As you start the game, you'll choose between three classes: Fighter, Scout and Magician. Instead of levelling up, you earn training points which can be used to increase stats and skills or spent with trainers to purchase spells and special passive bonuses.

The first chapter starts slowly, but is intriguing. As a lowly peasant trying to learn the fate of your brother, you'll explore the castle, meet its many inhabitants and trade favours until you're given some answers, enemies appear and the killing begins.

Combat, however, is the game's worst part. Enemies are mindless, path-finding is non-existent, luck is far too important and there are huge balance issues, such as archers dealing absurd amounts of damage. You can later recruit up to two AI-controlled companions, but they are equally stupid and easily killed – permanently! As such, combat is usually won by employing cheesy tactics and many, many reloads.

This wouldn't be such a big problem in a storyfocused game, but, after a good start, Siege of Avalon loses its bearing and becomes a combat-focused title. Chapter 2 is just a dull dungeon crawl inside a cave, Chapter 3, 4 and 5 are optional and focus on one class playstyle each (but aren't exclusive) while Chapter 6 is the final showdown. They're all mostly just combat.

There are satisfying moments, such as sneaking into the enemy's camp to spy, hunting rare gear and a few branching quests, but it's all buried under hours of frustrating combat and excessive backtracking. Worst yet, the initial tension of living under siege quickly vanishes and NPCs become soulless quest-givers.

Siege of Avalon's concept was great, but its glaring flaws and lack of focus made it a hard sell, especially at a time when people still weren't used to episodic games – or buying them online. And it surely didn't help that Diablo II came out right after SoA's first chapter.