Interview Interview With Basilisk Games

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Eschalon: Book II

<p>Thomas Riegsecker of Basilisk Games gets <a href="http://www.mishmashmagazine.com/features/video-games/interview-with-basilisk-games" target="_blank">interviewed by MishMashMagazine</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>To be the lead on a project like this you're probably a huge fan of role-playing games. What's the one old-school RPG you have the fondest memories of, and why?</strong><br />TR - The first RPG I ever played was Ultima 2 on an Atari 800 computer, back in 1983. That game just blew my mind with its size and scope. Up until this time Donkey Kong on the Coleco Vision was the pinnacle of gameplay for me. So yeah, Ultima 2 was certainly the catalyst for my future interests, and from there I went on to tackle the remaining Ultimas, the Might &amp; Magics, Wizardys, Dungeon Master, and many more. Pretty much any computer RPG from this golden era is what still inspires me to this day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Coincidentally you can save money by buying Eschalon Book II at Steam <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/25620/" target="_blank">now</a>.</p>
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<p><em>This newsitem is to blame on Jedi_Learner.<br /></em></p>

 

[Raghar]

You can save even more money by not buying it at all.

 

[Turok]

Anyone can induce me to buy and play this game? i mean the combat and the story worth the time i will expend on it?

Thankz in Advanced.

 

[Some Moron On Welfare]

The game's a dull amateur hackjob. SOOO not worth your time.

 

[Mortmal]

You can save even more money by not buying it at all.

Completely right. If you compare to ultima 2 i suppose its still good, but nowhere near the pelasure any 90's game could offer.Its slow, very slow, cliché, just use search engine it was discussed to death, not worth your money.

 

[oldschool]

Anyone can induce me to buy and play this game? i mean the combat and the story worth the time i will expend on it?

Thankz in Advanced.

You can download the demo and try it for yourself. Who knows, you might like it.

 

[ElectricOtter]

Anyone can induce me to buy and play this game? i mean the combat and the story worth the time i will expend on it?

Thankz in Advanced.

If you want a dungeon crawl hack-and-slash similar to the days of yore? Give it a try. If you're looking for a RPG with entertaining combat, interesting story, and lots of viable character building options, play some damn Spiderweb games.

 

[Elwro]

Actually, character building options is what's fun in Eschalon 2. Every skill point counts.

 

[Azrael the cat]

It's an indie crpg. That should tell you everything you need to know.

 

[Elwro]

Well, not really. Knights of the Chalice, Avernum 6, and Eschalon: Book II are all relatively new indie CRPGs and they're as different as it gets.

Well, none of them is real-time, OK.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Well, not really. Knights of the Chalice, Avernum 6, and Eschalon: Book II are all relatively new indie CRPGs and they're as different as it gets.

Well, none of them is real-time, OK.

Yeah, being harsh. I'm a big fan of the Geneforge series, and quite keen on some of the indie wizardry clones around. But I still feel the hatred of Eschalon is at bizarre contrast with the notions that some have that 'indies can save the genre', or that things would be fine if the commercial publishers abandoned the genre and all we had were indies. Eschalon isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than most indie crpgs. I've also noted that most of those who have actually played KotC aren't the ones who vocally bash Eschalon. Plenty of folks won't touch that kind of thing, yet still believe that indies will save the day.

Basically, a lot of the complaints about Eschalon seem to be expecting an indie crpg to match the polish, style, graphics and (most of all) scale and complexity of late 90s prof games like FO. Not going to happen, at least not on a regular basis - Geneforge has everything but the graphics (and even that's not enough for most here) and ITS claims AoD will be up there and I won't call them wrong before I've seen it, but so far we've never seen an indie come close to the Codex 'holy trinity'.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Basically, a lot of the complaints about Eschalon seem to be expecting an indie crpg to match the polish, style, graphics and (most of all) scale and complexity of late 90s prof games like FO. Not going to happen, at least not on a regular basis - Geneforge has everything but the graphics (and even that's not enough for most here) and ITS claims AoD will be up there and I won't call them wrong before I've seen it, but so far we've never seen an indie come close to the Codex 'holy trinity'.

Up where? I've never made any such claims.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Well, not really. Knights of the Chalice, Avernum 6, and Eschalon: Book II are all relatively new indie CRPGs and they're as different as it gets.

Well, none of them is real-time, OK.

Yeah, being harsh. I'm a big fan of the Geneforge series, and quite keen on some of the indie wizardry clones around. But I still feel the hatred of Eschalon is at bizarre contrast with the notions that some have that 'indies can save the genre', or that things would be fine if the commercial publishers abandoned the genre and all we had were indies. Eschalon isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than most indie crpgs. I've also noted that most of those who have actually played KotC aren't the ones who vocally bash Eschalon. Plenty of folks won't touch that kind of thing, yet still believe that indies will save the day.

Basically, a lot of the complaints about Eschalon seem to be expecting an indie crpg to match the polish, style, graphics and (most of all) scale and complexity of late 90s prof games like FO. Not going to happen, at least not on a regular basis - Geneforge has everything but the graphics (and even that's not enough for most here) and ITS claims AoD will be up there and I won't call them wrong before I've seen it, but so far we've never seen an indie come close to the Codex 'holy trinity'.

Come on, you know many of the morons around here are just hot wind and piddle. They rant and roar like true British sailors, but as soon as the next Bioware or Bethesda title hits the shelves, they quickly buy/pirate it, play it till the end, then bash it to death. Of course, they won't touch anything below the graphical standards of Fallout. Even then some of them baulk.

Eschalon is a decent game, though it could do with a few more combat options. I personally prefer some of the others, such as KotC, Teudogar, and some of Vogels games (Eschalon/2 is better than a few of them, at least to me) and Natuk et al, but still a decent, old school CRPG. If anyone is in doubt, try out the demo. Free to download from the site.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Basically, a lot of the complaints about Eschalon seem to be expecting an indie crpg to match the polish, style, graphics and (most of all) scale and complexity of late 90s prof games like FO. Not going to happen, at least not on a regular basis - Geneforge has everything but the graphics (and even that's not enough for most here) and ITS claims AoD will be up there and I won't call them wrong before I've seen it, but so far we've never seen an indie come close to the Codex 'holy trinity'.

Up where? I've never made any such claims.

Stop posting and release the game already FFS!

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Basically, a lot of the complaints about Eschalon seem to be expecting an indie crpg to match the polish, style, graphics and (most of all) scale and complexity of late 90s prof games like FO. Not going to happen, at least not on a regular basis - Geneforge has everything but the graphics (and even that's not enough for most here) and ITS claims AoD will be up there and I won't call them wrong before I've seen it, but so far we've never seen an indie come close to the Codex 'holy trinity'.

Up where? I've never made any such claims.

Stop posting and release the game already FFS!

Agreed. Get back to work VD. Don't want to have to go through another graphical update, do we?

 

[Captain Rufus]

Eschalon 2 is basically a hack n slash game.

No real CnC. Story is barely there and mostly ignorable.

Its pretty much just an exploration and combat game.

A nice looking one for an indie, but that's what it is.

If you don't like resource management, learning the game's skill system, and figuring out how the combat really works you won't like it.

There are combat tactics, but it requires some thought. Positioning matters. Light sourcing matters. Range matters. Weather condition matters. Which of the 4 combat stances matter. The terrain you are in matters.

And your skills matter. And skills are the best/worst thing about the game. If you know where trainers and skill books are and how the skill system works you can make satisfying and possibly game breaking characters.

If you don't you will be dying and reloading every other combat. I ended up having to reroll after 33 hours of play knowing the rough location of trainers, skill books, and how many points you need in a skill, and where some skills could be waited on.

(Plus in my reroll I turned off food/water and item degradation. I figured nearly making it to endgame with those on was good enough. I was sort of trying to speed through the reroll. And am about at the same point but in the low 20s in hours of play (not counting the fact I wasnt dying very much in the equation) and way more powerful of a character.)

 

[Martin]

If it didn't have the painfully slow walking speed punctuated by speed bursts when you are crossing certain open areas it would rate a solid 4 stars for me as far as Indies go, been playing it lately but I am starting to regret the time spent on it because of the slow character movement, especially when going around trees or travelling in closed space areas.

The developer really fucked up big time on this aspect, or perhaps it was a limitation he wasn't able to get rid of in terms of coding or how the engine handles turns. I cant concieve this being a deliberate design decision.

Its almost a killer. I remember tolerating eschalon 1 for a good while, I guess I was game starved, but after finishing avernum 6 and switching to Eschalon Book 2 I am considering simply quiting it, or playing it only very ocasionally.

Its a shame because the game, when considered globally, has all the necessary ingredients to keep an oldschool rpg gamer interested. Personally I find it pretty enjoyable, if it wasnt for the above mentioned serious problem.

Controlling a single character in the game is refreshing and the character development system is solid, so are most of the games features and there are a number of notable ones for this type of game.

It can be quite challenging, especially early on, and thats a positive for me. I am playing a meleer/mage hybrid on the "challenging setting" with food/water rules on and with the rule that keeps items in containers from randomizing.

No C&C of note, no developed dialog trees, just an occasional option to be "bad". The combat is OK, simple with only a few options if you play a meleer, but it has a good flow to it because of simple the global turn system the game uses.

If you can tolerate the character movement speed ( and there is alot of moving around in this game) when it slows almost to a halt I recommend it. Otherwise...well its a shame.

 

[Captain Rufus]

Well there is quick travel. (Click on the map and a list of locations you can quickmove to pops up.)

Sadly the generally pointless outside of dickwaving (which is really no bad thing) engdame score takes a hit if you do so.

The annoyance is one optional quest and one MAIN GAME QUEST (provided you aren't playing a thief) both cost you 2 different score bonuses.

Oh, and playing a thief gets hosed because another XP gaining optional quest requires you to kill the only thief skill trainer in the fucking game, and you can ONLY learn these skills if you choose not to kill the guy.

That is a pretty bugfuck stupid thing IMHO.

What, rogues can't be heroic and want justice against a killer?

 

[Elwro]

Well, playing the devil's advocate here, but if they want to be heroic, they can pay for their skills with their heroically earned skill points.

(Of course, you should be able to train with the guy and then betray him and kill him; pity that isn't possible.)

 

[Captain Rufus]

Whats also sad is by the time you can actually REACH the trainer you might not entirely need him anyhow unless you were going pure rogue noncombat.

Which would mean he would rip your face off and hand it to you.

 

[Martin]

Considering the movement speed issue Portal is a very useful spell, which makes playing an elemental mage or mage hybrid a good choice.

But the quick travel locations are few and far between considering the size of the maps and the distances between them. Alot of unecessary back and forth could be avoided.