Game News RPG Watch lifts the curtain - Eschalon: Book 1 first impressions

[Jason]

Very nice character creation (although D&Dish) and impressive production values for an indie. The combat is not so nice so far. Having to trade 5 to 15 blows with a bat or salamander gets old after the third fight. Never thought I'd say this, but Spiderweb games have the edge when it comes to combat. Still, probably a purchase for me.

 

[Shagnak]

The combat is pretty much what I expected (i.e. early Ultima style). Excellent production values - the only thing that needs a bit of polish is some of the dialogues. The odd typo here and there.

Can't work out why my Rogue is so decidedly crap at lock picking
Though it looks like I'll always be able to return to give it another go when I level up.

Definitely my sort of thing, though.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

A familiar avatar on the forums:

http://www.basiliskgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=428

 

[dagorkan]

Played a little bit, went down into the cellar of some abandoned shop and ended up in some massive dungeon... almost died several times from all the traps.

Anyway, so far, the combat's been fine except for one thing. The speed thing doesn't seem to work. I have Speed 15 or something like that but a Salamander still seems able to run as fast as me, which is annoying when they flee and I only have a dagger.

Things I like:
-the control system. Very good, I hate the mouse click system, occasionally you move in the wrong direction at first but you get used to it. Keyboard control would be a good addition though in a patch.
-the lighting/etc system. Really does kick in, going into a small patch of woods when fighting a Salamander I was affected by light, don't know if it helped me more though. Nightfall really does change the atmosphere dramatically too, and torches seem like they'll be vital. Change of night/day was a bit too abrupt maybe. Anyway it really does add to the immersion factor and gameplay.
-the fact that I almost got some nasty disease when I looked at the first corpse I came across. A good thing, if it means the player won't feel obliged to check every corpse and mouldy barrel I come across.

As others said production values are great, graphics good, sound great (heart beat kicks in starting at 50% health) the world seems fairly interesting. Can't say about the plot yet but exploration is probably great, depends how big the world is. I'll play a bit more, see how far the demo goes but I think it's a pretty certain buy for me.

Oh and I really do advise players to get Cartography skill, maybe put an extra point in, I have just the base skill but it's better than nothing.

 

[Shagnak]

Oh and I really do advise players to get Cartography skill, maybe put an extra point in, I have just the base skill but it's better than nothing.

Ah, so would that explain why I have no map?

 

[dagorkan]

Has anybody levelled up yet? What choices do you get, any attribute increases, how many skill points? Wasn't sure how important the initial char gen is.

Also I found a book in the Elderhollow Inn which is called "Buying & Selling", forgot to read it but probably means you don't need to take Mercantile skill. I think I took way too many skills to start with and they all suck - took six skills I thought were the minimum for a thief who wanted to live and only had two points left to increase them. My combat TH chance is worse than my critter enemies'

 

[Shagnak]

I think we're in the same boat. I also took a Thief with 6 starting skills. And only put 1 point in short blades (of which all I have found is a dagger so far).
I suck at combat. I'm surviving, but it's often a close thing.

Haven't leveled up yet, so not certain how much I have hampered my chances.

 

[dagorkan]

Obviously we're not gonna level up killing Salamanders... 8 XP each.

But then I could barely take on 2 Salamanders at once.

 

[Shagnak]

I got 300 exp for a quest I finished. Slimes give you 24 or so (I think).

BTW, hiding in shadows seems to work. Managed to escape some enemies that way.

Edit: also, I've had some monsters chase me into the shadows where they seemed to have difficulty finding me. I was able to hack at them for a few turns (reduced chance to hit because of darkness) while they milled around in confusion.

 

[dagorkan]

Did you go straight to that town or did you explore the whole of the abandoned village next to where you start?

 

[Shagnak]

I explored the whole village, except for the underground dungeon bit. Explored the wilderness a bit (almost got killed by slimes), then went to town. Got a bunch of missions there. One was to go back to the dungeon in the ruined village.
Which is where I am now, finding ways to not get killed

Edit: oh, luring enemies into traps works. Great.

 

[Dhruin]

*** Spoilerish ***









You might as well go to town early - you get quick access to better equipment and one of the first quests sends you back to that first dungeon.

If you didn't take Cartography, finishing one of the quests in town will let you buy it for 100gp (although the quest will take a little while to complete).

 

[dagorkan]

Finished the demo, some thoughts here:
http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=447089#447089

I guess you bought the game, Dhruin? I don't see any other quests that can be completed on just the starting South Parish map.

 

[Dhruin]

Review copy. But will buy the game for our other laptop.

 

[abstract]

I've found that monsters of different species will fight each other - neat.

 

[dagorkan]

I've found that monsters of different species will fight each other - neat.

Yeah, I got this really high level mercenary to kill off 5 Hive Drones (my level 3 character would have difficulty fighting one) and they injured him enough that I could deal the final few hit points damage. Unfortunately I didn't get XP for all of the Drones, I think you have to get a hit on each enemy, to get the XP when they die.

 

[abstract]

Is there a better weapon from the short blades category to be found in the demo? Or am I stuck with the shitty iron dagger with base damage = 1?

 

[Amasius]

I've played the demo for about half an hour now and I really like it. Sound, graphics, intro - simple but very nice done. Best prove that you don't need a million dollar budget to create atmosphere. The interface is very smooth. Thumbs up for that.

The combat is quite simple so far but at least it's not annoying. And I discovered that it is better for me atm to use no weapon at all because with bare hands I make more damage and have a better ToHit chance than with the rusty little dagger you find at the beginning. Maybe I should retrain to KungFu master.

 

[dagorkan]

Depends. I used the Iron mace (its somewhere in the dungeon) even though I'm skilled in Swords because it did more damage. I assume you need skill in unarmed to avoid that penalty anyway, so if your particular weapon type isn't available go for the women with the highest damage level out of any of them. The starting enemies are pretty easy. Don't tell me the dungeon is too difficult...

By the way, max damage I've done in a turn so far is 16. That's with a longsword, level 3 Sword skill, Strength 14 and a critical. Normally I do about 5-6.

Armor is more important IMO. I foolishly waited until Level 3 to buy Light armor skill and that did make the fighting a lot harder.

 

[Amasius]

go for the women with the highest damage level out of any of them.

Yes, that sounds like a good advice.

 

[dagorkan]

LOL!

 

[dagorkan]

Also, I need one of you to tell me where I have to go to get my stuff that the old guy in Aridell was supposed to give me (quest #1).

 

[SuicideBunny]

the chest in his house?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I played a few minutes of the demo. My brief thoughts:

Graphics are charming, quite pretty too. Shame about the resolution though, I really wish they would have supported 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc.

Character creation interesting, lots of options there, nice to read all of the information.

Interface also good, there's the journal, inventory, equip, magic, all in seperate windows like the good old days.

I really haven't done anything really except wander around, I don't know if the quests have C&Cs or how good the dialogues are.

 

[dagorkan]

The dialogs are non-existent.

As for choices, unless you mean things like whether to go around Tangletorn forest, through the Salt Coast or through Grimhold (chose the third option) I haven't discovered any.