Pocket Gamer has reviewed Avadon 3: The Warborn:

Avadon 3: The Warborn review - A well-crafted RPG for fans of old-school challenge

Spiderweb Software has been a one-man steward of old school isometric RPGs for decades, from the Exile series in the 90s to the current Avernum and Avadon games. Text-heavy, turn-based combat, juggling a party, myriad items and loot, many hours of campaign and side quests...these games harken back to the days of RPGs like Ultima, and his newest entry Avadon 3: The Warborn is no exception.

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A lengthy, story-heavy RPG that balances typical turn-based combat with a dark and engrossing tale.

Score: 8/10

An editorial at PC Gamer makes the case that Avadon goes above and beyond the faux-retro trend in RPGs; Avadon is truly a retro RPG throwback.

The first wizard I ever killed was the wireframe master of the Dungeons of Daggorath, at the end of a grinding slog through five grid-based, monochromatic levels that took me most of a summer to finish. I've played (and loved) a lot of RPGs since then, but it's been a long time since I've dug into one like Avadon 3: The Warborn. It's not just retro-flavored, it's retro, full stop: Top-down and grid-based, with simplistic graphics (or primitive, if you want to be less charitable about it), minimal sound and visual effects, no music or voice acting, and lots of reading. It feels like it belongs to a generation of games where the 'c' in 'cRPG' was an important distinction, because most people still thought of RPGs as pen-and-paper games.

Some RPGs in recent memory, like Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity and inXile's Wasteland 2, promised to bring back that old-school feeling. Avadon feels old.

And yet it's managed to find an audience. Not just the Avadon trilogy—developer Spiderweb Software has been making games like Avadon for more than 20 years, long enough for the games industry to move on while it continues to make a very particular kind of RPG. There aren't a lot of people playing games like Avadon, but Spiderweb's survival shows there's still a small group of players hungry for RPGs that genuinely feel like they'd run on a Pentium. Experiences like those can't fall back on swanky eye candy or sprawling first-person worlds to draw in their players, so they rely on something that sometimes feels downright novel these days: Telling a good story.

We were provided with access to Avadon 3, prior to it being launched and gave it to Forgottenlor, who dived into the game to come back with a detailed analysis of the game.

The Avadon games are story driven. While they allow a decent amount of exploration and character building, it's clear that they aren't as open as, for example, the Avernum series, but make up for this with their main stories and companions. Obviously if you don't like story driven RPGs (such as most RPGs by Bioware, Obsidian, or the Shadowrun games), then Avadon probably won't be your cup of tea. If, like me, you can get really caught up in a story, provided you're given a decent combat system, character building, and exploration, then you'll probably like the Avadon series. As far as The Warborn is concerned, the story is great, and probably my favourite of the Avadon series. It gradually builds tension and sucks you in. In fact I much preferred the way the narrative was built up in this game compared to the two previous games. The one thing that has to be said about The Warborn is that it is a true sequel. If you don't have prior knowledge of some of the NPCs from previous games, the events that occur and choices you'll have to make won't have quite the same impact as they do if you have played the earlier games. The price of peace and loyalty, as well as the worth of personal sacrifice drive the story forward, and you're often put between a rock and a hard place. You can die from making story based decisions (as I found out the beginning of the third chapter, though I decided to reload, decide differently and continue.) Also you'll have to like to read if you want to play these games. There is nothing voiced, and while you're never confronted with huge blocks of text, there is a significant amount of dialogue and environment description, and it's all pretty well written.

Game Skinny has reviewed Avadon 3: The Warborne:

Avadon 3: The Warborn Review - A brilliant CRPG

Avadon 3 is a brilliant CRPG that fans of the genre will love from start to finish.

As a child, I always enjoyed the CRPGs of the 90s. Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment etc. But, there was always one problem I had with them; I could never finish them. It often felt that dialogue just never ended and most of the game was speaking with characters as opposed to adventuring. Avadon 3, on the other hand, balances plot with gameplay to avoid such a problem.

Avadon 3 is a CRPG in the vein of the legendary titles mentioned above.
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It is a game that players of all skill levels can play. From those new to the genre to the masochistic veterans looking for the ultimate challenge, Avadon 3 caters for all. It is a game that keeps you hooked from the very beginning right through to the end.
I’ve enjoyed every minute of both playthroughs of this game and can’t recommend it highly enough. If you are a fan of CRPGs or looking for a deep story where your choices matter, then Avadon 3 will satisfy your cravings.
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A new Jeff Vogel RPG has been released: Avadon 3: The Warborn

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Avadon 3: The Warborn is a huge, old-school, indie fantasy role-playing adventure, the conclusion of the epic Avadon trilogy. You are a Hand of Avadon, warrior and spy, judge and executioner, with nearly unlimited power to fight the enemies of your homeland. Your word is Law. However, your lands have been invaded. Barbarians and monsters are rampaging through your home, and you are the only one who has a way to stop them.

Avadon 3: The Warborn is an epic, retro adventure in an enormous and unique world. Choose from five different character classes, each with dozens of unique spells and abilities. Explore cunning dungeons, hunt for hundreds of magical artifacts, and pass judgment on your enemies (or just people you don’t like). Avadon 3 features many different endings. Will you save your people or betray them? Follow orders or claw for more power? We leave those decisions for you.

Key Features:

• Epic fantasy role-playing adventure in an enormous and unique world.
• Many different endings. Will you be loyal to your leaders or switch sides and bring them down? The choice is yours!
• Five different character classes, with dozens of unique spells and abilities.
• Experience an exciting story, with fascinating characters, tough decisions, and many twists and turns.
• Dozens of side quests, dungeons, and secrets to discover.
• Hundreds of magical items to find. Use powerful crystals to make your artifacts even more powerful.
• Huge adventure with lots of replay value. Experience with earlier games is entirely unnecessary to enjoy Avadon 3.

Jeff Vogel talks about his games and especially the Avadon games, in his most recent blog, including the recently announced third part, The Warborne.

When I was designing Avadon, I was very ambitious. Lynaeus, the continent on which the series takes place, has 5 friendly nations and six hostile nations, each of which has its own politics, history, and so on. I wanted to make a whole world.

In the end, however, I was just one designer.

There are so many factions, wings of government, conflicts, controversies ... Too much for me to keep track of, too much to fully develop. I wrote so much lore I could never find a place to fit into the game. There were so many locations I just wasn't able to give enough time to.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach on this one.

Also, i didn't put as much polish in these games as I should. Avadon 3 will have a lot of careful rebalancing and useful interface improvements. However, these changes should have been in Avadon 2. Honestly, a lot of these things should have been in Avadon 1 so I didn't have to fix them in the first place.

I have a good excuse for some of this. I'm only one person, and I'm getting older and slower. Still, a problem is a problem, and, if I'm asking people for money, I'm still responsible for flaws.

Finally, I've stuck with this particular engine, graphics style, and world style for too long. After I remaster Avernum 3 (our most popular game over the years), I'm going to do something way different. It's well past time.

Avadon 3 has officially been announced with a projected release date of 15th September. Check out the Steam page and Spiderweb Softwares own website for more info.

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Avadon 3: The Warborn is the final chapter in the epic Avadon Trilogy. In this indie fantasy role-playing adventure, you will serve the keep of Avadon, working as a spy and warrior to fight the enemies of your homeland. As a servant of the Black Fortress, your word is law. Your homeland has been invaded by enemy hordes, burning cities and destroying your armies. Only you have a way to end this war and destroy the foe. Can you? Will you?

Avadon 3: The Warborn Features:

• Epic fantasy role-playing adventure in an enormous and unique world.
• Intricate and open-ended storyline with plenty of replay value.
• Many different endings. Will you save your people or betray them? Help others or grab power for yourself?
• Five different character classes, with dozens of unique spells and abilities.
• Dozens of side quests, dungeons, and secrets to discover.
• Hundreds of magical items to find. Enchant your artifacts to make them even more powerful.
• Huge adventure with lots of replay value.
• Experience with earlier Avadon games isn't needed to enjoy Avadon 3.

Thanks to BrianOConnell for spotting this!

Jeff Vogel tweeted this:

We are starting to trickle out info about Avadon 3. If you have feedback/suggestions, this is your window -> forum-link #indiedev

I have been silently working on Avadon 3: The Warborn for a few months now. I'm old and slow, so the work is not brisk. Still, I am optimistic about a mid-2016 release of the final game in the trilogy.

I think Avadon 2: The Corruption was a worthy game in many ways. However, in some ways, it was underbaked. Some flaws in the engine should have been addressed, but weren't. I am making major improvements for the final game in the trilogy.

I'm still working things out, so I am posting this to let people know how things are going and to welcome random feedback.

Here are some of the current changes/ares of debate:

* Sounds and Spell Effects

Will all get a massive overhaul.

* Quick Use and Ability Preset Buttons

I am strongly considering changing to 3 Quick Use buttons and 5 Ability Preset buttons. Feedback welcome.

* Difficulty

My games have long dealt with difficulty by making foes have more health and do more damage. I want to handle this in a smarter way.

I am strongly considering having area of effect spells do friendly fire damage on Hard and Torment level. I want combat positioning in my games to make a difference, and this will be a key part of that. I will also make the more nasty foe abilities (like charm and fear) be more common on higher difficulties.

Feedback welcome.

* Skill Tree

Will be completely redone. There will be three separate trees instead of three inter-connected trees, and skill prerequisites will be massively cut back. This will allow a lot more freedom in character builds and less spending skill points on things you don't want.

I am also massively tweaking abilities for all classes and adding new abilities. If a particular ability has proved to be utterly useless or way overpowered, I'd like to know.

* Tinkermage Balance

I don't usually care too much about balancing character classes against each other. This isn't a PVP game. If shamans are tougher than shadowwalkers, or whatever, that isn't a big deal.

However, it is a problem when one class is so much tougher than the others that it makes it impossible to balance the game. In this spirit, tinkermages will be getting a mild nerfing.

* Right-Clicking

I will be implementing better right-click functionality and making it work on Macs too.

I won't be posting much in this thread, because that's how I am, but I will be sure to read everything in it as long as it is stickied.

- Jeff Vogel

BTW: Jeff has left iOS - background story.