Game News Geneforge 1 - Mutagen Released

[Tacgnol]

It's ambitious in different places. In Exile 3, iirc, whole towns could gradually deteriorate if your heroes didn't take care of them and the world is just massive, begging for exploration, with few hints (iirc).

Oh, I'm absolutely not saying Exile 3 lacks ambition. But it was in a way a safer bet for Vogel because e.g. Magic Candle 3 had already done something similar. It would also have been easier to trim down in case scope got out of hand. On the other hand, Geneforge has all the plot branching and alternative solutions and an open world - I really can't think of another game that gives this much freedom to the player. Trimming that down in the process would have been utterly impossible because of all the interdependencies; it was sink or swim kind of gamble. So it was definitely a bigger risk than Exile 3. I can't help but respect that.

Out of curiosity for both of you, does the recent Avernum 3 remake stack up as favorably to Exile 3 as this Geneforge 1 remake stacks up to the original?

I prefer the original Avernum 3 to the remade Avernum 3, as the latter has way more damage sponge enemies and lots of "rebalancing".

Jeff used to make punchy encounters that had hard hitting but not overly durable enemies, his newer designs tend to reverse this (the remake of Geneforge actually seems to be alright for this thus far, I've not noticed any extreme damage sponges).

Overall I think the Exile series is superior to both the original Avernum series and the remade Avernum series though.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's ambitious in different places. In Exile 3, iirc, whole towns could gradually deteriorate if your heroes didn't take care of them and the world is just massive, begging for exploration, with few hints (iirc).

Oh, I'm absolutely not saying Exile 3 lacks ambition. But it was in a way a safer bet for Vogel because e.g. Magic Candle 3 had already done something similar. It would also have been easier to trim down in case scope got out of hand. On the other hand, Geneforge has all the plot branching and alternative solutions and an open world - I really can't think of another game that gives this much freedom to the player. Trimming that down in the process would have been utterly impossible because of all the interdependencies; it was sink or swim kind of gamble. So it was definitely a bigger risk than Exile 3. I can't help but respect that.

Out of curiosity for both of you, does the recent Avernum 3 remake stack up as favorably to Exile 3 as this Geneforge 1 remake stacks up to the original?

I prefer the original Avernum 3 to the remade Avernum 3, as the latter has way more damage sponge enemies and lots of "rebalancing".

Jeff used to make punchy encounters that had hard hitting but not overly durable enemies, his newer designs tend to reverse this (the remake of Geneforge actually seems to be alright for this thus far, I've not noticed any extreme damage sponges).

Overall I think the Exile series is superior to both the original Avernum series and the remade Avernum series though.

Geneforge Mutagen is pretty middling when it comes to HP levels. If the enemy has insane bloat then you're not really supposed to be there anyway. Anything your level or even slightly above is pretty manageable. I think the Avernum 3 remake was pretty good in this regard as well. I never got a feeling of heavy HP bloat when I finished that game, which wasn't too long ago. I think Vogel has gotten better at balancing HP and damage, though his optional super bosses still rely on the same gimmick of having an insane HP bloat enemy and infinitely spawning horde of mooks.

 

[Tacgnol]

It's ambitious in different places. In Exile 3, iirc, whole towns could gradually deteriorate if your heroes didn't take care of them and the world is just massive, begging for exploration, with few hints (iirc).

Oh, I'm absolutely not saying Exile 3 lacks ambition. But it was in a way a safer bet for Vogel because e.g. Magic Candle 3 had already done something similar. It would also have been easier to trim down in case scope got out of hand. On the other hand, Geneforge has all the plot branching and alternative solutions and an open world - I really can't think of another game that gives this much freedom to the player. Trimming that down in the process would have been utterly impossible because of all the interdependencies; it was sink or swim kind of gamble. So it was definitely a bigger risk than Exile 3. I can't help but respect that.

Out of curiosity for both of you, does the recent Avernum 3 remake stack up as favorably to Exile 3 as this Geneforge 1 remake stacks up to the original?

I prefer the original Avernum 3 to the remade Avernum 3, as the latter has way more damage sponge enemies and lots of "rebalancing".

Jeff used to make punchy encounters that had hard hitting but not overly durable enemies, his newer designs tend to reverse this (the remake of Geneforge actually seems to be alright for this thus far, I've not noticed any extreme damage sponges).

Overall I think the Exile series is superior to both the original Avernum series and the remade Avernum series though.

Geneforge Mutagen is pretty middling when it comes to HP levels. If the enemy has insane bloat then you're not really supposed to be there anyway. Anything your level or even slightly above is pretty manageable. I think the Avernum 3 remake was pretty good in this regard as well. I never got a feeling of heavy HP bloat when I finished that game, which wasn't too long ago. I think Vogel has gotten better at balancing HP and damage, though his optional super bosses still rely on the same gimmick of having an insane HP bloat enemy and infinitely spawning horde of mooks.

I'm actually quite impressed at how he seems to have changed a few of the areas in this remake to make them harder without being overly bullshit.

The clawbugs in the Dry Wastes for instance, in the base game I remember them being fairly easy as long as you didn't engage too many at once. In the remake they seem to hit much harder which necessitates a much more cautious approach to clearing the area (if you don't overlevel it anyway).

They also patrol the area, which allows for picking them off if you're careful.

 

[Elwro]

Bought it.

Looks kinda nice. Has the proper oldschool charm. (Definitely better than Queen's Wish.)

It's nitpicking but I wanted to run it fullscreen in 1920x1080 (which is my display resolution). No way: I only see a part of the screen. When I choose the 'windowed 1920x1080' option, I'm getting a window that actually only occupies a part of my 1920x1080 display. Weird. Not really important, but weird.

 

[index.php]

It's nitpicking but I wanted to run it fullscreen in 1920x1080 (which is my display resolution). No way: I only see a part of the screen. When I choose the 'windowed 1920x1080' option, I'm getting a window that actually only occupies a part of my 1920x1080 display. Weird. Not really important, but weird.

Try overriding the DPI scaling:

 

[Nijar]

There's mobile for spiderweb software?

That where he got all of the monies. 20 years of PC = rookie numbers. Also Geneforge 1 – Mutagen For iPad ... Coming in Spring, 2021. *ka-ching*

 

[Humanity has risen!]

My best memory of Geneforge is trying to cross a bridge guarded by towers that shot at me, and maneuvering my monsters to destroy the towers before they killed me. I tried over and over and over again before finally succeeding.

 

[sser]

My best memory so far is reading the first page of this thread.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

My sister was into Pokemon, I never was but the shapers here seemed cool. I played a little of Masters of Magic and enjoyed summoning so the ole Green Geneforge was pretty cool. That GREEN had charm imho and was different enough for me to play the shareware a bit. I like the batons that shot thorns. Fucking awesome things. So good, I converted them to pnp play in ad&d.

edit....

Spoiler

A Reaper Baton is an item bred by the Shapers that can be used as a missile weapon. Reaper Batons are a high-end ranged weapon of the Shaper and Rebel armies. These items fire Reapers at their enemies, dealing Energy Damage. Reaper Batons have been seen being bred by other people than Shapers.

Whaaa?

 

[Zeriel]

Is there any new content?

I've not got very far yet (Hobo Elf seems to have got further), but I've noticed bits and pieces of new content scattered around.

Hobo mentioned a new town/settlement as well.

This. There's a new town with a 4th minor faction of serviles. There was a vendor selling some decent but pricey equipment. There was another area within the town that was locked away from me since I was low level at the time, but I've now cleared the next area as well and gotten the ability to shape the new Mutagen creature, the cockatrice. I'm not proficient with Magic shaping so I have no idea how it performs, but I did take a look at its skill + passive list and it seems to be fairly cool and so I think for my next run I'll go the magic route again just to try this cock. Other stuff I got were two sets of gloves that can be enhanced at various pools you find around the world, but you can only upgrade one of them per pool so you need to choose which one you wanna soup up. I also got another quest to go somewhere else and talk to more people who are also exclusive to Mutagen but I've not gotten that far yet.

Otherwise there are some other changes here and there: mostly remixed item placements, additional shaper loot that didn't exist in the original game, canisters locations have been changed and I think there's a few new ones added as well. There's a junk bag that has infinite space and only your equipped items count toward your character's encumbrance, so Shaper characters won't be totally worthless during combat.

I think if you like Geneforge 1 and want to replay it, then Mutagen is the superior version here. There's a significant amount of new content and the new shaping mechanics are exciting. If you've never played a Vogel game then this is a great place to start as well. Geneforge is his best series imo, with Geneforge 1 & 2 being the best entries. This remake is the same game as the first one but better in the ways that I think matters.

I still think in terms of gameplay and mechanics the original Exile series beats Geneforge. He hasn't ever touched them again in terms of depth of the character system and spell list.

 

[grimace]

Has anyone found a video overview of Geneforge 1 Mutagen created by a man who is familiar with the franchise?

 

[Johannes]

It's ambitious in different places. In Exile 3, iirc, whole towns could gradually deteriorate if your heroes didn't take care of them and the world is just massive, begging for exploration, with few hints (iirc).

Oh, I'm absolutely not saying Exile 3 lacks ambition. But it was in a way a safer bet for Vogel because e.g. Magic Candle 3 had already done something similar. It would also have been easier to trim down in case scope got out of hand. On the other hand, Geneforge has all the plot branching and alternative solutions and an open world - I really can't think of another game that gives this much freedom to the player. Trimming that down in the process would have been utterly impossible because of all the interdependencies; it was sink or swim kind of gamble. So it was definitely a bigger risk than Exile 3. I can't help but respect that.

I'd also add another entry to the list of merits to this series: the creation system allows for a decent turn-based combat in the context of a "solo" RPG a la Fallout, which is a quite rare occurrence since, well, since Fallout...
Making the player in control of a single intelligent human being which leads a party of "pokemon" was incredibly smart.
You basically get a single character experience outside of combat and a party-based experience during combat. Or maybe not: Allowing the player to choose the size of his party with a "lore-firendly" explanation was even smarter.

You can also play entirely without creations if that's your jazz. A pure fighter or mage is perfectly viable.

Yeah, exactly. That's what I meant with "maybe not". The game is perfectly soloable and is designed from the get go with this in mind (unlike Baldur's Gate and Co. where a solo game is surely doable but kind of reserved to veteran players with a bag full of meta-knowlwge). The "essence" mechanic is a great balancing tool in this sense and is way more interesting than the usual "your character gets more experience if you play solo, less experience if you play with a party".

Having said that, I'm firmly convinced that the only players who prefere solo turn-based battles to party turn-based battles are the ones who are not really into tactical games.
Kudos to Vogel for having taken care of them as well as turn-based fags like myself.

I wonder, how much does the game acknowledge if you never use the canisters you find on the island (the source of magic in the game)? In later games in the series they'd be p. easy to avoid, you'd be just a tad weaker for it, but in 1, they're your only source of magic / shaping iirc. Is the game sensibly playable as a non-magic using guardian thug, and does that open new stuff / endings if you do? Guess I can only ask about the original, since nobody's yet played through such a playthrough of the remake probably.

 

[V_K]

There's a discussion of that in the game's GRPG thread.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Just bought this. Dammit.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Yeah... I calls like some mesmerist game succubus.

 

[BLOBERT]

and it seems to be fairly cool and so I think for my next run I'll go the magic route again just to try this cock.

BROS ROMANCES CONFIRMED LOLLOLLLLO