Avernum: Escape From the Pit - Review @ IMG

There's a review of Avernum: Escape from the Pit over at Inside Mac Games, with a score of 8/10:

With the above in mind, it's hard to imagine how a good player would find the game difficult on normal settings. Well, before the difficulty was patched to be easier, things were very difficult. So difficult in fact, that many dungeons easily accessed from the beginning can destroy your party in a single round. That even applied to my well-developed party. However, I didn't really have any trouble going through and wiping them out after a little leveling up, and at this point my party hasn't found a single zone in the world of even slight difficulty. Now that the patch has been applied, those zones are likely much easier, but there's no way to tell.

More information.

Spiderweb games, in a word, rock. Put it on torment, and prepare to get your socks pulled down! Even nerfed, these games will give you 500 times the challenge of biocrap games. If Vogel had some EA money, he'd have kiddies crying themselves to sleep over the game that had just repeatedly kicked them in the jimmies. Heck, I'm replaying Geneforge 5 right now and having a blast! I'll be downloading Avernum the moment it's out for the PC.



-Carn

What he said!

Well in truth I've played every one of Jeff's game going back to exile 1, and the actual difficulty ranges a great deal. Some of his games are incredibly easy and combat is an exercise in tedium. Some are incredibly challenging and give you a great sense of accomplishment when you finally win. Most are more in the middle. In general though he's been learning as he goes along and his more recent games tend to be pretty good in the challenge department. That's why I'm very interested in seeing how this one turns out despite the agony of having to play through the same recycled story yet again.

I love this game … just finishing up my run for my review …

Originally Posted by txa1265
I love this game … just finishing up my run for my review …

Whooo hooo. cant wait to read it.
I rather loved to see a remake of geneforge but this remake makes me happy too.

I bet we'll see a remake of a Geneforge game at some point. Followed by the heavens opening up, and angels singing!


-Carn

I wonder if this remake indicates poor sales of Avadon, or merely a quick win for Spiderweb.

I bought Avernum 1-3, and Blades. But not Nethergate because it was too similar. I bought Avernum 4-5. But not Avadon because it was too similar. I did buy most of the Geneforge games as they were genuinely different from his more traditional dungeon bashing stuff in both gameplay and setting.

Originally Posted by The Nameless Zero
I wonder if this remake indicates poor sales of Avadon, or merely a quick win for Spiderweb.

I bought Avernum 1-3, and Blades. But not Nethergate because it was too similar. I bought Avernum 4-5. But not Avadon because it was too similar. I did buy most of the Geneforge games as they were genuinely different from his more traditional dungeon bashing stuff in both gameplay and setting.

Avadon sales were off the charts according to Vogel - PARTICULARLY on the iPad. He has a whole new audience starving for this sort of game, and had wanted to bring Avernum to a new audience … and this was the perfect opportunity.

And here I was worried that Jeff might be on food stamps when in fact he's sitting in front of his jewel-encrusted Apple hardware laughing at me while sipping fine wine with Peter Molyneux and raving about "one button shooter awesome stuff" in the XBox version of Avernum after the EA buyout of Spiderweb.

Geneforge does NOT need to be remade!

Yes it does. EA: Spiderweb will streamline it and bring it to the masses. Choices and consequences in Xbox Live Geneforge: hit "X" to shoot the servile in the head or "A" to aim for the legs. And Jeff's blog will consists of statements like "actualizing the accessible awesomeness of intuitive player choice in dynamic realtime while upscaling my shareholdings".

That's the real reason I'm still waiting for my PC version of Exile 1 version 3.

I know Avadon sold quite well for them, and I bet Avernum is going to put those sales to shame when it's released for the pc. I just hope Vogel doesn't get bored at some point, counting all that cash could be tiresome! At least he's earned it, his games are far more interesting to me than 99% of the big-name releases.


-Carn

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I know Avadon sold quite well for them, and I bet Avernum is going to put those sales to shame when it's released for the pc. I just hope Vogel doesn't get bored at some point, counting all that cash could be tiresome! At least he's earned it, his games are far more interesting to me than 99% of the big-name releases.

Based on past stuff he has said, I didn't think PC sales were appreciably higher … but that piracy was? Perhaps I am incorrect.

But since the best selling - and most profitable - version of Avadon was NOT Mac or PC, but iPad … I think it is safe to assume that EVERYTHING he does for a while will have that as at least a target if not primary platform.

Nothing wrong with using the ipad for games like that…it excels at them.

I really like these sorts of games on the ipad, can't wait for the ipad version.

Originally Posted by The Nameless Zero
Yes it does. EA: Spiderweb will streamline it and bring it to the masses. Choices and consequences in Xbox Live Geneforge: hit "X" to shoot the servile in the head or "A" to aim for the legs.

Geneforge quicktime events! Don't forget the slow mo kill

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Geneforge quicktime events! Don't forget the slow mo kill

Choices & consequences: CHOOSE to buy the 'online pass' for multiplayer, CHOOSE to get paid DLC and achievements … or the CONSEQUENCE will be getting a crappy ending.

Yes it is getting pretty bad isn't it? I'm just waiting to see the Mass Effect bill board in a mountain pass in the Reckoning. Or maybe they can just have a NPC mention a free Mass Effect weapon upgrade if I kill 10 banshees? That would be immersive.