Specifically, my preconceptions about this genre (old, tired and cloned to death) would probably have kept me from even giving this game a shot, if it weren't my job. When it comes to games like Avernum 5, I think it's important to try and recognize what the developer envisioned (and of course, whether or not he or she succeeded in that vision) the game to be. Just a few of the classes offered are Scouts, Shamans, Archers, Hedge Wizards and the obligatory "tanks," like Soldiers and Berserkers.Īnalysis: Earlier, I mentioned the vision involved in a developer's creative process. You've got Humans, the reptilian Slith and the feline-like Nephilim. Lastly, underlying all those options and paths to follow, the game offers 10 classes to choose from, spanning over three races. The same kind of customization is available for magic-users, in the form of choosing specific mastery paths to follow as you level up and gain more skill points. Want to use a spear instead of a sword? No problem. As well as being able to customize the role of your characters, you'll find quite a bit of loot along the way, which adds another layer of dimension to the gameplay. You're given the option of using pre-configured keybinds for all of the most frequently-used actions, and most gamers will find it exceedingly tedious to not use at least a few of them (picking up loot, opening menus). You can use the mouse to control almost everything, but you'll probably drive yourself nuts if you try. In this mode, the game becomes turn-based and each of your characters are allocated "action points," which are used in basically the same way as most other games: to move, attack, grab an item, etc. If you're jumped by monsters (or attack them first), you enter battle. When you're not in battle, you control the party as a single unit, using the mouse to control movement by clicking where you'd like to go. There are two game states: in-battle and out-of-battle. Each of them can be customized and tweaked to fill different roles, primarily as your typical melee, ranged and magic fighters. You're given four characters to form your party, all of which you can control individually in battle. The story and its development is actually pretty thick for a closed-in dungeon crawler, unfolding constantly a simplified "choose-your-own-adventure"-styled dialogue. This time around, a group of adventurers is sent back to Avernum to hunt down an assassin who tried to kill the Empress. "Avernum" is the name of an underground domain that's home to the Avernites, a group at war with the surface-dwellers, collectively called the Empire. But lo and behold, four other similarly-styled RPGs precede it (the first three are remakes of a series called Exile, created by Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb). That surprised me, because I'd never heard of it before. Not a vision of the future or the past, but simply the developer's idea of what ingredients it takes to cook up a fun game, one that they themselves would enjoy playing, "retro" or otherwise.Īvernum 5 is the fifth game in a series, believe it or not. And after playing this game for a bit, I'm convinced it's a game of just that- vision. What the screenshot can't tell you, though, are things like story-value, gameplay details and most importantly, the vision the developer had when creating the game. Just a quick glance will tell a seasoned gamer a few things about this game: it's obviously designed isometrically, it's a dungeon-crawl RPG, and the graphics look like something you might see on the back of a game box lying in a garage sale from a decade ago. Usually I try not to subscribe to the theory that a screenshot is worth a thousand words, although sometimes, it might be worth a couple hundred. Developed by Spiderweb Software, Avernum 5 serves as a good example of this trend reaching a precipice of sorts where a game genre almost has to be developed and marketed as a retro throwback to remain viable. These days, when come across a game like Avernum 5, I have to wonder if we're supposed to judge its merit using a different set of criteria- such as those considered "retro" games- the way we think of arcade clones and side-scrollers, for example. What did he or she envision when creating the game? It's been so long since the Diablo-era of RPGs reigned that the technology has long-since passed the necessity of isometric design, with turn-based mechanics and "3/4" top-down viewing angles. Whenever I see a new isometric RPG released, I usually try to size it up and figure out what the developer was going for.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |