OH I can't even describe how much fun it is to get back into a NEW Spiderweb game!!
I discovered Jeff Vogel's games when I was back in New Hamphshire and downloaded the free demo of Nethergate. I have been hooked ever since. Ironically, Nethergate was, I believe, the only one of Jeff's games that was not a commercial success. People thought it was educational. Stupid people. Needed education (although they would't have got it from that game—it was a fantasy like all the others). It was the first fantasy RPG I had ever played (in fact, I didn't really know what that was). It was strange to me to get into combat, but it was turn based, so it was kinda like a puzzle to solve every time.
What grabbed me was that I got into the initial dungeon (playing Celts) fighting the goblins. I made a mistake and got swarmed at the door of their temple. I fought and fought and was running out of health and spell energy and I realized that I had saved in the wrong place and was going to have to re-do the whole fight or the whole game! Somehow I got out of it (whew!) and found the blood was pumping through my veins and I was excited!!
So I became a fan of Jeff Vogel's RPGs at least. Nethergate turned out to be fun fun fun all the way through. I even figured out, more or less, how to play!
And he hasn't disappointed me yet!
I think that the thing that makes Jeff's games so addicting is that it's only one guy—rather than a committee—who decides what's best for the game. It's one guy with his own individual imagination. And his dry humor, which I am happy to report is in Avadon 3!
So OK. I have done everything I could do in the starting fortress. I am now on my first major quest—to talk to the leader of one of Avadon's rivals. I have done that and have picked up another nice little quest from that area, which I will try to tackle tomorrow.
I must admit more than the fact that I've never used the keyboard before: I never really cared about the story before. Stupid, because so much of Jeff's games depend on the story. But I find myself interested in solving the game as a puzzle. Of course, you have to pay some attention to the story in order to do that, but I mostly dismissed the story itself in the past.
But I have been following the YouTube playthroughs of a guy who calls himself Chessrook44. He has done every Spiderweb game except for the more recent Avernum remakes. He does good commentary and rather good voices for the characters! Chessrook gets quite involved with the stories and the moral dilemmas that Jeff always provides in his games. So, listening to him, I'm trying to pay more attention to the actual story.
My problem with Jeff's moral dilemmas is that I always go to the good side. You can replay the Avadon games, however, and choose to be a rebel! I ought to do that!
But before the replay, I have to play it! Onward!!
Next Entry
No comments:
Post a Comment