Eschalon Book II

[Renevent]

That thread about psuedo-turn based games got me thinking...and a little depressed lol...about combat in most modern RPG's. Luckily though it also made remember about an indie game I have always been meaning to purchase...Eschalon Book II. It's a very old school RPG that's supposed to be pretty dang good. Well, at least if you can get past it's graphics.

Anyways just purchased it a few minutes ago on Impulse...I'll come back later and let everyone know my thoughts on it :p

[hooby]

(If current trends continue, RPG's will soon be just movies, with just some quick-time events every now an then)

[opaser]

:D just waiting for it
just tryed for book1 the demo seemed intresting but dunno XD seemed a bit too much old school for myself :undecided: i hated when dont have a torch a its totally dark that u even dont know what your doing XD (common gimme brighness option) btw hate that on any games gothic included XD

[Renevent]

(4 hours of gameplay later)

Really enjoying the game! Supposed to be working from home today but I have been glued to EBII since I started earlier this morning hehe.

Experience so far...

Gameplay

You start out by creating a single character in a really old school D&D-like character page. You can pick your name, portrait, origin, faith, class, skills, and you have to roll dice for your base stats...you do get like 20 extra also to invest where you see fit. Most of the options have side effects too, like getting bonus stat points depending on your origin, and other effects like immunity from curses or regen ability based on your faith (or lack thereof). It took me nearly 30 minutes just to create my character as there is tons of options.

There are also so general gameplay options such as choosing if items wear, if you need food/water, and if actions are based on a predetermined seed. Upping the difficulty adds to some world score and the harder you make it the better the drops are.

Once all that is done you get a nice little story intro and you start out by your house with barely any directions except a little note you find on your front door. I won't get into how the quest(s) progress, but so far it's pretty good with some surprising events.

While it is an old-school and detailed RPG, it is pretty combat heavy (yay!). The entire game takes place in true 'turn' based fashion. If you don't press anything or move, nothing progresses forward. But it is done in a way where it feels fluid. You actually move about and fight very similar to a game like TQ. It's kinda hard to explain, but it works out VERY well. Combat is you basically move forward to engage enemies and click on them, but if you stop clicking the game basically waits for you so it can be strategic. In a way it's sorta psuedo-turn-based-realtime but it's done so well and learns way more towards the turn based side it's very cool.

There seems to be a lot of NPC's and some nice side quests. There's a good amount of dialog too with choices to make but it's not over bearing and it's all text.

Graphics

Not as bad as I initially thought they would be. The 2d art is ok, and there's some nice touches like weather effects and ok combat/spell effects. For what it is I pretty happy in this department...I am not a graphics whore though so your mileage may vary.

Sound/Music

Better than average on this front. There's nice music (both environmental and combat) as well as during some of the initial cutscenes. Sounds effects are serviceable and work well with the game. Everything from *clangs* to *wiffs* as you would expect in combat, and there's thunder when it rains ect.

Difficulty

This game is HARD! You start out weak with little of the skills you need to survive. This is the first game I have played in a long while where survival skills and having a well balanced character absolutely matters. Don't set out thinking you are just going to make a fighter with no other skills and think you are going to do fine...you will die (well you'll probably die anyways a few times hehe).

You really gotta think about how you level your character and what you do with all the things you find.

Story

Ask someone else...I barely pay attention to it other than skimming dialog and the opening scene lol. Something about these monsters trying to get all pieces of some artifact together...or something like that...lol. Honestly I don't really care :p

Complaints

The difficulty is pretty hellish in the beginning...or at least forces you to take it VERY slow (especially if you choose options like item decay, which I did). It is starting to pick up now that I have got a few levels and some better gear.

The walk speed can be frustrating too...it's like molasses lol. There is a fast travel system but it's only between what I can tell major hubs. So far I only have one so I can only travel a bit and fast travel back to town.

[zidders]

I really don't see how modern rpg gaming is any different than it's ever been. There are so MANY rpg's out there now, if anything there's far more variety out there than there's ever been, and the tools to make rpg's are getting simpler and simpler to use and less and less expensive, as well. There's quite a lot of freeware out there. All it takes is some imagination and a little elbow grease. Ok, I guess it IS different than it's ever been...it's getting better. Just the fact that we're no longer looked at as freaks and weirdos for the most part for playing rpg's is an awesome thing. All ya gotta do is look around, great games are everywhere.

[Renevent]

Well it's definitely has changed...at least from the perspective of what the big developers are coming up with. They are making games way too accessible and easy, and they are watering down too many mechanics. I'm all for streamlining and making our experiences better, but honestly I believe it's going in the wrong direction in many cases.

Right now I'm finding RPG's from Europe/Russia and the indie sector to be where I'm having the most fun.

I mean for instance I think Mass Effect 2 is a pretty damn good game...at least from a technical perspective. As a RPG? Honestly it feels more like a 3rd person shooter mixed with a relationship management game. Dragon Age is the same for me...well polished and great looking...but the 'rpg meat' is thin pickings.

Then I go and play a budget-ware game like Eschalon and it has more complexity than the previously two mentioned games combined. Yes the graphics stink, but I dunno it just resonate with me and with what I look for in a RPG.

I do think things are about to change though, and looking at many of the upcoming games of 2011 & 2012 I think RPG players are in for a real treat :)