Avencast: Rise Of The Mage - Game Download From Amazon For Your Personal Computer

Avencast: Rise Of The Mage - Is very much a game that is Diablo-esque. An action / role playing game from Clockstone Software and published by Lighthouse Interactive. Released in 2008 to warm reviews from most gaming magazines and web sites.

A combination of spell casting, as well as use of weapons and armor, and an added feature to dodge attacks from melee combat make this a uniquely approached game.

Developed over four years prior to release, it has that old school Neverwinter Nights graphic feel to it. The game feels and plays out nicely albeit the graphics will disappoint purists. The game is fine overall yet it does have it's own sense of quirks that take some getting used to.

You are a boy raised by a retired mage and you have a knack for magic, as a matter of course, you are very adept at it. When you reach a certain age, you are sent of to learn more from the Academy Of Mages at Avencast, and then you find trouble is soon not that far away.

You find out that there are demons hellbent on destroying the world, but you cannot do your part until you have run a bunch of errands for the wizards (effectively your tutorial) and get to branch out into the crypts which effectively becomes the true start of the game.

The game overall is kind of confusing to play, as it is in the sense a little Diablo-esque, a smattering of Neverwinter Nights, a sprinkling of Dungeon Hack all rolled into one

Graphics - The graphics as mentioned before, are rather dated yet each area and monster type are different and succinct. It's pretty clear what is a skeleton and what is a troll.

Sound - The soundtrack is quite good, there are many tracks that play that are creepy when playing the game at night, which of course provides great atmosphere for the game.

Controls - There is a quite steep learning curve for this game, although it utilizes the usual WASD controls there is more that is required. For one, pressing a direction a second time allows your character to roll in that direction, effective for moving quickly out of trouble. You can right click on the mouse to operate your currently active spell and use the left mouse button to change spells quickly. You will find that melee is rather straight forward and will be effective for some creatures and almost useless on others.

Gameplay - There is also the occasional puzzle to provide a bit of strategy and these are rather clever and some are especially tricky. They will not be solved quickly and do require some thinking through to eventually solve. They also provide a means of accessing special areas of the game to provide one time character buffs and high end equipment that one cannot buy.

By using a unique combination of melee battles and spells and moving when it all gets a little overwhelming with combat is how one can progress satisfactorily through the game.

Graphics - For the purists of those whom enjoy the latest and greatest in graphics for a game, they will laugh with derision with this one. The games graphics also have a couple of glitches with randomly teleporting monsters and occasionally the player character can become lodged on a wall, door, hidden object with these graphics making avoidance a little difficult.

Sound - The game music just doesn't feel seamless, you can almost hear the 'triggers' with the music shifting from standard fare monsters to coming across the boss monster.

Controls - I found the double tap of moving using WASD quite difficult to begin and sometimes felt like I had to overuse it to play. The need to constantly be a certain distance and using a combination of pick a spell use a spell hit a creature, step and whack em a few times, seems an unnatural combat system. Key combinations did not always work and felt it needed a patch to rectify.

Gameplay - There is also the occasional puzzle to provide a bit of strategy and these are rather clever and some are especially tricky. They will not be solved quickly and do require some thinking through to eventually solve. They also provide a means of accessing special areas of the game to provide one time character buffs and high end equipment that one cannot buy.

Gameplay - You do not get a choice of creating a character beyond utilizing 3 schools of magic and blood and soul magic are similar anyway. You cannot run solely as a fighter/barbarian/archer/tank type of class. The game simply does not allow for a suitable mechanic to play with that type of bash the monster simply due to distance striking with magic spells will always be much more suitable and better. If there were more schools of magic and one was able to specialize in one school and possibly have a secondary backup school to pick, I feel this would allow for some interesting combination's of magic.

I still feel there is enough in this game to play and also play more than once. It doesbn't have the feel of longevity of Neverwinter Nights or a Diablo, yet I think that Clockstone may look at this game engine for a second release game in the future and have the potential for a game very much on par with Diablo.

This is one of those games you play for a time when your not playing a game or need to change it up a bit whilst awaiting a major game release.

Overall I would still recommend it even with its slight quirks.

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