Eschalon: Book III Review
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Gameplay
Eschalon: Book III, like its predecessors, uses a turn-based engine. That means you take your turn, then enemies and NPCs take their turn, and then the cycle repeats. Fortunately, enemies and NPCs perform their actions very quickly, and so the game can be played at almost any pace you want. It's not the case, for example, that you have to take a step and then wait, take a step and then wait, and so forth, making a trip through a forest interminable. You can just keep the left mouse button pressed, and your character will walk towards it, seemingly in real time. Other than battles against archers (who generally have lengthy attack animations), the game doesn't feel turn-based at all.
What you do in the game is pretty much RPG standard fare: you explore maps, you talk to people and accept quests, you kill enemies, you earn experience points and gain levels, you hunt for better equipment, and then you confront the bad guy at the end. Book III, I think, is at least average in all of these elements, which doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but if you have a Major League Baseball team where all of the players are at least average, then you've got a good chance at winning the World Series. Book III isn't a World Series contender, but it's solid entertainment. Let me discuss the five game elements in order.
The maps in Book III work really well. Basilisk Games like Larian Studios has always been good about rewarding players for taking the time to explore carefully. In Book III, Basilisk added 30 "secret areas" to the maps, and you gain experience points plus some other reward -- like a treasure chest, gold pieces, or even an attribute point -- for finding them. As an example, when you start out the game in an inactive volcano, if you happen to notice and follow a narrow path in one corner of the map, then you find a chest with a skill book inside, which is a nice welcome gift. In general, the maps are designed well, and they have a nice mix of flora and inside/outside elements to keep gameplay interesting.
The quests in Book III are all on the simple side. You meet somebody, they tell you what they want you to do, and then you do it or not. I can only think of two places where you're given a reasonable choice for how to proceed. Basilisk Games is good about allowing you to kill anybody you want and still complete the main questline, but other than that, the quests and conversations are workmanlike at best, and there aren't any memorable characters. Even the bad guy, who first showed up in Book II, is a non-entity. If Basilisk Games is able to produce more games in the future (which from my understanding is somewhat in doubt), hiring somebody on the more professional side of writing might be a good idea.
There are roughly 25 (basic) creatures that you can fight in the game, and they have some variety to them. There are grubs that produce angry maggots when they die. There are insect swarms that are immune to piercing damage. There are jellyfish-like creatures that shoot magic darts, which you can resist if you have the right spells / potions / rings. Some creatures can see in the dark while others can't, and so spells like Cat's Eyes and Predator Sight can make tough battles easy. But the game could have used more enemies, and it especially could have used smarter enemies who are better at working together. Right now enemies are susceptible to hit and run tactics. They don't chase you very far (and never off the current map) and they don't regenerate their health, which allows you to kill most anything by running away and resting, and then fighting again.
I didn't keep track of how my character earned experience points in the game, but I'd guess it was roughly 70% from killing enemies and 30% from completing quests and finding secret areas. Since enemies can interrupt you when you rest, there isn't a hard limit on your character level, but unless you go out of your way to farm encounters, you'll probably finish the game around level 20, which is about right for a 25+ hour game. I've already mentioned that there are a lot of options for building up characters, so in all character development works well in Book III. There's always something you need for your character, and you always have another level coming around the corner.
The equipment in Book III is roughly the same as it was in Book II, with one exception. In Book II, as long as you had at least one point in an associated skill, then you could use any weapon or piece of armor without penalty. But now in Book III, weapons and armor require different ranks in their skill, and so you need, for example, 4 points in heavy armor to wear a Dwarven Steel Lord's Helm. However, these requirements are almost all less than or equal to 7 (where you can get up to rank 10 from trainers and skill books), so they don't have a huge impact on the game. Otherwise, the equipment was simply balanced, becoming generally cheaper and lighter (and with some items gaining new icons), and it should remain familiar to anyone who played Book II. Book III also includes a new set of unique items, but there still aren't any set items.
