• Tag Archives Tactical RPG
  • AVADON 3: the WARBORN

    Ah, now this is a proper successor to Avernum. Good enough that I’d suggest completely skipping the first two Avadons to avoid the issue of retcons, if nothing else.

    No wild swings in difficulty, smooth leveling progression, Fatigue now regenerates automatically (so no more battles consisting of 90% basic attacks), a sensible selection of skills without any bizarre cross-tree requirements, a varied assortment of companions with relatively frequent commentary, quite a number of choices to be made, far better integrated (non-PC) Tinkermage content, and no main quest related backtracking. The only real negatives are a couple of bugs (e.g. Healing Turret won’t work if it’s the first one you place), the game once again being blind to playing as a Tinkermage, and the persistent oddity of everyone acting like the other Hands in your party are just random mercenaries.

    If you liked Avernum or anything about the earlier Avadon games then definitely pick this up, and if you haven’t played any Spiderweb Software games before then consider giving this one a chance (so long as you like turn-based RPGs).


  • AVADON 2: the CORRUPTION

    The follow-up to Black Fortress features a couple improvements alongside a few notable steps backward. First the good and/or neutral:

    The backtracking issue isn’t as bad here and the skill trees aren’t as rigid, which while seeming like minor improvements, combine to result in a game that only falls apart in the very last mission rather than two-thirds of the way through. A new class has been added (bringing with it an additional companion)… but it appears to have been invented out of whole cloth and isn’t integrated into the setting well… which is particularly glaring if you play the class yourself since no conversations will recognize it. More minor things would be the slightly improved environmental textures and poison now working correctly on enemies.

    As for the bad: The companions aren’t quite as fleshed-out as the previous game’s with noticeably less comments/banter, and the encounter difficulty is wildly unbalanced.

    Wildly unbalanced. While traversing an area you can go from fighting a group of enemies that deal ~20 damage a hit and take 2-3 basic hits to kill to one that deals 50+ damage and takes concentrated ability use to defeat. Or a main mission throwing hordes of enemies at you followed by one that has a relative handful. In a non-linear game that sort of thing would make sense, but this game is quite linear as far as exploration is concerned. Another related issue is the abundance of gimmick battles; there’s a lot of them and most either don’t make any sense or feature infuriating railroading.

    So. Worth playing? Not if you couldn’t stand the prequel. Skipping the prequel and starting here could work though.


  • AVADON: the Black Fortress

    Released around the same time as Escape from the Pit, this first game in a new trilogy is a strange mix of better and worse attributes.

    Graphically it’s superior in both the visual effect and texture department, but switches are much harder to see and it lacks any secrets/containers highlight keys. The roleplaying options are greatly expanded, but it’s incredibly linear (somewhat similar to chapters 2 & 3 of Crystal Souls) and fond of railroading you into specific actions. It features full-fledged party members with their own stories/goals, but they’re mechanically/visually just clones of the available PC classes.

    Speaking of, rather than the ‘build your own class’ sort of thing Avernum has going on, this one adopts a rigid class system with specialized skill trees (and no Talents). There aren’t really any character development options beyond choosing whether you want to max out the left or right side of the tree. The skills themselves are mostly assorted combinations of the ones found in Avernum shackled with a linked cooldown system and a ‘fatigue’ (i.e. mana) cost. Abilities can’t be spammed as they can there. Which sucks and results in tiresome, same-y, basic-attack-heavy slogs instead of engaging combat. Why can’t I cast Icy Rain after Firestorm? How could anyone think putting them both on the same cooldown was a good idea?

    Which brings me to a related bad idea: The endgame encounter design. What the hell is going on there? Fire-immune ‘trained’ Hellhounds that breath ice and poison? Bosses and mini-bosses that get 3 actions per turn and can spam abilities to their hearts’ content? Perpetually-respawning reinforcements? It’s horrible on every level. But wait, there’s more! Backtracking. It features backtracking, backtracking, and even more backtracking. I thought GreedFall was bad in that department (it is) yet this is so much worse.

    The first pass through each main location is good, the character development is pretty good, and the early to mid-game roleplay options are good despite them having next to no effect on event development. It gave me a vibe quite similar to Tyranny… so honestly I shouldn’t have been surprised when the enjoyment level fell though the floor ~2/3rds of the way through.


  • Avernum 3: RUINED WORLD

    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 x3

    Sharpshooter
    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 x2

    Arcane 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.


  • Avernum II: CRYSTAL SOULS

    The followup to Escape from the Pit improves upon just about everything.

    The GUI is a bit slicker, the environmental textures are a bit more varied, it starts off somewhat linear to ease you into the game, some puzzles/traps get introduced that trigger off of careless movement, there’s a lot more loot to sell, the ending quests aren’t as mindlessly hack & slashy, and there’s even a sidequest that has multiple outcomes (though neither actually affects anything).

    There wasn’t any dedicated walkthrough for it though, so I had to do some searching to compile an effective assortment of skills and efficient initial location order. I ended up with:

    Paladin
    Int; End on levels 3/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/27/30
    Melee 8, Priest 14; Hardiness/Parry/Spellcraft/Resistance 10; Tool Use 1
    Melee+Hardiness/Parry x7 -> Priest+Hardiness/Parry x7 -> Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x6 -> Spellcraft/Resistance x7 -> Hardiness/Parry x2
    Nimble Fingers, Negotiator, XP x2, Parry Master x2, Elemental Focus x5, Improved Int x5, Health x3, Luck x2, Improved End x3

    Warmage
    Int; End on levels 3/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/27/30
    Pole 8, Mage 16; Spellcraft/Hardiness/Resistance 10, Luck 3; Tool Use 5, Cave Lore 1
    Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance/Tool Use x12 -> Pole+Mage/Hardiness x6 -> Pole+Spellcraft -> Spellcraft+Hardiness/Resistance x5 -> Luck+Hardiness/Resistance x5
    Nimble Fingers x2, Negotiator, Sage Lore, XP x2, Elemental Focus x5, Improved Int x5, Luck x2, Blessing Focus x5, Health

    Mystic Theurge x2
    Int; Dex on levels 4/8/12/16/20/24/28
    Bow/Priest 8, Mage 16; Spellcraft/Resistance 10; Tool Use 2, Arcane Lore 1, First Aid 8
    Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x15 -> Bow+Tool Use -> Bow+Spellcraft/Resistance x4 -> Bow+Priest/First Aid x2 -> Priest+First Aid/Resistance
    Nimble Fingers, Negotiator, Sage Lore, XP x2, Elemental Focus x5, Improved Int x5, Luck x2, Health x3, Improved Dex x4

    All human, since it’s hard to argue with eight free traits. I went with a full magic party this time and only regretted it a little in the final assassination mission with all those warded enemies that had to be physically hit before they could be damaged. Initial order for Chapter 4 was:

    – Move Mountains 2 (Formello)
    – Buy/Upgrade Spells (Various)
    – Blessed Athame (Totem Tunnels -> Halls of Chaos)
    – Move Mountains 3 (Serpent Cult)
    – Dispel Barrier 2 (Kill Limoncelli)
    – Deciphering Lens (Magi Clearance -> Patrick’s Tower)
    – Dispel Barrier 3 (Magi Clearance -> Barrier Tower)
    – Orb of Thralni (Secret Empire Fort -> Kothtar)

    This worked out extremely well and resulted in being able to systematically clear every area afterward without any need for backtracking (besides when destroying the portal, as I forgot to pick up the Scepter first). It was a much more enjoyable experience overall than the prequel, though I think for the next game in the series I’m going to actually try and use an all-archery party (with magic backup). Hopefully it won’t turn into a depressing grind.


  • Avernum: ESCAPE FROM THE PIT – Finale

    Just cleared all three main quests, and all in all I’d say that was an enjoyable experience. Hopefully the two follow-ups will be comparable.

    There were a number of oddities/annoyances though. For instance:
    – Graphically it’s weird Icy Rain looks like fire.
    – Attacks that miss will often still apply their secondary effects (like knockback).
    – It’s often difficult to target a particular square with an AoE spell.
    – Clicking to attack something you can’t directly reach will often send the character running away along some sidepath to get there.
    – Movement in general is finicky.
    – There are far, far too many worthless items.
    – Gold caps out at 30k.

    Cave Lore ended up indeed pretty worthless; technically it pays for itself, but only if you uncover all hidden caches (I found 25 of 40) and/or grind herb patches. The 3rd level of Dispel Barrier is also pretty worthless as only the one in Gremlin’s Gold protects anything useful (a +1 Luck bonus). Most abilities/spells end up superfluous as well. You basically just need to buy Icy Rain/Call Storm, Fireblast/Divine Fire, Arcane Blow/Divine Retribution, and Cloak of the Arcane/Ward of Elements. Maxed out Haste and Protection are nice though and Divine Restoration is a solid ‘panic button’.

    Skill-wise First Aid actually ended up being quite useful for those ending quest enemy gauntlets, and it’s not like there’s much else of use for a spellcaster to buy once they max out Spellcraft. Riposte was indeed utterly useless (it’s weaker than Spine Shield), though ranged attacks often ended up a fine alternative to wasting spells on weak enemies.

    At the end of the day… the game’s a somewhat bizarre combination of modern ease of use (e.g. unlimited carry weight) and classic fuckovers (unworkable character builds). Worth playing, but not worth playing without any foreknowledge of what to expect.


  • Avernum: ESCAPE FROM THE PIT – Midgame

    Now having just reached Kyass at level 19 with ~50% or so of the map cleared, it seems like a good a place as any to mark as a midpoint for an open-world game.

    That second boss fight turned out to not be indicative of later ones, except in that ‘enemy summons help behind you’ is a re-occurring theme. Money also turned out to be not as much of an issue as I thought it would, as you can get by just fine spamming maxed out Icy Rains and have little need to buy any other early spells besides healing-related ones. Of course, I’ve specifically avoided buying weapons training from the early trainers since later ones are cheaper. If you just buy stuff from whomever I could definitely see it running out fast.

    There were conflicting reports regarding the usefulness of Cave Lore, and as of now I’m firmly in the “It’s not worth bothering with.” camp. Starting out with a Tool Use of 8 and getting it up to 11 by 10th level turned out to be a solid plan, as did having 12 Arcane Lore by the same point (Sage Lore and Arcane Lore 1 on each spellcaster). Relatively little backtracking so far has been required and progress has been smooth.

    I did end up having to revise my leveling plan though:

    Fighter
    Attributes: Str; End at level 4/7/10/13/16/19/22/25/28
    Skills: Melee+Blademaster/Hardiness/Parry x9; Priest+Tools; Blademaster+Hardiness/Parry x5; Spellcraft+Resistance; Hardiness/Parry/Luck/Whatever
    Traits: Improved Str, Mighty Blows, Ambidex, Negotiator, Health, Improved Str x4, Parry x2, Dual Blade, Mighty Blows x2, Health

    Priest
    Attributes: Int; End at level 5/9/13/17/21/25/29
    Skills: Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x3, Priest+Tools x2; Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x6; Priest+Melee; Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x2; Spellcraft/Resistance x4; Luck/Whatever
    Traits: Health, Elemental Focus/Improved Int x2, Negotiator, Elemental Focus, Sage Lore, Elemental Focus x3, Improved Int x4, Health x2

    Mage x2
    Attributes: Int; Dex at level 5/9/13/17/21/25/29
    Skills: Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x9; Mage+Tools; Mage+Weapon x4; Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x2; Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance/Luck x8; Whatever
    Traits: Elemental Focus/Improved Int x3, Negotiator, Health, Sage Lore, Elemental Focus x3, Improved Int x4, Health x2


  • Avernum: ESCAPE FROM THE PIT – First Impressions

    The screenshots don’t really do this game, which is a remake of a remake, any justice. The gameplay graphics are much more detailed than they appear to be… though the scale needs a bit of work and the lighting doesn’t even remotely match the flavor text: Can you tell you’re underground? I certainly can’t.

    Mechanically the game is quite smooth, though unforgiving in that ‘classic’ sort of way. Your skill points are very limited, and some skills are definitely worth more than others. Money is also apparently pretty limited despite the massive amount of items scattered on the ground (most of which is literally worthless), items that are remarkably hard to differentiate from static background art (meaning you’ll be pressing the ‘g’ key pretty much constantly). Some items you can sell but actually need for sidequests. Enemy encounters can be also quite unfair: The second boss you can stumble upon gets two actions per turn, is able to summon help, and a veritable army of trash mobs appear out of thin air (to attack you from behind) when he gets low on health.

    So a guide of some sort is absolutely necessary. Perhaps several. Pouring over the various information available I decided to go with the suggested Fighter/Priest/Wizardx2 setup with the following leveling plan (subject to change):

    Fighter
    Attributes: Str, Str, End
    Skills: Melee+Blademaster/Parry; Priest/Tool Use; Blademaster+Parry/Hardiness; Hardiness+Resistance/Luck
    Traits: Improved Str, Mighty Blows, Ambidextrous, Negotiator, Good Health, Improved Strength x4, Parry Master x2, Mighty Blows x2, Good Health x2

    Priest
    Attributes: Int, Int, Int, End
    Skills: Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x3, Melee/Tool Use; Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x4; Melee/Tool Use; Priest+Spellcraft/Resistance x8; Resistance/Luck/Hardiness
    Traits: Good Health, Elemental Focus/Improved Int x2, Negotiator, Elemental Focus/Improved Int, Sage Lore, Elemental Focus/Improved Int x7, Good Health x2

    Mage x2
    Attributes: Int, Int, Int, Dex
    Skills: Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x3; Weapon skill; Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x4; Weapon skill; Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x4; Spellcraft+Tool Use; Mage+Spellcraft/Resistance x4; Priest x4; Resistance/Luck
    Traits: Elemental Focus/Improved Int x3, Negotiator, Good Health, Sage Lore, Elemental Focus/Improved Int x2, Elemental Focus/Improved Int x5, Good Health x2

    So far at Level 3 with the introductory area and Silvar cleared things are looking good. We’ll see how things progress.


  • Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark

    That Fell Seal was ‘inspired by’ Final Fantasy Tactics is blindingly obvious, but I’ll go farther and say it’s closer to a simplified remake of it. I’d say ‘consolized’, but the original was a console game so….

    Classes have less skills to learn, magic is cast instantly, item variety has been massively reduced (and universalized so that every unit can use them, albeit a limited number of times per battle), cover no longer exists, there’s only one type of water tile and you can attack while submerged, there aren’t any ground/weather effects, height-based damage requires a specific skill, evasion is now a universal stat that works against both magical and physical attacks, AP points are awarded after battle in a lump sum based on enemy level, battle maps are static and can’t be rotated/tilted, and the world map is smaller with less locations to visit.

    Expect to reach the low 50’s if you skip the few sidequests and low 60’s otherwise (you can grind to level 99 either way if you really wanted to though). If you plan to master all the classes the playtime can run into the 80+ hour range, while just sticking to the main story quests will probably end up about half that. The main thing to be aware of here is that, though things are much simpler and there aren’t any unfair main quest battles like FFT‘s Wiegraf fight, every single battle features enemy healers.

    Anyone who’s played FFT will recall that some of the most annoying fights are against units with instant healing abilities (e.g. Yellow Chocobos, Chemists) and in this game every character is a Chemist and every battle features one or more healer classes. So unless you’re playing with lowered difficulty settings or cheesing things with double-casting Quickened Sorcerers even the most simple battle will take several minutes to finish.

    Still… the core FFT experience and storyline beats are there, and when you get right down to it the only other way to play FFT on a PC is with an emulator. So if you like that kind of game this one will definitely be worth picking up.


  • BATTLETECH & The Banner Saga

    Sometimes when people make a really big deal out of a particular part of a game being bad, the majority of the game actually turns out to be decent to good. Unfortunately, in Battletech‘s case all the complaints turned out to be 100% accurate.

    The bones of an entertaining tactical RPG are there and combat on the face of things is engaging. The problem lies in the number of enemies arrayed against you, the number of sudden/random reinforcements they get, the limits on how many mechs you can field, and the XCom-like resource management elements. You’re always going to be taking damage while heavily outnumbered, and trying to avoid battle (by, say, traveling a side path instead of approaching an enemy directly) only leads to being even more heavily outnumbered when crossing an invisible threshold suddenly triggers the appearance of more units. It’s simply not fun.

    The Banner Saga, which I finally got around to giving a second chance, suffers from a similar problem. While you don’t have to worry about resources as much (running out of supplies and having everyone starve to death apparently doesn’t actually affect much of anything beyond Morale level) the issue of facing nothing but battle after lopsided battle while traveling along a straight line is a real one. Ash of Gods gives you actual choices that felt like they had meaning/impact on the progress of the story; the few choices provided here are laughable in comparison.