I love all the Avernum games, except this one. The great thing about the series is the games are consistent in the way the games are played, with just a few deviations, most of which are either cosmetic or small improvements on minor things. However, Escape from the Pit deviates from the tried and true leveling system of past games which allow a ton of unique character builds and implemented a stupid skill tree, which pigeon holes and restricts character in a game destroying way. For example, if you build a mage and need that mage to have Hardiness, you have to invest points into the skill below it, which either swords or spears. Don't want those? Tough, you either take the skills so you can unlock Hardiness or you can watch your mages die with one stray arrow or melee attack. If you do take the weapon skills, you waste precious skill points that ultimately go to waste, or you end up with a hybrid character that isn't good at melee or magic. And that's not the only problem. Quickness is buried in the melee tree as well, so ranged fighters have to waste skills in the melee tree if they want to unlock it. If you want to build a melee character with high evasion, you have to unlock a bunch of ranged skills to get to the ability that allows for dodging melee attacks. In short, you end up being forced to build boring hybrid characters and watching your little heroes die over and over, and that isn't what this series is about. Even if you don't compare Escape from the Pit to past Avernum titles, it still just isn't very good. It is just a bad rpg with better graphics. Skip the Pitt....your money is better spent download and playing Avernum 5 or 6.