Avernum Crystal Souls 4: Finishing the Demo

Sadly, I have finished the Demo. Yeah, the slith fort was tough, although not all that bad really if you plan your attack. I cleaned out most of the trash sliths and got everybody killed except Cordelia. She then raced back to the friendly fort, which brought everybody else back to life, and then I was able to return and finish it off.

A neat thing about Spiderweb games is that when you kill a buncha monsters and then leave the area, when you come back they'll still be dead. When I returned I only had to deal with the boss, which was much easier.

So now the only thing left to be done in the demo is to retrace all my steps and be sure I got everything. My spellcasters are now at Level 10, and I've got all the spells available in this part of the game.

I really cannot spend the $20 for the game (which it most certainly is worth!) until the end of the month. So I either have to abandon it, OR, I had an idea! I can re-do the Demo on Hard with an all-human party! That will feed my need to play the game, and ought to keep me busy until I can afford to register it! Woohoo!

So, till next time!

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Avernum Crystal Souls 3: Still Alive in Demo

Managed to stay away from the game for two whole days, stretching out the time before I have to buy the game. However, that time is closing in on me and I'm really going to have to wait for February.

But tonight I did a few more quests. Got the wandering ogres and some kind of blessing from the ghost that gave me the quest. Not sure where it is or what it does. Also found a second wisdom crystal and couldn't use it for awhile. I think it was because I was near to leveling up. Once I did that, the crystals became available. I used one each on my spellcasters. I've not got both of them charged up with as many spells as I can get in the Demo. 

Oh, there aren't going to be any more Demo Demons except the one leading to the Vahnati lands. There are those barriers. That's quite enough to stop me from going anywhere.

I also cleaned out the old Nephil fort, which was filled with a Nephil cult that was making undead. Nice quest for Formello. 

I have one more major quest in the Demo--to clean out the Slith fort. I've found the fort. But I'll put it off for awhile. My next session clearly will be my last before I have to buy the game. Sniff.

Ah, I did look on the Spiderweb forum. There somebody said that humans evolve into much stronger characters than any other race. I thought about restarting with an all-human cast, but nah. I've started with this mix, and I'll stick with it for now. I have no doubt I'll play the game again--perhaps on hard--and I can do all humans then.

Still don't know if there's a level 30 cap in this game. I sure hope not. It's chintzy. You're playing along, earning points, and you don't get what you've earned. Really chinzy.  Maybe Jeff finally got enough complaints that he stopped doing that. I can only hope. (Aha. Somebody on the forum said they used a bunch of wisdom crystals to get their mage up to level 35. Sounds promising.)

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Avernum Crystal Souls 2: Cleaning up in the Demo

So with my good knowledge of Spiderweb games I'm doing really well in the earliest portions of the game. As I'm still confined to the demo, I'm forced to really clean up all the little trash combat areas. That has got me up to Level 8, and I managed to get the Icy Rain spell, which is a nice area spell that helped me defeat a young drake and his lava lizard pals in the lizard den. Got some nice stuff from that.

This new skills system gives you choices of neato traits about every third time you level up. That means you have to choose wisely, because there is no way you'll get all of 'em. If Jeff has kept the Level 30 cap (I sure hope not--there were lots of complaints about that in Avernum 1) then we might get ten picks. Fortunately one of them allows mages to wear some armor. I'm betting, though, that about midway through the game we're going to find a mage magic robe, and my mage won't need armor. I got him one level of it, though.

The quest in the Areana lair has become a cinch in this game. It never was before. No doubt that's because it's in the demo. The Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders (GIFTS) are a standard part of most Spiderweb games, and they are fun. I'm sure Jeff wanted to introduce them to his new players, so their quest became far easier than before. Fine. It was fun.

Being stuck in the demo version is going to become fairly frustrating pretty soon, I can tell. I can't buy a boat, for example, and there are islands I want to visit. There's a quest for a hidden ogre lair that doesn't seem to be available yet. 

I will get the chance to clear out a Slith fort. That should involve some nice combat, and they're much tougher than, for example, nephils. The goblins are going down with one arrow shot now, mostly.

I really was forced to use some of my consumables when I fought the drake. That was good. I'm getting the sense behind forcing us to go back to towns to rest. (I remember in the earliest version of Avernum, all we had to do was run back and forth inside the dungeons to regain energy and health. Yeah, it was too easy.)

So far I'm not having too much trouble finding secret buttons. They're fairly large now, and you do get so you know where to look for them. No doubt on the Spiderweb Forum there's a fix to make them sparkle, but I think I'll forego that this time. I'm experienced enough with these games now to find most of them, as long as I remember to look.

So I've completed lots of quests, most of them pretty easy. Having fun! Looking forward to the end of the month, when I can buy the game, if I don't succumb to temptation before then. 

But once I hit the wall in the demo (probably tomorrow), I really do want to get back the Scratches and Baldur's Gate and finish 'em!

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Avernum Crystal Souls 1: I Couldn't Stop Myself

Oh, golly, I am having FUN!

This indeed qualifies as an addiction. It isn't all Spiderweb games, because I haven't played them all (although I own them). But I cannot resist the Avernum series. It was released yesterday afternoon! How could I resist?

Yes, I started the game even though I have yet to finish Scratches and Baldur's Gate. I will finish them!! I will!! But I was salivating over this new release, even though it's the third incarnation (actually the fourth, if you count the ancient Exile 2, which I do not own).

My addiction to Spiderweb games started with the original Nethergate. I'd never played an RPG before and had no idea what it was about. Nethergate was simple enough for even me to figure out how to play it, and I got hooked not only on the Spiderweb gameplay style, but on Jeff Vogel's humor. (Actually, I think that's why I didn't get addicted to Geneforge--he didn't put much of his trademark humor into those games.)

Anyway, I have not yet purchased the game, because I can't afford the $20, which it most certainly is worth. But I remembered that Jeff always puts up big demos of his games. You can play for days before you buy the game. I found one of the "Demo Demons," as pictured here:

Yes, the Demo Demon is described in print

I also actually like it that these games are almost text adventures. You have lots of reading to do. No annoyingly bad voiceover jobs. I can supply the voices in my head. There are sound effects, including some new to this game (the walking sounds are different here, and there are some nice new creaks and spooky sounds in the dungeons), but all the dialogue and descriptions are in print, as above. Even though Jeff allows a larger typeface, that still isn't enough for me. But I run the game in the 1200x720 format, which cuts off the sides, but telescopes everything forward so that it's larger, and I can read the stuff just fine.

I have two disappointments. Jeff has eliminated the feature that allows your party to rest on long treks. If you want to regain full health and spell energy, you have to enter a friendly town. That sucks, although it does make the game more challenging, and maybe it finally will force me to use my consumables. You have to use spell energy, potions, or food to get back up to full power if you don't want to trek all the way back to a town. 

Also, Mycroft has disappeared as a character. I've been playing with Cordelia and Mycroft ever since the first version of Avernum 1, darn it, and I'm used to them. Last time Jeff made Mycroft the priest and Cordelia the sorcerer, but I switched 'em back just because it's how I'm accustomed to playing--why change now? But Cordelia is still there, so I made her my priest and put her back into the third position in my party, then went with a Nephil as my sorcerer. I've always intended to use a Nephil character because they're so good with bows, so here's my chance. Also, Ssaach is gone, but there's another Slitherazki in his place, so that's good. He's still got good old Aldous as the main melee fighter and leader of the group, so that's fine.

These games indeed are challenging, even if the gameplay is simple to learn. Just because you can figure out how to play doesn't mean that you aren't going to have some difficulties. Fortunately, I know enough about them to be able to do pretty well in the beginning phases. The skill trees seem even simpler this time.

I've reached Level 4 with my party, but I still need plenty of buffs to get all the stuff I want. I've already missed out on some herbs and a Level 3 spell because I didn't have enough cave lore or arcane knowledge. I'll go back for those.

And I will finish Scratches and Baldur's Gate. I'll play this until I hit all the Demo Demons, then go back and finish absolutely every tiny thing I can do in the demo. Then I'll have to wait for the end of the month for money to appear. Then I'll buy it!

I'm ahead on my Kirkus books, so I hope I'll be able to finish those two games before I really am able to plunge completely into this one.

But as I remember, I always liked the second Avernum script the best. So I'm looking forward to some serious fun! 

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