Eschalon: Book II - Now Available for Windows

Zloth said:

Errr…. looks at the graphics … ummm… Looks closer at the screenshot's text and "Screen captured and saved to the game's installation directory" …. uhhh…. this is looking mighty 1990's to me. Even the save game icon is a 3.5" floppy.

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well....um...no kidding....you do know that it is an old school rpg game right?

Ovenall said:

How similar is this to Book 1? I played that for a while but it just didn't hook me. I have hopes the second game will be more compelling.

Any other thoughts/reviews?

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I only played the book 1 demo and I didn't find it interesting enough to buy it.

But this sequel is much more interesting, I have played for a few hours now and the graphics, the monsters, the quests, just about everything is improved and polished compared to the first one.

The story line is one that actually makes me want to see what happens next, and feels well designed with excellent pacing.

I think this will be a winner for old school rpg fans. But there are some things that are not as well done. For instance, the characters are still too small and tiny on the screen, and the food and water option is one that seems more annoying than immersing. I am going to turn the food and water requirements off myself, at least they provided this option.

Also, when looking through people's items, I found out that if you are caught they stay mad and don't ever seem to go out of attack mode, so you can no longer converse with them after that. I think it should not be so drastic and eventually they should calm down and "forget" about the incident and allow the character to talk with you once again. Otherwise maybe you miss out on quest options if you are unlucky.

Finally, the manual is lacking, it is hard to figure out what the stats actually do in concrete terms in relation to skills. Furthermore, there just seem to be a lot of stuff about the game that you need to know, and just isn't explained at the start of the game such as how high the level you can get to, how many skills should you pick, and so on.

Its a game that badly needs a thorough guide to it in other words.