avadon the black fortress annotated maps

The quest is clearly set up to hint something isn't right here, and the beast is a tortured animal more than he is evil.

A third example: during my travels, I was sent to slay a beast. Another example I remember is in trying my best to turn away from a main quest, until the NPC almost literally told me 'but thou must!' and just pushed me into the quest. That is exceedingly frustrating way to offer a player the illusion of choice. I tried one first, then reloaded and tried the other, and found that in both cases he'd stand frozen and ignore my command, because the story didn't warrant us having this confrontation right now. After a short cutscene (the game has a few of these, basically just taking control from you and playing out a scene in-engine), I had the dialog option to either egg him on to attack the group or tell him to wait. To give an example from the story: I bumped into a group I knew had an ugly past with one of my followers. Compared to Avernum, it feels very restrictive. There are some secrets to find, but for instance paths through dense shrubbery can only be found by quest-related NPCs opening them for you. Even within individual maps the entire experience of exploration is excessively guided, with frequent use of unpickable doors or impassable portcullises guiding you until the game feels the need to open them for you. Locations can not be unlocked before an NPC does it for you, and the only NPCs that can do so are typically main plot-related NPCs or followers, with the story structured to see you constantly return to Avadon to be sent to the next area of the game's choice. This is an understandable tradeoff, but I personally feel Avadon went a bit far in it.

Of 4 Progression and Choices This kind of well-paced story is really hard to tell in anything but a linear narrative, which restricts some of the freeroaming known from Avernum and Geneforge.

Avadon the black fortress annotated maps