RPGWatch Feature: Eschalon Impressions

lol!

Petulent school girl equips +3 Hair Tie of Doom and attacks. You get a flatfooted penalty because you're spending too much time staring at her pert bosom to notice the ranged attack. *die roll* Well, that's a critical hit, so yes, she has in fact put out your eye (Momma warned you...). 15% chance to cause disease *die roll* and you need to make a saving throw *die roll* and I regret to inform you that you've got a wicked case of the cooties, which is a -6 penalty to charisma.

Now that's what I call old school. Or was that middle school?

Two brilliant responses!! Loved them.

dteowner said:

lol!

Petulent school girl equips +3 Hair Tie of Doom and attacks. You get a flatfooted penalty because you're spending too much time staring at her pert bosom to notice the ranged attack. *die roll* Well, that's a critical hit, so yes, she has in fact put out your eye (Momma warned you...). 15% chance to cause disease *die roll* and you need to make a saving throw *die roll* and I regret to inform you that you've got a wicked case of the cooties, which is a -6 penalty to charisma.

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You raise your +1 mace of tetchiness to counterattack, but she unexpectedly parries your blow by bursting into tears, disarming you by forcing you to put your mace down to give her a hug. While doing so you foolishly move into range of her +2 kneecaps of emasculation, which hit you critically. You have lost a testicle, leaving you -2 to all attack and saving rolls for the next 2 hours as you lie on the floor whimpering and permanently vulnerable to unfortunate comparisons to Hitler.

This is a great game!

I'm delurking to give Basilisk props here. I've had more fun in one day playing Eschalon than I had playing all of Oblivion. I can't wait to play again tonight. Right now I'm torn between restarting as a fighter type or continuing my necromancer, which is occasionally having a pretty tough time in combat.

I'd say a straight fighter tends to be a bit dull unless you mix in some Divination or something, because there aren't any special attacks or different abilities to mix it up.

The mage isn't much better; combat is my biggest reservation about the game. It reminds me a lot of Arcanum. The difficulty level is spot on, as is the ambiance. Right now I'm hoping it does well enough that Basilisk gets a chance to flesh out the system for future games.

Isengrim said:

The mage isn't much better; combat is my biggest reservation about the game. It reminds me a lot of Arcanum. The difficulty level is spot on, as is the ambiance. Right now I'm hoping it does well enough that Basilisk gets a chance to flesh out the system for future games.

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This is interesting. I've found the combat very engaging. Much moreso than the system would appear on the surface. I've had to think my way through several fights, using all the tricks I can think of (lighting, demon oil, choice of arrow types, spells, switching out amulets, positioning, etc) just to get by with a few hit points left. Perhaps it's because I'm playing a Ranger with a bit of Div magic and becuase straight-up Mages and Fighters are overpowered? I don't know, but I've certainly felt challeneged and like my character is really adventuring rather than just blowing through waves of monster-fodder. *shrug*

The game mechanics and exploration aspects certainly sound attractive, but I'd be interested to know more about the story. Does it get better and become more prevalent as you progress deeper into the game? Does it try to tackle some ethically complex issues or engage the player's brain in some way? Does it give the NPCs some psychological depth and plausible motivations for their actions?

Geist said:

Does it get better and become more prevalent as you progress deeper into the game? Does it try to tackle some ethically complex issues or engage the player's brain in some way? Does it give the NPCs some psychological depth and plausible motivations for their actions?

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Yes, yes and yes.

With caveats. "Somewhat"

The plot's not bad, it ascends slightly beyond the "amnesiac-saves-the-world" meme, but it's not great anywhere either. It weaves into the world well, is fairly interesting and is constructed well. It's no huge let-down, but it's not brilliant either.

I've played demo.
1) No pathfinding sux. It wouldn't if the character was not so sluggish. And finding a way through trees is pain.
Games that use this kind of movement and combat (8 directions, 1 square step) should use ASCII (rogue-like) or simple tiles (like Avernums), not this SLOOOOW animation, which doesn't really add to the game.
2) Dialog options are too few.
3) Combat system. Action Points would make the game like 50% better, IMHO.
4) Items disappearing when dropped on the ground. Possibility to sell quest items.
5) Graphics - what's so cool have you people found about it? It's below Baldur's Gate 1.

I'm not buying this one, I'll wait for Avernum 5 and Broken Hourglass.

A great game, playing it constantly reminds me of the jewels of old especially Realms of Arcania and Magic Candle, it is highly addictive, much more so than any other game released

On a machine that can run other games from the last two years it runs fine and rather fast, until now I see no need for a running-mode.

With the pretty graphics, the animations and the great music, this easily could've been a full-budged game in the mid-90ies. Of course it comes ten years too late technically, but face it: there will be no long high-budget RPGs anymore, most so-called RPGs are just singleplayer-MMORPGs or simply too short and linear to enjoy for a long time.

Support that small developer and play a great game that is technically not up to date but extremely well done, and very good playable, and maybe more developers will see that there is a market for true RPGs. Keeping in mind how much money I wasted in the last decade buying games that turned out to be RPGs by name only, $28 for this jewel is like nothing.

chamr said:

This is interesting. I've found the combat very engaging. Much moreso than the system would appear on the surface. I've had to think my way through several fights, using all the tricks I can think of (lighting, demon oil, choice of arrow types, spells, switching out amulets, positioning, etc) just to get by with a few hit points left. Perhaps it's because I'm playing a Ranger with a bit of Div magic and becuase straight-up Mages and Fighters are overpowered? I don't know, but I've certainly felt challeneged and like my character is really adventuring rather than just blowing through waves of monster-fodder. *shrug*

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Believe me, my mage does not feel overpowered. I've had several encounters where I've run out of mana and the only thing between me and the Abyss was Demon oil (oddly enough )

Perhaps I lack imagination, but I pretty much just hammer everything with Fire Spark until I can't cast it anymore. I have no weapons skills, so if it comes to drawing a sword, the outcome is in serious doubt. The Sonic spell I've tried several times, but have yet to get an opponent to fail a save. The fights are fun and tense because I think they nailed the difficulty level, but there is more room for tactics. I still think TOEE has the best turn based combat implementation I've ever seen.

Isengrim said:

I still think TOEE has the best turn based combat implementation I've ever seen.

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Well, I won't argue with that. I certainly wouldn't expect an indie to approach that level of tactical, TB combat goodness. I also think you're right about some of the tension being the good, but not excessive, level of difficulty. However, after reading a lot of forum posts about the game, I get the distinct impression that some builds (e.g. Ranger or Rogue) make for more strategic combat than others (e.g. Mage or Fighter). I plan to play a few more builds, so I guess I'll see for myself.

Isengrim said:

Perhaps I lack imagination, but I pretty much just hammer everything with Fire Spark until I can't cast it anymore. I have no weapons skills, so if it comes to drawing a sword, the outcome is in serious doubt.

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I suggest taking archery as a secondary skill. You can save sp doing finishing moves with arrows. Alchemy is nice too it lets you boost your bow / armor permanently. Also you can get bow to 9 without using skill points and alchemy to 12 so its definetly a good option.

zakhal said:

I suggest taking archery as a secondary skill. You can save sp doing finishing moves with arrows. Alchemy is nice too it lets you boost your bow / armor permanently. Also you can get bow to 9 without using skill points and alchemy to 12 so its definetly a good option.

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Thanks for the reply; I'll give it a shot (pun intended).

I've played a little of this game, and so far, I love it. First off, I think it's purdy. I absolutely adore crisp graphics.

Secondly, it's a lot of fun, and fairly complex. I especially enjoyed a couple of "mini-puzzles" (I don't want to spoil anyone, suffice it to say the game has some nice touches, in say, for example, presenting you with a possiblity of opening a treasure chest in an unusual way), and there's generally a great deal of satisfaction from combat, what with it definitely not being the easiest in the world (I personally think that friggin jellies should never ever be so durable, much less dangerous, and that's an actual gripe I have with the game because it just pisses me off ).

I've always wanted to play a character that doesn't fumble around when it comes to holding a sword, but can also mix up a mean mean potion. So that's what I went with. It's going...well, it's going. Not too sure about the benefits of the Alchemy skill just yet, haven't played around with it enough.

The story - the little of it that I've seen - is presented very nicely...I like the way the books are informative and yet succinct (Perhaps too much so at times, but it beats getting your hands on a bunch of books you *know* you're never going to read because they're all way too long {though some games, I couldn't get enough of and would swallow every single word being available to me [Like say, <Help, I'm stuck in a fourth parenthesis!> Planescape: Torment , for instance.]}).

One other thing that got on my nerves was the uselessness of the Ogre Strength potion...it boosted my Strength to 35 - around 180% of my normal strength - and it made a difference, but JUST barely. I've played games (indeed, classic CRPGs) that would not allow you to inflict a whole lot of damage even if your strength is a lot higher than usual due to special conditions, but c'mon...35! You'd think I could kill a jelly in one shot with that kind of strength.

All in all...looking forward to having a lot of fun with this game, and I'm sure I will.

I’m getting more and more disappointed by Eschalon. After playing the demo, I decided to purchase the game… but I’m starting to somewhat regret it.

My most important problem is how tactically limited the game is. Up to now, after 7 hours in the game, I met four «enemies» so far: Salamanders (and their yellow tougher version), thugs, giant bees, and slimes. Fighting is always the same thing no matter which enemy you fight. You send some arrows at them and hope the dices roll favorably then you finish them with your sword. Do those until your hit points get low then instantly teleport to Aryell to sleep at the inn because it’s the only efficient way to heal up. Potions that you can afford don’t heal enough. Barrels you may explode and doors(not the right word but…) you lower on enemies are few and somewhat «cheap». What I found enjoyable in the demo like the dungeon where you find the bar of mithril are few and rare. Fighting is more akin to the one found in old style MMORPG than the one found in most SP games.

Maps, beside the first one you play in the demo, feel rather small and empty. There is not much exploration to be had. There is basically no dialogue and the world doesn’t manage to feel alive to me.

I will keep playing it for now but… well, I’m disappointed. I expected more from what I had seen in the demo.

The two most important things for a mage character is getting perception up as high as possible from the beginning of the game, because this allows more mana at level ups; and raising meditation to a decent level so that you regenerate mana quickly. If perception+meditation >38 you will regenerate a point of mana every 3 turns. I'm just level 5 in my current game but I have 105 mana because I used all 15 points on perception at the beginning of the game. I've been fleshing out the other scores as I play.

I divided my starting points equally when creating my fighter and then kept raising speed. I think the skill selection is what's more important, I spent many points on cartography, alchemy and throwing weapons. In retrospect, none of these are useful for my build and there are many trainers and books in the game. If I were to start a new game right now I would take no more than four skills, preferably three. Cartography can be upped to 17 for example for more detailed maps, but a rank of 4 is sufficient for all purposes. Maybe the skill is more useful for a ranger or a mage that needs to know the location of all enemies in order to plan ahead.