Siege of Avalon - Grilly's CRPG Reviews

The slogan; Played any good books lately suits this game well. There is much reading in this game, and not just dialogue. Story events are presented to you as pages from a book, quite literally. The story is very well written and intriguing, in my opinion. During main story events, you can read a new entry in your journal. Each of these entries add a lot of context and character to the player and the world. The journal also has some nice illustrations as well, which are appreciated. There's no voice acting except for the pre-rendered cutscenes, of which there are very few, so put your reading glasses on and pay attention.

Before beginning your adventure, there is a brief history section that you can read which gives a deeper understanding of the lore and world in which Siege of Avalon takes place. It is quite an interesting read and I definitely recommend not skipping it if you do play Siege of Avalon. If you enjoy reading good fantasy and are curious to check it out, you can find it online here.

Chapter 1 begins with your character on a ship bound for Avalon. Avalon is the main capital keep, in which much of the game is centered around. You travel there in hopes to find your brother alive and to bring news of your father's death. During the voyage, your ship and the rest of the fleet were attacked. The ship you were aboard is the only one that survives. As the fog breaks, and Avalon comes into view, the battered ship slowly reaches the dock. Your brother, Corvus, greets you, and walks you to his quarters. Corvus is sent on duty to ride out on a raid, and so your conversation is brief. You tell him the grave news of your father, and ask if you can join him. Of course he can't let you go with so little skill and experience. So he hands you a commission to get some gear and train until he gets back.

Once you're set loose, you're free to explore the first two floors of the keep and the outer bailey. You can talk to NPCs and learn about where they are from and rumors about the happenings in the area. You learn about the short supply of resources at the castle and the attacks from the Sha'ahoul, which are a nomadic culture of half-orcs. The name, Sha'ahoul, does bear a resemblance to Goa'uld from Stargate, I wonder if that was intentional. Anyway, there's some side quests you can pick up along the way as well. Such as the classic, kill the rats in the basement quest which all adventurers must do at the beginning of their journey, as you know. In this case, they're actually giant beetles, but still just as weak. Eventually you get word that the troop that Corvus was a part of, was attacked by Sha'ahoul and Corvus has gone missing. So, once you've trained and equipped yourself, you set out to the south gates in search of your brother.

Within the outer gates, you will meet one of the many trainers. Trainers can give you buffs to certain stats and abilities at the cost of training points. These points are earned from completing quests and defeating enemies. You can spend them either by increasing specific stats directly, or spending them with a trainer. Spending them on trainers is often a more valuable use of your points, as they offer special buffs that straight increases to attributes wouldn't provide. Some examples of special buffs are; increase in hit points and healing rate, lower restriction, improved attack, improved stealth, and so on.

One of the most important stats in the game that I want to briefly discuss is restriction. Your restriction rating depends on the type of armor that you're wearing and any modifiers on your restriction stat that could be obtained from a magical item or learned from a trainer. The higher your restriction level, the slower and less effective your character is in battle. It affects your hit accuracy and attack speed for both magic and normal weapons. This makes restriction a very important stat to manage, especially if you are playing a fighter or an otherwise heavily armored character.

As you're exploring through the outer gates, you eventually find Canimus, who tells you to get permission from Lord Roth to leave the keep and access the village, where your brother was last seen. Roth appoints you to a new commanding officer, Mudam, and you must convince him to let you exit the keep in search of Corvus. He agrees, and suggests you get some additional information on the village and what to expect.

Exploring the village is where the game really begins. The enemies can be really tough due to your low hit chance and hit points. It's definitely recommended to learn the heal spell before venturing out, since it will save you from having to constantly make trips back to the chapel to heal. While exploring the ruined village looking for your brother, there are also a number of side quests you can complete along the way, assuming you've been talking to most NPCs around the keep. These quests will give you plenty of items to look out for as you trek through the village.

The combat is real time which works fine for the most part. There is a little bit of jank involved when trying to click on the enemy to attack. Some enemies can run around erratically, making it difficult to lock your character into combat with them. There is no pause combat button either, unlike in the infinity engine games or other real-time with pause RPGs. I imagine things will get even more difficult once party members start to get introduced later on. I am playing a fighter class, so I am mostly engaging in melee combat, so I can't comment on the other styles of combat like ranged and spells. The combat system seems to be a pretty common complaint about this game and so far, it doesn't bother me too much. That however can change further in the game, we shall see. It is also worth mentioning that enemies do not respawn, at least not within chapters. They also won't wander toward you off screen, so you are safe to rest and go AFK as long as there aren't any enemies in the immediate vicinity.

After exploring the ruined village thoroughly and completing all of the quests, you'll find out what the Sha'ahoul are up to in the church, learn about the traitors among your ranks and what's going on in the outer gates, and save your brother Corvus who was trapped and injured. With all of your tasks complete, actually starting chapter 2 is kind of confusing. The game tells you to report to Mudam and get some rest, but attempting to sleep in my quarters doesn't work. You actually need to enter the previously inaccessible room on the first floor of the keep and talk to Lord Roth. It didn't take long to figure it out, but I found it odd how misleading the adventure log was.

In the end, I found chapter one quite enjoyable. The keep was well designed and easy to navigate. The quests, while pretty simple with only one solution, were still enjoyable thanks to the excellent writing and how some of them tied in with the main story. The progression system is a little confusing and the combat is a bit clunky, but my opinion may change on those further into the game. The story is also excellent so far. The main objective of searching for your brother is a good motivating personal quest for the main character, and the overarching story regarding the Sha'ahoul and inner conflicts within the alliance has been very intriguing as well. I look forward to continuing the adventure.