Eschalon: Book I

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]

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.