Geneforge Review

Geneforge is the first video game in the Geneforge series of role-playing video games created by Spiderweb Software.

Players assume the role of an apprentice Shaper, a sect of mages who can create living creatures through force of will. The apprentice is cast away on Sucia, an island abandoned by the sect 200 years prior. The island contains groups of the Shapers' creations, who have formed their own ideologies regarding their creators in the intervening years. The primary motivation of the player is to escape the island and, in the process, deal with the forces working to steal the Shaper secrets abandoned on Sucia Isle.

The game's setting stemmed from the idea of players being able to create and control a group of obedient creatures. The Shapers and the world of Geneforge were the result of Vogel imagining how would a being possess such power and how would they use it. The game's setting, a mixture of science fiction and fantasy, differs from the pure science fiction setting the game had been envisioned as. Vogel had difficulties balancing gameplay with the powerful directed-energy weapons players would expect to use in a science fiction game. Sales exceeded the developer's expectations, despite fears that the departure from Spiderweb's Avernum series would deter players. Geneforge received a positive reception from reviewers, despite the quality of the graphics being rated as poor and the game containing one piece of music, the title theme. The plot and setting were praised by reviewers for uniqueness and de