Avernum 5 Review
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Avernum is the long-running flagship series of Spiderweb Software. Set in the underground realm of Avernum, the series now at its 5th iteration has led us through the development of the area from the dumping grounds of the upper-world Empire to a stronger, independent nation.
The series is in one word (old school), known for its low-end graphics, massive world, classic quest structure and heavy focus on narrative, combat and exploration. Some of us have played previous iterations, some of us haven't, either way is fine because you don't really need to have played older Avernum games to try this one.
What's old?
As Jeff Vogel explained in our recent interview, he made a conscious choice to make his series rely on reusing graphical assets while he focuses on breathing new life into every episode by improving the story, characters and overall design. As such, it should come as no surprise that the graphics are as good (or bad) as the previous iterations. Think I dunno Ultima VII quality, which is by now a good 15 years old. Simple, but effective. The only thing that still bugs me a bit is when you get a message telling you that you're facing a gigantic, scary monster, it's a bit of a disappointment that it uses the exact same sprite as its lesser brethren. In other words, monsters and enemies rarely feel unique enough.
The sound files appear unchanged, which means no music (except in the menu) and only very basic sounds for things like combat, walking and opening doors.
As with every Avernum title, this one is very polished. I didn't encounter any bugs or issues running the game. The interface is still as intuitive and well-designed as it was before.
The RPG system is much the same (with one significant addition, see below). It still offers a very expansive set of options to start with, including a selection of traits and race. And while levelling up, you need to balance the needs of your stats with your combat skills, magic skills, general skills and special skills. It can be a bit overwhelming, but the pre-generated characters are pretty good and the descriptions are clear enough for you to be able to figure out on your own what to specialize in, what to generalize in and what to leave alone.
The setting is still Avernum (duh) and the usual guys make an appearance, there are sometimes-friendly humans (Avernites or Empire), Slithzerikai, Nephilim (all of these are playable races) and Vahnatai, but also the usual monsters; lizards, bats, goblins, giants, giant spiders, etc. etc. The location has shifted quite a bit into unexplored territory, you won't be seeing the familiar Great Cave in this episode. Also, the focus on races has shifted a bit, noticeably in the Sliths, goblins and Vahnatai being less present.
What's new?
The first thing you're bound to notice is the addition of "battle disciplines", a new combat element exclusive to fighter classes. These can be used to invoke short-lasting buffs, enhance single attacks, temporarily lower an opponent's defenses, and more. It's a solid idea, but unfortunately they feel a bit unpolished. There's no real sense of progression in battle disciplines, as you never have to learn them (they're added automatically as you add to your weapon skill) and you don't pick between skills but instead are presented with a fairly linear progression that lacks a significant tactical element. At the end of the game, you'll always be using (the best one) rather than having a variety of choices to make as magic users do.
As is usual for Avernum sequels, the feel of the game changed a bit from the last one. Avernum 4 almost had a post-apocalyptic feel in the way towns were wrecked and humans were despairing. Avernum 5 has a distinct frontier feel to it, as you explore new regions in which humans are trying all sorts of methods and philosophies just to survive and attempt to get along. There's a delightful sense of futility to all their efforts, as once you pass out of the old colonies into frontier land, none of the places you pass through could be described as (thriving).
The story of Avernum 5 is ok, but not great. There's nothing particularly inspired about the tale of Dorikas, his assassination attempt, and you hunting him down. But there are some elements woven into the plot that work well, including some (fairly superficial) intrigue and betrayal, and the (somewhat predictable) tragic nature of the main enemy character (which was present in Avernum 4, as well).
Perhaps most importantly is the fact that you are faced with hard-hitting choices throughout the game. The most significant of these is the option to stay loyal to the Empire or to join Dorikas, but there are other moments where you can and should choose your allies and enemies carefully. Some of the choices you make earlier carry on into the rest of the game.
Avernum has always had (boss fights), where the bosses use special tactics and you have to get creative to beat them, but Avernum 5 has a lot more of these and it works out great. Fighting against the Soultaker or the Master of the Pit might have been frustrating as hell, but it was also fun.
In general, Averum 5 sports several design improvements over earlier installments, including combat scenarios scaling better with your characters from area to area, fewer annoying fights in which you have to walk through tunnels while guys pelt you with rocks, and better quest design overall.
What's not so much fun?
Most of my criticism here will apply to many of the Avernum games, but they're still worth a mention for this one.
To start off, for a game that prides itself in huge open-world gameplay, it sure has an overly linear feel to exploration. Not that you aren't relatively free to move around, but there are clearly segmented areas separated by bottlenecks. Sometimes you have to do a quest to go further, sometimes you don't, but each time you pass a bottleneck you know you're going into a tougher zone and you are supposed to be finished with the last zone. It works, but it's not ideal.
I had some small issues with balance. I've heard that some had problems in enemies being too tough, but I made my usual character build (fighters with ultimate traits + weak minds and magic users with ultimate traits + frailty) and found the game a walk in the park, as long as I was willing to spend half my time buffing and re-buffing my team, which is a bit tedious, but not challenging. The game's difficulty can be freely adapted as you play, so this is mostly an academic point.
Avernum 5 is to use Jeff Vogel's own words a (gigantic game). But bigger isn't necessarily better, especially not for quality-over-quantity players like me. The size is beginning to tell in key areas. As I mentioned, the game's quest design is better, there are less (hey please pick up 8 green rocks for me)-type things. But that doesn't mean quest design is actually good. It's still fairly weak and more importantly very repetitive.
The thing with Avernum quests is that they rarely challenge your faculties. Avernum 5 has more quests that require you to puzzle or think a bit, but the majority of quests is solved in the good old Avernum way by simply going everywhere and walking around every corner on every map. This works to a certain extent hell, it's probably where Avernum's exploration charm comes from but when the game gets this long, it starts to be a drag, especially if combat isn't very challenging any more (see below). I was actually glad to see how small the penultimate and last areas were, and how focused the quests were once you're beyond Vahnatai lands. Such relief borders on (it's almost over, yippee), which is never good.
I mentioned above I had some issues with balance and that showed up in annoying way in combat. Right from about halfway through the game, in the Anama lands, average combat stopped being something I had to think about. Just buff up and click a few times. Only the special fights brought some relief, but otherwise combat became a drag. Moving through a late-game area where your walking is continually interrupted by wolves that pose no challenge just isn't fun. Again, this is something that was present in all Avernum games and it's improved compared to Avernum 4, but it still wasn't fun.
Conclusion
Overall, I was impressed by the feel of the game and the consistent futility of the frontier societies that runs as a thread throughout. This helped alleviate the somewhat mediocre nature of the plot itself. As far as main plots go, I liked Avernum 4's better.
The gameplay is pretty well improved, mostly in spots you won't notice immediately, such as overall location design, design of certain big fights and quest design. The battle disciplines are a fun addition, but they need some polish, to be made slightly more complex. Perhaps with separate branches of disciplines you can learn, one focused on disabling the opponent, the other on buffing yourself, etc.
As always, there are high entrance level barriers for those of us who are sensitive to bad graphics or non-existent sound. And as always, Jeff Vogel doesn't let down fans of Avernum, as this is another solid sequel.
What about the rest of us? Well, I might not blindly recommend it as your first go, but I think it's somewhat more forgiving and attractive than Avernum 4 was. Still, its size is daunting with not much of a carrot at the end as it wears you down. But this often happens to me when playing Avernum games, so it might just be me.
Thankfully, I don't have to give any kind of unreserved recommendation, since Spiderweb is always willing to provide enormous demos. Avernum 5 is no exception, so if you're curious about this title, simply give it a spin.
