Avernum 4

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 2nd, 2007, 6:55 pm

Just started playing the demo. Anyone play it? Thoughts?

I played through a decent portion of Avernum 1 and thought it was quite good, but didnt really like the way zoomed out world view, it looks pretty generic and cheap.

Since Avernum 4 uses a modified Geneforge engine and looks a bit nicer I thought I would give it a try.

For those who have played;
- Is it another hack and slash exploration game
- how is the story through the game
- What did you like and not like?

I had to find something to get me to stop waiting daily for Eschalon to come out!

Dragonlady · Post by **Dragonlady** » July 2nd, 2007, 7:12 pm

It's been a while since I finished it, almost a uyear. I'll have to go back and review it.

Right now I'm tryihng to stay busy playing Neathergate: Resurrection. Lots more to do than the original version.

I do remember a lot of battles especially in the underground mazes. Spiderweb had an information page up with some screen shots for Avernum 5. That will be coming out in Oct. for the Mac and early Jan? for PC.

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 2nd, 2007, 8:28 pm

Dragonlady wrote:It's been a while since I finished it, almost a uyear. I'll have to go back and review it. Right now I'm tryihng to stay busy playing Neathergate: Resurrection. Lots more to do than the original version.

I do remember a lot of battles especially in the underground mazes. Spiderweb had an information page up with some screen shots for Avernum 5. That will be coming out in Oct. for the Mac and early Jan? for PC.

Yea I will be playing Nethergate when it comes out on the PC, looking forward to that one. I remember a decent amount of battles in AVernum 1 but it will still pretty fun.

adamantyr · Post by **adamantyr** » July 2nd, 2007, 9:47 pm

I have Avernum 4, but I was a bit disappointed with it. However, my reasons are, well, probably somewhat unrelated to the actual game.

One, the resolution is 800x600 full-screen, and is completely unalterable. I have 1280x1024 monitors, and I was really annoyed I couldn't adjust it. I expect this from older games, but not new ones.

The other was the shorter names. I like typing 15-16 character names, from a favorite old CRPG of mine. But they limited it to 12 characters in Avernum 4. I mean, WHY?!

And finally... no Phil Foglio artwork.

I'll admit these are probably shallow reasons not to play, but I haven't picked it back up since I got it a year ago.

Adam

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 3rd, 2007, 12:02 am

adamantyr wrote:I have Avernum 4, but I was a bit disappointed with it. However, my reasons are, well, probably somewhat unrelated to the actual game.

One, the resolution is 800x600 full-screen, and is completely unalterable. I have 1280x1024 monitors, and I was really annoyed I couldn't adjust it. I expect this from older games, but not new ones.

The other was the shorter names. I like typing 15-16 character names, from a favorite old CRPG of mine. But they limited it to 12 characters in Avernum 4. I mean, WHY?!

And finally... no Phil Foglio artwork.

I'll admit these are probably shallow reasons not to play, but I haven't picked it back up since I got it a year ago.

Adam

Interesting.....was the Foglio artwork the white pages in the descriptions at the beginning of the game? I liked those, but I like the look of Avernum 4 better than 1 so far, at least in game I think it better and I like the Title screen better, it looks less cartoonish to me. I never did like the character portaits though for the chartoonish reason.

adamantyr · Post by **adamantyr** » July 3rd, 2007, 2:32 am

Saxon1974 wrote:Interesting.....was the Foglio artwork the white pages in the descriptions at the beginning of the game? I liked those, but I like the look of Avernum 4 better than 1 so far, at least in game I think it better and I like the Title screen better, it looks less cartoonish to me. I never did like the character portaits though for the chartoonish reason.

I'm not sure if he did the character graphics, but all the stat/skill screens in Avernums 1-3 are his work... with a bit of hilarity thrown in on them. I especially liked the trait "Lazy"... a guy in bed twirling his sword.

Adam

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 4th, 2007, 3:28 am

adamantyr wrote:
Saxon1974 wrote:Interesting.....was the Foglio artwork the white pages in the descriptions at the beginning of the game? I liked those, but I like the look of Avernum 4 better than 1 so far, at least in game I think it better and I like the Title screen better, it looks less cartoonish to me. I never did like the character portaits though for the chartoonish reason.
I'm not sure if he did the character graphics, but all the stat/skill screens in Avernums 1-3 are his work... with a bit of hilarity thrown in on them. I especially liked the trait "Lazy"... a guy in bed twirling his sword.

Adam

Ah I remember that now, yea I liked that style too.

So far game is pretty good, I like that bows work pretty well now. I just wish he could tone done the combat a bit, there a too many battles for my taste, still a fun game though.

Metatron · Post by **Metatron** » July 4th, 2007, 9:32 am

Avernum 4 is more combat oriented than the previous Avernums. However, the plus is that the combat is far more balanced than in the other games. Magic, melee, and ranged attacks all see good use in combat in A4, and having a balanced team with a character specializing in each is almost a necessity as I recall. I also remember monsters having more scripted events in their AI that made battles more interesting, and combat related skills are more usefull.

It is a good game, but I was a little disappointed with the storyline and general lack of game features. You can't even get a boat (the plot explains this, though I never really liked the way it did). I actually prefer Avernum 1-3's graphics, due to the fact that there was a greater *variety* of graphics for the creatures in those games. Many of the graphics in a4 are borrowed from geneforge, and I did not like how so many monsters were simply color edits of other monsters. I also didn't appreciate how some monsters unique to the avernum series were replaced by geneforge monsters that they "kinda-sorta" resembled. I understand that this is probably due to limitations in time and budget, however. The fully animated graphics for a4 take more effort to make. I personally never really liked the graphics of geneforge at all, despite them being more "3D". I just feel that they were not well done. I admit that Geneforge 4 had some nicer models, though.

All in all I say the combat and skill balancing was the best aspect of the game.

Gothmog · Post by **Gothmog** » July 4th, 2007, 9:40 am

Dont like the Avernums at all....i dont like the graphics at all. And the way you move your party...and...and...

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 5th, 2007, 6:24 pm

I don't like the non-animated movement either, but I still enjoy the game none the less. Strange that since he used the Geneforge engine on this game that there is no character walking animations in it, geneforge had it.

I have enjoyed the story so far(with the exception of a bit too much combat), the part about the shade in Formello is pretty good even though its appears stolen from Ultima V.

I think with a slight bit better graphics and animations and maybe a little less combat based quests and more choices these would be great games.

Most quests ultimately come down to combat. There are a few sequences early in the game where you are to hunt down and kill someone and you have a dialog choice to say "Maybe we can work something out peacefully" or something like that. The problem is though, in each case so far the NPC's response is something like "No that will never work!!" and then charge....more combat. I wish more of these types of things would happen where you can choose to help a bandit or something without combat and then in return later in the game you get arrested for helping him out or something.

Anyway, im hoping something like that happens later in the game. (No direct spoilers please:)

quamper · Post by **quamper** » July 18th, 2007, 2:44 pm

I really like the latest Geneforge.. but the Avernum series I haven't been able to get into. It's not even really the graphics that turn me off, I don't think because they're not drastically different than Geneforge 4's. Maybe the storyline just didn't grab me or something.

Saxon1974 · Post by **Saxon1974** » July 19th, 2007, 4:54 pm

quamper wrote:I really like the latest Geneforge.. but the Avernum series I haven't been able to get into. It's not even really the graphics that turn me off, I don't think because they're not drastically different than Geneforge 4's. Maybe the storyline just didn't grab me or something.

I started playing geneforge 1 and its gameplay is a bit more focused and graphics a bit better with less combat.

I purchased avernum 4 already though so I wanna finish it before buying an avernum. I guess the avernum's have more of an old school RPG feel to me with all the exploration so I think I like them better, but I have not played enough geneforge to know for sure.

I like what I hear so far about Avernum 5, supposedly there is going to be alot more scripted encounter's with cause and effect and more interelated gameplay elements. I just wish he would add some walking animations!

PhilosophiX · Post by **PhilosophiX** » October 17th, 2007, 3:05 pm

I played the demo, and I'm thinking of buying Avernum 4. The thing that annoys me is the fact that once you've killed everything in a particular area it remains empty, forcing you on to the next place. Not that normally you want to hang around forever, but I needed one more kill to level up lock picking enough to open a particular door, and it occurred to me that I was going to have to get on with the onward journey and double back later, which is something of a pain in the backside, because surely there should be goblins replenishing the place from somewhere. Especially since the intro makes a big deal about all the endless goblin hordes breeding like rabbits and creating never ending danger for the poor inhabitants of Avernum.

mytgroo · Post by **mytgroo** » October 17th, 2007, 3:47 pm

Hold off for Avernum 5 which I think will be far better. Avernum 4 was made before Geneforge 4. I think Avernum 5 will represent the union of geneforge and avernum and be a much better game.

Dragonlady · Post by **Dragonlady** » October 17th, 2007, 5:00 pm

mytgroo wrote:Hold off for Avernum 5 which I think will be far better. Avernum 4 was made before Geneforge 4. I think Avernum 5 will represent the union of geneforge and avernum and be a much better game.

It's been a while since I did Avernum 4, couldn't you shut the door. Pop outside and come back in and find it locked and have to unlock it again?

Mytgroo is correct. Avernum 5 will be much better. Watching my son beta test it has been kinda neat. The screen shots of magic effects are by far the best I've seen for Spiderweb games. Can't talk much about the game itself since he (my son) won't tell me or let me close enough to the screen to read anything.