Game Review: Eschalon: Book 1

produced by Basilisk Games

Review by Troy Hepfner

Our April 2009 newsletter featured a brief write-up of Eschalon: Book 1, but I wanted to write a full review. I have been playing through the full version of this game during the past several weeks, and I absolutely love it!

Eschalon: Book 1 is the first of a trilogy of classic role-playing games from Basilisk Games. It is a single-player game and it is turn-based, which means that you make a move and then the computer makes a move. Nothing happens in "real time". The game is essentially paused while it waits for you to perform an action, although there is nothing to prevent you from playing quickly so that actions happen in "near real time". After you take a step, open a chest, attack an enemy, or any one of a hundred other actions, the computer calculates the actions of all the other game characters in the environment. The results of both your actions and the actions of other characters are determined by virtual dice rolls that are modified based on the character's skills, abilities, and current condition. Strategy is the key to success in this game. Careful skill management, equipment selection, and magic usage will win your fights, not rapid button clicking.

When you start the game, you begin at the Character Creation screen where you can design your own character. The game provides a huge variety of options to choose from. Start by selecting a class: fighter, rogue, magic user, healer, or ranger. You can then choose the character's origin - depending on where your character is from, he will have certain attribute bonuses. You can also choose an axiom or belief system, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages in the game. There are 24 different skills you can select from, and 8 base attributes that affect your character's every action in the game.

Initially, your character will be really weak, so I highly recommend specialization. A well-balanced character with a wide variety of level-1 skills won’t survive long. For my first character, I chose to create a fighter with maximum strength and only a few skills: light armor (which is all you'll find early in the game), shields, survival, cartography (needed to use the in-game map), and swords. I dumped as many skill points into swords as I could. Later in the game, you'll have the opportunity to learn more skills, so don't worry about missing out on skills that you think you might need.

As your adventure begins, you'll start out in this little ruined house above. Moving around is quite easy, just click your mouse in the direction you want to go. As your mouse moves over certain objects, like the chest next to the bed, the object becomes highlighted. Left-click on objects to do something with them. Click on a chest to open it, click on an enemy to attack, click on a friend to talk, etc. You can do nearly everything with the mouse, which makes the game very easy to play.

The story in this game is really something. You begin with no memory of who you are, where you are, or how you came to be there. This means you will be learning about the world of Eschalon along with your character, which adds a lot of realism to the adventure. The only clue you have regarding your past is contained in the sealed note shown in the screenshot above. This note provides the guidance and direction you need to get started. As you play through the game, you will discover that things aren't always what they seem. I was surprised by a number of clever plot twists that I didn't see coming. The story is epic in scope and very well-written indeed.

The game itself is largely non-linear. You can play along with the story, or you can go off on your own adventure. The game world is massive, with lots of places to explore and things to do. You have the freedom to travel in any direction, although you have to be careful you don't wander into places that require a more experienced adventurer. I sometimes stumbled into situations where I was hopelessly outnumbered or confronted with an enemy who was much too powerful for me, and had to beat a hasty retreat. The nice thing, though, is that your character grows and develops as you gain experience, so you can always return later and try again.

One of the many things I really enjoyed about this game was all the attention to detail. I could tell that this game was a labor of love on the part of the developer. There were a lot of little features and minor details that resulted in some pleasantly surprising and very satisfying gameplay. For example, I was looking for a place called Bordertown, and as I was getting closer, I ran across a group of bandits. I was outnumbered with only partial health and no healing potions, so I decided to run. The bandits pursued. I ran in the direction I was already going, hoping to find the town and a shop I could duck into to buy some healing potions. As I approached the town, I was surprised to see the townspeople rush out to intercept the bandits and start fighting them! In some games, the townspeople would just stand there while you were being killed, oblivious to what was happening. But not this game! This little detail made the game world feel so much more real and immersive. And I've had lots of other experiences like that too, where the game world just seems to come alive!

The game comes with a player's manual in PDF format, in which you will find a lot of helpful tips. It describes all of the different character attributes, skills, game controls, and more. There's also a nice full-page map of the game world that you can print out and keep in front of you as you play.

So far, I've been playing this game for about 60 hours, and I estimate I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I've talked to some folks who claim they finished this game in about 20 hours, but they must have missed a lot of stuff. I've been taking the time to explore every nook and cranny of the game world, and it has been a rich experience so far. There are a lot of hidden places, and it is easy to miss them if you don't stop to look around. And even when I eventually finish the game, I can see how fun it will be to replay it using a different character class with different skill sets. Granted, the story and game world itself is relatively fixed and won't change much. But the treasure is all randomly generated, and playing as a wizard or a rogue will require a very different approach for dealing with enemies and puzzles.

Overall, Eschalon: Book 1 is a very satisfying adventure game that gives you a lot of bang for your buck. It has a lot of replay value, and it gives you a lot of freedom to play through the game at your own pace and in your own way. The game is rated Teen on our site, however, due to some mild language and mild fantasy violence, so it is not for younger children. But it is relatively clean compared to a lot of games that teens are playing nowadays.

Eschalon: Book 1 is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.