Avernum VI released for Windows! (Been out on Mac for awhile)

Darmak

Avernum VI has finally been ported over to Windows! It is created by Spiderweb Software, the same people who created the Geneforge saga and Nethergate, along with the Exile series (which is what Avernum is based on). I'm just going to copy some info from their website:

The epic conclusion of the award-winning Avernum series. Travel into the strange subterranean land of Avernum, full of dungeons, labyrinths, and constant warfare. A final set of disasters threatens to destroy your homeland in a spasm of famine and warfare. Only you can help your people to get to safety before everything falls apart.

As you wander the gigantic world of Avernum, you will experience:

* An enormous world. Hundreds of quests, dozens of dungeons and enemy fortresses, and multitudes of characters.
* A fascinating storyline, full of surprises, treachery, and epic battles.
* Many unique encounters. Not just mindless hack and slash. Many unusual enemies that will require clever tactics to defeat.
* Rich game system with over 50 spells and battle disciplines, many character building options, and powerful secret skills to unlock.
* Unique game world. Unique races and settings make Avernum different from any RPG out there.
* Experience with previous Avernum games is completely unnecessary to enjoy Avernum 6.

Screenshots:

I realize that the graphics are beyond simple but everything else about the game(s) more than make up for them if you enjoy old-school RPGs. So let's talk about the Avernum games and how much you love (or hate) them!

harvest

Fuck. You just added 6 games to my backlog.

I played the ... 2nd? one when they were still called Exile and it was awesome until I hit the end of the demo. Something like 20 hours later. I had completely forgot, now this.

Dac Vin

The one thing I have about Avernum compared to Exile is how they reduced the party from 6 chars to 4. Kind of reduce your strategic options when your party will mostly be melee/rogue/mage/priest.

On the other hand Avernum removes the very awful text parsers present in Exile so that makes them superior remakes by default.

Steel Angel

Dac Vin wrote: »

The one thing I have about Avernum compared to Exile is how they reduced the party from 6 chars to 4. Kind of reduce your strategic options when your party will mostly be melee/rogue/mage/priest.

This so much.

They also greatly simplified some things (removed some skills, removed a lot of spells), but I can accept this with the full knowledge that a friend and I found an infinite money and skill point loop in the Exile games and published it on one of the few fansites for the series way back in the day when we were 15.

Darmak

I remember liking the Exile demos but I never bought them. However, I did buy Nethergate and played it almost every day for a few months. I haven't played any of the Geneforge Sage, despite hearing good things about it, but I've bought the first two Avernum games and have been waiting for the rest to come out. Now's my chance to go ahead and buy the two compilations and perhaps pick up the Geneforge games while I'm at it.

Sokpuppet

Exile 3; Ruined World is one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
Huge gameworlds...

this is what WRPGs are supposed to be. Knocks the socks off of more mainstream stuff like Oblivion.

KiTA

Man, I've been thinking about Geneforge, is that any good?

Sokpuppet

Dac Vin wrote: »

The one thing I have about Avernum compared to Exile is how they reduced the party from 6 chars to 4. Kind of reduce your strategic options when your party will mostly be melee/rogue/mage/priest.

I played Exile 3 with a party of 6 mages. Then I used the mages to cast Simulacrum and summon more mages. :P

ANTVGM64

Is...

Is that the Ultima Online engine?

JohnDoe

No, and it doesn't look/play anything like UO.

Skulkraken

I really liked the Avernum demos (never really had enough money to go and buy the full games though).

Blades of Exile got released under an open-source license a while back, by the way. Last I heard, there were some players looking to do a new version of it, that would fix several long-standing bugs in the game.

agoaj

Exile was the first RPG I played after Mario RPG, and I was upset that I couldn't do timed hits.
But I tried in every single one.
Never got anywhere near beating any of them. They were bundled with cheat apps and I still couldn't beat any of them.

Blades of Exile

Dac Vin

Sokpuppet wrote: »

Exile 3; Ruined World is one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
Huge gameworlds...

this is what WRPGs are supposed to be. Knocks the socks off of more mainstream stuff like Oblivion.

Hell, the demo world was big enough for me back in the days. That game was just utterly FILLED with content.

Senshi

Geneforge series was awesome

Darmak

I always wanted to buy Blades of Exile but at the time I was too young to have my own credit card and I didn't have any money to pay my grandparents with to buy it so all I ever did was play the demo. But Skulkraken is right and it had it's source code released and there's even a Google code project for an open source Blades of Exile for anyone who wants to play it.

Also, I just bought both Avernum trilogy CD's so there goes $100.

Steel Angel

KiTA wrote: »

Man, I've been thinking about Geneforge, is that any good?

They are both awesome and brutal at times. You can be the same yourself as well though.

jothki

KiTA wrote: »

Man, I've been thinking about Geneforge, is that any good?

Play the demos and you'll know whether you'll want to play further. I'd recommend 4's demo in particular, 5's cuts out before you start getting to the interesting decisions.