Avadon: The Black Fortress

Avadon is a good game, and sadly overshadowed by its older siblings, Avernum and Geneforge. While Avadon cannot match the highs of either of those games, it is still an incredible time. Jeff Vogel's writing is consistently high quality, and the storytelling found in this game is extremely impressive in comparison to the games out there that don't even try to say something interesting. Your party is full of interesting people, people you can relate to and want to work with. There are several great twists and turns, and I enjoyed most of my time with Avadon. The issues that I would bring up is that the ending is a little sudden (at least the ending that I got, dunno if there is any secret ones besides the obvious work for Avadon ending or go against it.). It doesn't really even culminate in a final boss fight, even after getting your entire party together for the first and last time in the game. I would also say that a lot of the combat encounters in the mid to late game felt like padding. I was rarely in any real danger from common enemies, yet they still took some significant time to cut down, I do wish the common rabble were a bit more easily deposed of. All in all, Avadon is a story worth telling, with fun and memorable characters, and is a pinnacle of the CRPG genre. Spiderweb Software really does provide a very specific experience you can't find anywhere else.

pretty fun game the Avadon ones are more accessible than the Avernum ones.

At first I wondered if this narrative was self-aware. It makes frequent reference to Avadon and it's Lord being feared, and the protagonist causing unease in those they meet. The narrator sometimes makes tongue-in-cheek references to how this might not be ideal. There's even a somewhat satirical depiction of democracy depicted in the game world. The further I play though, the more I feel that it's lightheartedness about the concept of ruling with an iron fist is genuine. Sure, it's a fantasy game. There are lots of medieval fantasy monarchies or merchant oligarchies. It's not unique in that regard. But this game actually engages with the politics of Autocracy (i.e. Fascism), and goes... you know what? It's not that bad. When facing hostile invaders, maybe it's even nessecary? There are so many references to things being 'harsh but fair'. So many examples of how people benefit from The Pact. So many characters who emphasise just how important Loyalty and Honour are. Meanwhile people living in these lands are genuinely paraoid. The NPCs you talk to all either have power over you, or are painfully aware that you have power over them. And the game's in-world Codex and narration rarely go beyond mild criticisms of such. Maybe when this game was made the idea of totalitarian rule was something purely theoretical? But I'm writing this in 2026 and... it's not theoretical to me. It feels like it's already here in some places. So yeah. This feels like a power fantasy for people who are OK with dictatorship. Sure, it's hinted that you might be able to join a rebellion at some point? But I feel like 20 hours is enough. If there's anything deeper to this game, it should be present before this point.

Game play is vibrant, story is very flexible, and characters are realistic. The clues and the maps are clear.

I just finished my second play-through. I really enjoyed the story this time more than when I played years ago. I wanted to know who was trying to bring down the mighty Avadon. The combat can get repetitive, and sometime the followers pathfinding can be frustrating. There is no music in game. This seems a little odd to me. Overall it is enjoyable.

Because Steam only has a Up/Down rating and not a 'middle of the road' I'll err on giving it a positive for the interesting story and many options to change the course of what happens. This RPG starts so easy that you left click your way through most fights with maybe an aoe spell or some healing, so easy I think the tutorial is the entire first mission. Then you hit the second area and suddenly you gotta really fight. That's great, I want enough of a challenge to think. Then the game slowly gets harder and this is also fine for a while. You get better gear, more options, and the ability to choose all the classes plus the one you chose at the start to play as 'you', giving you a good feel fore flexible options, though one of the companions will always share your class choice, so that's either annoying or good for doubling up. Then the enemies start spamming stuns, knock backs, charm, daze, slows, curses, and every other effect causing fights to drag if you don't focus on counter-buffing/cursing to keep them from riding on a million advantages. And, maybe it's just me, but Charm only seems to work 1/3 of the time while Daze gets really hard to rely on. Then enemy HP bars become trees you need to saw through even if you've got the fight itself in the bag, with some bosses even spamming (group) heals so you'll need to saw through that. And their constant summon spam. Then some enemies just get to move twice and others get that bonus while also casting buffs to move even more often, causing enemies to practically triple their action economy while slowing you to a crawl by throwing out more stuns, slows, or daze attacks. Hope you love fighting basilisk with cone-shaped aoe stuns. In groups. That eventually become elites. The game's got a lot of great moments but eventually you just crawl through this swamp in every single fight just hoping to see the ending of it all as yet another boss just SPAMS and endless wave of foes that get to cast buffs too. And the ending has some of the worst stun-locking jerks you'll ever encounter, alone. Because of course they had to put a rotten cherry on top. But, then you get to see the reflection of all your choices during the entire game and a really see that they mattered. That you get to feel satisfied with the story, and if you really like the game, ready to follow their sequel bating. TLDR: Combat starts too easy, gets good, gets grindy, ends up miserable. Classes are fun but buff/debuff abilities start to feel out-right mandatory near the ending. Enemies become tree's with loads of health to chew through and self-healing spam. The story feels fun to explore and the ending actually changes based on your choices, with fun little mistakes you can make to change the outcome. If you really love top down games this is still gunna be worth it, but you might need some leather to chew on for when the warriors all self-buff for bonus damage/hit and the archers cast group haste before their mage hits one of your party members with a charm. Ugh.

Excellent writing from Spiderweb Software, as usual.