However, compromises do seem to have been made to speed up the pacing. While many modern RPGs have moved away from turn based combat, Avadon sticks to its traditional roots. You can stop and soak up Lynaeus’s history whenever you want. It never feels like the massive amount of lore gets in the way of advancing the plot, books are scattered throughout the game world and upon being read the information is saved for future browsing. He deserved a chance to be in a good game.Īs this is the first in a planned trilogy, there’s a significant amount of world building going on and it pays off. Time for a confession - I kept calling my shadowwalker Michael Thorton. It really does feel like you are working for the CIA or some other shady contemporary agency. While you get equipment and rewards from your superiors, Hands are expected to find more creative ways to get money and finance their missions. The Hands are kept on long leashes, they can pretty much do what they want as long as it doesn’t get in the way of Redbeard’s plans. While there are plenty of quests and lots of useless people needing help it always feels like you are on the job and working towards a larger goal, rather than just going about randomly helping people like some gormless hero.Įveryone knows that Hands have access to places that few others do and sometimes approach them with offers of gold for this nik nak or that tome. The people of Lyneus fear and often mistrust representatives of Avadon, they also expect to have to pay large sums of money for a Hand’s aid. The trope of NPCs standing about just waiting to ask for the heroes aid is thankfully not all that present, either. You can work for Redbeard or betray him, you’re not necessarily taking a good or evil route and you’re rarely even sure who your enemies are. But Spiderweb Software has crafted a game that’s a lot more ambitious than your run of the mill fantasy RPG. Sometimes it seems like RPG developers don’t have the confidence to tell a story that doesn’t have some generic, evil threat looming over everything that you - as the hero - have to defeat. There are plenty of opportunities to undermine your boss and you can even try to destroy Avadon from the inside. You aren’t stuck with being Redbeard’s lapdog. But it’s much more fun to be a wee bit shifty. You can still play the hero is that’s you thing. Of course, you don’t have to be a jailor. He has a haughty, mercenary personality and despite his might he’d rather wait for humans to sort out his problems rather than lifting a claw, himself. In exchange for his allegiance he is given freedom and his cave and horde are protected. Zhethron, the first dragon you meet, is one of the most memorable characters in the game. These creatures are part of the Pact, but still remember the age where they were able to party and devour towns to their hearts’ content. A large ginger chap, who doesn’t seem to age, has survived countless assassination attempts and strong arms every nation in the Pact into following his rules is probably worth fearing.Įven powerful creatures, like dragons, respect and fear Avadon. But the last thing anyone wants to do is draw Redbeard’s gaze. Without Avadon’s protection the five nations would be at war with each other and the ravenous wolves that surround the alliance, such as barbarian hordes and powerful empires. The relationship between Avadon and the realms it protects is one of the most interesting facets of the game.
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