Jeff has added a new character type in this game: the tinkermage. I was so interested in it that I chose that as my main character, and I'm glad I did. The tinkermage makes these little towers that do pleasant things, such as firing bolts at your enemies, and, after you've put lotsa points into them, even shooting ice and fire streams at 'em. I've become quite fond of the "suppression" tower, which slows the enemies at every turn. Extremely effective. I've also managed to get a tower that does group heal, but I need to boost that power on that one still.
I've probably played more than half the game so far, and was having too much fun to stop and blog it! I'm starting to return to the original areas on new quests, and although I know I haven't yet opened up the whole map. I'm getting to be fairly powerful. I have more scarabs than I can use (we earn, or sometimes buy, scarabs that can be attached to each character, giving special, and very useful, powers. These can be switched around when needed, but only on the first floor of the Avadon home base. Ergo: pay attention to what you have and what powers you might need.
Jeff has included plenty of his trademark humor in this game and I'm really enjoying it. That's probably why it reminds me so much of Avernum--the little quips and droll phrases. Love it. Plus, the fights are tough but doable. I keep learning. When I get wiped out, I think, then try again. Usually I can figure out how to handle the battle much better on the second try.
I confess that I have had to consult the forum a couple of times, especially when I got caught in the dragon's lair and couldn't find a way out (you just get to take in your main character to that--thank goodness mine was a tinkermage!!). Also when I ran into constructs that couldn't be killed. I had to find out that ignoring (or rather, distracting them with tinkermage towers) and slaughtering the monsters behind them would render them inoperative.
I was able to find my way through a tough puzzle under a temple--touching three basins of water. Trouble is, the basins are in the back of a buncha monsters and once you touch the thing you can't get out. Solved that by placing my weakest character outside the fight area and out of range of the monsters. Then went in with my other two characters, touched the basin and let them get killed. Once you end the battle with the peace button, your dead characters come back to life (a feature of the game that I'm sure is meant to please newish players, who always complain about the difficulty). I felt pretty good about winning that one.
Had to take a good week or more away from the game because I had a boatload of Kirkus deadlines to meet. Having met them, I think I'll do a bit more in the game before I forget how to play!
Fun ahead!!
(I must include one gripe: I know Jeff has added some complexity in forcing players to choose which allies we want to accompany our lead character on each quest, but frankly, I prefer the original Avernum (and most other RPG's) style. Build your party and go with that. OK, Baldur's Gate allows you to change your party members--and actually, so does Avernum--but I really prefer just going with what I've got rather than having to change all the time. On the up side of that gripe, though, it's true that the Avadon system does allow for much more replayability, and that's good. We have different strengths and weaknesses wherever we go. Of course, I could just choose the same characters all the time (except when the game demands certain characters), but I'm going along with Jeff's ideas and choosing different parties each time. I guess my main difficulty is that it just takes a bunch of time to dress each character when I want to use them--taking that great cloak off the sorcerer and putting it on the shaman, for example. Swapping out the good armor and necklaces and boots, etc. You really have to re-do your two companion characters every time you leave for a quest if you want to use all your firepower. It's time consuming and it's getting to be tedious.)
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