It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussion (archive)Release: Avernum: The Complete Saga(155 posts)(155 posts)
(155 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
This is my favourite topic
Posted January 15, 2013
Say goodbye to sunlight.

Avernum: The Complete Saga, a collection of seven epic-scaled old-school role playing games featuring an original setting and story-driven gameplay, is available on GOG.com, for only $7.99. That's 33% off for a whole week!

For a computer game, it's quite impossible to recreate what pen & paper role playing games offer--endless adventures in a land of possibilities limited only by one's imagination. That's why most computer RPGs don't even try to reach that goal. The Avernum series is different that way. It tries. And--I'll be damned--it does not fall all that short. Its inconceivable complexity and supreme storytelling is on pair, or even surpasses most of the all-time favorite cRPG classics. Over the course of seven games the saga succeeded in developing one of the most original fantastic realm and fill it with innumerable characters that live their lives, pursue their goals, and leave a mark on the ever-evolving environment. If you thought you knew the computer role playing genre by heart, but somehow you managed to miss this monumental game, you're up for a big and pleasant surprise.

Avernum: The Complete Saga tells an epic story of an underground prison colony. A place of exile for empire's banished citizens, outcasts, criminals, and bastards, that becomes a thriving kingdom of its own over the course of hundreds of years of existence. Each chapter presents a turning point in Avernum's history placing the player's party of adventurers at the center of events, making them overthrow tyrants, defend the land from vile demons, discover ominous schemes, meet strange creatures, and accumulate the power needed to change the fate itself. The series consists of two lengthy trilogies, hundreds of hours worth of gameplay each, and an additional title, The Blades of Avernum, that gives you six shorter additional scenarios and a tool to design your own adventures, prolonging your experience indefinitely. With traditional, old-school isometric presentation, tactical turn-based combat, huge gameworld, and many hundreds of quests to complete while following the captivating story, Avernum: The Complete Saga gives any hardcore RPG gamer the best value for their money!

Prepare to be drawn into one of the most immersive cRPG experiences of our times. Venture boldly into the epic, but eerie underground realm of Avernum: The Complete Saga, for only $7.99 until Tuesday, January 22, at 10:59AM GMT.
Posted January 15, 2013
avatar
DieRuhe: Awesome. Now if only I could find a way to hide a purchase from the annoying Other...
avatar
keeveek: If she doesn't let you to buy games, she doesn't love you. Sorry that you had to hear it from me :-(
I agree. Tell her she can't buy another pair of shoes or another expensive body wash. On a gaming note, I think these games are worth a lot more than what GOG is selling them for.
Posted January 15, 2013
This is the bundle I've been hoping GOG would eventually get and for only $8.00, it's an instant purchase.

Thank you GOG
Posted January 16, 2013
How would you guys rate Avernum 2, 3, and blades? those are the only ones I don't have, so i was wondering.
Posted January 16, 2013
Nice release. I eventually get this, sadly, it's wishlisted for now.
Posted January 16, 2013
Had them partially on Steam ( 4 5 6 and Escape from the Pit which is I believe remake of 1)
It was instant purchase there and it is instant purchase here :)
I believe this is some sort of rating
Post edited January 16, 2013 by F242
Posted January 16, 2013
avatar
jackalKnight: How come they have the Mac editions of Avernum but not Geneforge? Just wondering...
avatar
Snickersnack: Geneforge arrive on GOG before Mac support was launched. Mac versions could well be in the queue but I imagine testing such a large collection takes time.
Since the versions of A1-3 and Blades sold here apparently run on WINE (which is funny since they were Mac-first and for a while Mac-only games, but then again, they were originally coded for PPC OS 9), I'd imagine that they're also still working on getting GF1-3 to work in WINE for OS X, since the engine tech is pretty much the same.
Posted January 16, 2013
avatar
Snickersnack: Geneforge arrive on GOG before Mac support was launched. Mac versions could well be in the queue but I imagine testing such a large collection takes time.
avatar
rampancy: Since the versions of A1-3 and Blades sold here apparently run on WINE (which is funny since they were Mac-first and for a while Mac-only games, but then again, they were originally coded for PPC OS 9), I'd imagine that they're also still working on getting GF1-3 to work in WINE for OS X, since the engine tech is pretty much the same.
I am pleasantly surprised to see GOG taking advantage of WINE technology to get us the full package for the Avernum series. That is very cool indeed.

I hope this means other titles may also get the WINE treatment where possible. That would be quite nice.
Posted January 16, 2013
avatar
Gazoinks: Are the Avernum games a bit better balanced stat-wise than Geneforge? One of the things that annoyed me a bit about Geneforge was that, despite a fairly open stat system, you had to build your character pretty specifically or become really weak later on.
I'm tempted to say yes, because the game can be very unforgiving if you spec your characters in the "wrong" way. An example of this is the boss battle in Solberg's Workshop in A5. It took me *weeks* to figure out how to beat it, until I caved in and went to GameFAQs, only to read that a high Nature Lore skill was instrumental to dealing with the boss' explosive minions. I ended up having to go back to a much earlier iteration of my party to fix this, and ended up replaying an extensive part of the game.

Good thing too, because you needed an insanely high Nature Lore skill to find the much-vaunted Heartstriker Bow later on in the game. In both cases, there really wasn't much explanation given as to why it was necessary to put so much into Nature Lore.

And then there was the "hidden skills" system, with three confusingly named skills which all seemed to be highly redundant at first glance (Magical Efficiency vs. Spellcraft vs. Magery).
Posted January 16, 2013
avatar
Gazoinks: Are the Avernum games a bit better balanced stat-wise than Geneforge? One of the things that annoyed me a bit about Geneforge was that, despite a fairly open stat system, you had to build your character pretty specifically or become really weak later on.
avatar
rampancy: I'm tempted to say yes, because the game can be very unforgiving if you spec your characters in the "wrong" way. An example of this is the boss battle in Solberg's Workshop in A5. It took me *weeks* to figure out how to beat it, until I caved in and went to GameFAQs, only to read that a high Nature Lore skill was instrumental to dealing with the boss' explosive minions. I ended up having to go back to a much earlier iteration of my party to fix this, and ended up replaying an extensive part of the game.

Good thing too, because you needed an insanely high Nature Lore skill to find the much-vaunted Heartstriker Bow later on in the game. In both cases, there really wasn't much explanation given as to why it was necessary to put so much into Nature Lore.

And then there was the "hidden skills" system, with three confusingly named skills which all seemed to be highly redundant at first glance (Magical Efficiency vs. Spellcraft vs. Magery).
Hmm, maybe I need Jeff's hint books to make my way through Spiderweb games. Having to go backwards a long ways and start over would potentially result in me not finishing a game. :(

i guess I should check the forums at Spiderweb. Maybe there are character creation guides and info there, etc.
Posted January 16, 2013
avatar
Gazoinks: Are the Avernum games a bit better balanced stat-wise than Geneforge? One of the things that annoyed me a bit about Geneforge was that, despite a fairly open stat system, you had to build your character pretty specifically or become really weak later on.
avatar
rampancy: I'm tempted to say yes, because the game can be very unforgiving if you spec your characters in the "wrong" way. An example of this is the boss battle in Solberg's Workshop in A5. It took me *weeks* to figure out how to beat it, until I caved in and went to GameFAQs, only to read that a high Nature Lore skill was instrumental to dealing with the boss' explosive minions. I ended up having to go back to a much earlier iteration of my party to fix this, and ended up replaying an extensive part of the game.

Good thing too, because you needed an insanely high Nature Lore skill to find the much-vaunted Heartstriker Bow later on in the game. In both cases, there really wasn't much explanation given as to why it was necessary to put so much into Nature Lore.

And then there was the "hidden skills" system, with three confusingly named skills which all seemed to be highly redundant at first glance (Magical Efficiency vs. Spellcraft vs. Magery).
That, uh, actually sounds kinda worse than Geneforge. Geneforge had a similar problem, but it was at least fairly obvious what you needed to invest in depending on your class.
Posted January 16, 2013
avatar
Gazoinks: That, uh, actually sounds kinda worse than Geneforge. Geneforge had a similar problem, but it was at least fairly obvious what you needed to invest in depending on your class.
Um, yeah, see, when I meant to say, "yes", I really meant "no"...
avatar
dirtyharry50: Hmm, maybe I need Jeff's hint books to make my way through Spiderweb games. Having to go backwards a long ways and start over would potentially result in me not finishing a game. :(

i guess I should check the forums at Spiderweb. Maybe there are character creation guides and info there, etc.
For players new to Vogel's games, to avoid significant levels of frustration in terms of potentially creating suboptimal party builds, I'd at least recommend skimming through the preamble sections of the GameFAQs walkthroughs for the Avernum and Geneforge games. Many of the more longer ones are expertly written, and are very in-depth in terms of player tips. Plus, they're free and much easier to navigate than the SW forums.
Post edited January 16, 2013 by rampancy
Posted January 17, 2013
avatar
Gazoinks: That, uh, actually sounds kinda worse than Geneforge. Geneforge had a similar problem, but it was at least fairly obvious what you needed to invest in depending on your class.
avatar
rampancy: Um, yeah, see, when I meant to say, "yes", I really meant "no"...
avatar
dirtyharry50: Hmm, maybe I need Jeff's hint books to make my way through Spiderweb games. Having to go backwards a long ways and start over would potentially result in me not finishing a game. :(

i guess I should check the forums at Spiderweb. Maybe there are character creation guides and info there, etc.
avatar
rampancy: For players new to Vogel's games, to avoid significant levels of frustration in terms of potentially creating suboptimal party builds, I'd at least recommend skimming through the preamble sections of the GameFAQs walkthroughs for the Avernum and Geneforge games. Many of the more longer ones are expertly written, and are very in-depth in terms of player tips. Plus, they're free and much easier to navigate than the SW forums.
Thanks. I'll check that out when I get started.
Posted January 17, 2013
avatar
Gazoinks: That, uh, actually sounds kinda worse than Geneforge. Geneforge had a similar problem, but it was at least fairly obvious what you needed to invest in depending on your class.
avatar
rampancy: Um, yeah, see, when I meant to say, "yes", I really meant "no"...
avatar
dirtyharry50: Hmm, maybe I need Jeff's hint books to make my way through Spiderweb games. Having to go backwards a long ways and start over would potentially result in me not finishing a game. :(

i guess I should check the forums at Spiderweb. Maybe there are character creation guides and info there, etc.
avatar
rampancy: For players new to Vogel's games, to avoid significant levels of frustration in terms of potentially creating suboptimal party builds, I'd at least recommend skimming through the preamble sections of the GameFAQs walkthroughs for the Avernum and Geneforge games. Many of the more longer ones are expertly written, and are very in-depth in terms of player tips. Plus, they're free and much easier to navigate than the SW forums.
Well, that makes more sense. I'll pick these up eventually, but I still have 4.5 Geneforge games to play. xd
Posted January 17, 2013
Aww... I hoped to see the Exile series here too.

Am I the only one who preferred the "2D" games?
Post edited January 17, 2013 by Mrstarker
Posted January 17, 2013
avatar
Mrstarker: Aww... I hoped to see the Exile series here too.

Am I the only one who preferred the "2D" games?
You mean top down perspective? Because nothing is 3D in Avernum 1-6 :P
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Release: Avernum: The Complete Saga(155 posts)(155 posts)
(155 posts)