Avadon 3: The Warborn Review

As a Hand of Avadon, you have almost unlimited power with which to fight the enemies of the Black Fortress. You’re a peacekeeper of sorts but in this closing chapter of the Avadon trilogy tensions are running high as you are tasked with ending the war.

Let’s get this out of the way straight away, Spiderweb Software’s RPGs have a definite ‘old-school’ look and feel to them and Avadon 3: The Warborn is no exception, though as a small studio this is understandable. This old-school niche is what Spiderweb have built their business on, doing this style of game since the early 90s. You certainly shouldn’t let the game’s look put you off, however.

The game is a traditional party-based RPG with a heavy story focus, the story being told through a lot of very well-written text. The quality of writing is great, giving fantastic descriptions of locations, characters and events as they occur. Often elaborating and detailing things in a manner the graphics just can’t manage.

Visually looking like later Ultima titles mixed with a bit of Baldur’s Gate thrown in; it is graphically simple though well-drawn and has a clean, easy to read style. They, and by extension your imagination, are definitely helped by the great verbosity of the in-game text.

The writing does a good job of bringing players up to speed on the situation in-game, even though it’s the third and final entry in this series you definitely don’t need experience with prior entries to enjoy this.

So what is the story? The world of the Avadon games is set on the continent of Lynaeus, split into the two warring factions of the Pact and the Farlands, already beset by war, infighting and political upheaval.

The alliance of five nations that form the Pact; Wyldrylm, Holklanda, Dharam, Kellemderiel and The Kva have wildly differing cultures and governments which have made the alliance fragile at times. The threat of barbarian raids and other attacks from the smaller powers of the Farlands keeping the uneasy peace intact.

Avadon however, whilst inside the Pact falls outside its laws. Its warriors, the Hands, act as a peacekeeping force of sorts. Seeking threats from both within and outside the Pact and destroying them before they become a problem. You are a Hand and you fulfil Avadon’s, the Black Fortress’s, will.

Avadon and its warriors are feared and Avadon 3: The Warborn does a great job establishing the fear the world has at large for the Hands of Avadon. The game starts with you as a young Hand of Avadon being posted at Camp Nightshade near the Khemerian border, waiting for orders.

The game has five character classes: Blademaster, Shadowwalker, Shaman, Sorcerer and Tinkermage. Each has a variety of abilities, from the Sorcerer’s focus on elemental magic to the Tinkermage’s usage of turrets and gadgets. You’ll also encounter party members that cover each of these classes as well, with your party ultimately consisting of you and two others of your choosing.

Wandering the world and talking to characters within the world gets you quests and side-quests as you’d expect and the game marks important locations on your minimap as well as keeping track in your journal. Even with the old-school feel the game has, it does a good job of informing you of what is happening.

The combat system in the game is turn-based and takes place on the same map you explore. You get a grid overlay and each character gets a move and combat phase. When it comes to combat you can switch between melee and ranged at will, and there is a decent amount of complexity in the system when you take class abilities into account.

The combat is engaging and has a satisfying tactical layer, the classes are unique and interesting in their abilities and this carries over into the strategy of combat. Positioning is important too which is always a good sign.

There is a lot to enjoy with Avadon 3: The Warborn, its writing is top notch and does a fantastic job of describing the nuances of the setting. The complexities of the political landscape could easily have become dry and dull but seen through the eyes of the characters it stays fascinating throughout.

The game does have some issues, it’d be nice if it zoomed in a touch or gave you the option in combat as it can be tricky to click where you intend to sometimes as well as it being easy to lose track of enemies in combat. The user interface for buying and selling is also a little clunky.

These are little issues however in the big scheme of things, if you are into party-based RPGs you can’t really go wrong with this. Even for newcomers to this style of game, I’d recommend it if you can get past the retro look and feel. There is an interesting, grown-up story to be experienced here that certainly has some things of its own to say.