Reviews by Valentina Pagliai

If you like solitaires you will enjoy this one, but don't expect anything special. The graphics are simple; the storyline is barely there. You can choose between different levels of difficulty, so if you are just starting on solitaires, this is a good one to start from. Practically all the characters shown are white guys, which is a downer for me.

This was the first game I played by the makers and I liked it enough to go on and buy their other games. While not as good as the original Avernum, it is a great game. I had not problems with bugs (on a 2012 Mackbook Air with OS 10.7.5). There is a lot to read, true, but I didn't mind because it helped develop the characters, and I like to play with fuller characters. I did not like you had to play inside the establishment (as an Avadon agent), but I did like the game allowed you rebellion. I did not like that gender choices forced you into class choices (a problem solved in Avadon 2).

I was ready to buy this game because I had enjoyed the previous one and I wanted to see the sequel. Well, they changed the characters so it is only partially a sequel. Also, depending on the choices you had done in Avalon 2, this could not be the sequel (which was my case, and I will not say anything else to avoid spoilers). I still enoyed it quite a bit. I liked that this time you could choose gender independently from the fighting class, and you had more choices in companions. There was also some romance - not very developed but I hope in the future the makers will consider developing the romance side further (and give more choices there too, not only hetero love).

This was my first hidden object game, and I enjoyed it. I thought it was good how the game was able to keep the tension up, and there was an engaging story line. I did it together with my 11 year old daughter (who loves hidden object games) and she liked it too, even if she was a bit scared a few times (not enough scared to quit it :)

I enjoyed playing this game although there are no stunning graphics or anything particularly sophisticated about it. As a strategy game, I liked that it has a lot of flexibility and you can really explore several ways of engaging in battles. There is also an interesting storyline that connects most of the quests and moves the game forward. One thing I like a lot about this game is its very lively community of fans. They are ready to help and in many ways they make you like the game more. So if you do buy this, I suggest you take time to meet the community (at The Drunken Lizard Pub). A minus for me was that I could not play as female (this is resolved in Eschalon 2, by the way). However, the storyline is really gender-neutral and so what I did was to simply add a female avatar (you can upload your own, which is nice) and give the character a female name - it worked fine for me. I played this on OS Lion and encountered no bug.

As an hidden object game, this is OK. But although it may look like a time management game, it isn't really. Main problem in the storyline is, I believe, that you have no enemies, so the timing is irrelevant. I was looking for a game like "All my gods" and this isn't like it at all.
One aspect that bothered me is the sexism of the game. Most characters are male. The few and far in-between females are shown in the most stereotypical roles, such as holding babies. Come on! We are in the 21st century and 50% of the population is female, so what kind of society is made of males only?