Avernum series
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Avernum is a series of computer-based role-playing games by Spiderweb Software available for Macintosh and Windows-based computers. The first three games in the series were remakes of the Exile series by Jeff Vogel, who owns the company. The fourth, also by Vogel, was released for Macintosh in late 2005, and in early 2006 for Microsoft Windows. It is entirely original and not a remake of any previous game.
The original games used a two-dimensional grid-based graphical system, effectively displayed as an X-Y axis wherein each tile in the grid was filled by a base graphic and perhaps an item or character icon. Avernum has a 45-degree isometric display that appears more three-dimensional, allowing for more advanced terrain through the addition of a Z-axis.
With the design overhaul came improvements to the graphical user interface (GUI) and to the storyline as well. While primary plot devices remain relatively unchanged, many new encounters and side-quests were added. In-game art by Phil Foglio lends a more humorous feel to the game.
Among notable encounters in the game are the Vahnatai, a race of highly magical creatures who live in the deeper caves of Avernum. The Vahnatai were responsible in part for the defeat of the Empire in the Exilian Wars, after allying themselves with the Avernites once the sacred 'Crystal Souls' stolen by Empire soldiers had been returned to them.
Avernum, like Exile before it, is shareware. The user can download the program, and play a significant part of the game without restrictions, until he or she advances to a certain point in the storyline. By paying a registration fee to the creator, the user gains access to the full game.
There are three games in the original Exile series plus Blades of Exile, which includes a toolkit for users to create their own adventure scenarios, which can be distributed to other players. The Avernum series recreated each of these four software titles. Avernum IV, completely original, was released in late 2005 despite Vogel having previously stated that he did not intend to make it.
Spiderweb Software has also released the Geneforge series: new games in the visual style of Avernum but with some gameplay changes, a modified-mostly real time-engine and a different theme. Avernum IV's engine shares much in common visually with that of Geneforge, unlike the other games in the series, though it remains completely turn based.
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[edit] Avernum
Avernum. The first game of the Avernum trilogy sees your newly created characters thrown from the world above into the subterranean world known as Avernum. Once here you discover a culture that has formed from the outcasts of the Empire above: a culture beset by constant warfare and monsters galore. In Avernum you meet with many who wish to get revenge on the Empire for the wrongs it has done to the Avernites.
In this game there are three primary quests: to kill the demon Gra-Hoth, to discover a route to the surface, and to assassinate Emperor Hawthorne of the surface world, who threw you down here in the first place. There are also a lot of side quests, each of them different. There is essentially a win condition, inasmuch as you can end the game by using the surface route to get out, but this isn't exactly winning in the traditional sense.
[edit] Avernum 2
Avernum 2 takes place five years later. The Empire has begun to recognise the threat the Avernites pose and begins sending their army down into Avernum in huge numbers. To make matters worse, unknown barriers of energy are sprouting up around the world - sometimes aiding the Avernites, sometimes helping the Empire who can afford the losses much more easily than the Avernites.
A new party of characters meets one of the creatures causing the barriers sprouting up in Avernum and go to meet with the unknown race to try and secure an end to hostilities. In the end you are even more successful - and the Vahnatai join with the Avernites to drive out the Empire. With the support of the Vahnatai the Avernites turn the tables on the Empire and successfuly repulse their invasion.
[edit] Avernum 3
Avernum 3 takes place a decade after Avernum 2. A lot of preparation has taken place and now the Avernites are ready to send a selected few back into the light of the surface. After those selected few vanish, they send a selected few more. While you are at first stunned by the sheer beauty of the land around you, you begin to notice that things are not as perfect as they seem. The slimes you encounter are only the first part of what becomes a series of monsters and terrible occurrences that are blighting the Empire and laying it to waste. When scouting the land as were your orders from the Avernite government you are asked by the Empire to help save the surface from its blight. You bring the Avernites and the Empire together once more as allies trying to find the cause of the destruction (it turns out to be a rogue Vahnatai from Avernum 2.)
[edit] Avernum 4
Avernum 4 was released for Macintosh in late 2005 and released for Microsoft Windows on March 2, 2006. It uses a new engine created by merging the Geneforge and Avernum engines; essentially this means that the gameplay is entirely turn-based, but uses the Geneforge point-and-click navigation and user interfaces. In addition, there is a large amount of new art in order to bring the world of Avernum to life within the reworked Geneforge engine.
Avernum 4 takes place long after the others--one of your dialogue options remarks that the events of the third game happened "before we were even born." Weird monsters have been appearing in the underworld, and three powerful undead beings have been attacking random people in the cities. Once again, another crop of heroes comes to save the day (and as it turns out, they're saving the day from the same villain as in Avernum 3, who's still alive.)
[edit] Blades of Avernum
Blades of Avernum is an isometric two-dimensional computer role-playing game based on the Avernum series by Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software.
Its most notable feature is a free scenario creation kit that can be downloaded and used to make adventures that can be distributed to other players. It has come under fire for being "too complex" in comparison to Blades of Exile, its predecessor, which used a very simple instruction list instead of a C-derivative script system. On the other hand, it has also been praised for allowing many new possibilities using said script system, which couldn't be achieved with the Blades of Exile' system.
Spiderweb Software has released the source code for the editor and allows others to make enhanced versions and add-ons, which a number of players have done.
[edit] External links
- Spiderweb Software
- Encyclopedia Ermariana - an extensive encyclopedia of Avernum
- Annotated Map - Minutely detailed map and information for Avernum
- Avernum 4 webpage.
