Avernum: Escape From the Pit

A more interesting CRPG than I was expecting, really. The description made the world sound about as inventive as any other high fantasy setting; and while there's clear limits on the imagination behind its world, there's enough fresh ideas to offer something new to the genre. The developers clearly enjoyed the early X-COM/Fallout titles, and it shows in how detailed its environments are. Store counters show off their wares, you'll find piles of bones around areas littered with traps, patches of mushrooms and crystals will have respective items available for harvest, etc. This isn't a game with high fidelity graphics, but it sure has great commitment to making its locations look and feel just right per your expectations. Really, though, I think the main draw here is the gameplay. Once you get into the rhythm of the game loop and your characters start coming in to their own, it becomes really satisfying to roll through one dungeon after another. There's enough diversity in the encounters to merit different approaches and the flexibility of difficulty settings make it simple to scale the experience to your liking. And, unlike the combat in a lot of other turn-based games, fights tend to resolve really fast. Even at the point of the late stage of the game where enemies get beefy armour and health, my party never felt slowed down by waiting for long animations to play out. If you want a snappy dungeon crawler with detailed environments and a setting unique enough to hold your attention, this is a great pick.

This game has been my addiction for the past week with all of my thoughts wrapping around which cave I would explore next and what was hidden behind the glowing fungus. I fell in love with the world of Avernum thanks to Jeff Vogel's clever and evocative writing that gave every nook and cranny so much character. Just an amazing game that I am extremely happy that it exists.

the third time's the charm - exile was made in 1995, remade in 2000 as avernum, then in 2011 as avernum: escape from the pit. playing this again is comfortably nostalgic and fresh at the same time. jeff vogel's crpgs mostly follow a similar formula: a party you build gets to travel along an isometric world, doing little quests and finding funny/angry/sad npcs and situations. a good game to start with in his oeuvre. if you're a retro gamer you may want to check out the shareware version of the original exile to add more contrast to this game

It's not so obvious where to go in the game and you dont know how high level an enemy is. If it's a few levels above then you can barely hit it while it can one hit kill you. This game is "grind-to-advance" rather than "skill-to-advance." higher difficulty is only about grinding more to level up. it's not truly harder, it's longer. That shifts the challenge from skill and strategy to time and persistence. Smart decisions, positioning, resource management, and tactical awareness should be the keys to success. But the game forces you to grind just to level up before progressing in the game, and that reduces the skill needed at higher difficulty and instead just makes it about grinding. The game is also poorly documented which can make planning your character come down to luck that you made the right decisions based on the limited info you have.

Just finished Avernum 4 so I wanted to go back and play avernum escape from the pit and well.....yea its great. I grew up playing exile, so it takes me back to my young, Solid writing, great boss fights, talking cats and lizards, and my main man Solberg with hair . great time would 100% recommended this to anyone

awesome game been playing for over 10 years. played on normal difficulty with 1 player instead of 4 for 20 hours straight. absolutely addicted, great game, would reccomend.

First impressions: The world and writing feels fresh, oldschool and interesting. Can't wait to see what kind of places I'll find, what's in the game. Combat seems simple enough, you don't have to keep track of everything, min-max every single turn, yet it gives the RPG combat feeling I want. So Far So good, can recommend.

Amazing game so far i did not feel lost or confused so far and im 7 hours into this game and it doesnt feel unfair even on max difficulty is like a mix of baldurs gate and a little bit of Arx fatalis

Get ready for save scumming and having an excel file open in the background with this remake of a classic cRPG! -Customize your character down to each stat point and perk, min/max or hybrid or tribid, whatever! -Evil, Politics, betrayal, reputation, world-altering decision making -Loot dungeons, steal, and quest for coin to upgrade your party -A sort of not-so-linear open world Don't fret too much on your first (normal or easy) playthrough. Just enjoy the world-building and plot lines. As long as you have at least 1 mage and 1 priest, you'll be just fine! If you're someone that just *has* to do your research, there are crazy in-depth guides on spiderwebsoftware forums, where you can still expect a quick response to a question. Super pumped to play through the rest of the trilogy--got 20% off for buying them as a bundle.(Can't search for the bundle or trilogy, when adding to cart it gives the option) My only gripe is the map and quest systems felt kind of half-baked... If you're gonna modernize it, modernize it. 9/10 but would give a 5/5!

This was my entry point into the Avernum world. It’s a huge subterranean sandbox that doesn't hold your hand. The graphics are as basic as they get, but the lore is deep and the sense of actually being "trapped" in a massive underground cave system is handled perfectly. Like the others, it takes some patience to master. [The Breakdown] Graphics: Potato-friendly Gameplay: Solid; old-school tactical Story: Deep; great world-building Difficulty: Hard to master Grind: Average Worth the price? Yes Rating: 8/10