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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Scratches 6: Getting Busy

At last I managed to get a bit of playing time in, after a Kirkus crush and some life events. OK. 

So I have to find a way to finish out Sunday. It's 5:00 and it turns out there are only a couple of things left to do before we get some fireworks going at night. I searched the whole house and finally had to go to the WT. Easy stuff. We just finally do what we haven't been able to do since we got there. Why try yet again? Except it's the only remaining possibility.

Now we have another exciting night. Not only do we have another dream (which sent me all over the freaking house except that I didn't go to the one room where the event occurs) but we have more scratching sounds to investigate.

And this time, without the WT, I went into the basement. There we get a nice good scare. I did figure out what to do down there, because the icons told me to enter a place I normally wouldn't enter. It was a quite nice effect, although fairly primitive. Don't blink.

But after that . . .

Now I remember why I didn't like this game all that much when I first played it.

In a word (well, two words): deliberate frustration.

The game designers leave things so open ended that you literally have to go everywhere and search everything and use every inventory item on every object in order to advance. Once in a while they give you a clue, telling you to go to bed for example. Now, they have included a personal journal that occasionally contains hints, but mostly it's stuff like, "I haven't explored enough yet." 

I have had to resort to the WT, sadly. Some of this stuff is just so obscure you literally never would think to do it. One spoilerific example: Begin spoiler. You need to find a way to get light into the bottom of the crypt in order to read a plaque. First, you have to find an obscure rock. It's in a close-up, so you won't find it if you don't search during that close-up, something that normally you wouldn't do. Next, you use it and it doesn't work. So you have to find the rock again and do it again. This time it works, but there still isn't enough light. So. You go back to the mansion and use a screwdriver on a little mirror that we've been manipulating since day one. NOW you have to detach the mirror. End spoiler.

I mean, who would think of that? It's just a way to add difficulty to an already difficult game. 

Had they given us just a few clues the game would be so much more fun.

I mean, I'll finish it. But I remember now why I didn't like it all that much when I first played it years ago.

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Scratches 5: Progress, But Now What?

OK! Over the last two days I've made some real progress in the game, and have reminded myself of Adventuring 101: when you're playing an inventory game, be sure to try ALL inventory items before giving up.

I could have accessed that kerosine when I found it. I had the item to do it. If I had adhered to the principles of Adventuring 101, I would easily have done it.

However, not only did I get my lamp working (and I have used it!) but I located the secret room and found my way into it! The combination to the safe simply is given to us. Then getting into the locked attic room becomes possible. I'm pretty sure I've picked up all the items I need. I had to look at the WT a couple of times, but oddly,  managed to figure out one of the major puzzles all on my own, by following the principles of Adventuring 101.  I got into that secret room!

There are some blocks there with letters and numbers on them, but the game is so darned dark that I can't really make all of them out. So if I need that, I will shamelessly go to the WT. No harm in that if you have figured out the puzzle yourself, but just can't make it work. 

I have also gotten into the secret room in the African gallery (again, Adventuring 101). The only stuff there is more letters to read, no items as far as I could find. And that's where the lantern worked! Yay!

Now I'm wondering if our intrepid character will use the darned lantern at night. It's clear that we can't go outside on this "day" in the game. There's a storm raging all day. The lightening strikes at least illuminate the dark game for a second or two, and that helps.

I watched more of the YouTube WT. I'll be able to grab some screenshots and insert them later. 

But now I've read the newspapers in the attic and talked to Jerry again. I've advanced to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. I have absolutely no idea what to do next except that it will be inside the house.

Maybe the game will tell me. Or, maybe I ought to read the darned inventory journal!

Anyway, till next time.

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Scratches 4: Stuckness, Unstuckness, Stuckness

Got a bit of playing time in today. I finished my latest Kirkus rush, and had a whole day to kind of twiddle my thumbs. Play Scratches! I said. So I did.

Of course, I had to pick up where I left off. Watching that YouTube walkthrough might be good for grabbing screenshots, but it's ruining the game for me, so I didn't do it today. I had to figure out what I'd done in the game and what I'd seen in the video, which was a bit confusing. Reading my previous blog entry helped a lot! So into the game I went. When I really came to a screeching halt and had exhausted all avenues, I looked up an online WT at Gameboomers and used that. 

At last I have experienced actual scratches! Our main character can't get the electricity on (and it turns out the water isn't on either). So he goes to bed at about 7:00 p.m. Around midnight he has a dream that takes us into the African room, where we see a door and pick up a hammer that does not stay in the inventory. We hear the scratches coming from the fireplace. Use the stethoscope on that, and confirm that's the source. Go downstairs and use the stethoscope on the downstairs fireplace, and yep, it's louder. Must be coming from the basement.

Hah. No way am I going down to that basement. Turns out that was the right decision. Had I tried, the game would have told me it was too dark. So we go back to sleep in the awful bedroom. 

Next day it's storming so badly there's no way the electrician or Jerry is coming, and we can't get out of the house at all. That leaves inside exploration. I explored the basement again, this time without the chilling music. I explored the African room, where of course the door is covered up by a cabinet that contains elephant tusks. 

I decided that the upstairs was the most logical place to look for stuff. But I still couldn't get into that door. That's what finally sent me to the WT. Sheesh. You only have to pick up a paper that's under a paint can right there by the door. Did that, and you STILL can't get the darned key! (Why insert more frustration into your game for no reason? Your game already is difficult enough, thank you.)

And there's a safe in the master bedroom. The WT told me how to get the combination. I think if I had read the "journal" in the inventory it might have clued me into that, but no matter. From now on in this game I must remember always to do two things before allowing frustration to eat my brain: Look in that inventory journal, and call Jerry. Other than that it's just a pixel hunt.

So I got the combination of the safe, got the key to the room, and got into the room. And here's a mistake in the game: we're in the room. We've just poked the key out and it's fallen inside the room. We ought to be able to get that key. I mean, finding keys is a major task in this game. But that one disappears. 

And yet they're being as realistic as possible in other areas. I have found a lantern, but it doesn't have oil. Now I've found a can of kerosine, but the game wants me to find a funnel or something with which to pour it into the lantern. 

So that's my next task--looking for that item. I kinda doubt it's in the kitchen because this game lets you pick up items long before you need them. So it'll be either up there somewhere in the attic or that key will work on other locked doors and/or drawers. There have been a few locked drawers. I've also got an oilcan with which I might be able to unstick some stuck doors and/or drawers. 

Lots of exploring inside the house to do. 

I note also, by the way, that in addition to no electricity and no water, this guy doesn't appear to have any food. 

No real reason for the ghosts to get him. He'll die of thirst or hunger or cold right there without any supernatural intervention.

Because I'm not using the YouTube WT any longer, I'll write without screenshots. Perhaps after I've finished this section of the game I'll go back to the video and grab some shots and insert them. The game isn't completely linear, but you do have timed sections, so it ought to be safe to watch those portions of the video.

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Uninvited: My First Adventure Remembered

I was hunting around on YouTube and remembered that I'd found a complete walkthrough of Uninvited from 1986--the very first game I ever played, and the one that got me into adventures in the first place. Naturally I have to embed it here.

I still have the game on disc, packed away. I still have my old 
Mac SE that I played it on, although I removed something vital on that poor computer years ago and rendered it inoperable (but that computer--my first--got me through most of my doctoral studies). Someday I'll get it fixed. It's just a software problem. So I can't play the game again (although rumor has it that it's being redone!).

This actually was not an easy game. Lots of the puzzles were fairly obscure. But they were all inventory puzzles, so if you've got the correct item and you just keep trying stuff eventually you're going to get through the game. (Hmmm. Probably why I still like inventory puzzles to this day--you actually can figure them out eventually.) I managed to finish the game way back then when I didn't even know what I was doing. There were no walkthroughs available then. Folks, there was no internet then. I even wrote a walkthrough myself, writing out every move. I was just entranced with the thing.

The game caught me when it scared me half to death the first time I touched the ghost. This is what happens the instant you click your mouse on her:

The original jump-in-your-chair moment

I mean, the Mac SE had a 9-inch screen and the graphics played in a small window inside of that, so you kind of had to put your nose right up to the screen to really see what you were doing. The effect of that gave me probably the most shocking moment I've ever had in gaming. This was so completely unexpected (and came right at the beginning of the game) that I not only jumped in my chair, I think I might have yelled. Goosebumps broke out on the back of my neck and spread down to my toes. It was a highly emotional moment, and it hooked me on adventures right there. Finishing the game hooked me completely. (I recall giving my Dad the same experience with the game! Later I got him into Shivers, which he really enjoyed.) 

That ghost got me numerous times before I finally bypassed her and went upstairs and found the bottle of "No Ghost" in the closet. She still got me a few more times before I figured out that I had to open the bottle before I could operate it on her. 

Whew!

And of course, whenever you do something suicidal, the game shocks you with this screen and does the only voice it has: "I've got you!" There are other extremely primitive sound effects. 

This happened fairly frequently as I recall . . .

The graphics look primitive too, but they were amazing to us back in the day. I remember being absolutely astonished that by clicking on the old Victrola in one of the rooms, you could hear a recording of "Winchester Cathedral." It was just amazing technology!


Notice, of course, that there are holdovers from text adventures that came before. You still have to read the narration at the bottom of the screen. And of course, you still have to open the mailbox in front of the house! That mailbox meme began with Zork and used to pop up fairly often in adventures, as I recall.

Anyway, here it is: the entire Uninvited. Watch and experience the very beginning of graphic adventures. Be sure to watch it in full screen!