Eschalon Book I review at SCORPIA'S Gaming Lair

[Amasius]

Scorpia posted detailed review of Eschalon Book I on her site. I agree with almost all of her points, particularly with her conclusion:

So is Eschalon worth playing? Of course it is. We have to keep in mind this is the first product from a tiny company. If everything had been right, what could they do for an encore? Seriously, though, the one big flaw is that lack of distinct character classes, which cuts down on replayability. The rest are those niggling points that annoy, but aren’t gamestoppers.

What Eschalon seems most like to me is an early Might & Magic in miniature. A compact, modernized version, with enough to do but not so much that it becomes boring as in larger games. In fact, this is a good game for those who want to play “the old-school way” without having to slog through a huge world for months at a time. If that’s what you’re looking for, then Eschalon is for you.

 

[1eyedking]

Cat's Eye completely worthless? If anything it's unbalanced!

Just play a character with good melee and hide in shadows skills, cast Cat's Eye, and sneak attack all your enemies without suffering darkness to hit penalties (while your enemies do!) nor revealing yourself for having an external light source. If outdoors, battle at night. If at dungeons, put out every lit torch you find.

The game becomes so easy it's boring.

 

[cardtrick]

Someone should really write a Codex review. I had initially been interested in doing one, but I didn't get much past the demo before being too bored and annoyed to continue playing. I don't regret buying the game, since I'm interested in the hypothetical improved, larger, deeper, party-based sequel. Anyway, I'd like to read a review by someone here.

 

[Au naturel]

Not to mention Wiz8 does not use dice rolls.

Scorpia must be on the bubbly again I think, unless she meant Wiz7. As for the cats eye spell, it IS worthless for light purposes. Not sure if she found out its other use.

 

[Elwro]

I'll write a Codex review, but it'll take time.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Yeah, Cat's Eye is fine but Hide in Shadows shouldn't be so easy to achieve after you give away your position with an attack. The only problem there is that a thief seems to be seriously weaker than any other class if you do this. My thief gets killed by 2 or more enemies during the day unless i get lucky with my bow a couple times.

 

[Andhaira]

The game needs more skills. its too easy to generalise.

Otherwise its fine, though the sequel better be party based, with more dialogue, more npc's, more ways to do the same thing, more skills, etc etc.