Eschalon's beta test report
Eschalon's beta test report
Game News - posted by Vault Dweller on Fri 15 June 2007, 00:26:09
Tags: Eschalon: Book IBasilisk Games's Thomas Riegsecker has invited one of his most dedicated forum members to play an Eschalon demo. Here are his impressions:
As I am apparently representative of Basilisk's target audience and an active forum poster, I was fortunate enough to have been Wrangled into giving what will become the Eschalon demo a "look and feel" test. I've had the demo for about a week now, and I've been asked by the Wrangler to share some of my impressions here.
First off, the screenshots don't do the game true justice, it looks great. I'd say it's just slightly ahead of the game Arcanum in it's general graphic presentation, but with some really beautiful effects (eg from explosions, smoke, lighting).
Traveling through the game is quite lovely. The background music is the right balance of ambience and actual style and detail, which gives great character to one's travels. This added with very nice environmental effects light torchlight in the dark and fireflies floating about at night, just breathes life into the game. So this is not some half-realised project, it's very full and atmospheric. Setting up camp at night really feels like you're camping.
The music is superb, from the opening cinematic to the background music throughout the game, it's clear a lot of attention went into putting it together. The background music is nice balance of ambience and detail, so it's not just "noise" nor is it distractingly overwrought. Light fantasy classical would describe it, I'd think.
NPC dialogue is extremely well done and detailed. This is not the two or three line sort of dialogue you see in most games, there's a fair bit of exposition (but not quite to the degree of Planescape:Torment!). You're given a fair bit of setting detail in their dialogue and descriptive text, much like how a DM in a PnP game might deliver it all. Also nice is that there isn't one All Knowing NPC who tells you everything about your quests and such, you pick up pieces of history and clues from everyone you talk to and so you as the PC put it together yourself.
There's a nice sense of having to be equipped and prepared for your journeys. You'll want to be well stocked in things like potions and torches and yet you will still need to make judicious use of them and be clever in your questing in order to make your supplies last.
Character creation I think we've mostly read about. You roll your stats (complete with the sound of rolling dice!) and assign stat points to flesh out your character. Then you choose an Origin which each adds their own stat or skill bonuses, an Axiom (sort of like alignment but more practical) and a class. Depending on your class and axiom, you're given a title which changes as you level.
Inventory is easily managed, there's a "quick bag" set-up on the main screen where you can place immediate-use items like potions or a map. Torches have their own special inventory slot.
The demo is 4 maps, and my first character had about 3 hours of time played just in those 4 maps, so that gives a pretty good indication of the level of exploration present in the game. You are rewarded for taking the time to explore as there is treasure to be found.
I guess overall my intial response was the Eschalon felt like an old Ultima game with a really nice graphics component.
I'm not going to give *too* much more away, but am happy to answer any questions in as much as I am able!
...
The combat system is as we know turn-based. As such it makes combat more manageable, particularly for a character that isn't all about brute force. Archery and other ranged attacking is much more viable, as well as giving you greater capacity to use items in combat, be it a potion or some sort of explosive. You can also keep good distance between yourself and the enemy if need be.
It feels very fluid and intuitive, and turns don't take very long at all, the pacing is quite quick and there's not a lot of complexity.
Combat is one area that I can't really comment a whole lot on, since the demo is only >< this much of the game, so obviously I didn't experience a wide array of monsters, weaponry or items.
What's nice is that you have the option of running away, and if you have a character that can Hide In Shadows and/or Move Silently, you can evade some critters. From what I saw, monsters don't chase you to the ends of the earth, you can shake them and carry on. There was one area in which I had to do this as the only way to survive.
Oh, you have an option to toggle a combat grid on and off, which can help you determine how far something is from you.
...
The variety of items was pretty impressive. Treasure is random, so each treasure drop location yielded different loot for each character.
Further to this: Eschalon is not like, say, Sacred, where you haul out some massive piece of weaponry or armour from a chest in a musty dungeon room. In the demo, there are a few magical rings and amulets, but weapons and armour are gauged more in general quality of materials than by some magical designation. Alchemists who need reagents will find those as well.
...
In character creation, even though you do choose a class, there are no artificial limitations imposed on your character because of that. You are free to build your character exactly as you want, taking whichever skills you feel best suit the character in your head.
Likewise, you can use weapons and armour you are not proficient with. There is of course a penalty, but there's nothing that prevents you from picking up and using a weapon or piece of armour you are unskilled in. This really plays up a sense of resourcefulness, I found.
...
Lockpicking is of course dependent on the Pick Locks skill, and you need to have Lockpicks in your inventory. When you "activate" an Locked item a window opens up that gives your your percentage chance of picking the lock and if you want to try or not. If you select Yes a nifty graphic pops up of the lock tumblers being manipulated along with a mechanical sound. Picks can break if you fail. Trap disarming works in basically the same way but you don't need a tool.
There is no pickpocketing, but you can steal from NPCs chests and drawers if you want.
There are things to search, but you can't search *everything*, but most, if not all container type items I saw are searchable.
...
In the demo there are magic items. You can sometimes find them and a few can be purchased from the local magic shop. They're mostly amulets and rings, and the occasional piece of clothing. I didn't see any magic weapons or armour, those items tended to be graded more in quality than with magical properties. The magic items provide small bonuses to things like hit points or to-hit modifiers.
...
Mapping is dependent on the Cartography skill. There's a map that fills in as you travel if you have at least one rank in Cartography, though it's a *very* crude map. The higher your skill the more details are included. There is a map of the area you can purchase but it doesn't show your location or routes or anything like that. It looks more like a map you'd see in an RPG book.
...
As a side note, I'd have to say that pretty much any class or character build you like to play gets a very fair shake in Eschalon. I've played to various stages of completion a Ranger, a Rogue and a Magick User, and none of them felt lacking and with all I felt rewarded for my choice. Add in the ability to basically multi-class and there being no restrictions based on class or non-proficiency, and it's an extremely flexible and accomodating character system.Good news. I'm really excited about this game. Looks like Thomas is almost done with it.
As I am apparently representative of Basilisk's target audience and an active forum poster, I was fortunate enough to have been Wrangled into giving what will become the Eschalon demo a "look and feel" test. I've had the demo for about a week now, and I've been asked by the Wrangler to share some of my impressions here.
First off, the screenshots don't do the game true justice, it looks great. I'd say it's just slightly ahead of the game Arcanum in it's general graphic presentation, but with some really beautiful effects (eg from explosions, smoke, lighting).
Traveling through the game is quite lovely. The background music is the right balance of ambience and actual style and detail, which gives great character to one's travels. This added with very nice environmental effects light torchlight in the dark and fireflies floating about at night, just breathes life into the game. So this is not some half-realised project, it's very full and atmospheric. Setting up camp at night really feels like you're camping.
The music is superb, from the opening cinematic to the background music throughout the game, it's clear a lot of attention went into putting it together. The background music is nice balance of ambience and detail, so it's not just "noise" nor is it distractingly overwrought. Light fantasy classical would describe it, I'd think.
NPC dialogue is extremely well done and detailed. This is not the two or three line sort of dialogue you see in most games, there's a fair bit of exposition (but not quite to the degree of Planescape:Torment!). You're given a fair bit of setting detail in their dialogue and descriptive text, much like how a DM in a PnP game might deliver it all. Also nice is that there isn't one All Knowing NPC who tells you everything about your quests and such, you pick up pieces of history and clues from everyone you talk to and so you as the PC put it together yourself.
There's a nice sense of having to be equipped and prepared for your journeys. You'll want to be well stocked in things like potions and torches and yet you will still need to make judicious use of them and be clever in your questing in order to make your supplies last.
Character creation I think we've mostly read about. You roll your stats (complete with the sound of rolling dice!) and assign stat points to flesh out your character. Then you choose an Origin which each adds their own stat or skill bonuses, an Axiom (sort of like alignment but more practical) and a class. Depending on your class and axiom, you're given a title which changes as you level.
Inventory is easily managed, there's a "quick bag" set-up on the main screen where you can place immediate-use items like potions or a map. Torches have their own special inventory slot.
The demo is 4 maps, and my first character had about 3 hours of time played just in those 4 maps, so that gives a pretty good indication of the level of exploration present in the game. You are rewarded for taking the time to explore as there is treasure to be found.
I guess overall my intial response was the Eschalon felt like an old Ultima game with a really nice graphics component.
I'm not going to give *too* much more away, but am happy to answer any questions in as much as I am able!
...
The combat system is as we know turn-based. As such it makes combat more manageable, particularly for a character that isn't all about brute force. Archery and other ranged attacking is much more viable, as well as giving you greater capacity to use items in combat, be it a potion or some sort of explosive. You can also keep good distance between yourself and the enemy if need be.
It feels very fluid and intuitive, and turns don't take very long at all, the pacing is quite quick and there's not a lot of complexity.
Combat is one area that I can't really comment a whole lot on, since the demo is only >< this much of the game, so obviously I didn't experience a wide array of monsters, weaponry or items.
What's nice is that you have the option of running away, and if you have a character that can Hide In Shadows and/or Move Silently, you can evade some critters. From what I saw, monsters don't chase you to the ends of the earth, you can shake them and carry on. There was one area in which I had to do this as the only way to survive.
Oh, you have an option to toggle a combat grid on and off, which can help you determine how far something is from you.
...
The variety of items was pretty impressive. Treasure is random, so each treasure drop location yielded different loot for each character.
Further to this: Eschalon is not like, say, Sacred, where you haul out some massive piece of weaponry or armour from a chest in a musty dungeon room. In the demo, there are a few magical rings and amulets, but weapons and armour are gauged more in general quality of materials than by some magical designation. Alchemists who need reagents will find those as well.
...
In character creation, even though you do choose a class, there are no artificial limitations imposed on your character because of that. You are free to build your character exactly as you want, taking whichever skills you feel best suit the character in your head.
Likewise, you can use weapons and armour you are not proficient with. There is of course a penalty, but there's nothing that prevents you from picking up and using a weapon or piece of armour you are unskilled in. This really plays up a sense of resourcefulness, I found.
...
Lockpicking is of course dependent on the Pick Locks skill, and you need to have Lockpicks in your inventory. When you "activate" an Locked item a window opens up that gives your your percentage chance of picking the lock and if you want to try or not. If you select Yes a nifty graphic pops up of the lock tumblers being manipulated along with a mechanical sound. Picks can break if you fail. Trap disarming works in basically the same way but you don't need a tool.
There is no pickpocketing, but you can steal from NPCs chests and drawers if you want.
There are things to search, but you can't search *everything*, but most, if not all container type items I saw are searchable.
...
In the demo there are magic items. You can sometimes find them and a few can be purchased from the local magic shop. They're mostly amulets and rings, and the occasional piece of clothing. I didn't see any magic weapons or armour, those items tended to be graded more in quality than with magical properties. The magic items provide small bonuses to things like hit points or to-hit modifiers.
...
Mapping is dependent on the Cartography skill. There's a map that fills in as you travel if you have at least one rank in Cartography, though it's a *very* crude map. The higher your skill the more details are included. There is a map of the area you can purchase but it doesn't show your location or routes or anything like that. It looks more like a map you'd see in an RPG book.
...
As a side note, I'd have to say that pretty much any class or character build you like to play gets a very fair shake in Eschalon. I've played to various stages of completion a Ranger, a Rogue and a Magick User, and none of them felt lacking and with all I felt rewarded for my choice. Add in the ability to basically multi-class and there being no restrictions based on class or non-proficiency, and it's an extremely flexible and accomodating character system.
