Avernum 2 - Review @ GameWatcher

Couchpotato · January 22, 2015

GameWatcher has the first review that I can find this month for Jeff Vogel's latest remake Avernum 2: Crystal Souls, and the site gave the game a positive 8.5/10.

Although much of Crystal Souls that deserves praise is a product of the close-knit development team and cohesive vision, this inevitably gives rise to its own problems. The absence of a substantial budget to finance extensive playtesting ensures that the game doesn’t always run smoothly – on more than one occasion, Crystal Souls crashed my computer on the title screen. Additionally, there were two instances in which an irreversible bug would take me to my inventory every time I attempted to open a door, forcing me to load up a previous save and repeat the section again. Luckily, the difficulty can be dropped down on the fly to alleviate some of the frustration.

Nevertheless, these technological hiccups – try as they might – couldn’t taint an otherwise rewarding journey through the divided lands of Avernum. For those who are already fans of the series, I’d suggest Crystal Souls is an essential purchase. For those none the wiser to Spiderweb Software’s extensive back catalogue, there’s no better time to join the fight.

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HiddenX · January 22, 2015

Jeff Vogel has a track record of very stable games. If there are a few issues with this game he'll fix it fast.

DArtagnan · January 22, 2015

One of these days I hope to succeed trying to get into one of his games....

Kordanor · January 22, 2015

yet most skirmishes revolve around repeating the hardest-hitting skill until its resolution. It is what it is – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

And then in the summary it's listed as a bad thing.

That's what I never get at reviews. People who don't play on highest difficulty in most games just don't need to use all the facettes of the system. It goes hand in hand with the difficulty. On Torment it even says "You will need to use every trick and fully utilize every ability".

I am playing on torment, I am 29h into the game now (probably around 1/3 of the game) and can't say that overall the fights are boring. With Avernum it's also the case that once a special fight actually becomes boring it's also resolved in just a fifth or so which a challenging fight would take. Avernum 1 also had a lot of special very interesting Boss fights with different phases. I have only seen a couple of these in a lesser format in Avernum 2, but I guess these fights will also show up more now.

Regarding Bugs: Didn't encounter a single one. And I actually can't remember I ever encountered a bug in a spiderweb game. Even if there were bugs I forgot they must have been incredibly rare.

BrianOConnell · January 22, 2015

He doesn't seem to like turn based combat much so I take his criticism of that part of the game with a pinch of the usual. I'm currently playing through escape from the pit and I thoroughly enjoy the combat. Each to their own. I have dabbled in a few of Spiderweb's games but escape from the pit is the first one I have sunk time into (almost finished) and it's one of my favorite games in a long time so I'll be going back to finish the Geneforge series and Avadon soon enough methinks. I have often thought of getting into game development and I honestly find Jeff Vogel a bit of an inspiration on this front. When it comes to well crafted, enjoyable games he is proof that graphics really are/should be bottom of the list of priorities.

duerer · January 22, 2015

Slightly going OFF:

Speaking of difficulty....
Well, this thing bothers me for a long time.
Since we are talking about RPGs (that is, games with a huge freedom factor), I wonder:
why not balance an RPG in such a way that the difficulty is just another in-game player "choice", not unlike to avoid combat (diplomat) or engage (fighter).

I guess the answer is that most RPGs nowadays are just glorified tactical combat games - which is not bad (for fighters), but if combat is omitted (the diplomath path), the game would be ultimately a hollow shell.
Kind of sad....

Kordanor · January 22, 2015

duerer said:
Slightly going OFF:

Speaking of difficulty….
Well, this thing bothers me for a long time.
Since we are talking about RPGs (that is, games with a huge freedom factor), I wonder:
why not balance an RPG in such a way that the difficulty is just another in-game player "choice", not unlike to avoid combat (diplomat) or engage (fighter).

I guess the answer is that most RPGs nowadays are just glorified tactical combat games - which is not bad (for fighters), but if combat is omitted (the diplomath path), the game would be ultimately a hollow shell.
Kind of sad….

I think some games are actually going this route. Vampire the Masquerade comes to mind and also Shadowrun Returns. While you cannot avoid all combat in these games, Shadowrun Returns does not reward combat as it gives "XP" for tasks only and not killed opponents.
As long as you receive XP in combat it is hardly possible to make a game which works in a way you wish it does as it would be impossible to balance.

forgottenlor · January 22, 2015

duerer said:
Slightly going OFF:

Speaking of difficulty….
Well, this thing bothers me for a long time.
Since we are talking about RPGs (that is, games with a huge freedom factor), I wonder:
why not balance an RPG in such a way that the difficulty is just another in-game player "choice", not unlike to avoid combat (diplomat) or engage (fighter).

I guess the answer is that most RPGs nowadays are just glorified tactical combat games - which is not bad (for fighters), but if combat is omitted (the diplomath path), the game would be ultimately a hollow shell.
Kind of sad….

Because combat extends game time considerably. Unrest is actually a game with the dialogue of a normal RPG and no combat (and very little exploration) and it clocks in about 3 1/2 hours. I think (especially big) game developers are afraid to
deliver such short games. Branching dialogue is a lot of work, and once voice acting comes in, very expensive.

Avernum 2 - Review @ GameWatcher

Couchpotato

Part-Time News-bot

HiddenX

The Elder Spy

DArtagnan

Guest

Kordanor

Wastelander

BrianOConnell

Sentinel

duerer

Keeper of the Watch

Kordanor

Wastelander

forgottenlor

Font of Useless Knowledge