Avernum 5 - Wrap Report @ RPG Vault

Jeff Vogel has penned an Avernum V wrap report for RPG Vault. Here's a snip on the strengths:

Avernum 5's greatest strength, I can say with some confidence, is its storyline. From the very first few minutes of play, the game creates an atmosphere of danger and paranoia. The hunt for the assassin is always part of what is going on, and his constant attempts to kill you add a lot of excitement and interest.

I am also very happy with the game's encounter and dungeon design. Avernum 5 has no generic dungeons. There is always something cool going on, and the enemies are unique and unpredictable.

Finally, I think that the game system has reached a level of detail and polish that I am very happy with. The game plays very well. It introduces a battle discipline for warriors and archers, giving them a variety of interesting tactical options. The game system is deep enough to give a lot party building and strategic options, but it's not overwhelmingly complex.

And the weaknesses bit that follows immediately after says the next group of games (presumably after GF5 and AV6, which wrap up the two current series) will use new OpenGL engines.
More information.

A new engine! That'll be a shock. I'd call Avernum's graphics "consistent" - they're nothing stellar of course, but they don't hurt my eye. A new engine is risky :-)

It is always fun reading these things … and I look forward to whatever Jeff can come up with next.

Everyone wants a new engine but to be honest, I'm a bit scared of the result. Can he create enough 3D stuff to make it work? Will crappy 3D look worse than crappy 2D? I find the current 2D quite fine - it's not pretty but there is quite a variety to the tilesets…look forward to finding out at any rate.

iam completly in love with this game even though its ugly. looking foward to a graphic updates sequal.

Well, it's kinda expected - Jeff changes his engines at the end of every decade. Hope he is not going to follow up with 5 years of remakes after that - like he did when switching from Exile engine to Avernum engine.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Will crappy 3D look worse than crappy 2D?

Based on my experience with Nintendo DS games, YES!

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Will crappy 3D look worse than crappy 2D?

Unfortunately, it usually does.

I guess it depends what kind of crappy 3D you are talking about. Are you just talking old? Like 1999-2000 3-D, or just poorly done, higher vector 3-D.

I'm talking about whatever 3D Jeff ends up using. I'll buy his games regardless of what they look like but I'd be surprised if he could populate his 3D engine with good art.

Jeff never said anything about the new engine using 3d. OpenGL is also used for 2d graphics (see Eschalon book 1 for a good example). I sure hope he does not go 3d. I'd probably buy every last Spiderweb game he offers if he would get some decent graphics (again, along the lines of Eschalon and many others would be fine, nothing to fancy is really needed). The encounters in the Avernum 5 demo are the strong point for me. I just can't handle the 15 year old interface and graphics.