Eschalon: Book III - New Screenshot

Basilisk Games informed us they have updated the Eschalon Book III site with a new screenshot showing a shipwreck.

More information.

With the single character on screen and looking at the GUI I assume the third installment will not be party based? I thought I heard rumors of this being party based? Maybe I'm confusing EB3 with something else.

I'm waiting to see if it has that conditional bull crap before deciding whether to get this when it comes out. Last time, you would get a better score if your character always ate toast or faced east while farting, so I need to learn that this has gone away. That isn't my idea of choice and consequences.

I am always intrigued by this series, yet the times I gave the first installment a try I couldn't never get engaged in it. I have an affinity for games that provide flavor text because to me it says the developrs wanted to go the extra mile in creating an atmosphere. I also like the entrance to the temple in the screenshot gallery. Unique game assets also imo speak to the desire to create immersion & atmosphere. Having said that, the lack of a party & the low resolution makes it dificult for me to get into the game. I don't demand cutting-edge graphics, but the scaling of the resolution makes the graphics suffer.

@Lemonhead: I don't believe this trilogy was ever going to be party-based, unfortunately. IIRC the developers said this series wouldn't be, but the next would/might. This may have changed because that conversation came up before the first title was completed.

@CRPGNut what do you mean by the conditional stuff? I am curious as I have not extensively played the games.

There are challenges that raise the score gained at the end of the game if you play a certain way. Let's say if I never use a heal potion or spell then I get the Rambo challenge which awards a 10% bonus to my final score. I found that the game was more about the challenges than actually making a good game. Eschalon Book II was a step back in fun from Book I and I attribute it to BW losing focus on making the best game he could, instead he was making sure all of the challenges were completable. I'd rather he drop that like an STD.

@crpgnut - The "challenges" are a completely optional part of the game. They are transparent to the gameplay - you never have to acknowledge they exist, and they never effect your game. The reason we put them in is because so many people made their own challenges with Book I (i.e. who can finish the game without killing anyone?) that we had dozens of fan requests for these to be built in to Book II. So they are there, but they are not "conditional" to your gameplay in any way. I am curious as to why you are so hostile about the challenges when all they do is provided interesting goals for people who reply the game?

I have to agree with BW, I don't see the problem with the challenges. I actually find them enjoyable. Why would you even care what your end score is??? If you do several replays, then sure, but you might as well raise the difficulty if you want a higher score, you don't NEED to do the challenges.

I've only played through Book 1 and 2 one time each, but I read through the challenges in book 2 and picked a couple that suited my playing style, I don't remeber excactly but I think there was one where you were only allowed to use magic and no melee weapons that suited me just fine, and some others too. It just added flavour to my playthrough.

I'm also curious about the final score thing. What does it matter, really?

Didn't even bother looking at the challenges, didn't base my game play around them.

Didn't affect my enjoyment of the game in any way. Hell, I don't think I even looked at my actual score (I'm going to stop short of saying that I didn't even know that there WAS a score at the end; I like to think I'm more observant than not noticing something like that), so really… how much could it have mattered?

Rather eagerly anticipating Book III, personally.

Well, to me the optional things didn't bother me, since you know, they were optional. I'm all for adding to the game for others to enjoy personally even if it isn't for me.

BTW, great pick BW, you know I'm waiting

The picture for the most part is good but the one thing I dislike is the rocks.

Yeah, the rocks are odd.

When will we see a retro-CRPG that doesn't have that square tile look? One of these days…

I still think "omg yes" when I'm driving and I see an old well in someone's yard.

I loved I and II and I'm sure I'll love III. Bring it on! Nice screenshot

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I loved I and II and I'm sure I'll love III. Bring it on! Nice screenshot

My thoughts exactly.

Funny… I never paid much attention to this series because for some reason I thought it was made by Spiderweb.

Screens look pretty good. Not sure how I feel about turn-based combat for a non party-based game though.

One of the few indie titles with visuals I can stand looking at for extended periods of time. Though somewhat limited in scope, these are games that know what they are and what they're not - and I appreciate that.

Looking forward to it.

I feel the focus of II was lost in comparison to I. When you create challenges, you also have to make it so the challenges can be completed. Therefore, all of the gameplay must make allowances for this. When I played it, I found areas where I thought the game would have played out differently, had it not been for the challenges. I only played it through once though and will likely skip III if it has the same limitations. Still, you got my money BW, so you should be happy. I'll probably play III too, if the game is cheap enough. A low enough price will allow me to ignore the silliness of challenges.

It's been a long time since I played it, and it was enough of a irritant that I never replayed.

Can't believe that there still won't be any widescreen support for this edition, these days that's a game-breaker for me.
Even all the newer Spiderweb game have widescreen resolutions and because of that even their more simple graphics still look pretty good on my 22' monitor, no need for my older eyes to have to squint through the whole game either.

And the fact that most of the older games on GOG that I'm playing have widescreen whether it's through fan mods or developer upgrades- Beyond Divinity, Arcanum, Icewind Dale or newer indies like Inquisitor, Baldur's Gate: EE, Legend of Grimrock to name a few.

Just no excuse for an RPG being released in this day and age not to have it IMO.

The screenshot looks intriguing, I appreciate your work sir.

I played the first game towards the end of last year sporadically on nights where I didn't have much time to play. It was quite an enjoyable little challenge as a mage. Now that I've bought a full version code for Book II and it's ready to go, no doubt it'll provide the same kind of enjoyment when work gets more intense.
It's the perfect kind of game for that situation, I think.