Eschalon Reviews

Ask questions, share hints or chat in general about Eschalon: Book I.
VPeric
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Post by VPeric »

Here's a review published on a Serbian site, written by yours truly.

http://www.pcigre.com/content/view/11937/79/

(yes, it's in Serbian, but I figured I'd post anyway :P)
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Dragonlady
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Post by Dragonlady »

VPeric wrote:Here's a review published on a Serbian site, written by yours truly.

http://www.pcigre.com/content/view/11937/79/

(yes, it's in Serbian, but I figured I'd post anyway :P)
Couldn't read it but it was interesting to look at and the screen shots were great. :)
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mai
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Post by mai »

Finally, review of russian game portal - AG.ru: http://www.ag.ru/reviews/eschalon_book_1 - 50/100. But I'm hurry to warn you that Nomad, the reviewer, is very acrimonious man, most of his reviews are very unpleasant. So take it easy, please. Take a look at other well-known indie-RPGs reviewed by AG.ru, such as Avernum, it got only 10/100. So with that point of view EB1 still looks very outstanding :)

He laid a stress on weak plot mostly, it was well enough to keep game running but not enough to call it interesting. In all other aspects (character development, exploring, combat, graphics) he called it quite professional made, especially for indie-game made by few people. The main thing that may be I should put emphasis - don't listen praises of fans and keep working to make EB better. So these were the words of Nomad in my crappy translation :)

As you may see users rating is much higher ~ 75/100 (was 85/100 few days ago, I suppose rating go down mostly because of AG.ru review, some people don't have own point of view).
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Jude
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Assistive Gaming review

Post by Jude »

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http://www.icubed.com/~judelk
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BasiliskWrangler
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

The front page has been updated with some reviews. Thanks everyone for posted these links here!
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txa1265
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Post by txa1265 »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:The front page has been updated with some reviews. Thanks everyone for posted these links here!
Thanks for noting my review! I love the game - Mac & PC versions both.

I have another article coming ... and you can be sure that Eschalon will be mentioned ;)
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BasiliskWrangler
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Thank you for the great review! :D
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Ouch! Rick Moscatello of 2404.org gave Eschalon a crummy review. Well, all games have their critics and champions and I guess Eschalon was just not Rick's type of game. That's okay, we're still happy to have the coverage! :D
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Post by jfiemmpa »

ok i read the review, annnnnnd this guy is a lying sack of crap.

although unarmed is probably the best
really? Axes do the most damage as far as I know, though swords are the most common, so wouldn't that make one of them the best?
here’s a random, but likely, chance that a swarm of monsters will pop up next to you
Likely? Since when. With my level 10 warrior that no longer exsists, I would sleep for 3 days before running into anything.
They’re almost always too much to fight, especially if you’re weak (you’re resting, after all)
Hardly. My guys was kicking goblin but with no trouble at all. and since you did just spend awhile resting you regained at least some of your hp and mana.

Later he talks about being able to explore as though it is a bad thing. That you can go all over the place as long as you don't get attacked by a high level monster. Why is that considered a bad thing? I like that. And it makes sense that you might go stolling off one day and end looking at a goblin camp that you can't defeat.

Really what is it these days with people reviewing games without having a clue what they are talking about. Do they put in more than an hour or two before making there spurious judgments?
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Post by acoustibop »

Well, the idiot reviewer finally admits: "... Despite the many warts, Eschalon is not without charm, as this game would have been an award-winning achievement in 1986 or so..."

It's pretty obvious the reason he doesn't like the game is because it's 'old-school.' Everything he he finds negative about it comes from the fact that it's 'old-school' - that and, maybe, because it's too hard for him...

The bottom line is, that to please someone like this, you'll need to make a game that's slick and easy, with ultra-impressive graphics and effects - but no real gameplaying to speak of. All I can say is, how glad I am he doesn't like Book 1. That would mean I'd probably hate it!
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Post by Doom314 »

Well, allow the lying sack of crap to respond a bit.

Note, I said "probably"...it's debatable which weapon type is best, as you've noted. Of course, Unarmed offers a meta-ability that the other weapon types do not. With Unarmed, I can break through doors/containters without taking personal damage, without risk to my equipment.

Do the other weapon classes also grant a non-combat related ability? I must have missed it. This is what puts Unarmed in a class by itself. I can see a player taking Unarmed and and some other weapon skill...but Axe and Sword? Nope. Yes, you can always just use save/reload to get around this design quirk...but a single point of Unarmed can subvert the system somewhat more 'legally'.

"Likely"...perception of probability is subjective. But I found myself running from the random monster swarms, retreating across the zone, resting, finding another swarm, retreating across another zone, and resting, enough times that it became an issue for me. Not for you, and I acknowledge that perhaps I could just save before every rest period to avoid this design issue.

Ok, I exaggerated, the swarms weren't ALWAYS too much to fight...but it was often enough to become an annoyance. Oh wait, I said "almost always"...still an exaggeration, it was more of a common occurrence (again, a subjective term) but hardly worthy of being called "lying sack of crap".

I didn't talk about being able to explore as being a bad thing...I merely said the game was old school in how it handled such exploration. This is supposed to be a selling point, right?

This idiot reviewer, in fact, rather enjoys old school games. I've played many, many, hours of Fastcrawl (turn based dungeon crawl RPG). Although I'm an idiot, Fastcrawl is alot of fun and got a high recommendation from me, despite not being slick or easy (on the highest skill level), and with graphics far inferior to Eschalon. Heck, playing Eschalon made me nostalgic for those good old games...where's a nice Wizard's Crown when you need one?

I could have gone into great, great, detail into what would have made a modern old-school game good, but I really saw no reason.

It's not that the game is too hard for me, honest. It's too simple for my taste...if you think it's even possible to consider this game 'too hard', you may wish to expose yourself to other RPGs, especially old school ones, many of which were notorious grinds (Crusaders of the Dark Savant or Bard's Tale II, for example). Granted, a simple game can be good, but it's also quite possible to make a simple game deep (eg, Diablo I, or even Might and Magic I, if I must remain in the turn-based RPG genre).

Eschalon is certainly nice from an "It's an Indie game" point of view, but from an "It's a $30 game" point of view, I felt it best to let the prospective buying know what kind of pop (not bang) he's getting for the buck.

Just my opinion, of course.

Take care,

Rick Moscatello
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Post by Greywolf »

I just wanted to say that I am glad that I found this game for the Mac. I have been looking for a game like this for a long time. I started playing the demo and enjoyed it so much that I bought the full version. Now I need to find time to play it during the week. Hmmm. Maybe some mental health days should be taken. 8-) :wink:
Thanks for the great time this game has provided for me.

--Greywolf
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Post by realmzmaster »

As far as reviewers are concerned you will not please them all. I got and I am still getting plenty of bang for my buck. Compared to some of the other clickfest drivel i have played Eschalon is a breath of fresh air. Doom314 may think there is only pop, but I will take this pop over a lot of the so-called bang I have seen in my 30+ years of playing CRPGs. So Basilisk games keep up the good work. You cannot please everyone. I wait for Book II or the Book I add on.
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Book I has been reviewed by the popular French culture blog L'Ombre du Z and given a rating of four Zs, which equates to "Come get some!". I can't read French nor do I fully understand their wacky rating system, but they seem to like the game.

Check it out here: http://ombreduz.blogspot.com/2008/02/ga ... ommes.html
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txa1265
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Post by txa1265 »

I just posted my 'Top RPG's of 2007'at GamerDad's GamingWithChildren blog, and gave Eschalon my 'Indie RPG of the Year' nod. You can check the link for the full list.
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