Im a big fan of old school party games. Always have been. Games like ice wind dale 1 and 2.

I recently started playing the Spiderweb Software's games as the graphics reminded me of old days of rpg goodness.

I figured that I would start with Avernum-Escape from the Pit since it is after all a remake of the first of his series.

And from then, Ive been trying to find one redeeming quality of this game. There's no story, you find out that your sent into the underworld and then from there, its just 10 lvls of random encounters and no plot. The skills are all the same basically, fighters 1 hit kill most enemies, most other enemies have insane amounts of life and require no tactics other than pumping strength.

Am I the only person that has to ask what was this guy thinking when he made this?

So I counted my losses and turned to one of his other Avernum trilogy games-Avernum 4. And Ive got to say, it almost doesn't feel like its made by the same person.

Theres an actually decent story that goes along with and you actually do get a feel of something going on.

I know I shouldn't sound mean about this post but I really just can't get a sense of story from his first game. I read reviews based on other users, they say its the best avernum in the series.

If anyone else out there has played any of these games, are Avernum 2 and 3 just as bad as the 1st or should I just stick with his 2nd trilogy?

I really don't know about the avernum series, didn't play any.

But I played geneforge, and the stories, developments, moral conflicts, were extraordinary. At least I found them so. Maybe you should consider switching to these, if avernum disappoints ?

Thanks for the recommendation. Right now I kind of got into Avernum 4, its got a cool story and reminds me of ice wind dale. I was mainly just wondering if Avernum 2 and 3 were just like the 1st one because he's remaking them all. Just wondering.

I've read interviews with him and he has even said that he's learned a whole lot since he started developing games. I haven't played Escape from the Pit, but keeping in mind that it could be pretty close to the original in story, maybe it was just that his writing chops weren't quite up to snuff yet? I can't say whether it gets better in Av 2-3, either, sorry.

Geneforge is epic. I think you will enjoy it tremendously. Keep in mind that each and every Spiderweb game has a HUGE demo available on his site, so you can always take a pretty gracious plunge before you plunk down cash for the full thing. IIRC (this will require verification from someone else), you can even transfer your save files from the demos to the full games seamlessly.

Thanks I will keep that in mind and see how Avernum 4 turns out after the end of the demo. So far, its a pretty darn good story.