Avadon: the Black Fortress available on Macs

[Merneith]

Jeff Vogel's new series, Avadon: the Black Fortress is available now for Macs. The Win version will follow in a couple months. Vogel is the only major developer I know of who releases on the Mac first. I thought some of the Mac fans here might enjoy strutting their experiences first.

Here's the link to the game -
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avadon/index.html

And the forum -
http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum...oard=38&page=1

And here's the blurb:

You are a servant of Avadon. The Black Fortress. Your job is to protect the Pact, five nations that have banded together in a fragile alliance. The purpose of the Pact: To hold back the waves of invaders that seek to destroy you.

Outside the lands of the Pact, there are limitless threats. Barbarians. Fading, jealous empires. Titans and unspeakable horrors. The warriors and spies of Avadon are charged to keep them at bay, weak and divided. You fight in the shadows, rooting out small threats before they have the chance to grow. Your resources are unlimited, and your word is law.

But a dark time is coming. Assassins are killing Avadon's warriors, and a hidden enemy plots to unite all of your homeland's foes. If you cannot discover and destroy this conspiracy, and soon, your people face total destruction. But beware. The defenders of Avadon are being picked off, one by one, and you are the next target.

I haven't played this yet since I don't have a Mac but I'm super excited. To my mind, Vogel is the best RPG developer working today. His Geneforge and Avernum series are simply amazing in terms of depths of world and the choices he asks of his players. Geneforge especially. The choices in that game are sometimes so deep that I have to take a day or two to think about what I want to do.

One of the bullet points in Avedon's feature list is:

# Many different endings. Your choices will change the world.

This is no joke. The choices in his game aren't just cosmetic stuff where you do the same quests but maybe in a snotty tone of voice. And it's not just that there's a "good" side and a "bad" side. His villains are real people with rational goals and points of view. The writing in these games is second to none.

Avedon is an all-new engine with fresh new graphics. Some people have been turned off by the look of the previous games. The interface design is still recognizably a Jeff Vogel game but much, much easier on the eyes. Here's the screenshot page if you want to take a look -
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avadon/shots.html

All of Vogel's games feature enormous demos, at least a quarter of the whole game. The demos are feature complete and are a lot of fun even if you don't push on and finish the game. It's very much worth your time to check it out.

[Crowbar of Irony +3]

Sweet, this is from the developer of Eschalon. If it ever goes on sale on Steam I will consider it.

ETA: Was mistaken, this is from the developer of Avernum...

[Merneith]

Right, Eschalon is Basilisk Games. Avedon is from Spiderweb Software. I realize I was referring to it only as a Jeff Vogel game, not a Spiderweb game.

There was some talk of releasing Avedon on Steam but I don't know if it's been approved yet. I don't know if they're going to wait for the Windows release or what.