Thanks. I got the boat and finished the escape quest. I’m considering using the emergency exit and going back to tell Erika but I’ve basically beaten the game. I need a break from Avernum so I’ll be focusing on emulation and short/non-RPG games like Secret Agent and Civ 6, maybe a different Spiderweb game (Nethergate looks great) before going to the second game. I finished at a little under 40 hours, some of which was spent in the main menu when I started the program and didn’t get to it right away.

Very good game overall. Some music would have been nice; there’s no reason to play it with the sound on or without playing music on a different stereo input. It can be too hard to click on the switches and there are some annoying quirks: having to talk to the guard in Baghra every time you enter or leave, having to have the portcullis at Fort Spire opened every time you pass, complete with dialogue box.

I’m not wild anout the fast-travel system but it’s at least interesting. I don’t like how you have to find the portals in town before you can use them (though having Erika’s tower available that early in the game is asking for trouble, I guess.) Also really annoying is when your boat gets stuck begind a rock or an island and you have to take baby steps around it to get to your destination that should have taken one click. I like that there are what, three separate bodies of water that require their own boats? The character editor is great when you’re playing casually; I take it the other remakes have it, but what about the second trilogy, or Nethergate if you know?

Other than that, it’s a really good game. As with Morrowind I got kind of sick of doing quests anout 2/3 of the way in, at which point I didn’t play for over a month, and just focused on beating it. This burnout shouldn’t be a problem when I start Nethergate or Avernum 2.

These are small quibbles for a well-done game. I doubt the problems will be fixed in the other games, as this is one of the most recent (although they did take a decade to do all three remakes.) But thanks for the rec and thanks for turning me on to Spiderweb. All in all I’d give it a 7.5/10 – not in a bad way; eight seems too high but seven has gotten to mean below-average-to-avetage because of grade inflation. It’s a great game with some problems (most notably the sound) and it just doesn’t have an epic feel.