I've bought Eschalon Book 2 last week and have been playing through it several hours a day. So far I've dumped 14 hours into the game, and here's a short review.
It's a "charming" game. The general style is definitely old school, with a somewhat vague learning curve. I started building a mage and dumped it halfway through the game when I realized that Perception is one of the most important stat for the mage (rather than Intelligence). It wasn't until several visits to the forum and a little reading that I managed to create a reasonably powerful mage build, and since then had very little trouble with encounters.
First, let's talk about story. It's... cliche. You wake up with amnesia, realize that the world's going down the shitters and decides to infiltrate the enemy stronghold with the one ring and take Sauron out. Or something like that. Storyline's linear, and well... nothing much to praise about it.
Second, combat system. For some reasons I kind of liked it. It's kind of like rogue - you move one tile, or take one action, and the entire world takes one action too simultaneously. This means that you can easily run away if you want to, unlike in turn-based games where you have to endure the game cycling through all the characters in the battle before you can move again. Large scale fights suddenly become more fun to participate in.
Third, quests. Most quests are boring, unfortunately. They are few and far in-between, and most fall into the usual mold of fedex quests, massacre quests and guess-who's-the-evil-quest-giver kind. There are interesting quests in the game with multiple solutions, but those are few and very far in between. So far the most interesting quest involves a blacksmith asking you to retrieve a sword from a woman who he accuses of not paying him after the work is done. You talk to the woman and she tells you that the sword is a gift to the constable (which the smith should have gladly "donated" instead), and that the smith was late anyway and she shouldn't be paying for it. There you can end it by agreeing with the woman, or you can go and confront the constable for it. If you do, he'll ask you to get the smith and the woman to file their grievances through official channels, but at that point you can simply waltz into his room and steal the sword. Alternatively, you can sneak into the city management vaults and discover his unlawful dealings and then use it to blackmail him, achieving the same results.
Unfortunately, I've only encountered one such quest in the entire game.
Now, what's bad about Eschalon 2? THE FUCKING WALKING SPEED. Imagine playing Fallout without running at all. There's no way to adjust the speed.
The slow walking speed is made worse by horrible map designs. I just finished the Hammerlorne quest and had to take a break. It almost made me stop playing, because the area is choke full of NOTHING. Imagine a dungeon with craploads of dead ends, and you have to waste time back tracking. Even more time is wasted when you reach the end of the dungeon, complete your quest and then have to backtrack all the fucking way back to the entrance.
Not only that, there are many areas that are completely empty of any interesting encounters. Maps are fun to explore only if there's actually something to discover. I feel that most of my time in the wilderness consists of deriving enjoyment from revealing the minimap, which by the end result in nothing most of the time. There's too little content in the game, and there are many questionable design decisions that could have been prevented by simple measures (e.g. less walking).
Having said that, I will purchase Book 3 when it comes out. I will skip Book 1 because I heard the walking speed is even slower, and I can't imagine how I'd survive on that.
It's a "charming" game. The general style is definitely old school, with a somewhat vague learning curve. I started building a mage and dumped it halfway through the game when I realized that Perception is one of the most important stat for the mage (rather than Intelligence). It wasn't until several visits to the forum and a little reading that I managed to create a reasonably powerful mage build, and since then had very little trouble with encounters.
First, let's talk about story. It's... cliche. You wake up with amnesia, realize that the world's going down the shitters and decides to infiltrate the enemy stronghold with the one ring and take Sauron out. Or something like that. Storyline's linear, and well... nothing much to praise about it.
Second, combat system. For some reasons I kind of liked it. It's kind of like rogue - you move one tile, or take one action, and the entire world takes one action too simultaneously. This means that you can easily run away if you want to, unlike in turn-based games where you have to endure the game cycling through all the characters in the battle before you can move again. Large scale fights suddenly become more fun to participate in.
Third, quests. Most quests are boring, unfortunately. They are few and far in-between, and most fall into the usual mold of fedex quests, massacre quests and guess-who's-the-evil-quest-giver kind. There are interesting quests in the game with multiple solutions, but those are few and very far in between. So far the most interesting quest involves a blacksmith asking you to retrieve a sword from a woman who he accuses of not paying him after the work is done. You talk to the woman and she tells you that the sword is a gift to the constable (which the smith should have gladly "donated" instead), and that the smith was late anyway and she shouldn't be paying for it. There you can end it by agreeing with the woman, or you can go and confront the constable for it. If you do, he'll ask you to get the smith and the woman to file their grievances through official channels, but at that point you can simply waltz into his room and steal the sword. Alternatively, you can sneak into the city management vaults and discover his unlawful dealings and then use it to blackmail him, achieving the same results.
Unfortunately, I've only encountered one such quest in the entire game.
Now, what's bad about Eschalon 2? THE FUCKING WALKING SPEED. Imagine playing Fallout without running at all. There's no way to adjust the speed.
The slow walking speed is made worse by horrible map designs. I just finished the Hammerlorne quest and had to take a break. It almost made me stop playing, because the area is choke full of NOTHING. Imagine a dungeon with craploads of dead ends, and you have to waste time back tracking. Even more time is wasted when you reach the end of the dungeon, complete your quest and then have to backtrack all the fucking way back to the entrance.
Not only that, there are many areas that are completely empty of any interesting encounters. Maps are fun to explore only if there's actually something to discover. I feel that most of my time in the wilderness consists of deriving enjoyment from revealing the minimap, which by the end result in nothing most of the time. There's too little content in the game, and there are many questionable design decisions that could have been prevented by simple measures (e.g. less walking).
Having said that, I will purchase Book 3 when it comes out. I will skip Book 1 because I heard the walking speed is even slower, and I can't imagine how I'd survive on that.
). When Book II was released I downloaded the demo and... resigned to buy it. It just felt exactly the same, except maps felt kinda more empty (that's because the world is bigger?). Nothing changed at all. It was just a demo though, idk if full version is different. Perhaps I will buy Book II someday but not yet, first I need to finish Book I and I lost interest in it lately. It's fun game but gets boring after some time (and I played it exactly 64 hrs, idk how long this game is because I was playing three characters with different classes). 
