Avalon’s siege review – literary Diablo of my childhood

Ah, how many emotions in the Tristram. How many efforts did we apply for the hopeless salvation of this village, which met us with this motive? This connected us with the tristram and presented the memories that immediately pop up, you just have to hear the first sounds of the strings.

The Diablo series personally was never close to me, but the beginning of the first part, the acquaintance with the village and the corpse lying near the church, proclaiming the betrayal of Archbishop Lazar survived in my children’s memory. But this only concerned the beginning of Diablo. The not -off atmosphere of other moments, nothing could stand in this game at the same level with Tristram.

Meeting with Kane;Introductory video;The corpse of the church, proclaiming the betrayal of Lazar;Butcher;Well, in the light of his awakening, I could not help but remember another Lazar.

But, all in the same childhood, when consciousness is most susceptible to influence, there was a game for me, where a similar atmosphere, achieved by similar methods, stretched much deeper than the starting location.

I sincerely welcome everyone. Foreld with you and this is a siege of avalon .

Published in June 2000, and became the first creation of Digital Tome, the siege of Avalon received an expressive slogan from its creators: “Did you play any good books recently?”, Well -emphasized, what you will occupy most of the game. Read. And read a lot. The very beginning of the game is 18 pages of a continuous text, introducing a player to the local world. If briefly, the local kingdoms were attacked by the local nomads Sha’ahuly. There was the first war, Sha’ahuly lost, and in case of their return, the Avalon fortress was erected. Which was not for long to stand idle, because Sha’Ahuly returned very soon.

The first 12 pages Intro

You, the protagonist of this story, went to Avalon in order to inform your brother about the death of his father and, along the way, childishly dreaming will become famous in the ranks of the defenders of the fortress. But unfortunately, and, perhaps, fortunately for you, seeking glory in the military affairs, from all the provisions of the fleet, which you went to, only your barely surviving ship reached the fortress, and even that sank near its destination. Now you are locked here, along with the defenders of Avalon, in the middle of which you dreamed of being, and settled with your brother Corvus ..

The last 6 pages Intro and … Corvus?

Me: Thank you, I will not refuse. No, stop, I had to tell you about the death of our father ..

Corvus: No, no, not interesting! I’m sure you can do it yourself, for now

Me: IIII he left … for the whole game. “Great”!

Hmm. Let there be a lot https://gamblingsitesnotongamstop.co.uk/ of text here, but it works on the atmosphere of a medieval castle closed in the vice of. Claustrophobia in the corridors barely lit by torches and moral decline covers every corner, additionally pumped up with string motifs and conversations with local residents. Each of them has a name and, at least, a couple of lines of personal history, which inspires a barely trembling life into these walls and in the world outside their borders.

Here is one of the colossal set of pages to read. And you will run through these corridors so often that they will become you like relatives

True, with regard to Laura, he is then scarce, then rich, and in the end does not give any uniform idea of the world. There are already 7 key countries, which they seem to pay attention to, but you will not recognize either their locations or their clearly outlined history. A series of specific properties of each of the countries is simply described (for example, that one consists entirely of magicians, and the other leads a tribal lifestyle), existing only to endow them at least some uniqueness. But this approach does not cope well for this purpose and is lucky if you remember more than two (in fact, those that I described above, I remember me. At least in terms of ideas).

But on the other hand, you can see the essence of the game – you are closed in one space, without contact with the outside world and with the need for faith in the soldier who protect your back. And this faith will often fail you due to universal paranoia, hunger and fear. If every oncoming name and at least a grain of personality, the siege of Avalon would have lost its individuality. This is exactly what I missed in Tristram. Each resident there was a little more store, and a board of ads with legs. They had a minimum of life, which greatly reduced in the interest of protecting this settlement.

As for the dialogs, they are registered well here. At the time of the release of the game, the local letter stood out by many as the main plus. And the characters here react to your actions. But often you are deprived of any choice, and the one that is purely nominal. The point here is not that the main character is constrained in his words. On the contrary, he is quite eloquent. But you really have no choice how to behave in a particular situation and a way to solve problems, in fact, always one. Even in cases where it seems, as if there should be an alternative answer, it may not be. We can say that the main character here is not a blank in your hands or an avatar of your decisions, but is an independent character, with his desires, aspirations, preferences and menniya, which he will gladly share with you through his abundantly scheduled diary.

The pages of the diary, which gg passionately fills and complements with the drawings by hand, which once again makes it clear that the main character is not a puppet in our hands

True, it cannot be said that there is some kind of outstanding story here. You have to fulfill a series of instructions approaching you step by step to the final battle. There are a couple of nuances in them, but in reality they do not change the situation much. But, on the other hand, this is exactly what should be natural for such a situation of history. You are a simple soldier who should fulfill the instructions given to him, and not a hero, because amateur performances can lead not only to your, but also someone else’s death and where every step to victory is mined by the general then and blood.

But unfortunately, literally all instructions will be fulfilled here with your pati. Only the first two chapters, and then somehow, you feel equal to the other. Subsequently, you literally become the hero of Avalon, and at the same time you devote less time to other characters, hoping from them, except for an additional quest.

What is pretty sad for me. I would be more glad if the circle of events presented to us remained within the framework of naturalism with the fantasy rave of the corresponding to the house of the besieged fortress, where even the first quest for the killing of small pests does not look strained and is justified due to their eating and lacking a lack of provision. And in the end, they slowly go into epic fantasy, where, initially, problematic single enemies sculpt the classic Diablo’v huge minced meat.

We save the last grains of grain from beetles. Ordinary everyday life in the besieged and poor fortress. As much as a heavy battle alone, otherwise there would have been no siege. But it will not last long.

And if you think that the setting frames will force you to rot in the same walls the head by the head, then no, the authors find justifications to refresh the locations and surroundings, which you will have to go through. But they do not find ways to save you from backing. Gigantic amount of backing! I’m not joking, in the second chapter you will have to run there and back three times along the tunnels system with an extremely unfriendly route, the path along which even with artificial acceleration takes 2-3 minutes 3 times.

For these, fucking, catacombs will have to run several times, which will take at least half an hour and this is only one such example from a series;And with regard to the variety of locations, then here you have classic (typical) 2nd examples.

In addition to this, there are also sort of networks of locations, which are one large rectangle equally divided into a series of rectangles smaller. Of course, to navigate and move more easily than the system of tunnels, since the locations are open, but their mapping is still more than the content on them and the main goal is still to kill the crowd of enemy and, because of such spaces, it takes a lot of time. And if you need to find some small triger or object, then good luck with you with such spaces and design where objects merge with each other.

For example, the 13th rectangle in a single large rectangle “village”;And I was able to find this unicorn only by guides, because even when exploring the rectangle “forest” with a snake, I managed not to hurt him;That is ironic, but I could not find a screenshot with rings on the floor.

Obviously, the authors did it for the sake of stretching the game, because without this it would have passed much faster. But the real mockery of this is felt by the best trip, which works only in the same chapter and always moves you to the center of the location grid, making it completely useless. At the same time, the fortress itself is a completely fast -over, where at the entrance to any door you are asked where to teleport you.

Here is a quick movement button, which, for the above reasons, is useless;And here is a map of the avalon through which you can get to any wing, to any floor.

As a result, the main advantages of the game: the atmosphere and empathy of this place slowly dissolve the abundant and artificial waste of your time, and the change of paradigm. The authors cannot completely remove them, but they get the impression, as if they were striving for this.

Gameplay does not improve the situation. Comparisons with Diablo, obviously, are not groundless. Half of the interface is very similar here, and the combat system is all that is also jamming enemies. Simply put, if you are familiar with Diablo, then you already know the gameplay of the Avalon. But while Diablo tried to Bilds, Avalon works somewhat different.

You do not get the levels here, but use the experience gained as a bargain to increase the characteristics of the directly and gain skills for each of the 3 local classes: a magician, warrior and ranger. And the skills here are most useful in my opinion. Although they are simply a set of stats here, and not specific abilities, as in the same Diablo, because of their constant price, they become more profitable than the characteristics that value every 10 units of improvement. Due to such a nuance and the benefits of each parameter, there is no question of an individual build here. You will just pump everything that is more profitable and what is enough experience for. And this will more than justify itself, since the multi -class here is the most effective. And the further you go in development, the more enemies will get enough of you up to huge hordes.

Characteristics along with skills. As well as the screen of the creation of the character.

And you should not underestimate secrecy here. Whereas pure magician and warrior constantly enter into an open confrontation, exposing himself to risk and without certainty to break through the enemy armor, a ranger who has a bonus to secrecy – from the very beginning is a secretive killer with an additional Crete from invisibility capable of interrupting the entire detachment, remaining completely unnoticed. This, of course, is wildly ridiculous, since the enemies will not even deign a couple of steps and give you even the template “this is the wind” or “these are rats”. They will simply continue to stand and stick into the same place.

And with high secrecy, the enemies will completely fuck on you even in dense until you start the battle. Warriors, by the way, also applies to, but only on very high values.

After I realized that the rangers are so Imba, I began to regret that I started for a warrior who had the most problems. Fortunately, there is a party, whose usefulness is somewhat ambiguous for many. On the one hand, they are walking bags, can perform the functions of other classes and, with the correct arrangement of preliminary orders, they are quite useful in battle. On the other hand, in the thick of opponents, especially in the end, it is difficult to keep track of each of them. Here you will keep track of FIG, since it is for you that the authors of the car asset have not provided and you must always control yourself, otherwise your pillar will simply stand and receive damage. Therefore, it is extremely great the chance that one of your fellow travelers will die. And there is also a Fredlifary for magicians. Therefore, in Pati, magicians are destined to be forever. Simply put, correctly given preliminary orders, the key to a successful party.

Documented shooting of a treacherous and deadly shot in the back with a colleague after a heavy fight. Punishment: a ban on combat magic.

But in the plot sequence of successful solutions, do not wait. After the end of any of the chapters, no clear instructions will be given to you. You just have to run around Avalon in the hope of finding the character, or the door that your progress will continue. In the 2nd chapter, for example, you need to enter another castle wing, which was previously unavailable and the discovery of which no one will tell you. Sometimes you need to be able to read the thoughts of the authors in order to know where to go.

And without technical problems there were no. It happens that after the first video the game freezes or that it is simply impossible to turn. Dialogs or notes in the diary disappear or after its update nothing appears there. The worst thing is when, after loading in your inventory, complete chaos and objects lie on each other, and you, in turn, are completely dressed up. Well, the high resolution of the HD version allows you to look into such distances that the authors did not even suggest, and therefore you can see the boundaries of locations, but this is a standard problem of such reprints.

An empty sheet of the diary;A mess in the inventory (after that the game usually crashes);Typical problem of old RPG with HD-interpretation.

Yes, nostalgia is cruel. Time will pass and you are disappointed in your idols, and new ones do not appear among the same. Avalon’s siege does not justify the memories that I had. Yes, the atmosphere, which has always been the main advantage of the game, is still working, but playing it is quite difficult and tiring. Local history does not deserve such a long way that will be required to pass. Is it worth playing it? Perhaps not. The same was considered at the time of the release of various magazines, putting the game disappointing points. One of the reasons was the episode system that adhered to the game. Therefore, the collection today is called anthology. As a result, Digital Tome closed until the end of its second game, which was the sequel of Avalon. As for the present, if you have liked the topic, it makes any sense to launch it, run around the outer fortress, listening to music, but talking with NPC and maybe it will drag you out longer. But its complete passage will not justify itself, demanding too much time, without offering anything more valuable than its atmosphere.

Assessments to the game. There were good, but in the general gathering there was a minority, and later many of them. But at the same time, many negative grades were filled with excessive similarities from Diablo, and not for pressing disadvantages.

Avalon’s siege review – literary Diablo of my childhood

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