Konung 2
Konung 2 is weird. It’s an open RPG with a little bit of unit management.
The game is pretty complicated with lots of unorthodox features.
Yet the devs decided not to include a tutorial whatsoever, leading to players fumbling around inside the game.
The funny thing is that the first game has a pretty comprehensive tutorial.
Konung 2 is an open game. You can go wherever you want and do whatever you want.
Do some quests? Or killing monsters or maybe even killing all of the villagers.
Another aspect of the game is you can own a couple of villages and by doing so you can earn money from daily tributes.
– Real player with 68.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Isometric Fantasy Games.
A scandiaviana themed role playing game. After playing this out of order with Konung 3 first, I found this one somewhat different. It was more challenging as this game has more strategy involved in it, especially with the controlling of towns. So, here is my pro and con list:
PROS:
‘Owning towns and running them!
‘Ability to recruit town members when you own a town
‘Different heroes for the main character, including female characters to play as
‘Some strategy is involved
‘Old school RPG mechanics similiar to Baldur’s Gate
– Real player with 63.3 hrs in game
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Isometric Classic Games.
Landstalker is diagonal-only isometric action-RPG. Or action-adventure, I get confused by these genre definition. It was developed by Climax Entertainment (don’t mistake it for other Climax names companies) and published by Sega. And yea, Climax were also created to help with the first two Shining games, so there is some Shining infulence in this game. No, not part of franchise. It was released in 1992 in Japan and in 1993 it got to the West. 4 save slots. 16 whole Megabit ROM.
Fun fact: US and French versions of the game actually had ending tweaked to make it more like happy ending. Though I still prefer the original “oh well” one.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Avadon 2: The Corruption
I have to admit that I put this game off for far longer than I should of, it has been such a treat and such a good reminder that great games don’t always come in shiny packages . I have played hundreds of CRPG’s over the past 20+ years, on dozens of different consoles and this game really “did it” for me. Avadon 2 is no “Divinity Original Sin” but I still enjoyed it nearly as much, the game is a blast if not a little rough around the edges like me.
Avadon 2 is a rather large CRPG, is has a deep and intricate storyline which I found pretty original among CRPG’s. Avadon 2 has wonderful “original in style” character creation, character building systems and the game even has some secrets ??? : ). It has challenging combat which scales greatly depending what difficulty you chose and which takes place using a Grid Based, Turn Based, Action Point combat system. The combat in Avadon 2 feels very similar to the combat in the early Fallout games (1&2) but the fixed viewpoint is a little more Roguelike in nature. As I eluded to with the secrets comment earlier, exploration in Avadon is fun and there are fights, loot and secrets to be found by the patient and meticulous types of players.
– Real player with 288.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Isometric Indie Games.
Avadon 2 is the direct sequel to Avadon: The Black Fortress. You take control of a new band of heroes as you wield your might on behalf of Avadon.
Battles are turn based and are governed by action points, which are expended through both movement and use of skills. As expected, health and stamina bars are also present alongside four core stats - strength, dexterity, intelligence and endurance. Additionally each character also has resistances to four damage types and four possible status effects. Character builds are developed using a skill tree, which requires you to pump more points into particular branches if you want to reap the full benefits of a particular branch. There is a retrainer NPC who allows you to redistribute all your points if you are ever unhappy with your character build, but you need to reach a particular point in the game before they become available. There are five possible classes to choose from for your character, with Avadon 2 adding in a new class, the tinkermage who specialises in creating turrets and machines that can aid you in battle. The entire cast of characters comprises one of each class type so you will always have the potential strengths of each class at your disposal throughout the game. Avadon 2 features a standard grid based inventory management system, a junk bag for storing useless items so they can be sold en masse, several slots for character equipment, scarabs slots (magical items which confer statistical bonuses and abilities), quick use skills and items for each character. Overall inventory management is fairly painless however during extended periods of adventuring, managing the many scolls and potions you find can be a chore but compared to Spiderweb’s older titles it’s like a gift from the gods.
– Real player with 100.8 hrs in game
Avernum: Escape From the Pit
This game used to be a charming experience where magic, fighting bows and fantasy came together in a unique way. The game is far butchered now compared to it’s older version.
Before: Up to three levels of spells in both priest and mage classes so that you can indulge in a magic fantasy playing the game. With secrets at every turn for your wizard to decode and dangerous territory where they have to show their wit in using their magic to upgrade their arsenal and using it creatively to beat the lords of magic themselves, the slitheraki or however you spell that…
– Real player with 448.1 hrs in game
Addendum: As of Nov 2016, I nominated Avernum for the “I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award” Award.
Second remake of the classic Exile series’ first part, Avernum: Escape From the Pit is classic roleplaying at its best! Basically, you play as a party of adventurers, who were exiled into a huge cavern, Avernum, far below the surface of the world. You have to find a new purpose here, which basically means doing all kinds of odd-jobs and quests for mayors, wizards and kings of the underworld and, while you’re at it, trying to escape your dark prison.
– Real player with 140.9 hrs in game
Avernum 4
A classic RPG set in an underground world, Avernum IV is a fantastic game. In it, you control a guild of up to four characters, which can be customized both in appearance as in abilities. Each character levels up individually, getting a few points which you can then spend in their abilities; and, as a classic RPG, there’s plenty of them: from combat abilites (including things as melee combat, ranged combat, etc) to magic (two types, actually, one focused on magical attacks, and the other in buffs and debuffs) and “social” stats like luck and charisma.
– Real player with 101.3 hrs in game
Just a short review, which I have to write, so I can recommend this game (and I will post the same review at Avernum 4, 5 and 6 pages).
After finishing the second Avernum trilogy (4, 5 and 6) I can honestly say, this was one of the most rewarding roleplaying experience I had in a long time. I played a lot of rpg titles, from classics like Eye of the Beholder, Ultima 7 and Infinity Engine games to newest games like Skyrim, Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, and although Avernum does not have fancy graphics, I still think this series is one of the best rpgs ever.
– Real player with 100.0 hrs in game
Avernum 5
Party with gremlins. Boat through rapids. Join a cult. Side with an ambitious general or the assassin he’s hunting. The low graphical requirements of this game allow for a vast frontier setting and a deep story. Difficulty is adjustable, allowing any playstyle from story-only coasting to ruthless min-maxing. Plus, Spiderweb Software is a true indie developer. This game is easily worth $10.
– Real player with 133.2 hrs in game
An incredibly mixed bag. Its very deep stat system and occasionally interesting challenge areas and boss fights are quite good, but ultimately these highlights are overcome by extreme linearity, way too many trash mobs, next to no plot, and one of the worst cases of hitpoint bloat I have ever seen in a game (late game there are some random enemies with 4,000 hitpoints. Given that the average character can do 50-100 points of damage per turn, you can work out the problem here). I really love spiderweb games, so I hate to bash this, but this is probably their worst.
– Real player with 128.3 hrs in game
Avernum 6
Many more hours of game play than the other “Avernum” titles so far.
Challenging bosses and combat situations, tons of loot/spells, and (a few) outcome options along the way.
Intriguing story line which brings the nature of Avernum and all the involved powers (Human nations, Nephil, Slith, Spiral Pit, Vahnatai, Dragons, etc.) to a “conclusionist” scenario based on how the previous games have handled them thus far. It is similar in this regard with, and probably as qualified as, Avernum 3.
Personally, I wish there were more graphic options for characters. Sometimes the bosses can be a little too challenging without looking up walks-through. It is not possible to kill a dragon. But those are all the petty negative things I have to say.
– Real player with 373.0 hrs in game
I remember playing Avernum as a kid and have fond memories of it, now it appears that very little has changed.
If you want a nostaligia trip this is definately a game for you, however it’s grindy as hell and hasn’t aged all that well compared to other games of the genre.
The fact that not much has changed isn’t exactly a bad thing, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
The only problem I have is how clunky the UI is, in the fact that you could carve it onto a stone and it would still be intuative. It works, it’s just not very nice to look at for longer than half an hour at a time. Still enjoy it though.
– Real player with 141.1 hrs in game
Beyond Divinity
A good game, not a great game. You’ll read a lot about the bad voice acting (some of it’s alright, really), the difficulty (not just the combat, but staying on track for any particular quest), and how dated it is. The last one is irrelevant, because by definition every game will become dated, so this is an invalid criticism. But yes, the game has plenty of flaws. This was my introduction to the Divinity universe, and although it had its ups and downs, it was an enjoyable ride.
Like I do with every game that feels worth beating, I tried to do everything the game had to offer, including all side quests, explore everything, and genuinely give it my time and attention. This is one of the few RPGs I’ve played all the way through in the last few years for which that approach didn’t really pay off. Sometimes it did, and I discovered a big, ugly and beautiful and visually interesting world. But other times it was exhausting and aimless and felt like a time-sink. The battlefields feature of the game is unusual, and doesn’t add anything worthwhile.
– Real player with 56.8 hrs in game
I really wanted to give this game a good review, since I simply adore Larian.
This is a really funny game, and if you love environmental gags and mocking fantasy tropes then this game is going to make you laugh.
However, I really can’t recommend it.
I am currently in Act 2, and I decided to uninstall. This game is a technical nightmare.
Audio glitches are still here from DD, except, instead of being constantly jumpscared by white noise like in DD, you simply lose all SFX for a while. This pretty much forces a save and quit.
– Real player with 52.1 hrs in game
Clans
The most underestimated game ever.
This game was heavily criticized back in 1999 for being poor Diablo 1 clone, but that only means shame for these critics. Because this game is nothing like Diablo.
Now a days I can compare this game most with Legend of Grimrock 1. In Clans you travel through series of small square rooms, grouped into several big locations, killing mosters, that give you no experience. In fact all the character leveling thing is done via collecting different equipment and potions. Very, very rarely they can be dropped by defeated monsters, but most of the time they are hidden in these rooms. Sometimes you can find a merchant, but they are very rare, and each carries only 4 items, which is not much. To buy stuff you need money, which is hiddent in the rooms as well. Selling loot won’t make you rich, so all the money you find matters.
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game
“You enter a new kind of hell."
Clans is a slightly bland name, isn’t it? Maybe that’s why it was called Satanica in Germany. Satanica, that’s more like it.
It came out during a time where everyone was waiting for Diablo II and every game that shared similar traits was quickly dismissed as a clone. Clans got slaughtered by the press, they hated the non-scrolling, square rooms with clearly marked exits and the static, pre-rendered graphics.
Well. I love them to death. All these wonderful shades of brown, grey and black. Almost every room/bit uniquely rendered. A sense of total bleakness without bragging about it. And then puzzles, like, proper puzzles that you would find in classic point-and-click adventure games. Kicking a door in with an axe, setting spellbooks on fire in a chimney to destroy them.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Divine Divinity
After finally finishing this gem of a game I can only but recommend this game to any RPG lover out there. Beneath the now dated graphics lies a sound game with a complex world, rich lore and funny little gameplay gimmicks that made me smile a lot.
The good:
-
Rich lore, decent story (if a bit cliché by now)
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Plenty of content (Took me appr. 70 hours to finish)
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Pretty extensive and flexible RPG elements (create whatever character you like as you go)
-
Easy to get into, but challenges along the way
– Real player with 74.5 hrs in game
Divine Divinity
Date of this review: 15 March 2018
Update (25 April 2018): Formatting fixes
DISCLAIMER: I would like to point out that I likely achieved 100% completion in this game. Because it is so old, there are not achivements so I can’t be sure, but I did complete every quest that is listed in online guides, and I fully explored every map.
===Notes About Me===
Graphics/Animation: I usually don’t care about; I still play NES games occasionally.
– Real player with 71.7 hrs in game