I really wish book 2 would have a party like they originally planed. I have to say I was disappointed in book 1. I wonder why single character seems to be so popular. When people recommend a Spiderweb game they seem to recommend Geneforge over Avernum, even though Arvernum 5 is hands-down the best crpg to be released in years and years. And the all the party crpg's coming out are RTwP (Drakensang, The Broken Hourglass) or from companies whose game's I do not care for (and still they're all RTwP).
Where is the love for TB party crpgs? Look at Eschalon, the combat is boring. Not because it is TB, but because it’s SC, not party. I can't think of one single character TB game that had good combat (including the FO's). I also can't think of any single character RTwP or twitch game that had combat that wasn't complete ass. All the crpg greats had TB full party combat besides Darklands. And Geneforge has at least a party of 2, often 3. TB SC games=boring. Tb party games=good. If I wanted to play a crpg with boring combat I have every mainstream game out there, I have no idea why Book 2 wouldn't be party, or why AoD wouldn't be.
Name the game with the best combat (we'll stick to TB so everyone doesn't say Halo or other such FPS nonsense) and I guarantee the game has a party. JA2, ToEE, RoA, UFO:TftD, etc., all party TB.
If I'm going to spend a huge chunk of time engaged in combat, and if 95% of all the character stats and skills are combat oriented, why not go party and make the combat have some depth and strategy and tactics?