Eschalon: Book I

The Good
Review Version: v1.0
Review Date: June 8, 2011
Review Length: 4 (four) pages.
Game Version: v1.04
Tech Specs Used: Intel Core 2 6300 1.86 Ghz CPU, 3 GB Memory, 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT Video Card.
Finished: Nope. Gave up.
Last time played: June, 2011.
Character Class: Agnostic Magic User.
Last Character Level: Level 8 (Artisan Initiate)

High hopes for a decent old skool RPG remake remain unfulfilled.

Role-playing games (RPGs) – the most problematic genre in the game industry.

I had high hopes for this game, I really did. In a modern gaming world where RPGs now are about everything else except character development; games where these RPGs are just a poor excuse to put statistics on the main character yet overshadowed by other gameplay elements, one would hope this developer, who brandishes itself focusing on classic RPGs, still remembered what RPGs were like and supposed to be.

These hopes were secure, in the beginning. Obvious from the opening intro...which was spot on in music and the overall epic-ness most RPGs in existence seem to lack: that aura of grandeur. After all, when we're talking about role-playing here, if you aren't pretending to be a hero that saves the world, anything less isn't really worth role-playing. So why do we role-play? Because none of us has the cahoona's to stand in front of a tank in Tienanmen Square, that's why.

Everything seemed perfect. The intro, the numerous help information. From a technical standpoint, the developer practically did everything (and more) that one could hope for.

Unfortunately, the perfection lasted about 10 minutes. Then came the gameplay...

The Bad
Part I – Character Development
Mind you, this is only character development nerds understand.

• Dice Roll Character Development
  Egad. I haven't even begun playing the game and they already had stuff that should've been kicked long ago from RPGs. One of the nightmares for character development junkies like myself is when you cannot attain the maximum bonuses available for a character...or you can, but attaining them is seriously straining. When creating a character, the player may role dice which results in random statistics between 7-14 for the character. This alone will take several minutes (or luck depending) an hour, just to get a character that has well-rounded and balanced stats. Seriously, this type of character creation is the most annoying of all character development. Why? Same reason why no one will probably play the character if he/she had 7-8 for all the statistics at the drop of a dice. You don't want a lousy character. You want the perfect character or at least good enough. So, it took me several, several minutes to find a character that had the most highest statistics available. Some classic RPGs helped the player a bit by allowing a save feature so the player could compare two stat results. This is as annoying as those RPGs that award the player with random hit points (HP) when the character levels up. Screwed when you get the lowest stat. Now I'm wondering if I increase my Endurance stat, whether or not the previous bonuses are added to my character when he levels up. Fortunately, I'm too old to care anymore. Already have enough stress issues to last me a lifetime.
• No Heads Up
  Reminds me of Fallout 3. Spent hours trying to figure out the most efficient character and the game ruins it by introducing items that screws up the character development plans. Same here. Apparently, the player may acquire books that when read will increase the skill by 2 points or if the skill does not exist, the character will acquire that skill. So what's the problem? The problem is, it takes 3 points to attain a skill manually via character creation or leveling up. So using books to attain skills is much more point efficient than spending points to attain a skill. Problem is, you didn't know this before (prompting me to restart). If they'd only make the equation the same, it'll solve the problem. Apparently no one thought that this was a big deal in character development. Later I got screwed again when I found out that you can purchase the Cartography skill when you've finished a certain sub-quest. It prompted me to restart yet again, since I already spent a lot of points for that skill when I could've spent it on something else.

Part II – Combat
RPGs without combat is like playing a console game without a controller. :p Seriously. Combat is the fundamental component that makes those character development statistics mean something. There is no point of a game being an RPG if you can whack all the monsters on the map on day one. This is the soul of RPGs: level up/gain skills and whack the dude that you couldn't whack before. Everything else is a hybrid element.

So, does this game succeed in creating a turn-based combat system? You tell me:

• Sound
  If it weren't for Fallout, sound in RPGs would probably be something of an after thought. Apparently sound does greatly effect the level of enjoyment in gameplay (played Fallout without sound once...sucked big time). Sound effect in this game is pretty much top notch. Except one thing that eventually ruined it all. There are some sound effects that involve the player missing a hit. This involved a not so nice high-pitch sound of metal. When you continue to miss, this sound become oh, so, extremely annoying to the ears. I was once so frustrated at this high-pitch clanging that I had to turn off the audio, since apparently you can't kill the sound effect separately.
• Mathematical Algorithm Screw-Up
  Admittedly, I have trouble counting past 10, but not so bad at math to notice that there is something wrong with the algorithms here. The hit/miss success rate in this game is identified by percentage rates. You would expect a higher percentage rate means a higher success rate. In this game, someone used a really bad calculator. I'll give you an example: Me: Chance to hit = 49%
  Horny Monster: Chance to hit = 18% What's the result? Got my behind pwned by the horny monster...and this happens every time. Regardless of their percentage rates, monsters seem to be able to hit you without much difficulty. Whereas, you one the other hand, continuously miss, regardless of how high your percentage to hit is. Even more ironic, there is one skill called Dodge, which if it succeeds, will allow a 10% higher chance for you to hit the monster. In practice, 90% of the time, you don't hit that monster. So I'm at a 59% hit percentage and 90% of the time, I couldn't hit a tree standing still. On the other hand, pick locking a chest with only an 10% success rate, isn't that difficult. Usually doesn't take more than 5-10 tries.
• Looting and Random Items
  Though not necessarily combat-related, items found are random, may it be in chests, barrels, or any other container. Problem is, a good percentage of the time, you come up with nothing or really bad stuff. Another problem is when killing an enemy, sometimes they drop stuff, sometimes they don't. Why the developers decided it's a more entertaining feature to randomly withhold rewards from the player is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Part III – Graphics
The overall graphics aren't really much of a problem. Quality speaking, it's a couple of notches better than earlier Fallout, Planescape Torment, where honestly the 2D graphics where one of the worst at the time.

The graphics of this game is noticeably better (though still outdated), though the graphics isn't really the problem. It's the interface. First thing that came to mind is that the character looks small. In fact, it's much smaller than those previous games I've mentioned. I subconsciously try to zoom-in and realize there isn't a zoom-in feature.

The reason why the character is a wee bit too small is probably because the interface takes up a lot of space. This problem would've been easily solved if the interface where smaller or if the game allowed a more free-camera perspective so the player could scroll around instead of the fixed-center view on the character.

Part IV – Plot Screw-Up
Play testing failed. Yes, it did. After restarting god knows how many time due to the character development efficiency issues, I got to the point where I was to discover the meaning of this mysteriously amulet by a non-player character (NPC) called Lilith. So, there was this one option where I could exit the dialog (where I could save my game first before the juicy bits) and continue the dialog later. When I re-entered the dialog... that option disappeared.

More or less after experiencing this, my reaction was something like this: %!%!$!^@$%

End game.

The Bottom Line
Unfortunately, it's painfully obvious that the only part of old skool or classic RPGs in the developers mind is simply turn-based. Character development fails to follow less annoying and better examples. Combat is straining and tiresome. Quest and sub-plots are somewhat buggy here and there.

In overall, I give this game an overall bad score. Why? It was released in 2007. There are a ton of classic RPGs that the developers could imitate. Many of those games earned their status in as RPG gods because player found one or more of its features particularly attractive. None of those attractive features are found in this game. No specific uniqueness or a better version of an existing classic RPG makes this game worthy of mention.

Eventually, it's just a generic copy-cat of several classic RPGs, but not enough to warrant itself in distinction. At this point, the developers should really start re-thinking whether or not they realize what's so fascinating about classic RPGs. Whatever it is...it's not in this game.