These games are my favorite roleplaying series. You should really give them a try. In my opinion, they are some of the best roleplaying games, very much like baldurs gate, planescape torment, fallout which are the games that jeff listed as his inspirations.

These games look really archaic, but are awesome once you get into it.

They are better plotted and feature better writing than just about any other RPGs.

Their only contender would be Planescape Torment and that's a one off.

Curiosity got me. Just looking at these games made me turn my nose at them. But reading all the great things about them made me curious.
I would recommend those of you feeling even a tiny bit curious about the games to download the demo/shareware of the game and try it;

[url=]http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/[/url]

This made me a buyer. Really excited how the game turns out.

Vogel's games are all about the story. Politics, backstabbing, deals, double-agents. I haven't played them very much but I like what I've seen. Note that all the games have LONG demos you can get on the the spiderweb web site.

Well after reading your replies and doing some more research on the series. I decided to buy them. At $10, it's a bargain. Thanks everyone. :)

This series is great. Bought them off steam a while back and my biggest problems with the games was steam itself. (Seriously for a few days I couldn't play Geneforge 1 through 4 because of a crappy steam client update)

The only RPGs to me better on GOG are Arcanum, Fallout 1&2, and Planescape: Torment.

Only finished Geneforge 1 but I loved.

Turn based RPG, that's a plus for me but maybe not for you.

Multiple factions, multiple endings.

In addition to your standard HP and MP, the game also adds "essence". Essence is used (mainly) for summoning creatures. Essence doesn't come back until you unsummon a creature or it dies. So in addition to your starting character, you can also have one really really powerful creature, or you can have up to 5 (I think) less powerful creatures. Or you can choose not to summon any creatures, at least one of the classes can win without ever summoning.

There are three starting classes. Once class is good at fighting but not casting spells. One is good at summoning creatures but not at fighting. One is good as casting spells but not at summoning creatures.

All in all, worth $10. Definitely.

I've liked all the Spiderweb games I've played, going back to the very first one, Exile Escape from the Pit. I've played demos of nearly all the games, and the demos are nearly all longer than many full games elsewhere. I've bought five of the games, though only the first of the Geneforge series, but not finished any. I'm impressed that lightnica finished the first Geneforge. I'm still only slightly more than halfway through that one, despite having the hintbook, all the maps, etc. Perhaps that's the mistake I made with all the games I bought direct from Spiderweb, buying the hintbooks and walkthroughs with the games, thus spoiling the fun of discovery in the game. So not getting them with the games when buying them on GoG may be a good thing.

According to discussions on a forum at the Spiderweb site, Geneforge 1, 2 and 5 are apparently the best, and Geneforge 3 is the worst. But that's not going to stop me playing them all, even Geneforge 3 now I've bought them all.

I hesitated about buying the Geneforge series, because they are really long games and will eat up a lot of your time. A few years ago I seriously thought of buying the whole series from Spiderweb and it was only the price which help me resist the temptation. So seeing it on sale here on GoG at a tiny fraction of that price was too much for me.

The next step is getting Avernum 1-6 on here, Avernum escape from the Pit (that way it pleases both new and old fans) and Avadon wouldn't be a bad idea either. Every tuesday and thursday I always laugh, the games will show up sooner I bet.

Either way, Avadon 2 is in beta testing already I think.