I must have tried to get into the (always expansive Spiderweb) demo for this game 4 or 5 times in the six years since this game first released only to quickly give up when hit with the base building. I hate base building. I see the anything about base building in a Steam game's tags I hit the "ignore" button immediately. I was also badly put off by the "succeed all in one go or gain absolutely nothing" and the lack of any benefit most of the time to defeating foes in world map encounters.

So I had pretty much given up on the Queen's Wish series. But that gnawed at me. I've been playing Sipderweb games for almost 25 years, starting from a download bought off Spiderweb's web site of Avernum 1 before Steam even existed. I've played every game they put out since then, most multiple times. Was I really not going to play Jeff Vogel's last original series before retiring?

So I decided to give QW one more go and this time to get deeper into it before deciding whether to give up or not. And I ended up loving it! I still hate base building, I didn't enjoy feeling like I needed to save scum travel on the world map to be ready to hit quick load if I accidentally ran into a wandering mob, and while I came around more to the "succeed or gain nothing" location approach I'm not completely sold on it. But it didn't take long for those reservations to fade far into the background compared to what's at base another terrific Spiderweb RPG with all the terrific elements that made the Avernum (originals and remakes), Geneforge (original and remakes), and Avadon games so great.