One of the best RPGs I've ever played. It's every bit as good as the late 1990s infinity engine classics from which it draws its inspiration (in fact, it even rivals my beloved "Fallout 2" on many levels).

The gameplay, plot, and writing are all top notch, but its biggest success is how it handles choice and consequences. There are 5 separate factions, each with their own political and moral opinions, quests, storylines, and endings. Every choice you make in the game affects how these factions view you, which makes political maneuvering a dimension of gameplay every bit as important as outright combat. Playing the various factions off of each other, allying with them, or betraying them, is endlessly entertaining and there are very few games which balance open world freedom of choice with complexity of plot as well as this one.

An awesome end to one of the best RPG series ever. If you only play one game in the Geneforge series it should be this one.

Geneforge 5 est probablement un bon RPG. En grand amateur du genre, je pensais pouvoir faire abstraction des graphismes et gameplay périmés, comme je l'ai fais avec de nombreux jeux.

Cependant force est de constater que le gouffre n'est pas si facile à franchir. Les blocs de texte à lire sont énormes, l'aventure démarre beaucoup trop lentement, et l'interface est délicate à prendre en main. la première heure passée sur ce jeu m'a rebutée au pont de ne pas avoir envie de poursuivrte l'expérience.

Je ne peux donc pas recommander ce jeu malgré ses qualités intinsèques probables.

Just go get the $20 "Geneforge Saga" bundle with all 5 games, then go on a massive 200+ hour gameplay marathon of all 5 games. Thank me later.

The very first game I played was geneforge 1 and once I did I knew I wanted to keep playing video games. The series as a whole Is wonderfully amazing, almost endless possiabilties, its own lore, challenging bosses, limitless followers if you spend points in shapping. Eahc game seperatly however is quite a diffrent story. Like any gamer I have ones I like and ones I wouldn't be to upset If I never got to play again. Lets start with the first 1; Very involving, you can get attached to your first creature if your not careful, the story is awesome, I recomend reading anything you find for back story, and always avoid anything you don't think you can take. The second on; It's not the best geneforge game but its not the worst in my opinion, didn't play much of it but what I did play I didn't care too much for. The third, By far my second favorite one, I could go on and on about everything I loved in it. The 4th could care less if I was unable to play, Its good and leads you up to the 5th but its tedious and irrating at the best. The 5th is the best in my opinion. Great graphics, new montsers, new creature to shap, wide ammount of areas to explore, many differnt paths to chose, my only probelm with it are the plants that stun you and the white beasts in the middle of the map. Back to the series as a whole, my only 3 issues with it are 1.) Turn based combat annoys me now adays hard for a game to impress me with turn based combat. 2.) Oppenets having laser sight and can see you even behind them quite annoying had to redo missions a lot. 3.) While albeit an old game I would love voice acting. It would just add so much more to the games. In all the geneforge saga is one of if not the best game series' I have ever played in my life.

Great storyline, old school combat/graphics style. Difficulty in torment is legit and with 5 main factions and a myriad of choices, lots of replay value.

Gameplay is not simply just about slaughtering everything in your path - stealth and non-combat skills will be needed to clear the game.

Monsters don't respawn which means that your experience is limited (in particular, your minions get xp when you get xp); but this is only an important factor (getting minions early means they can level up more by the end game and are thus stronger than 'fresher' ones) in the harder difficulties.

Two minor complaints:
1.) I can't move the screen easily (arrow keys only) since you're usually clicking with your mouse to move the party and its awkward to have the left hand on the arrow keys to move the screen around
2.) A 'solo' style is virtually impossible on the harder difficulties (even with all your points in solo stuff like spells and stats rather than creations)

Awesome game, and great bang for the buck!

The 90s never ended for Spiderweb Software. Who wanted to move to third person morality-by-the-numbers when we could have stuck with isometric many-shades-of-bastard? Geneforge 5 knows which is best and ends up making one of the finest RPGs released in years.

If you've played any of the other Geneforge games and liked them, chances are you'll like this one too. This final chapter in the saga is bittersweet if you're a fan of the series. On the one hand, its the last one,... but on the other hand, it's got so much of what made the series great. It has very deep, rich, complex storytelling. The game is a "choices matter" game and the story changes and evolves with each choice. I love uncovering the stories making connections to characters and events from previous games and learning how the newest events are shaping Terrestria.

My preferred mode of playing is to generally ride the thin neutral line as long as I can and some of the previous games in the series made that almost impossible. Geneforge 5 makes it possible (if you make your choices carefully) to play the neutral line almost right up to the end when you pretty much have to make a choice to finish the game. It does give you a lot of ending choices for which factions you can join including an options that almost rides a neutral line. There are 5 factions and 5 main endings, but there's also variation in those endings based on things like who you've killed.

One of the other things I love about Geneforge is the exploration. I love discovering every map tile, uncovering every space on the mini map, locating all the secrets. With Geneforge games that can be quite difficult for several reasons. First, there's the sheer size of it. I've seen varying reports of how many map locations there are in the game ranging from 77 to 85. I believe the most official answer I've found from Spiderweb Games was "more than 80." I don't know how many there are for sure or which locations I may have missed but in my play through I discovered 80 unique locations on the map, but I didn't record locations that may be multiple levels like a basement or a second floor. While those areas have their own mini map and count as another location they generally don't show up as their own tile on the main map, so they could ccount for those missing 5 locations reported on the high end of 85. For comparison on world size, G1 = 77, G2 = 62, G3 = 91, and G4 = 80. There are only two main maps, but the world feels very large and it takes a long time to explore it all and finish the game. I spent about 115 hours to complete my first playthrough. Again for comparison I spent G1 = 60.6 hrs, G2 = 496.8 hrs, G3 = 56.9 hrs, G4 = 82.7 hrs. Time spent is a mix of relative difficulty and world size, but by comparison G5 is either the 2nd or 3rd largest game based on map locations and was the second longest playthrough. That says to me its a pretty big world to explore. You could certainly finish the game in less time especially if you don't try to complete every quest or explore every area. However, it is always going to be a longer game.

Nothing is dramatically different from previous games in terms of gameplay or art style. Graphics are only ever so slightly improved from previous games, but still very dated looking, it doesn't hinder playability or enjoyment in my opinion. It's still an isometric view, turn-based combat, RPG. My only issue with any of these is that in some areas there are relatively large combat segments that include many, MANY opponents and sometimes allies. Being turn based, you sometimes are waiting for 10 or more NPCs to make their moves, outside your field of vision. This can be tedious and takes a very long time till your next turn. These games are all apparently being re-made and I've not tried or read much of anything about Geneforge 1-Mutagen but if it hasn't already been implemented an option to quick-skip through NPC combat turns would be a really good feature to include.

If you've never played a Geneforge game before and are considering playing G5, you can easily hop right into it. You don't have to have any knowledge of the previous games. While there are recurring characters and references to past game events and characters none of it will impact game play. Anything you need to know about characters, places, or the past will be explained as far as it's relevance to the game. If you think you might want to play the series then definitely start with 1. You can frequently find the whole Geneforge Saga bundle on sale if your willing to wait, but if you like turn-based combat RPGs with complex stories, the bundle would give you enough of a cost to playtime to enjoyment value to make it worth the cost at full price.

this is a great rpg. I love spiderweb's games. It is a turn based rpg, multiple endings and quests are pretty much up to you which ones you take or refuse. You also get a choice of which group to help or even leave one -once you join. It might seem simple but its actually very chalanging. You cant just hack and slash you way throught the battles. You need to use stratigy. Also alot of choices of what class to play and skills to invest in and stats also. The world is huge. The story line is well thought out but not confusing. The game plays well. No glitches, lag, crashes or freezes. The graphics are spiderweb's classic style and I love them.

Most imaginative and unconventional RPG series (with a compelling story-line) that Spiderweb Software ever made. Could never get into Avadon, sadly, because it's not Geneforge, and I want Geneforge.

Would recommend playing from the first game if you're new to the series (there are a couple of recurring character names and a few references to past events, though it doesn't matter *too* much since you play as a new person in each sequel); note that the graphics of the older games are a bit dated but if you're playing any Spiderweb game, then you're only in love with the storytelling - and you probably don't care too much for eye candy anyway.

The Geneforge remake (if developer Jeff has it planned, which hopefully he does) couldn't come sooner, have been waiting for it for some time now.

Also, we are developing a scenario editor (fan-made, unsupported by Spiderweb) for Geneforge 5 and will update here and in the Spiderweb forums when done. We don't expect it to be quite as fullly fledged as Blades of Avernum (in which you can create your own scenarios from scratch complete with quests/dialogue) at least in the first release, but it should be close.

This game always keeps me coming back. i haven't finished games 2-3 but once i tried 5, the format and ability to play on my ultra wide screen really has me hooked. i've never been an easy difficulty fan, but taking away much of the challenge somehow makes me appreciate this game much more for what it is.