Serena: A Madness?

So I "played" this little freebie called "Serena" which turns out to be an exploration of a rather dilapidated cabin and an exploration of the narrator's sort-of mind.

I'm not entirely sure this is a game, or an adventure. It's more like an interactive movie or even book. You simply go around the cabin clicking on things. On each object you get numerous comments from the narrator. Once you've looked at everything, something changes and you start to get a different perspective, and later you learn more.

The cabin

Of course, there is some suspense. There are some decent sound effects, and the art work is really nice. The cabin has dust motes floating all around, which is a really nice effect. It's pretty easy to figure out what happened, and yet the ending didn't make much sense to me. 

The voice acting from the narrator was quite good, but the Serena actress was absolutely terrible. The voice not only didn't fit the picture of the woman in the slightest, but she had no concept of trying to make her speech sound natural. She did make an effort for emotion in the second letter you find. Fortunately, we spend at least 90% of the game with the narrator, who did a very credible job.

Still, it was an intriguing and absolutely not boring way to spend an hour.

Note: you cannot save in this game. I started playing it several months ago and tried to save, but wound up back at the beginning. Ergo, don't start unless you have at least an hour to spare, and don't start unless you're pretty sure you won't be interrupted.

All in all it was a very nice effort, and worth the hour. And for free! Thanks!

Avadon, the Corruption 6: Do it Again!

So I decided to try a replay, and I did it, and I did it on HARD all the way through! Yay! This is the first time I've managed to finish a Spiderweb game on the Hard setting. This time I chose to fight Redbeard in the end, and did get a very nice final battle. However, I wasn't able to defeat the guy on the Hard setting--it was the only think I couldn't do on Hard. So I just said I'd support him and finished the game to get the Medal for doing the entire game on Hard. (There's another secret medal, no doubt that one's for Torment.) Later I went back and defeated him on Normal and got the medal for "forced retirement."

I couldn't have done it if I hadn't played it first on normal. It turns out that the Hard setting (and presumably, the Torment setting) simply requires you to think before you act. You do have to use your wands and potions. I only managed to save a few wands, the Phoenix shards that restore your abilities, and the Circle of Fire scrolls--just used one on the wind demon and wound up with 14 of them for the final battle. They were extremely useful and I think allowed me to win, along with some speed burst scrolls (only needed two of those).

I had a lot of trouble defeating Miranda on Hard. I went to the Spiderweb Forum and asked for detailed help. The always-there "Randomizer" responded with excellent advice, but even then it took multiple tries to get 'er done. Again, it was just a matter of placing my characters where they wouldn't get hit, and some luck--finally my turrets were aimed at Miranda and I got her. Interestingly, you don't have to get her health down to zero. You only need to do a certain amount of damage to her and the game tells you that you've won. Plus, I followed a walkthrough and managed to pick up all the goodies from that area of the game--including the Avenger's Greaves and the meteor chunk. Nice!

As with Miranda, defeating Redbeard in the end depended on my turrets actually firing at him. You don't have any control over the turrets, aside from hasting them and healing them. They fire at whatever enemy they feel like firing on. This time I had Khalida do a berserk leap at Redbeard right at the start, and she somehow managed to pin him at the front of the room. In previous fights he jumped to the center and took out my turrets pretty quickly. Once Khalida attacked him I set Yoshira on him with a shattering blow, which kept him in the front. Then Dedrik hit him with an icy storm, which also blew him back. With that tactic and by using only two speed bursts, a few wands and those Circles of Fire, plus a couple of summoned creatures and only one Phoenix shard, I managed to defeat him just after the text said his portal was half finished. So that was a matter of tactics and luck. 

See? Ya just have to think. I bet I could go back and get him on Hard, if I really wanted to! (heh) Update: And I did! Took about four tries, but the secret was keeping Redbeard at the front of the room and away from my turrets. Again, those Circle of Fire scrolls were the deciding factor. So now I indeed have finished the entire game on Hard. Ha ha!

I was amazed at how much of the game I missed the first time! Really, I must have missed at least 20% of it! This time I found the Tower of Trials quest, and was able to explore Redbeard's private quarters. There were at least four or five other side quests I found that I hadn't found on the first playthrough.

And I found abundant lockpicks this time. I had nearly 40 to spare by the end of the game. I was able to look in that chest just before the endgame and the thing had a totally useless "arcane scroll" and something else that didn't matter a damn. Sheesh.

I had no trouble with the endlessly swarming enemies this time, because I knew that I only had to bunny hop over to the fort. I did that on the first try.

So I must say that I enjoyed the game much more this time! There's yet another scenario I could play in the future--I could completely join the rebels. I suppose I could try that on the "Torment" setting sometime, and go for the "Kills a God on Torment" medal, and defeat Vardegras to get that medal, but  I think I've done enough of Avadon for now. Time for a few point and click adventures!

Still, it was much more fun this time. Glad I did it!