Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Geneforge

13 (29.5%)

Avernum

12 (27.3%)

Exile

14 (31.8%)

Nethergate

3 (6.8%)

Avadon

2 (4.5%)

Total Members Voted: 43

[Farseer]

Spiderweb Software have just released Avadon for the Mac, and I figured I might start a thread about them on the whole. :p

Does anyone have Avadon? Is it any good? How is it compared to other Spiderweb games? Is there any way to play Mac games on Windows? :p

To anyone that doesn't know what Spiderweb Software is: They're a company comprising of about three people that regularly releases RPGs that are, quite frankly, absolutely amazing. Their latest games have been minor disappointments in terms of how they compare with older games, but the older games are definitely worth playing. Website link here.

[Blaze]

I love SpidWeb games, though I preferred the Exile series to the Avernum series.

I haven't tried Avadon yet, not enough free time, but I'll definitely check out the demo later. I hope that they're using a free world map instead of a click-map-location-to-travel one like Geneforge did.

[Stworca]

I've played Exile series and Avernum, and i have to say that the latter ones are quite poor.

There was also the roman empire vs magic one, which name i have forgotten, also a good one.

[Blaze]

There was also the roman empire vs magic one, which name i have forgotten, also a good one.

That's probably Nethergate, I've only played the demo though.

[Farseer]

The trouble with the later Avernum games is that Jeff was like, "YOU KNOW WHAT'S GREAT?! GENEFORGE! I WANT TO PUT GENEFORGE IN AVERNUM. FUCK YES THAT IS SOME GOOD GENEFORGE."

But everyone who loved Avernum pretty much hated Geneforge.

[GlyphGryph]

I loved both of them for very different reasons. I'm not entirely sure how they'd mesh well, but I can certainly understand a designer wanting to try to combine two really good games (even if the end result is unlikely to be good)

I've never played the later Avernum games though, so I'm not sure how true the above comment is

[Hanzoku]

I  love the Exile games, but never liked the Avernum remakes when I tried the demo. I guess I'm just too fond of the 2d system and didn't like the look of the isometric 3d game.

One thing I wish was done better was party XP. My casters would regularly lag behind my main fighting pair, which made some of the quests difficult to do if I didn't have the 50mp to sanctify an evil alter for example. At the same time, it's awesome when my main fighter ends up a duel-wielding whirling dervish of mass hasted, mass-blessed max-assassination goodness.

[Blaze]

One thing I wish was done better was party XP. My casters would regularly lag behind my main fighting pair, which made some of the quests difficult to do if I didn't have the 50mp to sanctify an evil alter for example. At the same time, it's awesome when my main fighter ends up a duel-wielding whirling dervish of mass hasted, mass-blessed max-assassination goodness.

Are you talking about Avernum? I have the opposite problem with Exile. My casters would annihilate everything before my fighters got in range; at least until I got Major Blessing + Slow group.

And summoning, OH GOD SUMMONING.

[Fikes]

Anyone willing to write up a 60 second review and some starter tips? Also, which of the games is best to cut your teeth on. Looks like something I might be interested in.

[Stworca]

Anyone willing to write up a 60 second review and some starter tips? Also, which of the games is best to cut your teeth on. Looks like something I might be interested in.

The older the game, the more it hates the player. Exile -will- kill your characters should you make a slight mistake. You'll constantly be lost, never have enough rest, and always be surrounded and outnumbered in a 100:1 scale. There are also Doom Guards in Exile... What are Doom Guards you ask? Let me quote myself from another forum, from a thread written ages ago.

Remember the slimes in Icewind Dale 2 "Dragon's Eye" dungeon, that splitted into two every time you hit them? The easiest way to deal with those was to hurl a fireball or two
Imagine the slimes having more hp than you do when you encounter them, hitting like truck, beign absolutely immune to magic and all damage types except for good ol melee..

This is how Exile's "Doomguards" look like. At a mid point in the game, you're to destroy a shard that is holding two gates, that separate Giants from Trogs (both of them hate each other) and there is a single guardian, the doomguard. Knowing how big of a pain can this guy be, i rushed in with a single character and fled, to let giants and trogs take care of him. There were LOTS of giants and trogs

Doomguard starts with 150 hp.

After trog hit him twice.. for ONE damage each time.. There were 3 doomguards, with 149, 148, 148 hp... For those who do not know the ID slimes : Doomguard copy with 1 hp still hits just as fast and just as hard as the original one with 150hp.

The battle was over in 4 rounds. Doomguards did not lose a single unit. Doomguards charged me, remembering that there was a group of adventurers around. My warriors were dual weilding, both, with lots of attacks, but low damage (bless spells made it a bit better)

I waited in a choke point, with 2 warriors in front, 2 healers behind and 2 mages at the back. At 4 am, when i finally killed the last copy, of the last copy, of the last copy.. each one of my warriors was 15 levels higher than before we faced this one. (they started at level 1x).

But what is this? Later in the game there are FOUR doomguards at a time? FUN!

Yes. Exile hates you.

Avernum will allow you to make one mistake after another, you'll never be lost, you'll rarely be outnumbered, and even if you will, the enemies will be very weak. There are no instant-deaths.

So whichever fits your taste

[BigD145]

I spent some of my teen years with Exile on a Mac IIsi. It was one of my first forays into color gaming on a Mac. Good times.

Ambrosia Software was another good company.

[loose nut]

Nethergate's quite good. You can play both sides of the story and it does a good job of making the Romans and Celts different and the stories mesh together.

The older the game, the more it hates the player. Exile -will- kill your characters should you make a slight mistake.

Your mistake is not doing enough sidequests. Exile games are not that hard, and yes you can chew up Doomguards if you've leveled up enough and gotten good equipment. Also, blessings and curses stack, as I recall. Bless your fighter(s) 3 times and have them thump the scary guys. 

The Avernum games (the few I've played through) are harder, or more tightly balanced anyway.

[Fikes]

Good hard or bad hard? I didn't like Dungeon Crawl because you couldn't even level your character up, you were just constantly going deeper in the dungeon and falling slightly further behind.

On the other hand, I like games where you have barely enough money or ammo and you have to consider every decision. I think this more describes Elona.

When characters die are they dead forever?

[Stworca]

Avernum harder? Because you cannot grind your way to power? That's an interesting pov.

At any rate, Exile is "good hard".

And lastly : Dead characters can be brought back to life, no problem.

[Haspen]

Avernum, I love <3

And what you have ther-OH GODS DOOM GUARDS WHYYYYY.

I goddamn hated them.

Geneforge is a decent game, just the storyline is not my way. And then they put Geneforge in Avernum and blah.

So for me: Avernum 1-3, and Nethergate. Nice game, yep.

My generic Avernum partay:
Tanker (Destined for Demonslayer),
Archer/Lockpicker,
Battle Priest (Slith with Radiant Spear and some buffs? Love!)
Spellslinger wide potion-making, cuz I hoard herbs