Others correct me if I am wrong, but #1 was remade as Escape from the Pit, if your worry was the antiquated graphics. That's what I've been playing - the game is immense and I really love how the story continuously develops. The difficulty spikes mid-dungeon I could do without, however…
I am the last person you can call a graphics whore. I still play many of the old DOS classics which had rough visuals even for their time, like Phantasie. When I say I'm seeing if I like it or not, I mean gameplay in it's entirety.
For me, as long as the graphics are clear and concise, and I can tell what I'm looking at (sometimes an issue with 3D games or early 2D games), I have no issues with them. I don't mind Avernum's graphics at all.
I tried fez for around 2 hours and honestly I can't see how it got so many 9s and 10s on review scores.Puzzles are very simplistic(not necessarily bad thing Limbo have relatively simplistic puzzles but they have good design) and not very well designed ,similar goes for platforming.There is nothing wrong with game everything works as intended but I just think game core mechanics aren't good enough imo.
TBH, I can't see it deserving 8 or 9 either. Maybe 6 at best, 4 or 5 most likely. I'm more conservative though, and my reviews back when I was doing them tended to be 3-6 for the most part, with very very few breaking 7-8.
However, IMO it is a solid platformer, if needing a bit of polish. Some of the platforming is too pixel perfect, which is a bit much. And this is coming from a Mega Man veteran, whose beaten all the original MM and MMX games repeatedly.
Normality? Wasn't that the predecessor of Realms of the Haunting?
Yes, I think it was.
I have no idea. The engine was used in Realms of the Haunting, though I don't know if anything else carried over. It doesn't look like it though, just the engine.