‘Siege of Avalon: Anthology’ – PC Review
4 min read
What’s going on Gameologists! Welcome to Gameology News review of Siege of Avalon: Anthology, developed by Digital Tome, General Arcade, and Steffen Nyeland, and published by SNEG. Siege of Avalon was originally released back in 2000. Have you played any good books lately? The re-release of this classic game brings it to modern age computers and gamers. So sit right back Gameologists and we will tell you all about this game and our opinion on it.
Our journey starts off as a normal RPG game would, with some minor character customization. Even though it might seem simple now, it was amazing at the time of original launch, allowing you to choose from four hairstyles, and set colors for your tunic, pants, and hair. This updated version of the game has changed up some things allowing you, for the first time, to pick a male or female character. To finish up, we must pick from one of three major paths. They are Fighter, Scout, and Mage. The game is set up that even if you are a fighter you can still learn magic spells. Later in the game, since this was an episodic release initially, chapters four through six are based around these classes and give dialogue depending on the class starting off in those chapters.
Siege of Avalon: Anthology starts out with a book providing you a little bit of back story about your character and the land around the Citadel of Avalon. Your character comes to Avalon on one of the only ships to make it through the Sha’ahoul Blockade. The Sha’ahoul, who for the last eight months have been laying siege to the Citadel, are on the verge of winning. Your mission is to tell your brother what has happened to your father, only to find out he is being sent as part of a team to raid a Sha’ahoul camp for supplies. This allows you to start exploring the Citadel. It’s suggested to talk to everyone in the game as a lot of conversations and quests you get will give you TP points. These points are used to level up your base stats or learn moves/spells from the three different class trainers. We come to learn that our brother has been seen running from some Sha’ahoul warriors in the village nearby. This is when our quest really picks up and gets started. After getting permission from Lord Roth, we are about to become a scout and go out into the village to search for our brother. I’ll leave you with that cliffhanger of the story.
The story is told in a couple of different fashions. Aligning with the slogan of Digital Tome, “Have you played any good books lately?”, there is a lot of reading. Siege of Avalon is from a time when there wasn’t much voice acting in video games. The story is uncovered through the characters you talk to. You have an adventure, quest and journal logs. Adventures and quests are read in the form of a parchment. The Journal brings up an in-game book that lets you re-read about what you have done so far, with quests you’ve completed being added along the way, essentially making your own book and story for your own character.
The graphics are dated, but Siege of Avalon is still a timeless classic since the first time I played it at the original launch when it was only three chapters and not the six that comes in this anthology. Even though the graphics are authentic, the game itself has been updated for more recent hardware, even allowing it to be played at 1920×1080 instead of the original 800×600 format. During our time playing the game there was some graphical stuttering and tearing of the game. As of posting this review, I can say that this problem has been fixed. I have come across other various glitches like quest items not dropping, so I would have to revert back to a save from before and get the item to drop correctly. Sometimes tabbing out can cause enemies to duplicate what items were originally in its inventory.
With these little problems, I don’t feel it is game breaking. Overall, I’ve been very happy replaying this game from my youth and would definitely say if you haven’t played it you should give this re-release a try. Over the years, very few game stories have kept with me as well as Siege of Avalon. With the music being so calming, it’s very easy to get immersed. Piecing together the story at your own pace is the fun of the game. I wish this would have sparked a genre and wanted to see more games like this come out but we didnt get it. Making Siege of Avalon an almost one-of-a-kind game everyone should have in their collection. As with all reviews feel free to join our Discord if you would like to comment or discuss it further. Always remember Gameologists: Know Your Games.
