Eschalon: Book I Review

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Written by BuckGB on January 16th, 2008

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In another throwback to the adventure games of yore, everything in Eschalon is turn-based. This lets you plan your strategy for conquering bad guys or new territories like a chess game. It's great when you get a call or something from the (real world) to distract you, because you can trust no matter how long you're away, nothing's going to sneak up on your character and eat you while you're not looking.

Interactions with computer-controlled characters are pretty simple, linear affairs. When you find a person to talk with, you're presented with a menu-driven dialogue screen that enables you to select simple responses to either prod the person for more details about specific things you're interested in or to just thank them and go on your way. Sometimes these interactions will also trigger missions or quests that you have the option of taking. These missions will reward you with cash or items, and they'll also give you a chance to test out your chops with new weapons, spells and abilities.

There's a pretty finite number of these missions in fact, the world of Eschalon is pretty small. This may disappoint RPG fans looking for a massive world to explore, but I understand that Basilisk Games is trying to whet our appetite for further installments of the series; plus it's an independent developer with a finite development budget.

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