MY IMPRESSIONS OF GENEFORGE SERIES

[BLOBERT]

BROS PLAYED THE WHOLE SERIES ONE AFTER ANOTHER

WAS TOTALLY HOOKED BROS ALTHOUGH THE GAMES GOT A LITTLE BORING TOWARDS THE END

ONE AND TWO REMINDED ME OF THE OLDER 80S GAMES EWHER YOU COULD JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WAMT AND BREAK THEM AND BECPINME A SUPER GOD AND JUST KILL EVERYONE AND ONE HAD THE ENDING WHERE YOU BECOME SUPERMAN AND RULE THE WORLD

THE COMBAT WAS FUN I PLAYED A SHAPER IN ALL OF THEM AND TOWARDS THE LAST GAMES IT WAS COOL MAKING SURE YOU HAD A MIX OF DAMAGE TYPES FOR YOUR CREATIONS

THE BATTLES MOVED TOWARDS MORE SET PEACES AND SHIT LATER IN THE SERIES AND SOME WHERE GOOD BUT THE RELIANCE ON GIMIICKY SHIT LIKE FINDING THE SECRET BUTTON THAT WEAKENS THE BOSS ETC ANNOYED ME OR RESPAWNING BOSSES OR WHATEVER

THE THIRD GAME DIDNT ANNOY ME AS MUCH AS IT DID OTHER PEOPLE WHAT BOTHERED ME THE MOST WAS THE HASSEL TRAVELING BETWEEN ISLANDS

THE FOURTH WAS SORTA A LOW POINT FOR ME I WASNT AS INTERESTED IN THE CHOICES AND THE FENS JUST SEEMED TO DRAG FOREVER

THE LAST GAME WAS GREAT AND I WAS A SHAPER AND THE LAST RUSH ON THE DRAKONS WAS PRETTY FUN AND THE ENDING PROVIDED GREAT RESOLUTION AND THE CHARACTERS SEEMED WELL DONE

OVERALL I CANNOT RECOMMEND THE SERIES ENOUGH IT IS MY FAVORITE NEWER RPG I HAVE PLAYED SINCE KOTC

 

[I_am_Ian]

Every once in a while you should switch to lower case mid-sentence and then back to upper case a few sentences later. We would all be picturing your fat, sausage like fingers accidentally turning the caps lock off and back on randomly as you mash the nearby keys.

 

[Overboard]

Every once in a while you should switch to lower case mid-sentence and then back to upper case a few sentences later. We would all be picturing your fat, sausage like fingers accidentally turning the caps lock off and back on randomly as you mash the nearby keys.

One would expect that this is a scenario you would encounter on a daily basis :patriot:

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I should really play 3-5. Got a bit burned out last year playing 1 and 2 more or less back to back. Might skip 3 just to avoid that happening again, though.

 

[Luzur]

BRO I AM TOTALLY AT GENEFORGE 4, HAVING A BLAST WITH THE OLDSCHOOL FEELS

 

[I_am_Ian]

One would expect that this is a scenario you would encounter on a daily basis :patriot:

Exactly why I am giving advice on how to perfect the obese keyboard masher persona.

 

[Grauken]

I worries me that despite all the CAPS screaming those sentences all make sense.

 

[Krash]

That's the charm of BLOBERT, pretends to be insane, yet still manages to sound far more sane than some here.

And after this thundering endorsement I will add geneforge series to my to play list.

 

[poetic codex]

Am I the only one who keeps thinking his name should be BROBERT?

 

[agentorange]

I enjoyed the first one, but moving onto the 2nd one immediately after it burned me out, though I was still liking the story. Same problem I had with moving Gothic 1 to Gothic 2 without rest, having to grind up from level 1 again just bummed me out. Might try it again now though. The plot, setting, general atmosphere all has an air of mystery about it that I love, hope it continues into the 3rd - 5th.

 

[Agesilaus]

Glad to hear you sided with the Shapers, Blobert. They're clearly in the right, and it's rare that an American game involves a mature and correct sense of morality as opposed to a bunch of man-children NPCs crying "deeeeeeeeemocracy!" and other such nonsense.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Will add to my play list as well, seems interesting.

Wait, BLOBERT has a caps lock button? I thought he just excitedhis letters into uppercaseness.

Properly capitalized and punctuated blobert posts can be pretty high quality

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...nkrupt-ebay-auction.53695/page-4#post-1462241
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...nkrupt-ebay-auction.53695/page-7#post-1463736

 

[Hoodoo]

I stopped playing Geneforge when I started feeling like I would never want to play games again; fun while it lasted though and interesting concept.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Glad to hear you sided with the Shapers, Blobert. They're clearly in the right, and it's rare that an American game involves a mature and correct sense of morality as opposed to a bunch of man-children NPCs crying "deeeeeeeeemocracy!" and other such nonsense.

he shapers in the first two games are practically mustachio twirling villains and are clearly written as the bad guys. They become alot more nuanced beginning in game 3, though, to the point that they are arguably the saner of the two factions in G3. Then in the final two games it becomes kind of a toss up as to whether the shapers or the rebels are worse. And in G5 you can basically pick whatever variety of extremism or moderation you want: between hardline shapers (who are basically Nazis with concentration camps in which they torture and kill creations), moderate shapers (who believe creations are second class citizens, but will not harm them and are willing to grant them some rights in order to end the war), moderate rebels (who believe in the rights of creations), and hard line rebels (who are all about using shaping to create insanely powerful creations that will most likely destroy the world if they lose control of them). Plus, the travokites (who are a terroristic political organization who want to outlaw all forms of shaping) and the shaper up north whose name I forget off hand (who has his own strange agenda).

So G5 actually has 6 factions, all with their own unique quest lines and victory conditions. Plus, each of the factions will react to your actions, so it's possible to make certain factions hostile to you depending on your choices. It's really one of the better mixes of open world faction based gameplay with a coherent, over arching, storyline that I've ever seen in an RPG.

I'm admittedly a bit of a Geneforge fanboy, though. The series has its flaws, but the over all universe and gameplay really sucked me in more than most RPG series ever have, so I probably overlook its flaws more than most might.

 

[DalekFlay]

I really want to play 5... someday.

Too many fucking games.

 

[laclongquan]

BloBERT, YoU shOuLD AlTeRNATe your CAP so thAT We Can IMagiNE YOu a FAt MaLKAVIaN

 

[Pope Amole II]

They're clearly in the right, and it's rare that an American game involves a mature and correct sense of morality as opposed to a bunch of man-children NPCs crying "deeeeeeeeemocracy!" and other such nonsense.

They are, but it's less about the intent of author and more about him not being able to write proper characters. Vogel is good at worldbuilding, but, with rare exceptions, is horrible with NPCs. And, since in the first two games you're interacting mostly with rebels, majority of them turn out to be annoying/whiny/derpy/outright retarded. And this gives ton of substance to the "creations can't be intelligent and fuckers without self-control should be fucked" shaper agenda.

And, while in parts III-V there are more dickish/unpleasant shaper characters, rebels go total retardo there. I mean, basically, takers overtake the whole rebellion and I just don't understand how can you side on with takers in geneforge game, considering they fucking hate you and just won't stop proving you that.

Same thing was in Avernum 5 - theoretically, you're supposed to sympathize with oppressed avernites and hate on the empire darksiders, but those avernites turn out to be moronic bigots so I was glad to side with the darksiders and do the Gladwell quests if only to fuck those smug fuckers.

It's Vogel's speciality, annoying characters.

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO I THOUGHT DIFFERERINYLY

IT SEEMED THE REBEL SERVILES AND HUMANS DIDNT LIKE THE DRAKONS BUT SIDED WITH THEM JUST TO WIN THE WAR AND I REMEMBER SOME OF THEM DISCUSSING A SECOND REBELLION IF THE DRAKONS WERE STILL COCKS

I THINK BOTH SIDES WERE MEANT TO HAVE GOOD AND BAD PARTS SO THAT IT MADE THE CHOICE MORE INTERESTING

IN THE FIST TWO GAMES YOU WANT TO BELIEVE INTELLIGENT BEING SHOULD HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS BUT THEY OBVIOUSLY CANT USE THE POWER RESPONSIBULY THERE ARE MANY SIGNS THAT THIS WAS DONE ON PURPOSE ANYWAYS I THOUGHT IT WAS AN INTERESTING CHOICE

 

[Minttunator]

BloBERT, YoU shOuLD AlTeRNATe your CAP so thAT We Can IMagiNE YOu a FAt MaLKAVIaN

Holy shit, that had me laughing out loud - now my co-workers are looking at me weird (i.e. more than usual). :D

 

[Dayyālu]

They are, but it's less about the intent of author and more about him not being able to write proper characters. Vogel is good at worldbuilding, but, with rare exceptions, is horrible with NPCs.

First, I want the exceptions. I remember barely two or three characters from the entire GF series. What characters, in your Popely opinion, he wrote well?

The weird thing is, he's one of the few that tried to make most of the factions a interesting choice. Of course, he tried often the "I THINK BOTH SIDES WERE MEANT TO HAVE GOOD AND BAD PARTS SO THAT IT MADE THE CHOICE MORE INTERESTING" as Blobert correctly said, sometimes badly (I fondly remember the dead Mind creature in the Awakened stronghold in GF1- it was like "SEE? THEY HAVE ALSO DONE BAD THINGS. BAD, BAD THINGS.) and sometimes right.

And in GF you find yourself with a doubt so seldom seen in RPG: what faction I like the most? Being the combat/RPG stats quite basic, it's not equipment, characters or other stuff to tell the player who to choose. It's up to your tastes. You like more freedom, whatever the cost, or think that a bit (or a lot of) control is necessary? GF series is one of the few that gives you the sound and proper "choose what you like". In Avadon, I was quite surprised on how that got totally lost later: in one of the few areas you would find a bunch of farmers asking you to remove some not!Goblins and their camp. Good. You find the camp, and i was quite amused by the stupi antics of the Not!Goblins. The first thought was "Well, of course I can side with them!. There is a reason this is so low-graphics and all, I have choice!". Nah. You can only kill them. End of the line. Avadon was a game devoid of soul and choices.
Even if the Canister system is quite well done - a pure legal Shaper is going to be truly weaker than a self-modified beast, with heavy problems about player choice. You want the power? You pay the consequences!
And the bigger thing is: Vogel, a quite average writer and game developer, did such a good job on this, and often succedeed in making factions look intersting or creating some doubts. So, if someone average as him can do such good stuff, why a lot of others, with often moar skills and resources, cannot? Still befuddles me.

 

[Pope Amole II]

First, I want the exceptions. I remember barely two or three characters from the entire GF series. What characters, in your Popely opinion, he wrote well?

Aodare from Geneforge II - probably the one I like most. He's really minor, but he became quite memorable to me. He's a shaper, jailed in taker lands and constantly repeating "focus" and "I will prevail". Turns out, he intentionally allowed to capture himself - he has all the means to escape, but stays so he can repeatedly try try to mind control the rebel drayk leader back into submission. He was a strong-willed bastard and I kinda liked him for that.

Alwan in IV and V - yeah, in III he's an incredibly flat and boring character, but he gets much better in later parts. He has a nice (and absolutely not sugary) relationship with agent Miranda in IV and in V he's a wreck of human flesh, kept together only by his will to fight rebels (and some heavy machinery).

Khyryk in III IV - I don't remember exactly why, but he was a really pleasant NPC. Whereas most Vogel's NPC either whine a lot or outwards hate you, he was kinda pleasant and funny, iirc. My biggest disappointment in V was that it was not he who was the leader of traikovites - it was the fucking Litalia.

 

[Luzur]

Litalia? but i killed her.

damn plot retconns.

 

[DragoFireheart]

BRO THATS REALLY COOL STORY

 

[Agesilaus]

IN THE FIST TWO GAMES YOU WANT TO BELIEVE INTELLIGENT BEING SHOULD HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS BUT THEY OBVIOUSLY CANT USE THE POWER RESPONSIBULY THERE ARE MANY SIGNS THAT THIS WAS DONE ON PURPOSE ANYWAYS I THOUGHT IT WAS AN INTERESTING CHOICE

This "want" is what I'm talking about, yanks have some bizarre fetish about the term "equality" just like they do with "freedom", "liberty", and "democracy". Lord knows they haven't the foggiest what those terms mean, but their natural want or desire ruins the stories they create and participate in. Geneforge is a great achievement because Vogel allows the player to join the good guys, the Shapers, and acknowledge that different things are different, rather than just heaping on another serving of shitty American vanilla politics and morality.

he shapers in the first two games are practically mustachio twirling villains and are clearly written as the bad guys.

See what I'm talking about? "mustachio twirling villians"? For Pete's sake; present the slightest bit of maturity, order, and discipline in a faction, and suddenly they're considered evil.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

See what I'm talking about? "mustachio twirling villians"? For Pete's sake; present the slightest bit of maturity, order, and discipline in a faction, and suddenly they're considered evil.

Their evilness has nothing to do with "maturity," "order," or "discipline." It's more about how they torture and enslave sentient beings.