Avadon - Hands-On @ IMC

Inside Mac Games has a hands-on preview of Avadon, Spidwerweb's new, upcoming game series:

Jeff has said Avadon will be their best looking game to date, and it's true. The graphics are smooth and pleasing to the eye, and the excellent menus combined with a sharp and functional interface make for a very tidy appearance. There is also a significantly increased number of art assets and objects around in buildings and landscapes which adds great variety and detail when exploring or fighting. Sound remains minimal with no music (play your own in iTunes) but with enough ambient chatter in towns, and combat attacks and spells packing enough punch to be satisfying.

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Definitely interested in this. I just hope it has walking animations this time I am going to assume it does.

I dont like this part though

"There are handy points on the map and edge of the screen pointing you in the direction you need to go"

The graphics do indeed look nice, remind me a little of Ultima Online when it first released. Character's look a little small for the screen size though.

A minor nitpick, but the claim that "As with all Spiderweb games everything is in real time except for when you enter combat mode at which point it goes turn-based." is untrue. Avernum is not real time, in or out of combat, but turn-based all the way.

The graphics sure are nicer, but with stuff like quest markers (if that's what the "pointing you in the direction you need to go" actually means, you never know with today's gaming press - what with all the cheering of moving towards Mass Effect and all) and skill trees, not to mention Jeff's blog entries praising DA:O, I'm still a bit worried about the direction Jeff has taken with Avadon. Oh well, I'm going to wait for the demo and see for myself.

When looking at the screenshots, it seems like spells have been streamlined quite a bit. Instead of having daze and charm, for instance, your daze spell will have a charm effect at 6 or 7 ranks of skill. I wonder if he's added more spells to the game to compensate for those that get absorbed. Time will tell.

I'm currently trying to play through Avernum 6. I've taken about 3 years off from a Jeff game, and it seems to be helping. I've stuck with this playthrough much longer than my previous attempts.

The reviewers insistence on namedropping Mass Effect was really tedious, especially seeing as these two have hardly anything in common apart from some vague RPG concepts. But hey, it`s 2010 :/

As for Mr Vogel I kind of sensed his becoming tired of being niche dev some time ago..and well, can you really blame him? He`s done his bit :) And at least he`s keeping the turn-based combat in…

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
And at least he`s keeping the turn-based combat in…

Thats all i ask for nowadays