Avadon: The Black Fortress HD

I hate the need to use lock picks, which are difficult to acquire and just slow down and impede progress. Avernum’s use of a skill level for tools is a vast improvement. I also had difficulty keeping my party together. Often, after directing them to a nearby location, some would go the right location, and others would go where they weren’t supposed to. Game progress is too slow.

I’ve played a few Spiderweb games before, most recently Queen’s Wish. Picked up Avadon based on reviews that it captured some of the feel of early Ultima games. But I thought it was pretty meh. The game was just a series of tasks, mostly of the “go and find XYZ, kill it/him/her if necessary”. Or “your companion has left. Find them, and in the process find their enemy, kill it/him/her if necessary”. And killing it/him/her is usually necessary. Report back and get your next quest. But the combat was pretty repetitive and the nature of it values two things above all else: dexterity and haste skills. The skill trees are such that by the time you get those top skills you’re really working toward (like my shaman summoning a drake!) the game is almost over. Otherwise: combats tend to either be easy, or brutally hard (mostly easy though). I just found this game mostly forgettable, and the outdated and tiny graphics didn’t do much to spruce it up.

Not only does it look silly, but it makes for very low npc density and do exploring a single building will make your arms feel like you went to the gym from the amount of touching the screen needed to move around. I could see this being annoying on pc too. Remember when your part in Baldur’s gate is very powerful but you want to explore some areas with weaker enemies and you’re just lawn mowing the map? That’s every building here.

What a waste of money

I’ve been looking for a good rpg game forever from the App Store and finally found it! The reviews were right- this game is awesome! Thank you and I’ll definitely be getting the rest of the series when I finish this one!

Lots of depth in story and storytelling, and smooth combat mechanics. Another great retro rpg.

It is a great game and takes hours to finish. Love the story line and the main characters that accompany Tristam. One recommendation to the developer team is to adjust Redbeard parameters in the game ending. The only way I could beat him with only 4 characters including Tristan was to use cheat code. Either change the ending to where based on the choice Tristam make is either he committed treason, and was sent to exile, or took a place with Redbeard or battle Redbeard for the keeper seat. But if the latter is chosen, then reduce the spawning of the sentinels, allows higher impact to Redbeard when he gets hit and take it down to 1 hours vs. 3 hours even when I used cheat codes. The ending made it very frustrating to the point where I am not buying Avadon 2 and 3 just so I don’t have to go through this type of frustration again.

Jeff is a thug AND infatuated with guns. Spiderweb's games, and anything similar, should be front page recommendation worthy! Classic rpg goodness at it's goodness...est...iest...seriously!

A real rpg. An excellent port from pc. In fact it's better to play on touch screen than kb/m. Worth every penny and then some.

Great game!