Posted March 21, 2015
As gog doesn't allow me post a review of the Avernum 1 remake, I post it here.
This remake is a sad dumbing down of Avernum 1 and it's a shame the dev get encouraged on that path by old school players/indie RPG players, this is a reference of the blindness totally positive reviews that push players give money to the dev no matter for what game they'll do it, tsss.
The main problem is coming from quest goals shown on global map, and even showing party position on global doesn't help. The global map exploration was a strong point of Avernum 1, it was mixing well a good dose of exploration and sense of discovering to an exploration gameplay relatively light thanks to the ability to rush on global map through parts already explored. It was a major gameplay element of Avernum 1 that was building a strong mood of exploration and discovery of a large world. The pointless quests cursors of global map destroy most of this gameplay. And the ability to see the party position on global makes it too much trivial because the global map is too much detailed.
Another element weakens too much the gameplay quality, it's relative to the tricks, secrets, problems to solve. The remake is based on a framework/tools set/graphics set which is a lot weaker to design secrets and tricks, most just become too trivial and it make them almost void.
For sure the remake also brings multiple good points like dialogs better managed, an effort of rework on many texts, some elements added. Also if the class/skills system is overall a bit dumbing down, the new system also bring multiple positive elements. Also obviously the UI and graphics of the remake are less bad.
So it's a difficult case, if you have the heart to get used to the old graphics, old bad UI, it's a much better to play firstly Avernum 1 and then try the remake if the previous version doesn't worth for you. But in no case you can apply the positive comments you can read about Avernum 1 and apply them to this remake.
Moreover if you want play a more streamlined indie RPG than is Avernum 1, then try instead Avadon 1 which is a lot better than this Avernum 1 remake.
This remake is a sad dumbing down of Avernum 1 and it's a shame the dev get encouraged on that path by old school players/indie RPG players, this is a reference of the blindness totally positive reviews that push players give money to the dev no matter for what game they'll do it, tsss.
The main problem is coming from quest goals shown on global map, and even showing party position on global doesn't help. The global map exploration was a strong point of Avernum 1, it was mixing well a good dose of exploration and sense of discovering to an exploration gameplay relatively light thanks to the ability to rush on global map through parts already explored. It was a major gameplay element of Avernum 1 that was building a strong mood of exploration and discovery of a large world. The pointless quests cursors of global map destroy most of this gameplay. And the ability to see the party position on global makes it too much trivial because the global map is too much detailed.
Another element weakens too much the gameplay quality, it's relative to the tricks, secrets, problems to solve. The remake is based on a framework/tools set/graphics set which is a lot weaker to design secrets and tricks, most just become too trivial and it make them almost void.
For sure the remake also brings multiple good points like dialogs better managed, an effort of rework on many texts, some elements added. Also if the class/skills system is overall a bit dumbing down, the new system also bring multiple positive elements. Also obviously the UI and graphics of the remake are less bad.
So it's a difficult case, if you have the heart to get used to the old graphics, old bad UI, it's a much better to play firstly Avernum 1 and then try the remake if the previous version doesn't worth for you. But in no case you can apply the positive comments you can read about Avernum 1 and apply them to this remake.
Moreover if you want play a more streamlined indie RPG than is Avernum 1, then try instead Avadon 1 which is a lot better than this Avernum 1 remake.
Post edited March 21, 2015 by Senestoj