Eschalon Book III thoughts (no spoilers)

ToddMcF2002

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October 18, 2006
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Well that was interesting. Just finished the game. I'll forgo any spoilers but I did not expect the ending at all. I didn't think the engine was even capable of all the scripting. The ending showed up pretty abruptly but that's OK. It was a good series conclusion IMO.

My thoughts overall is that it was a worthy finale and I feel I picked the best ending. It was a case of "mixed bag" experience but mostly good, as in 80/20. The game is clearly the most ambitious of the 3 and in two places, both on the main quest, the puzzles were obtuse enough (or old school enough?) that I had to hit the forums to progress. I was simply stuck due to lack of detail and the fact that the game likes to send you different places and play lots of "come back later when you have X". So if you missed an item somewhere on your travels good luck finding it after the fact. It doesn't help when an NPC says "go east" but in reality you have to loop around 5 regions to get there. A hint that "it may be very difficult to go east directly" would have been appropriate. Sometimes you just want to strangle NPCs! But its clever. In some instances too clever. In the first two Eschalon's there is nothing to compare in terms of complexity so this was a significant departure for the series. With that came a few serious scripting bugs and I got hit by one of them with a hostile NPC. But in the end it wasn't that big a deal.

I played a high mana regen pure mage. By hour 6 or so I ditched my bow and staff and had no weapon for the remainder of the game. I really like mages in this series. Very satisfying. I did do *alot* of kiting in this game but that's the beauty of high mana regen builds. There were only a few instances of difficulty otherwise the build was extremely strong. I only fell a few times in the game mostly to goblin swarms or in a four way fight with scorpions. Tactics with bomb keg placements makes short work of grouped enemies which is a clever design.

So anyway really enjoyed this one despite the various frustrations. I'll have to replay these at some point with a melee build. Its a bit sad to see the series end. There is a very specific charm to these games that may not be replicated in the future. I like these games and the engine. Simple, fun and old school goodness.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
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