Having nothing new to play, I finally decided to give Spiderweb’s Nethergate: Resurrection a try. This is a reworking of the original Nethergate, which didn’t do anywhere as well as Jeff had hoped.
It’s typical Spiderweb stuff, more on the lines of the old Exile series rather than the newer Avernum/Geneforge games. You have a party of four that troops around single file indoors, and a tiny 2×2 outdoors.
Combat is the usual turn-based affair, with action points determining how much a character can do each round. If you’ve played any Spiderweb game, you know how that works.
What makes Nethergate different is the semi-historical setting of Britain during the Roman occupation, along with the ability to play as either Romans or Celts. Of course, there’s still plenty of fantasy, with faerie folk and fomorians running around, plus magic.
I’ve been through the demo portion as each side a few times now, but really can’t get into the game to where I’d buy it. Maybe it’s because Romans/Celts aren’t all that different.
The action takes place in a remote area called Shadowvale, where odd creatures live and odd things have been occurring. On each side, a new group comes in (the fort for Romans, the village of Nethergate for Celts) to perform special missions.
Starting as Roman, I had to invade an old tin mine and retrieve a stolen courier satchel from goblins. Then it was off to a ruined hall, to see what was going on there.
As Celts, the party is sent to (haha) an old peat mine, to retrieve a stolen bronze disk from goblins. Next it was - you guessed it - off to the ruined hall to meet with an envoy of the faeries.
In the middle of this are the old crones. For whatever reason, they’re pro-Roman. So they get your Roman group to visit and give them jobs to do. The Celts are shanghaied into a dungeon and have to fight their way out before they can reach the hall.
Both groups end up going through the nasty tunnels under the ruined hall, though for different reasons. And I suspect the rest of the game will be similar: Celts and Romans after the same things, for different reasons.
Besides which, I kinda figured out what was going on, and a quick peek in some of the files confirmed my guess. Just a couple of dialogue files, that come early on, though past the demo area.
Naturally, all the characters are human. That’s not a problem. But there isn’t much maneuvering room in character builds. Basically, you have fighters and spellcasters, and that’s not a lot to work with.
In any case, double duty, even with a few differences, isn’t for me, so I’m passing on this one. Which is a pity, since there’s nothing else available out there. But should you want to give it a try yourself, I include the download link below.
I bought the original years ago and found it somewhat interesting, but then again I’m a history geek (bought Teurogedor (?), another Roman RPG, also. There were some ‘physical’ puzzles in it that made me think a bit, and I did find building different fighter types somewhat helpful.
However, as you imply, the game isn’t as good as the Exile/Avernum series (haven’t played through or bought the Geneforges yet).
I will end up picking it up, if only so Vogel can continue feeding himself and coding games.
You’re “supposed” to play the game somewhat differently depending on the side you choose. Romans have considerable combat bonuses but aren’t so hot at spellcasting. Celts get the most powerful spells, but are just OK at physical combat. The consensus on the Spiderweb forums is that magic is overpowered, making the Celtic side too easy.
I didn’t bother registering Nethergate: Rerun, because I already had a registered copy of the original. Story-wise, it’s an exact port, right down to the typos (”[Default Roman party member Aulus] has picked up some of the Celt’s [sic] unusual druidic skills.”). The keyboard interface is better in the newer game, but movement and overall game responsiveness are almost as sluggish on my aged machine as Avernum 5, which is a Bad Thing in a game with so much foot travel. I shouldn’t have to power up my dual Athlon to play a tile-graphics game. Jeff’s turn-based 1024×768 engine is a pig. The real-time Geneforge engine seems much more efficient but doesn’t have to load large areas like the turn-based engine.
As it turns out, I downloaded the demo just a few weeks ago, when I was bored and looking for something to play. Unfortunately, it was just too much like the Exile/Avernum games for me. Yeah, I enjoyed them the first few times, but I just can’t play the same game over and over again.
And that’s how it feels, anymore. The skills are the same, and the combat strategy is the same. The story is different, but in a game like this, it’s not enough, not for me.
I hate saying this, because I admire Spiderweb, and I’d really like to keep supporting them. And their games have so much that I like (so much that reminds me of old turn-based RPG’s). But if I’m going to create party of characters, I don’t want to just duplicate what I’ve done many times before. And I don’t want to follow the same combat strategy that I learned in the first game. Something - in addition to the story - needs to be new.
I played the original Nethergate several years ago. I’ll say the two sides don’t “parallel” each other quite as much as you might think - the Celts, in particular, get more of the riddles and puzzles to unlock the best spells, and while you can wander into the Celts’ opening quests as a Roman, by the time you get there, you’re rich and high-level enough that they don’t do you much good. In fact, whichever side you play, the game assumes there’s a group of characters on the other side; you can see their depredations, sometimes. The ending is compatible with “both parties succeeded” (i.e., it’s the same story from different angles, not two different groups doing the same things).
It was kind of cute, especially if you’ve got some time to burn, and at least the setting gives it some “flavor” other than “generic fantasy.” Only the “goblin dungeons” felt out of place - as if they were grafted on from another CRPG rather than being part of this Roman/Celtic world. Overall, it wasn’t terribly inspired, and I think you’re right not to buy or play it, but I didn’t feel totally cheated either.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that the Celts are magic-heavy while the Romans are good at combat, though the natives haven’t done too badly in the demo section with fighting.
Verb, it runs slow for you? Odd, on my 2 gig system, it goes just fine. Haven’t noticed any slowdowns at all.
WC, I think I had that feeling myself.
X, yeah, I noticed some differences, but they didn’t seem different enough to me. Pity, because I liked the setting, something other than typical fantasy. Except, like you, I found the goblins somewhat out of place. At least they don’t show up in GF ;)
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the exploration to be one of the strongest aspects and being contained by the demo area doesn’t really give the full sense of the large, open gameworld and myriad of interesting encounters, often with some cool decisions and consequences.
Seems to me the criticism that both sides are similar is only relevant if you play it all the way through twice. Surely a game where you played both sides of the demo “a few times now” is worth at least one run through the whole thing?
Dhruin, when you say “play all the way through twice”, you mean once each as Celts & Romans? That’s what Jeff had in mind, after all. And that’s what has me turned off, that the two halves (so to speak) are so close to each other.
As it is, I think I gave N:R a decent try. Played as each side, took the game off, then put it back on for another shot a couple days later. It just isn’t for me, alas, desperate as I am. But hey, I’m glad you liked it.
When I say aged, I mean aged. Dual P3-933, BIOS with 2000 copyright aged. I should really stop being lazy and do a motherboard swap on this dying relic. Still, all Spiderweb games before Nethergate: Rehash ran fine, though Avernum 4 was beginning to get sluggish. Avernum 5 was borderline dire even on my dual Athlon 1700+. Something is really not right with that turn-based engine if a near 2GHz equivalent runs it poorly. At times, I could see the terrain being drawn in on Avernum 5 as if it were the original King’s Qwest. Approximate graphics equivalent Ultima VI ran great on my 386, with several orders of magnitude less processor power.