Digitally Downloaded has a review of the HD iPad release of Avernum VI, carrying a score of 4.5/5:

Vogel’s great strength has always been in his storytelling, and that’s just as well because in terms of presentation this game is definitely not up to scratch. There’s a couple of nice character portraits (taken from other recent Spiderweb games), but characters on the screen are tiny blurry sprites with very limited animation – they don’t even walk, they just glide across the floor. While this means the game is somewhat inaccessible for the less dedicated RPG players (not that we didn’t already know that), there’s a certain appeal to the presentation for people with fond memories of pen-and-paper RPG games. In Avernum VI the characters are almost like physical pieces on a table, and for the target audience, this is actually quite compelling.

But back to the storytelling - it is superb. There’s a lot of reading in Avernum, but it’s compelling stuff. Like a good novel, the words of Vogel do a brilliant job of setting a scene and creating an environment that is more engaging than the visual presentation would suggest. Because there is so much reading involved the pacing of the game is very different to what more most modern gamers might be used to, but it works.

Michael Anderson has penned a review of Avernum 6 HD for iPad, as well as a video of the gameplay:

Major features: I have talked quite a bit about Spiderweb Software and their Avernum series here before, so let me be very clear: Avernum VI is my favorite game from Spiderweb, one of my very favorite ‘indie’ games, and one of the better RPGs released in the last decade. Whew. In fact, here is what I said in my review of the PC version:

Avernum VI is a wonderful close to a wonderful game series. Full of interesting characters, great writing, humor, drama, fun sidequests, and more, the game rewards gamers who stick it out through the end – and very much rewards those of us who have been along for the ride since the start.

So for me the real question was – how well did they do bringing the experience to the iPad?

Well … aside from being the best Avernum game, this is the best iPad port of any of Jeff’s games. He has sharpened his skills with each release and continued learning what works and what doesn’t. The touch-based combat works extremely well, and the interface simply feels like it was made for the iPad. Text is readable, information provided is appropriate, and the display works to keep your hands out of the way as much as possible.

As promised, the HD edition of Avernum 6 for the iPad has been released:

Avernum 6 HD is now available for the iPad! Our huge, hit, award-winning fantasy adventure isn't just out for Windows and Mac anymore. Return to the world of Avernum, which is being devastated by invasion and famine. Explore an enormous world, explore dozens of dungeons and subterranean cities, and save your people before everything falls apart! Take a look in the iTunes store. 

Earlier in the week Spiderweb announced an iPad version of Avernum 6 will be released on October 10th:

Avernum 6 HD Coming to iPad Oct. 10th

The Finale of the Award-Winning Series Goes Mobile

Aug  14^th, 2012– Spiderweb Software, Inc. (www.Spiderwebsoftware.com) announced today that Avernum 6 HD is coming to iPad on October 10^th, 2012. Avernum 6 HD is the final game in the epic, award-winning Avernum series of fantasy adventures. Set in the world of Avernum, an enormous series of caves far below the surface of the world, players travel into the strange subterranean land of Avernum one last time with all of its dungeons, labyrinths, and constant warfare. 

Avernum is a nation underground. It is a land of people living in an enormous warren of tunnels and caverns, far below the surface of the world. Once a prison colony for rebels and thugs, it is now a wild frontier, full of adventurous souls looking for wealth, fame, and magical power. 

Then the Blight came. Almost overnight, the mushrooms Avernum needed to feed itself withered and died. Then the denizens of the low tunnels, the savage, reptilian Slithzerikai, emerged. Sensing weakness, they struck, destroying much of a weakened Avernum and creating waves of hungry, desperate refugees. 

This final set of disasters threatens to destroy your homeland in a spasm of famine and warfare. Only you can help your people to get to safety before everything falls apart.

Find out more information at www.SpiderwebSoftware.com and check out their other iPad titles, including Avadon: The Black Fortress and Avernum: Escape from the Pit! 

Spiderweb has released v1.1 of Avernum 6 for the Mac, offering a "newer engine, which should result in better performance and fixes to a number of irritating bugs".

Edit: This newsbit originally referred to Avadon instead of the correct Avernum 6 - apologies for the error.

There's a short review of Avernum 6 at Inside Mac Games with a score of 8/10.  I think some people will see one of the early paragraphs as a potential spoiler, so I'll jump to the conclusion:

Overall, Avernum 6 definitely stands as one of the better games in the series. When you make the decision to buy it, just ask yourself this. "Do I like turn-based RPGs with a great plot, excellent character progression, multiple difficulty settings, and a gigantic world?" If the answer is yes, then it's a no-brainer. Add Avernum 6 to your collection. You won't regret it.

Gear Diary has a review of Avernum 6, written by Mike Anderson.  He describes the game as "wonderful" and here's a snip:

Jeff Vogel has spoken quite a bit about reducing the ‘trash collection’ – those filler battles that provide much less in rewards than the effort they seem to take. Too often that ‘grinding’ is to get you pumped up with enough skills and experience to face the cool boss battles everyone wants to experience. His goal was to keep combat as a main element of the game, but not have it so frequent that it becomes a tedious grind.

With the last Geneforge game he made a step in the right direction with pacing and balancing, but it is really in Avernum 6 that we finally see the realization of that goal. One thing he knew was that he beta testers were generally experienced hardcore gamers, and that he needed to ratchet the game down to where they started complaining about it being a bit too easy in order to hit the right level for most folks to play at ‘normal’ difficulty.

There are a few other ways ways that balancing is enhanced: the most obvious is making sure that every skill is useful from start to finish, and nothing becomes too overpowered. Many games start you off getting chased by kittens and ends you up taking down elder dragons with a single hit. Vogel makes the game challenging from start to finish. And, in a tactic that has been used effectively in recent years by games such as Neverwinter Nights 2, you will often find yourself as part of larger battles obviously beyond your ability to handle as a group of four adventurers. These provide tension and excitement without forcing you into a die-and-retry grinding loop.

From the Spiderweb site:

5-13-2010: We have updated Avernum 6 for the Windows to v1.0.1. This update fixes several obscure bugs and a handful of typos. To upgrade, just download the demo and install it over your old copy of the game. Your saved games and registration will be unaffected.

GameBanshee writes in with their review of Avernum 6, penned by Brother None.  It's generally positive, describing it as "the best title of the series":

A further improvement in design can be seen in quests, both in overarching structure and individual quest design. The main quests are no longer of a linear, one-after-the-other sort, but rather the main quest givers will give you a number of important jobs, and once you have done a couple of them you can move on. Most players will do all the quests regardless, but this does mean that you can do these quests in whichever order you like, or leave quests undone if you don't feel like doing them for whatever reason. In particular, some of the more morally questionable quests at the end are eminently skippable, and I definitely appreciated how the game gave me the option of ignoring half of them if I so chose.

Avernum's open-world nature is still limited by these main quests, and you will have to progress through them to open up new areas. But interestingly enough, Avernum 6 will at times tell you to go to a specific place directly, it being very dangerous for you not to do so. And while it is indeed dangerous, the game won't force you to do so, and you can wander around more freely than you might expect. The game's open-world design is pretty good here, and even when you're doing quests out of order you usually won't break them.

From Spiderweb:

We have updated Avernum 6 for the Macintosh to v1.0.3. This update fixes several obscure bugs and a handful of typos. To upgrade, just download the demo and install it over your old copy of the game. Your saved games and registration will be unaffected.

Indie site JayIsGames takes a look at Avernum 6.  The article is generally positive, though there is some criticism - here's an example of both:

What's actually disappointing is the lack of evolution the series has displayed. This final installment was their chance to wow us with something new, and instead Avernum 6 barely tries anything different at all. While the turn-based combat does give you a chance to plan your strategies, after a while it just feels frustratingly slow and tedious, as does constantly tapping [G] to search your surroundings for items. The game looks basically the same since its initial installment, despite some minor graphical changes and improved interface, and it winds up feeling a little stale as a result. If you've played any of the previous games, Avernum's gloomy underground terrain will have lost much of its mysterious appeal, and the game just doesn't feel like it's trying to surprise you anymore. Oh, dear, is it another mushroom farm and lizard caravan? Ho, hum. Half the fun of the series has always been exploring strange new locales, and too much of where you go in Avernum tends to feel familiar.

The series continues its tradition of fine writing bolstered by a dry sense of humour. The game makes such a huge point early on about stressing that you joined the army to become a hero and how disappointed you are with your current position that it comes as no surprise to absolutely anyone when you're suddenly called upon to save the realms. And yet, because of the strength of the writing, the way the story enfolds feels quite natural and exciting. You work your way up from lowly Food Depot worker to hero as you move from one quest to another, and looking back on how far you've come is very satisfying.

A site called About This Particular Macintosh has a review of Spiderweb's Avernum 6.  It's one of those articles where the author goes to great pains to explain they hate this genre, although I guess that's more credit to AV6 that he actually enjoyed it:

Although I found myself spending a few nights staying up late wandering Avernum and trying to complete some tasks, I still do not like the game genre itself. It is too much work and not relaxing. However, I am sure any fan of RPGs will like Avernum. It is a vast world with many characters to interact with, whether to engage in battle or to get help.

There are plenty of things to find to equip your characters with, and they can also improve their skills through learning or trading. If you want, you can carry out side tasks while you try to perform your duties.

I'm going to introduce IndieRPGs.com by way of their Avernum 6 review.  Craig Stern, the developer of the Telepath RPG series, dropped us a line to point out his new indie RPG review site.

The score for Avernum 6 is 4/5, with the writing praised but aspects like the party portraits and animations criticised.  Here's a snip:

The writing in Avernum 6 is truly the game’s backbone, and it ranges from competent to quite good.

Though Jeff Vogel’s characterizations occasionally lack consistency, he has a way with words, and his curmudgeonly narrative voice provided me with chuckles on more than a few occasions. You’ll spend a lot of time exploring, talking to people, and searching things. The dialog and descriptions you get of the game world will arguably provide most of your moment-to-moment entertainment value while playing, so it’s good that Vogel has taken the time to do this well.

There's a short review of Avernum 6 at The Gamer Studio, although it probably doesn't tell our audience much. There's no score but the tone is quite positive:

Through the first portion of the game, where you gain your bearings, you are limited to where you can go. Once that little tutorial session is over, though, you are pretty much free to go wherever you like. You may not survive, but you can brave it if you want. In fact, you're pretty much on your own once you finish the beginning quests, which is a nice change of pace seeing as how nearly every game holds your hand these days. You'll be told where you need to go, but it's up to you to go there.

Avernum 6 Version 1.0 is out for Windows and there's also a demo to check out.

Avernum 6 is now available for both Windows and Macintosh! And rest of description is same! At last, the epic Avernum saga comes to an end. The subterranean world of Avernum is being ravaged by famine and barbarian invaders. Explore the enormous underworld, full of dungeons, powerful artifacts, and cunning foes. Go forth and determine the final destiny of your people! Come get the huge, free demo.

From the Spiderweb site:

We have updated Avernum 6 for the Macintosh to v1.0.2. This update contains quite a few bug fixes and smooths out the game difficulty. Upgrading is recommended. To install the update, just download the demo and drag it into your Applications folder.

Mac site iGame Radio has new podcast that includes a review of Avernum 6 among other items.  They don't provide timings, so you'll have to listen to the whole thing.

Spiderweb is calling for additional beta testers for Avernum 6 - head over to read the details and apply.

A small update for the Mac release of Avernum 6:

We have updated Avernum 6 for the Macintosh to v1.0.1. This update makes the game a little bit easier and fixes a few minor bugs. To install the update, just download the demo and drag it into your Applications folder. Your registration will remain unchanged.

A minor item but Spiderweb fans might be interested in Jeff's blog post about the release of Avernum 6.  He talks about his lack of PR skills and mentions an idea for a future possible Avernum 0:

Anyway, Avernum 6. Despite my efforts, it is doing very well. So far, it is selling better than Avernum 5. Which sold better than Avernum 4. Which itself sold fantastically well. So I am pleased about that.

And yet, I have a lot of angst, because it is the last Avernum game. Avernum games have always been our best sellers, so it pains me to drop it, but, if I don't start doing new things soon, I will go mad. So I have to step off the sequel-train for a while for my mental survival's sake.

(Though, actually, I have a really cool idea for Avernum Zero. Basically I one-off prequel set in the years before the first game. Maybe in four or five years, if I think I can come up with something actually good, I'll go back to the well one more time.)

Spiderweb has released Avernum 6 - the last of the series - for the Mac.  As usual, there is a lengthy demo and expect to see the PC version in a couple of months.  Here's the feature list as a reminder:

• An enormous world. Hundreds of quests, dozens of dungeons and enemy fortresses, and multitudes of characters.
• A fascinating storyline, full of surprises, treachery, and epic battles.
• Many unique encounters. Not just mindless hack and slash. Many unusual enemies that will require clever tactics to defeat.
• Rich game system with over 50 spells and battle disciplines, many character building options, and powerful secret skills to unlock.
• Unique game world. Unique races and settings make Avernum different from any RPG out there.
• Experience with previous Avernum games is completely unnecessary to enjoy Avernum 6.

Spiderweb has added some new Avernum 6 screens to the official site.

Avernum 6 is essentially complete - so says Jeff Vogel in his November update.  The game should be released for Mac "before the end of November", and the PC conversion usually follows in around three months:

Good news from the Avernum front. The game is done. It has been passing smoothly through beta testing. It should be out for the Macintosh before the end of November.

A lot of work recently has been on balancing the late game. A lot of people had trouble with the difficulty of Avernum 5. I've been working hard to make sure that when you're playing on Normal difficulty you don't need to be super-skilled to just get through the storyline. Of course, if you want a challenge, Hard and Torment difficulties are available.

Also, if you want things to be really easy, the character editor and cheat codes are still in there.

Almost all of the graphics in the game have been redone. I'm putting the final touches on the completely refreshed item graphics.

The game is, as is traditional, enormous. There is a LOT of stuff to do, and the main storyline alone is full of excitement and incident. And be careful about who who help. Your actions can result in drastically different futures for the world of Avernum.

Today, I am putting together the final version of the application and sending it to testers. Then, barring disasters, I'll start on the million different bizness things I need to do to finish a game. I hope to have more screenshots up very soon.

So keep an eye on the main Avernum 6 page:

http://www.avernum.com/avernum6/index.html

Onward to victory!

- Jeff Vogel

An update from Jeff Vogel about Avernum 6 from the official forums - here's the entire post:

I just wanted to check in and let Avernum fans how things are shaping up for the final game in the series.

Things are still looking on track for a late November release for Macintosh. It's a huge world, but I'm almost done with it. I'm getting pretty exhausted, but I'm still kicking out a lot of cool, elaborate dungeons.

(For example, I just spent 2 days on an encounter where you escort a band of soldiers through caves infested with gremlins. Rest assured you will face a wide variety of peculiar and lethal practical jokes.)

The structure of the game is an overarching storyline, alternating with going out and putting out fires in most of the major locations in the series. Each of these semi-optional quests (you only have to do so many) is very elaborate, with lots of cool scripting, characters, and enemies.

Of course, there are also multitudes of optional dungeons, quests, and so on. The tradition of big Avernum games continues. And the demo is unusually large too. Probably not good for business, but it just works out that way sometimes. :-)

A beta tester decided that his day wouldn't be complete without going out and unnecessarily panicking everybody, so he wrote that there is a harsh requirement to have food in the game. This is not true. I actually was in the process of strongly dropping the food requirement. You need food every once in a while to remind you what is happening in the world, but this will not be something people will find a hassle.

Finding food is tough for most Avernites, but it won't be hard for you. Unsurprisingly, the brigands and bad guys you are hunting tend to be the ones who are hoarding the food.

And the ending for Avernum itself is now written. It's, well, it's a very "me" sort of ending, bittersweet, neither triumphant nor utterly disastrous. (Assuming, of course, you don't try to wreak havoc.) I'm really happy with it.

So that's it for now. Game still being written. Out soon. Lots of cool stuff.

- Jeff Vogel

Avernum 6 has reached the stage of needing beta testers for the Mac version - head to this page if you'd like to help.  For the rest of us, it's one step closer to release.