Difficulty Relative to Other Games

[mauvebutterfly]

Hi. Long time Spiderweb fan who doesn't post here much, but I always loved reading your resources on the other games and enjoyed the theory crafting and philosophical discussions.

 

I've recently started Queen's Wish and was wondering how other Spiderweb veterans would rate the difficulty compared to other Spiderweb games. I played most of the previous ones on torment and found Geneforge to be the easiest and Avadon the hardest, with Avernum somewhere in the middle. Does this match up with other people's experiences? How difficult is Queen's Wish on torment in comparison?

[Slawbug]

The way people experience it has a lot to do with how they build their characters and parties.  I'd agree with your assessment though -- with a somewhat optimized build, on Torment, easiest to hardest -- Geneforge, First Avernum Trilogy remakes, Second Avernum Trilogy, Avadon.

 

Queen's Wish is somewhere in the middle as well.  The early game can actually be challenging on Torment, but once you build up some resources and levels and start taking advantage of key mechanics, it's a lot easier.  I'd slot it in with the Second Avernum Trilogy.

[Clintone]

This is the easiest Spiderweb game I've ever played...but like the above person says, it matters heavily how much you pay attention to key mechanics. I tend to be careful. Other games have more random elements that make them harder for careful people like me. You have plan ahead more in this game. That's pretty much the difference between hitting a solid wall and breezing your way through. 

[Randomizer]

It also depends upon what order you explore the world. Since you need resources to build shops and buy better equipment, where you go not only affects how hard the fights are on torment difficulty, but what equipment you can get to make fights easier.

 

It's like the differences between Geneforge and the Avernum/Exile games where you have to play them differently.

[madrigan]

I find the Geneforge games extremely difficult. There are some very difficult sections of Avadon but I would put it in the middle. Then Avernum is the easiest. I think QW is toward the easy end of the scale, once you get a handle on the resource management. Before that you are constantly losing money to run shops and can't get the gear you need. 

[Slawbug]

Yes, very good point about planning.

 

Geneforge offers divergent strategies with widely differing rates of return.  If you pick efficient creations (it's not usually obvious which these are) and make a bunch of them, you steamroll things even on Torment.  You get a more consistent challenge running e.g. a solo Agent.

 

Avadon 1 and Avernum 6 are maybe the least susceptible to optimizing characters, in general: you can make things easier but there will still be challenging bits.  (Avadon 2 and 3 come close, but are beyond clobbered by the Tinkermages.)

[mauvebutterfly]

Thanks for the responses.

 

If planning and routing ends up being the main issues with high difficulty I think I'll do fine. That appeals to my puzzle-gaming skills.

 

Going to have to brush off Avadon 1 again some time too. From what I remember from browsing the forums, part of my issue there was with playing as a Shaman, although I'd imagine that it's still possible on Torment with any class.