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![[Review]](/v2/images/stories/review.png "[Review]") ![[PC]](/v2/images/stories/pc2.png "[PC]")
The fantastic thing about progress and change is all the great new things that come with it. Sure you can look back and take ownership of the past and even revisit it now and again. But a visit is just a nostalgic look back at how things used to be so that we appreciate how things are now.
Eschalon Book I is the first installment in a trilogy we're told. I have to admit, I was excited when word of Eschalon Book I came to my inbox. Maybe it was the anticipation of playing an all new, unknown RPG and world that built it up in my mind, but all of that build up was for naught as this game failed to entertain me on so many levels. From a gameplay perspective all it would have taken to make the game far more fun are simply some form of camera controls and some higher resolution than 800x600. But there's some potential here.
The story behind Eschalon Book I is that you wake up with no memory of who you are or where you are from. You eventually find a note telling you that someone did this to you for some reason and that is why you should continue your travels. It's weak if you ask me. There's not enough interaction or motivation to actually move forward, there's no real reason it seems to keep playing so far.
Graphics: 70%
They might be really beautiful tiled textures, but at 800x600 in full-screen they are jagged. In Windowed mode they're too small to actually see. You can't manage to even resize the window, it is locked to 800x600. It does the basics of an RPG well, the look and feel are there. The interface is grea t as well. But the low resolution or tiny gameplay window detract from the beauty of the game to the point where it's nearly lost. It's a shame because it looks like a lot of effort went into the graphics on the game
Sound: 80%
The music in the game is fantastic. Unfortunately, some of the other sounds are bland and drag the game down further still. The lofty reaches of the fantastic score by Glorian and Victor Stoyanov, Mark Deaton, Kevin Macleod and Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz (say that 5 times fast!) is truly transcendent. Even many of the environmental sounds are exquisite. But some of the monster sounds, combat and magic sounds could be recreated on my mobile phone which is essentially a portable SNES. Definitely not the quality one expects from a PC-based RPG since around the release of Baldur's Gate.
Gameplay/Controls: 30%/50%
Where do I start? The fluid turn-based play of the game is truly well done. However, if you don't do something, time freezes . No mana regeneration, no movement of the sun, no HP healing. Yet the environmental sounds continue. You have to tap the space bar to 'stand passively for a moment,' I thought standing and not doing something was standing passively but apparently that requires you to hold down or repeatedly hit the space bar in this game. Surprisingly this is listed as a 'feature' in that you can walk away and not miss any action. Isn't that what a pause button is for?
The mouse control for movement is nice, being able to lock it to the 'always walk' is also nice. But what happened to being able to run? There's no such thing as running in this game. Also there's only one way to 'rest' in the game to regain hit points and mana and that is to actually pitch a tent. No sit, lie-down, nap, or sleep (except in said tent). None of that. I accidentally slept for 38 hours while writing this. There's not an auto-stop or wake function either. You could pretty much sit in your tent until you aged to death in real life.
The relative strength of items is ridiculous. I broke a stone ax on a wooden chest after hitting the chest repeatedly with the stone ax. Additionally I tossed a dozen Level 2 fireballs at the same chest and it was still only down to 54%. That's a hell of a chest and I think I need to get the contact info for that guy because I have a ton of things I want him to make really strong for me, like my laptop. It took 36 Level 2 fireballs and then a couple good whacks with a sword to bust that puppy open, all for a measly brass ring. *yawn* Then, you'll love this, I found 15 gold pieces in a wide open barrel. Like someone was tossing them into a barrel of water and wishing but then all the water evaporated.
As I mentioned in the intro, the complete lack of camera controls is a huge flaw in the game. You are constantly locked into this isometric bird's eye view that makes things ridiculously small and you have to search with your mouse behind walls and such to see if there is anything to interact with. Talk about taking the fun out of it. RPG's have had camera spin and zoom capabilities since what?  Neverwinter Nights, maybe even back to Baldur's Gate? Speaking of which, I think they could have made a more interesting game by using the Aurora toolset from that [NWN] to build this.
Speaking of RPGs of old, I think even they had some speech in them. This game has none and makes for a lot of small-font-sized reading which gets aggravating as well. Also if you're not standing smack on top of something in this game and click to open it, the game tells you what you see instead of moving you toward it to open it, though a right click does attack it with a spell if you have one readied.
Additionally there are creatures, notably the fungal slimes, that are unbeatable if you don't have something to damage them, so if you happen to get trapped in the impenetrable forest with one behind you, you're dead and might as well restore your save game or start over. Don't even get me started on the impenetrable forest that has managed to retain control of most of the land mass in the game.
In one area you will meet a badly wounded man, he tells you a story and gives you a quest and then dies. Once he is dead you can't talk to him, of course because he's dead. But you also can't strip his armor or do anything useful. You just get a 'this person has died and cannot talk' message, which you know because you watched him die.
Summary: 57.5% - Sounds great, probably looks great, yet infuriatingly small and stiff.
Overall I found the game more frustrating than fun. The story support was weak, the utter lack of camera options annoying and the distance from your character was just ridiculous. It was as if I was controlling an ant that I could barely see on the screen. As a matter of fact it seemed like building the character was more fun than actually playing the game at times. It's a shame that such a potentially great looking and sounding game had very little fun factor in it.
Yes I understand that it basically got a 6 out of 10 in my summary score but it's mostly recognizing the work of the artists. This game exemplifies why we break down our reviews in this fashion. I'm not sure I could recommend that anyone buy this game to play it. You would be better off putting that money into some of the older games like Baldur's Gate, Dungeon Siege or Neverwinter Nights and playing them. Speaking of which, I'm off to play NWN right now. But I'll definitely look into Eschalon Book II when it's ready. I just hope they take this into consideration. As I said, there's a lot of potential for some great games here.
 Readers have left 4 comments. 1. Untitled
andreil1234, Registered I must say this is a dubious review of an actually pretty good game. First and foremost, it doesn't sound to me that you've even played halfway through the game if you complain about the story. It's not especially original, but otherwise very well built and way better than the ridiculous plots that you'll find in recent games.
Secondly, how exactly would you have a camera control feature implemented in a 2D game? It would probably have 4 positions, more confusing than helpful. If you've noticed, pressing TAB brings up a grid and also highlights any nearby enemies. What's lacking is hightlighting all the usable objects, such as a door, a porticulis, a NPC and so on. That camera thing was quite a dumb remark as far as I'm concerned. And NO. Baldur's Gate didn't have such a feature either and it also lacked proper highlighting but that wasn't really a big problem. As far as the resolution goes, I've played it even on widescreen LCDs and haven't found it jaggy. It's quite good actually, and so are the animantions.
About the sound part, I agree. Great music, ocasionally brilliant sound FX but not entirely.
Engine wise, it's clear that this one has its limitations, but as a person with decent knowledge of game engines, I must say this one serves better the purpose than the Dungeon Siege engine ever did. In that game, the whole world was a big ring, extremely linear. On top of that, its architecture was so faulty that the game would start nice and smooth and end up insatiably eating up all the system resources it could chew, which on mid-range systems proved fatal. Bottom line, a pretty ****ty engine if you ask me.
More than that, you've been comparing Eschalon with recent titles such as NWN or DS, but for God's sake, this one's old school, comparable to Ultima, Might and Magic and other pre-Diablo cRPGs.
The resistance of barrels is a pretty stoopid feature, I agree here. But you didn't even mention character differentiation, the different aproaches to gameplay, that it has three different endings, that the game is pretty harsh in terms of buying equipment with money being scarce and items always overpriced, no matter how much you invest in the Mercantile Skill. You didn't mention the different levels of Cartography, the darkness issue and many other aspects of the game.
As for the game pace, it is indeed pretty slow, and lacks an option to run (I personally didn't find it annoying but then again it might be for most people). The "rest for xxx hours" option should have been there indeed, but as for the pause button, that would be impossible wouldn't it? IT'S A TURN BASED GAME IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE, except it all goes down smoothly engough. Every time you move or take an action, the turns start passing, and the other living creatures go about their chores every time you take a step, wait or mess with an item.
And bottom line: you can't compare it to a modern commercial RPG such as NWN, developed by dozens of people and with big money behind it! It's just STUPID! This is mostly a one man effort (ok the work of a couple of people) and Basilisk's FIRST GAME, and for that matter I think it's a great start.
2. Untitled
SuperGuido, Super Administrator "Dude" apparently you did not bother to read my bio on the site and find out that I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons since 1981 and computer games about just as long. I have played all the classics including every game you mentioned. In reference to your stress on the point that it's turn based you'll see right in my review I stated "Where do I start? The fluid turn-based play of the game is truly well done. However, if you don't do something, time freezes." Meaning that there is no time limit per turn which basically means the game totally pauses, there should have been some limit of you doing nothing that triggered the next turn.
A 4 position camera would have been spectacular as it would have allowed you the same interaction you would have on a tabletop RPG where you could actually look around you and see what is available instead of being hidden by a wall that you are actually facing. In reality if a barrel were next to the wall and I were next to the barrel, I would see the barrel. Not so in the game.
Additionally I wasn't actually comparing it to NWN, I was stating that you would have more fun putting your money, the same amount of money, into a game like that.
Really what this seems like to me is that you are one of the designers of the game and are butt-hurt over its poor reviews. If that's the case then read this which is the last sentence in the review that you obviously skimmed over in your rush to baselessly lambast me. "But I'll definitely look into Eschalon Book II when it's ready. I just hope they take this into consideration. As I said, there's a lot of potential for some great games here."
Remember, this is a review meaning it is my opinion. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, it's merely a guideline, a caveat emptor if you will, to alert people that they too may not enjoy the game. 3. Untitled
andreil1234, Registered Ok, I apologize for being acid, you probably don't deserve some of my remarks. While I respect the opinions of others, I must still say that you've overlooked some important aspects of the game (character developement, trading etc.). That lack of camera options being a huge flaw seems overstated. You do realize that for a game such as Baldur's Gate that would mean it would have taken four times longer for the graphics to be done? Pressing a key to make the obstructing walls or whatever transparent and/or turning on object highlighting really is convenient enough. So it's nothing more than a missing feature, not a "huge flaw" as you've said. And storywise, it's obvious they need a good writer. Especially for the dialogue part, where the game fails miserably to support the story.
But no, i'm not affiliated in any way to the Basilisk Team nor have I done any work for this title. I just think your rating was way to small, as an experienced gamer. What's really stupid from their part is the pricing. Ten buck or so would have been OK, or even better, some kind of PayPal donate. But for 30 bucks for the download and even more for the physical disc with all three versions + shipping, I agree it's a total rip-off. Of course anyone can find way better games in that price range. Perhaps they'll think about it and be less greedy the next time around. Anyway, with it being cheap, I'm sure that much more people would have bought it and the total revenues would have been maybe double or so.
That being said, I apoligize again for being so harsh on you and overlooking some things you've said in my fury :). I didn't mean to disrespect you. You just probably should have stated clearly that the game really fails to bring some good bang for the buck, which is absolutely true. Still, I was very impressed with Basilisk's first go and I too am looking forward to see the next installment. 4. Untitled
SuperGuido, Super Administrator I went over to, I hate to say it, Metacritic to see what it was averaging. 75% is the average with the high being 84% and the low being 50%. I also checked their 'sister' site gamerankings where it's got a 72%. Both are based on pretty much the same 4 site reviews and some of the other RPG sites I checked at the time of review liked it but had gripes. This game just didn't grab me and if I had paid for it I would have been really disappointed....really, really. Thanks for taking the time to comment. We are always happy to hear from readers, acid or not  You do make some very valid points in your statements. We are not here to stuff our opinions down other's throats and we're not here to cater to game developers. We're here to tell it how it is from our point of view. We welcome all points of view and welcome the interaction with our readers.
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