Others say...

"THE cRPGs ARE BACK: ANOTHER GOOD EDITION TO THE GENRE!"
From Moses and Oliver Twist to BALDUR's GATE and FABLE, the story of the gifted orphan who has to fight hard to eventually find its niche has been told again and again. This one turns out to be a mage...Not that original a story but they manage to pull it off - as it gets really fun!

You may have no choice on your character and only limited customization options, but the novel gameplay and innovative controls will reward you. Tapping sequences for combo attacks and dodging in a PC cRPG?! I loved it!
You can opt for either Blood Magic (melee) or Soul Magic (ranged), but to mix-and-match from the skill trees is a solid advice.

As with another cRPG gem to come out of Eastern Europe this season (THE WITCHER), loading-delays are a nuisance; surprisingly, though, they are shorter than those encountered in games developed by much larger studios. The BALDUR's GATE Saga had long loading times as well, yet I hardly ever noticed.
What WILL get on your nerves though is the...camera. If you thought that NWN had bad camera movement, well, this is worse: it moves in a very limited range and will take some time to get used to and find a comfortable setting.

Graphically it would be placed just above DUNGEON SIEGE: the spells have been impressively designed and the cut-scenes have been done in stills of exceptional taste. Moreover, one has to appreciate the fact that all dialog is spoken, not just written. The music though is a collection staple cRPG themes that are neither annoying nor unforgettable.

The official Minimun Requirements will hardly ensure a smooth gameplay, so make sure your system at least meets the Recommended Requirements (provided below):
· P4 3GHz (or AMD equivalent)
· 1GB of RAM
· nVidia 256MB 7600GS (or ATI equivalent)
· 4.4GB HDD free space
· WinXP

This is a long cRPG, spanning for over 20-25 hours if one undertakes all possible quests (ranging from funny to quite intense). Both cRPG fans and novices will undoubtedly enjoy this one!

RECOMMENDED!!

"A streak of fun heading is heading your way"
Did you know that with Avencast a small developer in Austria/Europe was aiming to challenge big names in the game industry (Diablo, Titan Quest, Sacred and the like) to a duel? Well, neither did I.

Nevertheless I bought the game and played it a lot. The first thing I have to say about the game: In it's handling it's very different from other Action-RPGs. The second thing: Once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun!

Even though the textures and leveldesigns sometimes seem to be a bit rough, the effects totally make up for that. Some of the highlvl spells have effects that just leave your jaw hanging open when you use them for the first time. Pretty impressive.

The controls are different from other Action-RPGs. You move your character around with the WASD keys and cast spells or melee attacks with the right or left mouse button. If you wanna use combos, you just press a simple combination of keys and execute via left or right mouse button. For example: You run up to an enemy, press "a" and "d" followed by the left mouse button and your character does a neat 360° swipe with it's staff. I haven't seen anything like this in other games I've played and I really enjoyed this new approach.

The only problem I had with the game was the handling of the camera. Very often it's just not where you need it. Allthough when I found out that pressing the middle mouse button focuses the camera behind the main character it made the whole game a lot easier to play.

Overall I loved Avencast because it offers a new gameplay approach in a genre that's dominated by titles where you continuously hammer on the left mouse button until the last enemy has fallen.