Just finished - what I liked and didn't (SPOILERS)

[RaithenLost]

So cheers for a fun game, Basilisk. I did enjoy it.
I really like:
- the addition of the Feats for high weapon skills. (Incidentally, I found a bit of a bug in that it let me have the feat when I gained level 10 through a magic item, then let me have it forever after even when I didn't have the item on.)
- food and repair. And weather. It made me pay a little more attention what I was about, rather than just heroically traipsing across the country spraying magical death at monsters. And one early point when I was starving and had to go around furtively raiding barrels looking for food kinda made me empathize more with the character.
- puzzles. even, or especially, the ones that are not plot-critical but reward you for paying attention and thinking in the game.
- in a nutshell, your game engine. Hooray for a good turn-based game (and you have no idea how welcome that is for a Mom. "Mommy, I want a glass of water!" in the middle of a real-time battle really sucks.
- the music.
I wasn't keen on:
- aliens. I know, you've explained, and I will give the benefit of the doubt that you're going to spin it into something more elaborate in Book III, but as I avoided spoilers until I finished the game for myself, it still felt a little cliche at the time. Maybe even if the Orakur looked different than the classic alien?
- I couldn't get variation on the final ending, even locale, no matter which combination of choices I tried. Getting away to the Crius hideout only to be tracked down there by The One would have been cool.
- being forced to raid Hammerlorne. I felt like a real s**t marching in and wiping out peaceful dwarves to steal their sacred gem. Perhaps this is asking a lot of the game design, but I would have liked another way to trick, steal, cajole, trade the Crux away. Better still, have another I could go a different way to get, like going to take on the Taurax first, and then have the dwarves let me bring the gems together there?
- the sound the wolves make when you kill them. My older kid likes watching the games (usually), and the poor little guy actually cried when I killed a wolf with the sound on. trivial, perhaps, but thereafter, I mostly played with the sound off, and I missed the music.

[Rowanas]

I feel the same way about almost all of what you said. I feel especially strong about the aliens,(but came to the same conclusion) the food/water/repair/empathising and ending variation.

I like the wolf noises, they sound like proper wolves. Perhaps you should lock your kids out when you want to play Eschalon, it'll be just another of those grownup things they're not allowed to see yet

[RaithenLost]

I thought about it, Rowanas, but I'm trying my best to turn the kid into a gamer geek just like Mom! I have a friend whose kid actually plays in his group. I'm so jealous.

[xolotl]

- being forced to raid Hammerlorne. I felt like a real s**t marching in and wiping out peaceful dwarves to steal their sacred gem.

Yeah, this continues to bother me. IMO, this should cause the True Healer challenge to fail as well. Perhaps you should get a bunch of extra XP upon exiting Hammerlorne if you made it through without killing a single dwarf. It should be possible with a sneaky-enough character. I'm not sure if it's possible for Mages to get Invisibility by that point in the game...

[RaithenLost]

A potion of invisibility was one of the first things I tried, but the dwarves homed in on me regardless. Only benefit I found to it was I was harder to hit.
I tried various non-lethal efforts with the wolves too, in deference to my small audience. I tried Sparkling Wonder early, but found that it didn't last long enough to get through the whole way before I was attacked again. Or letting them run if I got them to critical. That worked in open country, but only if I didn't go back. Less success still in the mines.

[Rowanas]

@Raithen: Nice. My mum did the same for me, with a bit of Sarah Connor upbringing in there as well. If I hadn't endured so many years of being her son, she'd be one of my best friends.

@Xolotl: I think extra xp needs to be given for a lot of things. As it is, butchering absolutely everything (including useless NPCs) is the best way to get xp. There's a very obvious difference in the final level of murdering bastards vs sneaky pacifists.

@Myself: Why have you started @ing people? You used to think that made you sound like a nonce. Stop it.

[RaithenLost]

Incidentally, I was real surprised that the dwarf town remained open to me after Hammerlorne...

[Rowanas]

Incidentally, I was real surprised that the dwarf town remained open to me after Hammerlorne...

Heh. As long as you don't tell them where the fine quality dwarven weapons came from, it's fine. Incidentally, I ended up killing everyone bar the three shopkeepers. I imagined them plotting against me, but being too afraid to stand up to me.

[RaithenLost]

That's pretty funny. Buy any snacks from the jolly innkeeper woman, did you? Sleep overnight? It would actually be extremely cool if they could put such things onto effect. Someday the programming will be that elaborate. I guess such is the allure of playing online community games.
Didn't the shopkeepers pitch in to fight when you attacked guards?
I thought they did that. Yeah, I play sooo goody-goody, I never even tested that.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

At least one person has proven that it's possible to complete the game without personally killing anyone or anything (though it occasionally requires assisting creatures in committing suicide).

Of course, your character can't be all that sane, given that you're on a mission to invade an enemy fortress wherein you plan to smack two cruxes together and blow yourself and everybody in the area into little atom-sized bits.

And, there is one alternate ending in Book II, the Saboteur, if you can manage to kill Korren.

[Painted Lady]

I never thought of killing Korren. Wow! Great idea!

[Kreador Freeaxe]

I never thought of killing Korren. Wow! Great idea!

I'll warn you that he has about 2000 health, so be prepared.

[RaithenLost]

Damn, he is a tough old b**tard! And this was the guy who said he wasn't up to the job of retrieving the Crux???
I have to say, I kinda liked that ending, though. <many chuckles>

[Rowanas]

Damnit. I haven't got that ending. Korren was WAY too hard for me last time. This time I'm playing an up front warrior, I've got even less chance. I'll leave it to my mage playthrough to try.

Apparently Korren is the single most hardcore NPC in the entire game, even tougher than General Ghorr, all of Amireth, Jawbreaker the Blacksmith and every last one of Kuudad's guards and sentinels, while standing on lava in a blizzard.

[RaithenLost]

I redid my final battles to conserve resources, including every charge on the plasma wand and all my best arrows, and most of my mundane ones, used the level-up mid-fight weasel and a dozen potions, every buff I had multiple times over. Then I got lucky, crippled him and spent the next 10 mins chasing him around the room to finish him off! But it was fun.