Posted on: September 10, 2020

LostMySword

Games: 189 Reviews: 2

Stop reading reviews and buy it!

Having played both video games and Dungeons & Dragons for over 35 years (damn, I've just realised I'm really old), this is the closest I've come to the feel of playing a single player Dungeons & Dragons as a computer game. What's great about this game is the pacing. There's just the right amount of exploration, story (ok, you have a lot of reading to do.. none of that modern fangled voice acting here) and combat. It's an interesting, relaxing and enjoyable (a lot of games aren't and feel like work) that you can solely play with your mouse if you wish. I have over 2000hrs in Path of Exile but sometimes I just want to chill. Could it be better? Of course it could. I'm lazy and would prefer voice acting. I don't mind the graphics at all, it's is the sort of game you're roleplaying in your head anyway. You should really stop reading reviews and go and buy it. It genuinely is good. Also if you want a good watch regarding the developer I'd suggest watching the 'GDC Spiderweb' talk (google it). I will see you in the pit fellow adventurers.

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Posted on: November 7, 2015

EndlessWaves

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 14

I struggled to like it.

Avernum has a lot of flaws. The interface feels like someone's first attempt. For example if you have one character's inventory page open and click the inventory button for another character. You would expect this to either replace the currently open inventory or open it as well as the current one. Instead, you get an error message that tells you to finish what you're doing first. Worse, it's inconsistent. If you click the second character's portrait instead of their inventory button it does switch to their inventory. It's not Dwarf fortress, but I can't think of many other games of the last ten years that have had such usability problems. The sound is a token effort, although the graphics are better. The character and monster models are no more than passable but the landscaping and objects can be pretty at times. The skill system generally fairly simple. It does include the interesting option of knowledge skills such as Arcane Lore where the values from all party members are added together when it's used. Unfortunately there's no party skill cap, and little guidance about how much need so it's very easy to waste skill points in them. The combat is unimaginative. Despite the game being set in caves there's not a single spell for blocking tunnels, causing fungal growths or making lava burst from the walls, but you do get the option of using 'Icy Rain' or 'Call the Storm' to make stuff fall on your enemies. I've no idea where it's supposed to be falling from. The best part of the game is the writing. The graphics are simple enough that they don't conflict with statements about what you're looking at so some of the town descriptions, put together from text in a dozen places, are the most memorable things in the game. Unfortunately not all the writing is as good, the quests and characters aren't as strong and overall I found there wasn't enough in the game to keep my interest.

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Posted on: July 28, 2015

furthest_flung

Games: 3 Reviews: 11

The Re-remake is decent open-world fun

The remake of Avernum, which was the remake of Exile, the first games of two-man-band Spiderweb Software. Make a four-person party and get stuck in a great big cave with lots of little dungeon caves, and fight your way out. The big selling point is the HUGE map with large dungeons in between. No rubber-banding means early parties struggle to find dungeons that don't instagib them, especially on hard or torment modes, or at high levels, makes weaker dungeons boring cake-walks. Still, it does give a good sense of the vast and uncaring nature of Avernum. Tactical grid-based, turn-based combat can give players a thin taste of real tactical challenge, but the game's combat still largely comes down to dice rolls and character builds, with special abilities rarely nuanced enough to make serious hard choices between each one. This seriously weakens a combat-centric game, and can make some dungeons fairly grindy as you just crush a few more of the same monsters one more room over until you run out of rooms. The game brings along with it many of Spiderweb's more recent sensibilities back to the classic: The skill system is, IMHO, worse for giving players only 2 skill points and all skills cost 1 skill point each. The lack of cheaper skills when multi-classing basically force more specialist characters, and you pretty much are guaranteed to have 1 sword fighter, 1 pole fighter, 1 wizard, and 1 priest, or you're missing large parts of the game or weakening your characters for no good reason. Also, they have modern Spiderweb bosses, which means they have 50 times as much HP as everyone else, and spawn in more enemies and buff themselves/debuff you/teleport a character away when they hit certain percentages of their health. Loot and rewards could be more varied - I often just sell absolutely everything in whole dungeons for the gold it takes to upgrade just one spell. The setting is interesting, but the storytelling weak. Only two characters are memorable.

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Posted on: November 1, 2018

GregT_314

Verified owner

Games: 1132 Reviews: 45

Pure ecstasy for a very specific niche

Turn-based combat. Explore as you want, tackle quests in the order you want. Satisfying power progression for characters. It's all here - and not a second of time that could have been spent on gameplay or content has been wasted on making the graphics pretty. Avernum: Escape From The Pit hits a very particular RPG target very precisely. It perfectly delivers a mixture of exploration, combat, question, and talking that's incredibly satisfying for a certain kind of gamer, but the graphics and sound are serviceable and no more. But if you come to these kind of RPGs for the satisfaction of clearing maps, finishing quests, and levelling up, you'll have a blast. The story's unique enough to maintain your interest, without ever being truly compelling. The writing's good enough to get you to actually read it, without ever being noteworthy. Some quests can be finished in multiple ways, and sometimes that has consequences, but mostly not really. Avernum is a game that knows what it is, and achieves that perfectly, and aims not a micron higher.

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Posted on: October 20, 2015

PartyAtKrondor

Games: 5 Reviews: 2

Slow paced, carefully written epic story

I remember playing a demo of the original version of this game back in the day. It seemed decent but i never bought, to be honest the art style and graphics in general was off putting to my liking. I come from the DOS era and color scheme + art are important factors when i decide whether or not i like a game, besides gameplay of course. And i must say, in this remastered version, they got it right. The game looks and stinks of good old RPG, every setting and place is unique, even when using the same textures, every place have an unique design and its decorated with love and passion. As a plus, you get some decent animations on attacks and movement and some decent spell/skill effects. Now, about the story, i wont spoil anything, but i will say that the story is very well planned out. From the beginning to the end, little by little, you will grow to care about the little people in the game and you will read all those damned tooltips and conversations (there are a lot in this game, get yer reading glasses and get ready to work out those eye muscles from left to right). The main quest is epic enough to keep you hooked, but the side quest are decent and cool too and some give you really nice rewards. Now about the gameplay, its a turn based combat RPG, the mechanics and very simple, youll get the feel of it very early in the game, the skill system is a simple tree with small ramifications, the game gives you total freedom about the development of your characters, so you can go bananas with a dual wielding sword magician if you want, and theres even talents and skills that can make that build viable. The game favors farming, so in my opinion, never skip a battle, youll need all that exp for late game. Once you reach the lvl cap (you can still gain levels but your stats and skill wont be raised as much) you could say your ready for the endgame. Just one simple advice, BUILD A DUAL WIELDING SWORD WARRIOR, it will make your life so full of joy.

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