I rediscovered my boxed copy of Avencast: Rise of the Mage the day I finished Driftmoon, and being in a fantasy RPG mood, I decided to give a try. I played and finished it six years ago, but I remembered very little about it. I only remembered that the plot was generic and the gameplay was okay. Still, I was in a good mood and I wanted to try something different.
I think I played about an hour, and I just couldn't force myself to continue. The game does very little do grab your attention early on, and the combat feels passable until you go into the crypt. This is the first dungeon of sorts, and it's basically just a long slog that reveals just how difficult the combat can be. It tries to make things interesting by requiring a series of key presses to cast the spells you unlock, but I could not get them to register consistently. On some occasions I had to perform the key/mouse sequence up to three or four times to finally get the spell to work, while on other occasions the spells activated when I was simply trying to move and attack at the same time. It was frustrating and tedious, and I wasn't going to invest the dozen or so hours needed to complete it when I was tired of it less than an hour in.
Inspired by a Let's Play I saw the other day, I decided to download Dead Island again. This is another game I haven't played in a long time. I remember it as a fun--if repetitive--game light on story. Mostly it's about slicing, smashing, poking, burning, exploding, and occasionally shooting zombies (and the occasional human) with strangely satisfying weapons that degrade rather quickly but are found in copious amounts--well, pretty much everywhere. Rather one-note, overall, but it's simplicity works. It's also one of the few games in which I don't get annoyed with the large number of weapons available. If I run out of inventory space, I simply drop an old weapon and replace it with a new one if the new one is better or move along. I don't feel like I can only succeed if I collect as much as possible and sell it.
