Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

When Arcanum is done. What's next ?

Uncle Skull

Educated
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
75
You played through Avadon, but not through the actually good Jeff Vogel games?

Pick Nethergate if "history meets mythology" or "Romans/Celts" makes your dick hard.
Pick Geneforge if you don't mind going through awful combat to get to some of the best CNC and exploration around. You should play Geneforge 5 regardless of what you do/don't like since its really bloody good.
Pick Avernum if you are retarded.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
You played through Avadon, but not through the actually good Jeff Vogel games?

Pick Nethergate if "history meets mythology" or "Romans/Celts" makes your dick hard.
Pick Geneforge if you don't mind going through awful combat to get to some of the best CNC and exploration around. You should play Geneforge 5 regardless of what you do/don't like since its really bloody good.
Pick Avernum if you are retarded.

Interesting thought, i've heard geneforge was considered the best of spiderweb but i'm probably going to wait for their remake which is coming, i think.
I tried Avernum Ruined world, not bad, not very good either, i only heard praises in everyone's mouth so far so it's nice to read some criticism.

What don't you like in Avernum ?
To me, the battle system is ok, fast enough but pretty much meaningless, either you're strong enough or you attacked the troglodytes too soon and your team is wiped out, besides all the skills and option, i don't find it particularly interesting and i'm not sure why.
Better quests marks are needed, it's a kind of a pain to manage (finding a NPC is litterally going through the whole city again and talking to everyone)
Story is light, at the very least.
Characters have no life of their own like in Tyranny or Torment (or even Kotor)
Travelling is a pain, you need the right boat, or get to the teleporter guy, or in the underground city that can teleport to one spot, boring, i want town portal and dimension door (or the MM3-5 travelling mirrors)
Loot - equipment isn't very interesting either.

So, what makes people praise it so much ?
Turn-based ? Ok, that's nice
Works on old PC ? That's nice too

What else ?
 

mfkndggrfll

Learned
Shitposter Bethestard
Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Messages
546
You played through Avadon, but not through the actually good Jeff Vogel games?

Pick Nethergate if "history meets mythology" or "Romans/Celts" makes your dick hard.
Pick Geneforge if you don't mind going through awful combat to get to some of the best CNC and exploration around. You should play Geneforge 5 regardless of what you do/don't like since its really bloody good.
Pick Avernum if you are retarded.

Whats up with Avernum? It was much, much better than Nethergate and Geneforge. A1 is in my top 5 cRPGs along Fallout Arcanum and BG.

The narrative, the writing and atmosphere are all top notch. The atmospohere of Avernum 1 is actually the closest to Fallout 1 to me, a sort of mushy underground wasteland with mutated creatures.

Btw A:Escape From the Pit did add quest markers on the map which fixes the issue
 

Uncle Skull

Educated
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
75
What don't you like in Avernum ?

Note: I played Avernum 1, the remake of Exile. Not the much more recent remake-of-a-remake.

The story and ESPECIALLY THE SETTING were not enough to keep me going after a certain point. The combat and character progression were very meh -- not counting the mages. The conversations were all ported from "type question" into the "pick a line" system rather badly, most of them feel...off, somehow.
I wonder how much of the game was just copy-pasted from Exile without Vogel giving a fuck, since you run into a gremlin maze at one point.
Gremlins can only cast confuse on you, they have no other attack. Confuse makes it so when you move your character he may whack his or her adjacent ally.
What this essentially means is that you cannot "quick combat" through the dungeon since every time you run into the gremlins they will always keep spamming confuse on the character in the first slot, by default your warrior. Quick combat in the older Avernum and Nethergate engine essentially means not initiating combat mode and killing enemies by walking into them (when you walk into a enemy, your warrior attacks him). But since he is constantly confused, he is going to keep hitting the rouge every 3 steps if you try that. So you must start combat and "fight" groups of like 7 gremlins who pose no threat to you at all, and the whole maze is filled just with them, no other enemy types are mixed in.

Major reason was that after you get to the point in the story where you need to go and find the wizard woman, the exploration becomes shit. Vogel is decent at writing and terrible at system design (see Geneforge 1), but he is capable of making exploration fun better than anyone else since he sprinkles spells and great other stuff around in dungeons, some of which you can only unlock if you return at a later date with a higher lore skill/combat ability etc.
After you find the wizard woman, I just lost all motivation to finish the game since my wizard and priest were already fully developed (had all the spells, most of them at level 3 or 2) and we cleared out almost all of the dangerous chunks of the map.

Whats up with Avernum? It was much, much better than Nethergate and Geneforge. A1 is in my top 5 cRPGs along Fallout Arcanum and BG.

The narrative, the writing and atmosphere are all top notch. The atmospohere of Avernum 1 is actually the closest to Fallout 1 to me, a sort of mushy underground wasteland with mutated creatures.

It's up to your personal taste, Id say. I adore "historical fantasy". As such I enjoyed Nethergate greatly, even if the ending was slightly a letdown.

I don't quite understand how the hell do you find Avernum more enjoyable when it comes to the setting than Geneforge though. There are literally no mutated creatures in Avernum 1.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Btw A:Escape From the Pit did add quest markers on the map which fixes the issue

They added quest mark on the main map so you know which city you have to visit and when you're there, nothing else, i played Avernum remake from 2018 and escape from the pit is from 2012, i think they would add it as well on the last one if they had fixed the issue, so once you're in the city, you have to waste 10+ minutes just to find one guy you already visited, so you should know where he is, the only most boring thing i know is playing oblivion.
 

mfkndggrfll

Learned
Shitposter Bethestard
Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Messages
546
''I don't quite understand how the hell do you find Avernum more enjoyable when it comes to the setting than Geneforge though.''

Geneforge does have a great setting and memorable presentation but its a steady decline once you enter the island and realize that it isnt as dangerous as it seemed. The setting is just a generic island with a good plot twist, while Avernum is a completely different world. Maybe its because I am a Fallout fan and the caves have a wasteland feel.

Btw A:Escape From the Pit did add quest markers on the map which fixes the issue

They added quest mark on the main map so you know which city you have to visit and when you're there, nothing else, i played Avernum remake from 2018 and escape from the pit is from 2012, i think they would add it as well on the last one if they had fixed the issue, so once you're in the city, you have to waste 10+ minutes just to find one guy you already visited, so you should know where he is, the only most boring thing i know is playing oblivion.

IIRC the markers also work inside towns, I launched an old save and saw plenty of '!' marks around related to quests.
 

The Avatar

Pseudodragon Studios
Developer
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
336
Location
The United States of America
Sadly, I don't think there are a whole lot of steampunk/fantasy hybrid games out there. Arcanum was unique in that regard. Someone should make a spiritual successor.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Arcanum is very specific in term of RPG. You can be anybody. Not just a retarded immortal or adventurer.
I'll recommend the Age of Decadence, then. It's not a typical power fantasy RPG, even if you can get very far ahead. In fact in AoD combat is typically a good way to get yourself killed unless you really know what you're doing or your character is just focused on it.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,756
Sadly, I don't think there are a whole lot of steampunk/fantasy hybrid games out there. Arcanum was unique in that regard. Someone should make a spiritual successor.
Final Fantasy VI (a.k.a. FF3) from 1994 was a hybrid of steampunk and fantasy. :M

Narshe-1024x723.jpg


BlackJack-910x643.jpg


 

Molina

Savant
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
363
Hi guys,
Just to say I begin my adventure with Fallout 1.

It's quite good. The way it handles contextual actions is really clever. Combat are fun, and .. I like the way it describes wasteland. There is some "normal" NPC, it's refreshing. Inventory is a plague but I deal with it.
 

Cazzeris

Guest
You should try Prelude to Darkness after you're done with the Fallouts. It reminded me of Arcanum much more than any recent game.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom