Review Gamebanshee digs Eschalon: Book I

[Calis]

Tags: Eschalon: Book I

<A HREF="http://gamebanshee.com" target="_blank">Gamebanshee</A> has posted a <A HREF="http://gamebanshee.com/reviews/software/eschalonbooki1.php" target="_blank">review</A> of Eschalon: Book I, praising the game's core mechanics but lamenting a number of flaws. Here's a paragraph about one of them:
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<blockquote>Another annoyance is the burden of long distance travel in the game. You spend a lot of your daytime hours—the only period when I, at least, could actually see much of what was going on—wandering to and from quest sites, to town shops, and back. The presence of teleportal locations help somewhat, but they were far too few. And invariably, when I left a spot in a complex, winding dungeon, it was difficult to remember exactly my way back, or important features along the way that I wanted to recall, later. The ability to notate via the automap function would have greatly assisted this.</blockquote>It took all my self control to quote a piece that was actually about Eschalon, rather than the first three paragraphs, which brought a tear to my eye.
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<A HREF="http://gamebanshee.com/reviews/software/eschalonbooki1.php" target="_blank">Read the rest here</A>
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<em>As usual, <strong>Brother None</strong> put this into our contact form.</em>
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[Brother None]

As usual, <strong>Brother None</strong> put this into our contact form.

I AM THE CONTACT FORM MASTER

 

[Amasius]

Not overly enthusiastic but a pretty fair review and I wholeheartedly agree with the conclusion:

One other factor needs to be considered, here. Eschalon: Book I is not the product of even a moderately small company, but essentially due to the efforts of one person. As such, my numerous criticisms above need to be considered in light of what is possible under such circumstances. It doesn’t make the writing in the game any better, but it does make what has been accomplished in graphics and game flow much more impressive, in my opinion.

In any case, I like Eschalon: Book I. Although at times it comes across as sketchy in content, there’s a good deal to enjoy: the artwork, the low resource requirements, the relatively large, open field for gameplay. Combat is handled well, challenges increase gradually but sensibly if you go the fighter route and remain cautious in travel, and dungeons are appropriately varied. If it doesn’t require a great deal of thought, that only makes it more of a casual game than some other RPGs, the kind of thing you can pick up for a few minutes to an hour, then put away and play again a day or a week later. It isn’t compelling, urging you to see what new challenge or brilliantly devised quest lies around the next corner. But it is fun. And that means a good deal.

 

[fastpunk]

As Amasius mentioned, it's a fair review. Eschalon is pretty impressive for an indie RPG, specially one done by such a small team. It has its fair share of problems but if Book II sorts a few of them out I will definitely play it.

 

[Saxon1974]

I didn't have much of a problem with the walking like they did in the review, although I have heard alot of people complain about it. I was having such a good time exploring the world that I didn't really notice it.

Im eagerly looking forward to Book II.

 

[Seboss]

“A retro-RPG is a game that doesn’t have the latest graphics, because they haven’t got the backing of a corporation like the one that hired me, which is the only kind of game creator that matters. And the only reason I’m speaking to you right now is because my fellow VPs won’t let me into the conference room since I smell bad.”

 

[Brother None]

I didn't have much of a problem with the walking like they did in the review, although I have heard alot of people complain about it.

I also had serious issues with the walking. It's just a flawed mechanic no matter how you turn it, there's no conceivable good design excuse to force a player to spend half the game walking from A to B. Because walking is boring.

That always annoyed me in the Gothics, too. Goddamn walking.

 

[1eyedking]

What the fuck is it with these constant "ever made" hyperboles I see in every freaking review nowadays? It's the most infantile statement ever made.

 

[aries202]

I like Eschalon: Book 1, too. I agree with almost everything said in Gamebanshee review, except for maybe the score and the part about walking around. To me that was the best part of the whole game. To just go out exploring the world, happen to trip or fall over some crates, chests and stuff.
And yes, there are portals. And I wans't annoyed with them only being far far away and far apart.

I would have liked to see a town portal scroll though, or something like mark&recall (from Morrowind) so you could be transported out of a dungeon if you ran out of say arrows. It can get very tediius to backtrack through the dungeon every step of the way, and then just go down there again. Of course, the price for such a feature should be high...

ON e thing I certainly hope don't change in Book II is the fact that you only see in dunegeons if you have a torch or lantern with you. This is a nice touch, imo, since it means 1) torches mean something in the game and 2) it adds some sort of realism to the game.

 

[Claw]

Eh, Portal spell? I can't say I had to backtrack alot. Most of my wandering was caused by my obsession to complete my maps.

I felt time was passing too fast, though.

 

[Jasede]

obsession to complete my maps.

Heh, I thought I'd be the only one who has that. Do you also walk on every square on the Fallout map until they all light up brightly?

 

[cardtrick]

obsession to complete my maps.

Heh, I thought I'd be the only one who has that. Do you also walk on every square on the Fallout map until they all light up brightly?

I do that!

And then I hate myself.

 

[Claw]

Heh, I thought I'd be the only one who has that. Do you also walk on every square on the Fallout map until they all light up brightly?

Only the first few playthroughs.

 

[Saxon1974]

obsession to complete my maps.

Heh, I thought I'd be the only one who has that. Do you also walk on every square on the Fallout map until they all light up brightly?

Ok, must not be that unusual because I do that too. I would be ok with a portal spell at high levels, but I don't really think its required.

I agree with the comment about the torches and lighting, I hope it remains unchanged as well, I loved how the lighting was done.

For example in Baldur's Gate II which im currently playing, you never have to worry about lighting, even in the deep dark dungeons there are always lit torches. Is there same lighting fairy that goes to all the caves and dungeons in the realms and lights them all at sunset?

 

[Jasede]

It's just a convenience thing. Though honestly, I think torches and a RoA-esque food/water/travel system would have made Baldur's Gate II a lot more dungeon-crawly-RPGy, which would have been good. Now it is neither fish nor flesh.

 

[Ghoulem]

Heh, I thought I'd be the only one who has that. Do you also walk on every square on the Fallout map until they all light up brightly?

Oh, and the satisfaction when you travel down the coast squares and every visible ocean square to the left of them light up like the face of a monkey with ice cream.

 

[Saxon1974]

It's just a convenience thing. Though honestly, I think torches and a RoA-esque food/water/travel system would have made Baldur's Gate II a lot more dungeon-crawly-RPGy, which would have been good. Now it is neither fish nor flesh.

I agree. While I liked the ROA games, those were a bit too micro-managey for my tastes. I like having to have food\water and torches, but more than that and I felt it got a bit tedious.

 

[Elwro]

Um, anyone has a savegame with a well-developed spellcasting character he/she would be willing to share with me? I want to check some things and if I wanted to finish the game again the review I'm eventually going to write would take months.

 

[Claw]

Sure. Is an unoptimized, allroundish fighter/caster allright?
My Endgame save is right at the crucial point before the end. My char is lvl 15 and ready to raise a level or two. First two portal anchors set, btw.
Of course, I heard you can replay the game with a high-level char by copying some file(s) to a new save right at the start. Would be a breeze with a lvl15 spellsword.

Why is everyone talking about the Portal spell like it were hypothetical?

 

[Elwro]

Thanks for the file and the info! I'll try this tomorrow...

edit: works fine, thanks again!

 

[NoisyKillerHPB]

I have a very important question about this game. How the fuck do you pronounce 'Eschalon'?

 

[cardtrick]

I have a very important question about this game. How the fuck do you pronounce 'Eschalon'?

Huh. I never even thought about that, just automatically pronounced it Es-kah-lon to myself. But I guess it could be pronounced to sound exactly like echelon.

 

[crufty]

threadcromancy at work...

so the review is a bit of a downer, but im having a bit of fun with the demo and its not like im going to buy any other games this year. but before i plunk down to buy a game i may or may not finish...

any indications on rough amount of time to complete?

I've only spent an hour on the demo--i'm trusting there is a bit more (even if only its more of the same), but am hoping theres more then ten hours. if there is, in i go. if there isn't, then i'll play the demo until its done.

 

[Shagnak]

I'd say anywhere from 12 hours to 40 hours depending on your need to explore, how ubar your character is etc etc. I took over 30 hours with a stealthy character who was a bit average at combat. I did quite a bit of exploring and found myself having to retreat from/return to certain areas a few times because I found I was having my arse handed to me.

I imagine an ubar combat character who didn't divert much from the path (assuming you always knew where to go) would be at the considerably quicker end.

 

[Amasius]

My first playthrough took me about 20 hours and I've explored almost everything. The dev has admitted that Book 1 is a bit short and has promised to make Book 2 much longer. We'll see, but if you've liked the demo I'd say the game is worth the purchase.