Avadon 2: The Corruption announced, get your old-school role-playing here

I enjoyed the old-fashioned isometric RPG Avadon, despite having a few raging issues with the interface, so the news that it's getting a sequel makes my mouth do that upside-down-frown thing. If it's anything like previous Spiderweb Software titles, Avadon 2: The Corruption is unlikely to be too different, mechanically, from the original game, but a new story set in that richly detailed world sounds just fine. This new game - the second part of a trilogy - features five character classes (up from Avadon's four), and tasks you with trying to "save your homeland from civil war and fiery destruction". One would be bad enough, but both? You should definitely put a stop to that, I reckon.

The Corruption is expected to spread in Autumn this year, and it should run on any PC or Mac that still remembers what a Zip drive is. Handily, Spiderweb say that "experience with Avadon: The Black Fortress is entirely unnecessary to enjoy Avadon 2", though it's worth a look if you like what you see here. Aside from a few Spiderweb idiosyncracies (slightly fussy interface, no in-game music), there's some great writing and world-building on show in Avadon. There's no trailer for the sequel yet, so here's one for the original game:

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.