The third and final game in the remade first Avernum trilogy once again improves on the formula found in the prequels.
Here the action moves to the surface, and that means the addition of a day/night cycle (with a bit of weather even). The progress of time actually has an in-game effect in that the devastation from the various monster plagues will start causing parts of towns to get destroyed if you take too long to solve them. It’s a very generous time limit though (I finished the game at ~100 days; the last two plagues don’t start affecting things until 101 and 141 days), and you can of course still complete the game even if you let things deteriorate.
The soft level cap has been increased to 35 (though you’re unlikely to hit it in normal play), the combat interface has been upgraded to actually show movement distances, several new ground-hazard spells have been added, and there’s even an optional ‘main’ quest that can be completely missed unless you waste a bunch of time (I think it’s supposed to trigger at 160+ days).
I did indeed end up going with an all-archer party and archery is pretty powerful with maxed out Sharpshooter/Sniper (200+ damage on a critical). Enemies only having a 5% chance to hit me was also quite nice:
Ranger
Dex; End on levels 4/8/12/16/20/24/28/32
Melee/Bows 8, Priest 17; Hardiness/Parry/Gymnastics 10; Sharpshooter 10, Sniper/Lethal Blow 4
Bows+Melee/Hardiness/Parry x6 -> Priest+Melee/Hardiness/Parry x15 -> Melee+Gymnastics -> Gymnastics+Hardiness/Parry/Sharpshooter x9 -> Sharpshooter+Sniper/Lethal Blow
XP x2, Nimble Fingers x2, Negotiator, Sage Lore, Parry x2, Improved Dex x5, Sure Aim x3Sharpshooter
Dex; End on levels 4/8/12/16/20/24/28/32
Bows 8, Sharpshooter/Sniper/Lethal Blow/Gymnastics 10; Tool Use/First Aid 10, Luck 5
Bows+Tools/Sharpshooter/Sniper x6 -> Sharpshooter+Tools/Sniper x7 -> Sniper+Tools x3 -> Sniper+Luck -> Lethal Blow+Gymnastics x7 -> First Aid+Luck/Lethal Blow/Gymnastics x10
XP x2, Nimble Fingers x2, Negotiator, Sage Lore, Sure Aim x3, Improved Dex x5, Luck x2Arcane Archer x2
Dex; Int on levels 3/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/27/30/33
Bows 8, Mage 16; Spellcraft/Resistance/Sharpshooter/Sniper 10; Arcane||Nature Lore 9
Mage+Bows/Spellcraft/Lore x15 -> Bows+Lore x2 -> Spellcraft+Resistance x4 -> Resistance+Sharpshooter/Sniper x6 -> Sharpshooter+Sniper x7
XP x2, Nimble Fingers x2, Negotiator, Sage Lore, Elemental Focus x5, Improved Int x5, Sure Aim x3, Improved Dex x5
The first two were Nephilim, and there are several places in the game where having non-human party members can be a problem. Most notably around the two towns in the far east which are patrolled by guards that will attack you, and if you kill them those towns will end up permanently hostile (locking you out of two minor quests).
Of particular note is that this game returns to the style of the first in being extremely open-world. Fortunately though there aren’t really any obstacles that require backtracking for doing things in the ‘wrong’ order. I actually ended up clearing most of Upper Avernum out before heading to the surface, and as a result was so overleveled for the slimes that I went and stopped the roaches first. This turned out to be a fortuitous chain of events though, as that let me get into Sharimik & Gale quite early to fill out my spellbooks.
That said, it’s weird you can find Demonslayer in the final dungeon when (unlike the prequels) the game ends after the final dungeon. You can’t keep playing, and the only quest it would be useful in you may not even trigger… so that was annoying. Some other annoyances would be the proliferation of laser/mirror puzzles and the return of the hack&slash-heavy finale. Those relatively minor issues aside it ends up a fairly enjoyable and fitting conclusion to the trilogy overall.