/vr/ - Retro Games

yeah, I only tried the first Avernum (not the most recent one), but people often insist that the Exile games are better

I dont know if its their nostalgia talking or if they are actually right, I have yet to try blades of exile

I found Exile games more faster paced than Avernum games, mainly because later features slow ass animations and Exile has none so you can dash away through the city without care

I think Exile has bigger scale battles with spells capable of targeting dozens of foes.
It might be more a matter of personal preference like graphics or controls.
Specifically looking at the first game I would say Avernum is better because Exile 1 lacks a lot of features from 2 and 3.

>>4120641
I've only ever seriously played Blades of Exile. Found the "puzzles" contrived though. And early game combat is tough. You really need a perfectly balanced team to survive. I also have the Geneforge series on GOG, but never got about playing them.

>>4120662
Geneforge was first released in 2001 , so I guess not retro unless you think of it as the isometric sequel to the Exile games.

>>4120641
The reason why a lot of people like Exile better than the remakes is that he keeps dumbing down the gameplay in every remake to the point I wouldn't be surprised if I see World of Warcraft talents in the next pass.

Off the top of my head, going from Exile to Avernum, we lost 6 men party (down to 4), freeform skill points distribution was changed into very linear skill trees, Poisoning weapons as a concept is gone, cool spells like Simulacrum (allows you to capture and store a monster type and summon them on your side later) was removed making spells more homogeneous and so on.

It's not like the Graphics or Interface gained huge leaps in quality either to justify cutting so much content, they were perfectly serviceable in Exile.

>>4121295
>freeform skill points distribution was changed into very linear skill trees,
What Avernum are you talking about?

I loved "Realmz"

Easily my favourite game on Mac, pc port was shit but it's all I had.

No game had a better party power /game challenge ratio and somehow, the writing was good enough to see all the action in your minds eye with only basic visual cues.

Also, could you ever beat the dragon king guy in avernum 6?

What happened if you did?

>>4121871
The latest one (Avernum: Escape from the Pit)

>>4120641
Exile games took up a large chunk of my childhood. I don't think I ever beat them, but they did teach me how to spell bullshit like salamander. I wanted to replay them, but the Avernums just felt off.

Geneforge seemed too unbalanced. I've been playing these types of games for years and I hit a spot in this game that fucking stopped me dead.

This needs more love, bump

So I shoukd somehow install mac emulator on mac os x to play these games

>>4124074
Spiderweb made Windows and Loonix versions AFAIK.

>>4124074
Is there a difference between the Mac and the Windows 3 versions?

>>4120641
Here's the most important Exile-Avernum difference in a nutshell. Avernum removed most of the spells, many of them fun and useful.

The avernum remakes are not worth touching with a ten foot pole. Lame skill system and even the higher-definition visuals are worse, because same tiles are used for outdoor and indoor maps that are at different zoom level. More abstract lower definition tiles were better for that reason.

>>4124226
Mind that spells in Avernum have three power levels so spells like light and long light are both covered by light.

Since I'm too incompetent to run mac os emulator, and there's no guarantee it would work, I'll just download windows version.

How is Geneforge series, are you really overpowered?

Avernum 1-6 are on sale on GoG this week

https://www.gog.com/game/avernum_the_complete_saga

>>4127392
Supermad that i bought them individually

>>4127392
>https://www.gog.com/game/avernum_the_complete_saga

nice, thanks

>>4120641
>tfw i went through i barely made it through the giants fort where you get trapped alive, and had to cheat to get out of the fucking basilisk trap without having to back track and have more people die just to get shit being dropped

Whats a good level to be at before tackling endgame?

>>4127392
Oh sweet.

>that fucking game over sound in Exile 3

>tfw Realmz will never come back

Word is Tim Philips went gaga and cut off all contact from everybody else.

I'm literally on a quest right now to get the exile games up and functioning on my laptop. Im at 7th try, 36 hours total research and effort. I'm barely dosbox literate and know nothing of other vms, so thats a big problem.

>>4130046
Just run Windows 3 in DOSbox. You can find preconfigured packs for that.

>>4130049
Thanks man!

>>4130046
>>4130874
If you just want to play Blades of Exile scenarios, look up Swords of Exile. FOSS BoE remake for modern OSes.

>>4131037
Im playing them all in order, blades was just the last tested, but thanks for the suggest. Also holy shit, I forgot how utterly DnD this series is.