Posted April 25, 2021
Few thoughts after spending ~20h replaying Albion... plus a few tools and resources to make your playthrough more enjoyable, hopefully :)
Albion was my first CRPG ever - I didn't really know what to expect... and I was immediately sold :) Completed the game by myself - although it wasn't easy ;)
To this day, I love the 90's VGA pixel art, and the lore. 2D parts are servicable, but unfortunately 3D did not age well - the graphics itself is what you can and should expect from a game this age, but unfortunately very clunky controls and strange FOV have negative impact on one's ability to enjoy this title in 2021 - which is too bad, because with just a few simple tweaks the engine would be more than fitting even in this age of nostalgia!
I was able to play without any cheating all the way to Toronto, but then I've remembered how copy-paste'y and somewhat uninspiring the remaining parts tend to be - do yourself a favor though and experience the last act (even if only via the magic of YT), it does not disappoint and wraps the whole adventure nicely.
All that said, a few thoughts on getting most out of your Albion purchase:
If you feel like you can't live without WASD control scheme (in place of arrow keys), and would prefer some higher-resolution 3D and/or high-res filters, you may want to try the highly unofficial Windows port (what you get from GOG is just a Dosbox environment configured to run the original game; works nicely though, at least for me!).
You can get it here:
Some instructions for setting it up (I quote):
"It's a bit messy, but I had the same problem and managed to make it work. Inside your GoG install should be a file called "game.gog". This file is a CD image of the original files, you can mount it with virtual drive programs (I use PowerIso). Once mounted, you should see all the needed folders inside your virtual unit. Make a new folder inside your Albion GoG installation directory and rename it to "ALBIONCD" and copy all the contents of your virtual drive into it. Now, edit "setup.ini" with a text editor and change SOURCE_PATH line to SOURCE_PATH=ALBIONCD\ and you are set."
Please also make sure to read instructions included in the .zip file.
If your executable does not start afterwards, please follow this advice:
"Turns out instead of "SOURCE_PATH=ALBIONCD\" in the SETUP.INI file, you need to type "SOURCE_PATH=ALBIONCD\ALBION" instead."
Albion was my first CRPG ever - I didn't really know what to expect... and I was immediately sold :) Completed the game by myself - although it wasn't easy ;)
To this day, I love the 90's VGA pixel art, and the lore. 2D parts are servicable, but unfortunately 3D did not age well - the graphics itself is what you can and should expect from a game this age, but unfortunately very clunky controls and strange FOV have negative impact on one's ability to enjoy this title in 2021 - which is too bad, because with just a few simple tweaks the engine would be more than fitting even in this age of nostalgia!
I was able to play without any cheating all the way to Toronto, but then I've remembered how copy-paste'y and somewhat uninspiring the remaining parts tend to be - do yourself a favor though and experience the last act (even if only via the magic of YT), it does not disappoint and wraps the whole adventure nicely.
All that said, a few thoughts on getting most out of your Albion purchase:
If you feel like you can't live without WASD control scheme (in place of arrow keys), and would prefer some higher-resolution 3D and/or high-res filters, you may want to try the highly unofficial Windows port (what you get from GOG is just a Dosbox environment configured to run the original game; works nicely though, at least for me!).
You can get it here:
Some instructions for setting it up (I quote):
"It's a bit messy, but I had the same problem and managed to make it work. Inside your GoG install should be a file called "game.gog". This file is a CD image of the original files, you can mount it with virtual drive programs (I use PowerIso). Once mounted, you should see all the needed folders inside your virtual unit. Make a new folder inside your Albion GoG installation directory and rename it to "ALBIONCD" and copy all the contents of your virtual drive into it. Now, edit "setup.ini" with a text editor and change SOURCE_PATH line to SOURCE_PATH=ALBIONCD\ and you are set."
Please also make sure to read instructions included in the .zip file.
If your executable does not start afterwards, please follow this advice:
"Turns out instead of "SOURCE_PATH=ALBIONCD\" in the SETUP.INI file, you need to type "SOURCE_PATH=ALBIONCD\ALBION" instead."
