Reseñas

• gamedeal user

  Dec 24, 2021

  24 hours (at the time of this review) is child's play in CRPG terms, and it's true that I haven't finished Avernum. Yet. However, I will report that those have been an extremely fun and comfy 24 hours and I would heartily recommend this game to any rpg fan. Behind the simple visuals and big text boxes lies an immersive interesting world and robust but approachable gameplay, as largely-scoped and open-ended as any larger-budget game of this type. Developer Jeff Vogel has been in the indie rpg market for longer than many gamers have been alive, and while Avernum may not look sleek it bears the mark of a creator who has learned exactly what areas to refine for a specific audience... even if the UI isn't the sexiest, the sprites aren't the cleanest, the soundscape isn't the lushest, etc. There's an intangible sense of approachability to Avernum that makes it easy to pick up and easy to stick with, and it exceeds even some genre classics in this regard. It might look like a relic but it's as engaging and fresh as any fancier rpg I've played, and I definitely recommend it.
• gamedeal user

  May 3, 2022

  Is this 3rd gen version of Avernum 1 is worth buying and playing over the Avernum 1 2nd gen version which is part of the Avernum 1-6 compilation sold here on Steam.? I definitely think so. IMO, unlike Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, the differences between the two Avernum versions is significant enough to warrant an upgrade. The UI is totally overhauled, and the graphics are much more detailed and rich. The game is also huge - took me around 40-60 hours to beat. Playing most of the side quests can even add more time on, so yes there is great value in the game. I love this game. I think the underground empire for exiles setting is unique and extremely interesting to me. Unlike a lot of other generic fantasy settings, I found myself identifying with the characters and thinking a lot about what I would do in their situation. The world is SO interactive and vast - lots of NPCs, Quests, side stories, choices to be made. In fact there are numerous endings based on important choices you make in the game that really define who you're characters are in the world. Big thumbs up from me.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 12, 2022

  What can be said that isn't painfully obvious? Avernum: Escape from the Pit. A remake of a remake of Exile: Escape from the Pit, which I can only assume was a pretty solid game back in the day. I enjoyed the original remake (Avernum I) well enough. That is to say it was clunky, poorly balanced, and devoid of direction. But for its many faults, it was still quaint, nostalgic, and diverting. That is not the case with this rendition. Somehow, Vogel managed to take his clunky, unbalanced design, and make both of those aspects immeasurably worse. For example, tell me how it is that 98% of your enemies (which always outnumber your party) can, with every basic attack, manage to hit multiple party members, and/or cause one or more debuffs that prevent any action at all for at least one turn. Meanwhile, when you do manage to get an attack in, it misses half the time, no matter how much combat skill your character has. Furthermore, best I can tell, the additional clunkiness was caused exclusively to add some half-assed animations, for the additional cost of graphical detail and distinctiveness (presumably because such features would be more effort to animate). The result is just remarkably bland. Certainly not worth the remake. If you're curious about this game, my best recommendation is to not waste your resources, and instead go with an earlier rendition for cheaper. GOG.com makes it easy. Will I finish this game? Probably. Through countless tedious, frustrating hours, I probably will. But only out of sheer obnoxious stubbornness and utter self-loathing.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 21, 2014

  At first you might be 'revolted' by the dated graphics. Then you might laugh at some 1990ish RPG your looking at. Force yourself to put at least a couple of hours into it and soon you will find yourself hooked. You got the crapiest equipment starting out and you will have to earn what you keep to survive. No freebees like modern games throw at you like candy at a parade. You will respect your CRPG awesomeness by giving this game a chance and then seeing if you got it to survive escaping the underdark to the surface! Good luck you will enjoy the journey!!!
• gamedeal user

  Oct 22, 2014

  Avernum is right in your wheelhouse if you like games like Baldur's Gate and Divinity and are looking to experience that old school pen-and-paper RPG experience. I have not played all the rest of the games in the series and do not feel that I must in order to enjoy it on this one. Don't expect stellar graphics, but do expect everything else- like great game mechanics, a solid loot system, compelling story (with admirable writing skill), and a giant world to get lost in. I have yet to finish it yet, but from the first handful of quests, I know I am hooked well enough to come back to it. Another great thing about this game is it takes up less than 200 mb of space and has retardedly low system requirements, so it even plays on the ancient technological relics I keep around due to lack of having a proper gaming laptop to tote about. This game is also pretty nifty on iOS. Anyhoots, I don't feel hasty in reccomending this.
• Gamehorder

  May 23, 2023

  GAMEHORDER SEAL OF APPROVAL Brings me back to the days of paperdoll character sheets... picking up useless objects just cause you can... and that epic scale of a vast world for you to explore, waiting for you. Awesome open ended RPG. Check out my LP of it on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrDTJQCBNrE&feature=youtu.be
• gamedeal user

  Jan 16, 2015

  I've been loving this game so far. I was recently reminded that I had this, because of the release of Crystal Souls just the other day.. and boy am I sorry I forgot about Avernum for this long. I should have played this ages ago! First thing I wanted to do was clear up the order these games are supposed to be in, because with so many Spiderweb Software games, it can be a little confusing to newcomers (like myself, until I did some research) This is a remake of "Avernum" which itself is a remake of "Exile: Escape From the Pit". The newly released Crystal Souls is a remake of Exile 2/Avernum 2. Exile 3/Avernum3 is also supposedly getting a second remake in the future. I know that sounds confusing, so just know that this game, Avernum: EFtP is the first game, remade for the second time. Also, I've been told that the stories are self-contained, so you don't really HAVE to play them in order. Though, with a world as unique as Avernum, I bet it helps in understanding the lore a bit. So what makes this world so unique? Most fantasy RPGs take place on the surface of a very earth-like world. There's plains, mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, etc.. it all looks very familiar. In Avernum, that sort of place exists.. but that's not where you play. You, your party, and countless other individuals have all been exiled to the underworld. It's a vast underground cavern, whose light comes from glowing moss on the ceiling. People survive by growing edible mushrooms, and receiving occasional supply shipments from the Empire.. the very people who sent everyone down here. There are some cows, sent down by the empire, but without proper food, they grow sick and weak quite quickly. Mages have managed to create things that kinda look like trees, just so the citizens have wood to build with. Magical equipment is extremely rare in this world.. It's all but impossible to create any, so most of it comes from adventurers who were sent down to Avernum with their gear, then were killed and looted. It's a harsh world. Despite all the hardships, though, people have banded together to form towns, forts, and a government. Of course some still decide to rebel and become bandits, or seek a way to rise into a position of power, but most people seem to live in harmony and cooperate. And that's a good thing, because if they didn't work together, they'd never be able to fight off the Nephilim (cat people who hold a grudge against all humans for being sent down to Avernum) and the Sliths (lizard men, apparently native to Avernum, and most of them crave human flesh.) The gameplay is exellent. At the beginning of the game, you create a party.. your people can be whatever class you want, or 'custom'. You spend a lot of your time walking around as a party, talking to people, getting quests, learning about the world, etc.. there are blacksmiths and such in every town, to buy equipment from. There are secrets to find, and plenty of loot to pick up.. When you're not in a town or dungeon, you'll be on the overworld, where everything is zoomed way back. You can encounter enemies, special events, and other stuff out on the overworld.. and of course also travel from place to place. The overworld is pretty darn big, and there are a lot of places to go. When in combat, the game turns turn-based.. You move and attack with your characters one at a time.. Each character has a certain amount of AP to move with, and are allowed to attack once, or cast 1 spell per turn.. It's simple, but not TOO simple. It has a good flow, without sacrificing too much strategic depth. When you level up, you're able to assign attribute points, improve your skills on the skill tree, and sometimes pick a new perk/feat as well. Pretty basic leveling up, but again simple/basic isn't a bad thing. The game manages to do a lot with what seems like simple mechanics. The main thing that will be an issue for some is that the graphics look very dated... and I'm sorry to repeat the same thing everyone else says, but here it goes... Graphics aren't important. Maybe it's different for people not old enough to have grown up with older-looking graphics, but it doesn't bother me. Sure, I like a pretty-looking game from time to time.. but it's really not a requirement for me.. but, of course, not everyone will agree. Everybody has thier own opinions.. so take a look at the screenshots. If it looks unbearable to you, don't get it. If you think you can put up with oldschool graphics in order to play an amazing game, get it. Anyway, I feel like I've written a much longer review than most people will bother to read, so I'll cut it short here. Thanks for reading.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2015

  ====================================== Avernum: Escape From the Pit (Read on for the full review!) ====================================== Spiderweb Software, creator of the "Exile" series took the PC RPG template of the time and ran with it, allowing players to control multiple party members and customize their growth, exploring a vast underground world with a surprisingly intricate story. Avernum: Escape From the Pit is essentially a remake of the original Exile game of the same name. Escape From the Pit has been given a graphical overhaul, utilizing the isometric view used in the Avernum games released most recently by Spiderweb Software. The remake changes more than just the graphics, however, and the result is a game that is both the same and quite different from the original. ====================================== Pros + Old School style CRPG with plenty of replay value. + Game-play: Explore the open world as you please and do it at your own pace. + Really good lore for the game world + A ton of sights to see! + Engaging story Cons - The UI is clunky and the character sheet & Inventory is annoying at times! Neutral +/- Doesn't hold your hand at all. (This is a good thing to me) ====================================== Introduction The Avernum series is based in Avernum, a subterranean nation far under the surface of the world. The surface is ruled by the Empire, a single, monolithic power under the command of the cruel Emperor Hawthorne. Everyone on the surface who speaks out, rebels, or doesn’t fit in is sentenced to life imprisonment in Avernum. Prisoners are expected to die, the victim of starvation, horrible monsters, or simple despair. The Avernum series tells the tale of the Avernites' struggle to survive, avenge themselves upon the Empire, and win both freedom and a return to the surface world. ====================================== Game-play Avernum: Escape from the Pit is a single-player role-playing video game. The player controls a group of up to four adventurers, who can use melee weapons, missile weapons, magic, or a mix of these skills to defeat opponents. One of the better aspects of this game is the opportunity to customize your adventuring party. Whether you want to have a balanced group featuring every type of character or whether you instead choose to enter battle with an entire team of tanky sword-wielding knights; the game accommodates your decision. You are also allowed to select an image avatar for each of your heroes (whether it fits their class or not is up to you). That having been said, classes make relatively little difference in your characters' long-term potential, as every character can learn every spell and ability regardless of their class. The way this works is that requirements to wield spells are determined by the stats and skills that you develop for a character - meaning that you can choose to make your units as specialized or balanced as you please. Fan of sword-wielding battle mages who can heal their team in a pinch? Not a problem. Want to throw in a super-defensive tank that will soak up damage and demand enemies' attention? Easy. Escape From the Pit allows for such customization without over complication. A downside to this is the risk that characters will become a little generic, but the multitude of customizable aspects (stats, skills, spells, and "traits", which function as passive boosts to a character's stats or abilities) help to ensure each of your units is a unique personality. Escape From the Pit offers several difficulty levels, as well as the ability to adjust the difficulty at any time during your game. This might come in handy depending on how quickly you want to beat Escape From the Pit, because often you will find that enemies are just too difficult and you need to go grind somewhere else before advancing to where you want to go. Yes, Escape From the Pit does involve a lot of grinding in dungeons, but Spiderweb Software has done a great job making this experience far less tedious, with diverse and well-designed environments that often use interesting tricks to create light puzzle elements. The world of Avernum is by no means boring and progressing through the game is both fun and challenging. All things said, it seems there's a lot beneath the surface here, with plenty of things to see and do that will keep you adventuring for many hours. ====================================== Graphics If you're looking for up-to-date, modern graphics, you might as well stop reading now. Avernum utilizes 2D graphics in an isometric view, reminiscent of the original Diablo. Obviously this makes the whole thing look quite dated. If you aren't immediately turned off by that, then let me assure you that you will probably love this game. Noticeably improved even over those of the most recent Avernum titles are the character portraits, which are in fact quite beautiful. Otherwise, the graphics are essentially identical to those of recent Avernum titles, reflecting Spiderweb's low priority on steady advancement in that area. This is something important to know because Escape From the Pit is a game that will polarize RPG players depending on how important visuals are to them. ====================================== Conclusion Overall, Avernum: Escape From the Pit is a solid RPG experience that combines classic style, a compelling story, and generous content to create an indie game that is very much worth your time. If you're looking for a complex single player RPG and value content at the expense of visuals, don't miss this title. ======================================
• gamedeal user

  Jul 21, 2015

  Avernum: Escape from the Pit is a fantastic '90s era single player turn based RPG that draws from the best the decade had to offer. RPGs thrived in the 1990s, and for good reason. Games like Avernum (when released in 1995, it was called Exile: Escape from the Pit) aimed to get their player lost in an intriguing world for hours upon hours, leveling up characters, exploring an in-depth story and learning about the game world from multiple NPCs with varying opinions on the world around them, and finding hundreds of secrets (yes, hundreds). These RPGs were made by developers with imaginations that were close to perfection, back when people made games because they loved games and sharing fantasy game worlds they'd created with others, not simply making them to drain wallets and hearts. The game starts out after your party of characters (which you customize, of course) are thrown into the deep abyss known as Avernum. Avernum is a series of underground caverns that serves as its own subterranean nation far beneath the surface of the world, and is the trash bin that the powerful Empire uses to throw away people who speak out against its rule on the surface. It is effectively a prison, where you are locked away from sunlight and the surface forever--unless you plan to do something about it. It is here where the Avernum series distinguishes itself from many other RPGs. Although Avernum is not a dungeon crawler by genre, it has that feeling of isolation, desperation. You want to get OUT of this underground prison, and the injustices made against you and others you meet in Avernum make you yearn for revenge. Avernum is one of the few fantasy worlds with a dystopian feel; the Empire is this world's Big Brother, and you have the ability to get your revenge, try to escape, or even accept your fate and learn to embrace Avernum. (And thus, this gives you three separate ways to beat the game through various questlines.) This is not a mindless RPG. Don't go into this game desiring mindless fun, for you will have to read quite a bit, manuever Avernum's cave systems via map systems, and retain information about quests, as the game doesn't hold your hand with doing so. The game does have a journal system that is VERY nice for its time; when you're speaking to an NPC who says something worth noting, you can "record" their speech with the click of a button, so you can pull this up at any time. This comes to be very useful, as quest notes don't update as you progress through a quest, so it's up to you to pay attention and know what the next step is. Despite all this, Avernum stays very much so to the right side of the line when it comes to tedium. I encountered no game-breaking quests during my playthrough like I have with other RPGs of the time (Divine Divinity, I'm looking at you, though I love you so). It IS possible to kill NPCs that you'll need for certain questlines, though the other questlines are still available, and there is also a cheat system to help you through this as a last resort (just look up your problem online). I think the best thing about this game is just how interesting it is. I love RPGs because I like escaping to a different world for a bit and getting lost in its complexities; I also love exploring and finding secrets, new towns, or a hidden area of a map. This game has that, and its story makes it even more worth finding those extra tidbits. This game has so much to do and so much to explore that it has what I like to call "Skyrim syndrome", where sometimes you'll look at your quest log and weep at all you've failed to complete. If throwing yourself into a world is what you're into, I can think of few better worlds than Avernum. I personally give this game a rating of 9.5/10. This is a must have for RPG fans and fans of games from the 1990s in general, back when games threw themselves at you with days worth of content with a grin that said, "I dare you." This is a game that you will work hard to conquer, a game that will make you feel liberated when you beat it, and a game that will be a source of fond memories for years to come.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 22, 2015

  This is the second remake of the classic "Exiled", first made in the nineties by a two-person team. The game has been streamlined, interface made usable, and the graphics have improved (relatively speaking) since then, but much of the core draw (and mechanics) are still there. If you're someone who enjoys having wide open spaces, no demand to go down any particular linear plotline, and plenty of rewards for kicking over ever rock to see what wriggles out from underneath, this game has plenty of delicious exploratory goodness for you. That said, I'm not as fond of the skill trees they've put in the new version of the game as the older point-buy system they had before. The point-buy system hypothetically allows for nigh-infinite varieties of hybrid characters, but largely forces characters into one of four types of characters: Melee Fighter, Ranged Fighter, Wizard, and Cleric. "Thief" is just someone who puts points into Tool Use, and you need Tool Use (there's no magic for opening doors without it) but there's nothing stopping any other sort of character from taking Tool Use, and the game only checks total party Tool Use skill levels, so it's easy to distribute. (No dedicated thief necessary.) You COULD use a ranged fighter, but melee combat is forced upon you fairly often, and you'll want a dedicated sword user and spear user to make use of the best weapons, anyway. You're forced into making a character dedicate themselves to a given path by the nature of the skill tree: The high-tier skills like Riposte (counter attack chance) or Lethal Blow (critical hit power up) require plugging an equal or greater amount of points into the lower skills on the tree. Your Combat Disciplines (special abilities for fighters) are based upon total base weapons skill, and you'll want to put your attribute points into Strength or maybe Dexterity. Keeping up with magic spell tiers demands you stick points into a single base magic skill at least every other level, and dumping nearly all your points into Intelligence, and a couple into Endurance for the HP to not die in one hit. Hence, no matter what, you pretty much always wind up with sword fighter, spear fighter, cleric, and wizard. Hypothetically, there's bows and thrown weapons, but there are no good bows, and decent thrown weapons are too rare to use as a primary weapon. There are some choices to be made (going for criticals versus riposte) but mostly, it devolves into putting all your points into the core sklls because on the harder difficulties, you'll miss every time if you don't plug every point you can into accuracy-boosting skills, and a melee tank needs all the hardiness they can get to survive. Likewise, wizard and cleric accuracy (yes, AoE spells miss) depend upon base magic skill, and base magic skill ALSO ups damage. Hence, there's no reason not to put points in every single level. It's really only a question of whether you need more damage-dealing skills or damage-resistance skills at a given level to survive, espeically on higher difficulties, and the number of utility skills like tool use or cave lore you need is surprisingly low, meaning you basically always put points into the same dedicated "purist" build all the time. It leaves one underwhelmed with the potential for customization. In the original Avernum series, it gave you more points each time you leveled, but the costs of skills rose as you purchased more ranks in those skills, meaning that there was more possibility to "multi-class", as a skill you dedicated points into every level would rise as fast as the skill points you gained per level, while skills you neglected would become relatively cheaper by comparison. This meant it was easily possible to make a wizard who studied enough cleric magic to be a passable backup healer and a truly excellent wizard while the cleric was a passable archer. Without the chance to really multi-class, you'll probably find that you're left with the same party time and again, as you're probably not going to want to play this game without a cleric or wizard, and you'll NEED a meat shield. Since this is the umpteenth trip to Avernum for some of us, playing the same party with the same character sprites in areas modeled on the same locations can give old hands a bit of deja vu all over again. It is, yes, possible to play solo, and you'll want to generalize a little more in solo play, but even that kind of comes down to playing a wizard with some melee skill and a few healing spells. Also unlike this game's predecessor, this game starts you off in a small dungeon for a minor tutorial on the basics, but quickly lets you roam as a free-range adventuring band. A few easily-dismissed text boxes shouldn't annoy veterans, but might help new players, so it's not a bad change. That said, I suggest new players save frequently, and have several "safe zone" saves, as they can easily bumble into more trouble than they can fight their way out of with no guard rails to keep them from merrily adventuring into danger out of their depth. All the time and money they saved not going for pretty graphics (and if you're a Spiderweb fan, you'll recognize the reuse of a LOT of those graphics,) was put into making absolutely sprawling caverns. For those of you who lamented Elder Scrolls' Oblivion/Skyrim's rubber-banded monster levels, rejoice as well, as the sliths just a few towns west of where you start WILL shishkebob you effortlessly. On the higher difficulty levels, this can curb your exploration somewhat, but with a mere 350 coins, you can buy a boat that lets you have access to a large portion of the map, so long as you don't mind having to hide from the fights. While not being able to fight something sounds limiting, you can gain access to spells early, which makes it worth the trip. That said, there's still a few places you have to go, and a pretty clear order in which you have to go there. While it's hypothetically possible to do sequence breaks, steep ramping of the power of enemies means that, especially in higher difficulty settings, there's little capacity for a player to bypass one major dungeon and be prepared for the next. Because you have access to all the spell trainers early (just have to dodge the monsters bigger than you) you can easily get spells meant for late-game early, but at the same time, you can't afford them. Spells cost 2000 coins to learn, and clearing a whole dungeon and selling absolutely everything only nets you 1000 coins... It doesn't really get better as you go on, either, until you've bought all your skill-ups, and then there's nothing left to buy at all. I've never seen a reason to buy potions or scrolls or even weapons, as, while some mid-level stuff is available in stores, by the time you can afford them, you have better artifact weapons you lifted off of corpses. Potions can be brewed from infinitely-respawning herb patches for free, so there's at least reason to use those. Also, you ram through MP quickly in this game, especially later on, but just setting foot in town restores all HP and MP for free... You have skills to reduce MP use, but why use them when you need every skill point in magic power to survive a single fight, and can just go back to town for a refill after literally every fight? There are a handful of dungeons where you do have to "fight your way back out" (monsters spawn in after you get to the end of the dungeon), but it's rare enough that you shouldn't have trouble sitting on a pile of 30 magic potions to refill between fights if you really need it. If you're at all interested in the genre, it's dirt cheap and provides easily 100 hours of gameplay.