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- Basilisk Games
- Basilisk Games
- Basilisk Games
- Basilisk Games
Eschalon: Book I
Released On: Nov 19, 2007
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
7.2
All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 Critic Reviews
75
50% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
50% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 4 Critic Reviews
75
50% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
50% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A very nice surprise. In this age of good looking, but simplistic and short, easy games a touch of classic role-playing was really refreshing. I hope to see the remaining Books, too. [Jan 2008]
The only major shortfall here is a clunky natigation system, but this aside, Eschalon: Book I is a very accomplished RPG. [Apr 2006, p.86]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 45 User Ratings
7.2
58% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
31% Mixed
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
11% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 45 User Ratings
7.2
58% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
31% Mixed
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
11% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
As a long-time fan of RPGs of all sorts, this one turned out to be a hidden gem in the turn-based realm (well, I think round-based would be more accurate...every step/action advances the world around you). This game is certainly a homage to the classics with nods of nostalgia. Moreover, this game does what it attempts to do really well, and provides you with a deep experience with plenty of open-ended decisions to make and careful balancing of levels and skills. There is a general feeling of individuality that grips you as you step through this world with little more than a simple soundtrack and sound effects, but that becomes its charm and helps to establish this lonely journey of discovery that your character is forced to traverse.
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PC
Very enjoyable title! Understand that this is a fairly direct game insofar as story, mechanics, and tactics. It's more about playing through the game using a character design you find enjoyable. It's easy to mix and match skills to get pretty unique character builds, and it can be fun to play through the game multiple times to see how other builds will fare. In short, think of Eschalon as: The Elder Scrolls meets the D&D Goldbox Series, presented in the style **** roguelike. [Comparing this game to Diablo (as many have done) is a fallacy of reasoning. The ONLY similarity is the isometric view of the game world. The focus and gameplay are completely different.]
Like old-school RPGs, selecting a good mix of skills and specializing is necessary, as characters that focus on more than 3-5 skills will wind up hope hopelessly nerfed at higher levels. The turn-based nature of the game works brilliantly -- offering unlimited time to consider the best course of action and examine your surroundings. While mechanics are fairly straightforward, there are plenty of options offered by different spells, weapon damage types, potion effects, and environmental advantages (like a heavy iron portcullis in a narrow choke point or a conveniently placed barrel of black powder).
Difficulty can be up there, especially early on, and the game world follows suit with that old-school formula of areas geared towards certain experience levels. Grinding is not really necessary, but it helps sometimes to get an edge or squeeze out that next level. The game uses an RNG that is absolutely granting NPCs all sorts of bonuses to attack, critical chance, damage, and defense. Normally, this is not too much of a problem, but it can occasionally result in far too many "cheap" deaths. Be prepared to save and reload ad-nauseam during certain sections. On the whole, it's a shorter game (about 30 hours or so), but it offers a pretty engaging world to explore and a significant amount of replay value.
If you are someone who associates role-playing with "X = attack... Y = power attack..." Eschalon is probably not going to be your thing.
If you are a fan of older games like The Curse of the Azure Bonds, Ultima, or The Magic Candle, you should feel right at home here!
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PC
The production values are far higher than many rivals, and anyone looking back fondly on the RPGs of yesteryear will soon be sucked in. [Feb 2008, p.115]
Despite the many warts, Eschalon is not without charm, as this game would have been an award-winning achievement in 1986 or so. Everything is done well, for that era, but, much like steam locomotives, I’m just not convinced this style really works nowadays.
Got this on GoG and have to say I've enjoyed it. It's only $5.99. I think ti's a good value for people who might like this kind of game and can stomach 2d-isometric on a modern computer system.
The list below is not exhaustive, but it's my best attempt in the given time.
Things I liked:
- A map in my inventory (that I have to click to open) and no gps. I didn't like the mini-map as much as the map in my inventory, but it was at least tied to a skill and, early on, looks like a map I might draw myself. However, I think mini-maps make me look at them more than the actual world which is usually a turn off. Generally, I like to feel like I'm earning an understanding of the geography and locations.
- Stat system: this game has one. While I am not a fan of heavy use of numbers in games, I am a fan of an underlying system in the game that the player has to understand to fully exploit and I don't think every player should be equally well at understanding it. Maybe I feel this way because so many games that have simplified their skill systems (and thus cut away many of the numbers) are also very linear and cut and dry in most cases, unless you actively try to make the game hard yourself.
- Inns and a resting mechanism tied to a survival skill. I like these. The inns are kind of expensive, but I used them once or twice just because I kept having to kill things that spawned when resting in the wild. If you catch a disease, inns can be an easier way to regain your hitpoints and mana. This can be a good way to restore yourself if you can't afford or don't have the means to cure a disease.
- Quick travel to places you've already been to. Is a nice feature and not something unknown to old school RPGs. Daggerfall, for example, had a quick travel option.
- Crisp graphics: 800x600 resolution. They're 2d-isometric, but much easier on the eyes than old school rpgs which tended to be 3d and pixelated. Animations are good.
- More combat-oriented than quest-oriented. Yes, there're a lot of quests and they're relatively easy to do and they grant you a lot of experience and gold, but make no mistake, this game as at least as much or more about its exploration and combat. Many games I've played focus so much on quests that it feels like all I'm doing is reading stuff and not actually making tactical choices in a fast(er) paced environment. It's kind of like the distinction between Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Icewind Dale was much more combat-oriented and tighter in its implementation, so its combat was numerous and stricter. Baldur's Gate, by contrast, had much more character depth and things to read or listen to.
- I'm sure I could list many other things, but I'll end with: traps and diseases and poisons and lockpicking, hidden things (the game rewards you for exploring, not just putting points into Spot Hidden), lots of opportunities to escape certain death by using potions or zoning out or using the terrain to exploit the ai-pathfinding, you can specialize or diversify and I myself prefer to diversity so I'm not stuck using only a couple skills, never have too much money and always feel the need to stay alert for new (and old) opportunities to gain gold, can train skills as you level up and by paying non-players, quest non-players can die and will attack enemies but you can still loot anything that drops,...
Things I didn't like:
- Automatic skills, like Spot Hidden. It makes you feel like the character is doing the investigating and you're the one sitting in the audience, not participating. Granted, most skills have a high amount of abstractness, but oftentimes I felt like Spot Hidden did its work without me.
- Help information is stuck inside the character editor and you can't access it without either leveling up or creating a new character. With a game like Eschalon, you need help information to make good choices, since it's a game more reliant on the numbers you choose to increase.
- Keymapping is fixed, so you're stuck with what they give you.
- Inventory and Equipping are in separate windows.
- You have to open a window and click a couple times to change which spell you use.
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PC
A somewhat good old-school CRPG with a bunch of quirks for fans of 2D isometric graphics, turn-based combat systems and focus on exploration. Boring and tedious at times, but still appealing.
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PC
I enjoyed this game. The story was interesting and some of the game mechanics were new to me. Though if you enjoy fancy graphics this isn't for you. The main failing, as already well described in LucidDream's review, is the issue with fights. With one character there aren't many tactics you can employ and you do find yourself resting a lot of the time to regain health and mana. But apart from that a decent enough game. Hopefully this issue will be rectified in Book 2.
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PC
Many years after the Infinity Engine success, this knock-off has learnt nothing, and regresses into interface ****. Worst example is the movement scheme, and the fact that the game maker would rather waste time and resources implementing feedback warning you that you are too far away to interact with something, rather than getting you close to that something when you click on it. Other niceties include the inferior visuals filling only a quarter of the screen. Or the complete uselessness of my rogue skills, a.k.a. the complete waste that was character creation.
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PC
If you have the slightest interest in this game, definitely play the demo first. I can assure you that there's nothing in this game for you to discover beyond the first 10 or so minutes of play, because it's just a rinse and repeat from there. It calls itself a strategic turn-based game that isn't "dumbed down for the masses" or based upon nothing but repeated clicking... and that's simply a lie. Everything in this game is done through clicking, and combat is a matter of repeatedly clicking on a monster. It's Diablo with none of the depth even that game had, and made to take much, much longer because of how after everything you do, you have to camp for more HP or MP. Or, to put it even more simply, it's a dumbed-down Diablo made even more boring. It claims to be a "return to the Golden Age of RPGs" without any understanding of what made those games any good, and it comes off as slander to those games. The RPG genre is flooded with games much better than this one in any way imaginable, and there are even free games out there, like Elona or NetHack that you could be playing, instead. Don't play this game.
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PC
Summary Eschalon: Book I is a classic role-playing game experience that will take you across massive outdoor environments and deep into sprawling dungeons as you seek to uncover the mystery of who - or what - you are. A tile-built, turn-based game world where the result of absolutely every action is rolled, calculated or statistically determined...
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Nov 19, 2007
Developer:
- Basilisk Games
Publisher: Basilisk Games
Genres:
