Taking care of the core story in Avernum 2 is a sizable enough endeavor, but the plethora of optional missions to be undertaken can easily take the total time past sixty hours. The considerable variety of techniques characters can learn as they improve helps keep things from getting too stale, and learning everything will require a Herculean effort so some planning is needed to get the abilities most desired. Fighting is mostly tolerable and sometimes entertaining, though the quantity of inconsequential encounters gets obnoxious at times. At any time the difficulty can be turned down, which helps in cases where the opposition is a little too powerful for comfort.
The automatic positioning of characters is often rather stupid, but moving a step at a time is a good way of preserving a good location. Things move quickly in battle, which is good considering the frequent number of times a few foes will appear to get in the way. Spells are also akin to tactical games in their ranges, and careful placement is essential if an inconvenient ceiling support is not to block a huge area of effect. It’s certainly possible to adapt, but doing so is not a source of joy.Ĭombat is akin to early Fallout titles in some respects, looking rather like a tactical game in which movement and attacking both take up crucial action points each turn.
Selling all of it is also extremely time-consuming, plus many merchants don’t even offer to purchase things from the player, which means the ones who do will get a lot more business.
The gargantuan sum might not be so bad if cheap equipment from defeated enemies could stack in the menu as consumables do, but each fresh bow piece demands another slot. Each character has thirty-five slots for items, and that number does not include what is currently equipped, but the game will still manage to fill their packs with all the sundry materials that are encountered. Huge quantities of detritus must be sifted through while doing this, such as rocks or stray skulls from earlier unfortunates.
Some of the background objects are gratifying to discover, such as switches to open hidden passages or goodies left behind by a corpse on the ground. Everything is mouse or keyboard-driven, and the sheer quantity of things with which interaction is possible ensures that a great deal of time has to be devoted to the task. We don’t look all THAT pale for having been underground years, do we?Īvernum 2‘s interface requires work in order to investigate its world, however. A few distinct references to the first Avernum are made, but the game is in no way dependent upon familiarity with what occurred in that title to make sense for a newcomer. An enormous quantity of side missions are also available to flesh out the world further, and they do a fine job of it. The writing is also consistently strong, allowing players to keep interest in the proceedings thanks to the lively prose. Most of the people here have adapted in some way to the unusual location, and NPC dialogue often reflects this. Plants are rarities underground, and mushroom farming is the major agricultural food source, while protein tends to come from lizards that are herded like domestic animals. Its core tale is interesting, but Avernum 2‘s narrative succeeds best at capturing this specific location and making it come alive. Learning who made those barriers and what needs to be done to get rid of them is the impetus for a sizable quest. Avernum 2 begins with a group of new recruits far from the battleground with the Empire, but close to several new barriers that have appeared to block transit between parts of the land. The Empire has the slight problem of not being able to transport very many soldiers at once into Avernum, but is nevertheless doing a pretty good job of starting its conquest. While living underground was not necessarily the location most would have chosen, the transplanted populace was doing a decent job at it until someone assassinated the Emperor, thus ensuring retribution would swiftly come. The world of Avernum is a vast underground cave, one to which many people have been exiled from the aboveground Empire. My time with Crystal Souls was rather enjoyable, and it has made me attentive to future Spiderweb titles. That means its interface and inventory demand some work from the player, but it also means there is a great deal to see and do in its world.
Avernum 2: Crystal Souls is one piece of a by-now substantial series, and in many respects it resembles the late ’90s PC RPGs that were its original form’s contemporaries.
Spiderweb Software has been steadily at work for over fifteen years now, crafting multiple titles that don’t get a great deal of attention from mainstream outlets.