of game than Jeff usually makes. So does Jeff, really; he said somewhere (maybe somebody else will bother to track it down) that he made it different partly because he wanted to tell a different type of story. The relatively straightforward heroic fantasy of Avernum 1 lends itself to a general exploratory approach, but the dark fantasy that he was trying to capture in Avadon really requires a more plot-heavy (and therefore more linear) approach.

 

He could've done Geneforge-style factions, I suppose, but it wouldn't have worked terribly well with the plot that he had. He'd have had to change the plot at least some in order to make it play out properly, and I think he wanted to get the game out faster and tell the story that he was trying to tell.

 

Besides, I don't really like factions, because I rarely play the games more than once, so I feel like I'm missing out when I know there are other paths.

 

It seems as though he's taking his sweet time with Avadon 2, which I'm hoping means that we're in for something really good, one way or another.

 

 

I think I remember him putting that up somewhere a long time ago. Well, it feels like a long time ago to me anyways. I still think it would be nice if it was a little less linear, but I still think the story was ok. Hopefully looking for something more in Avadon 2.

[Death Knight]

One of the things I love about Avadon is that it has the most direct story but at the same time, still allows you to go back and do something/pick up another quest from time to time. I find that when a story wanders and tends to be too non-linear, I lose track of the story. Other great examples of this would be Avernum 4, 5 and Im not sure about 6 as I havent played that. Avernum 5 was a good example of this and I probably should finish that game one of these days.