Eschalon: Book I Review

2404 completely burned Eschalon: Book I into the ground, dismissing the idea of an old school cRPG and giving it a 5/10.

(An old school role-playing game,) it says on the box, and Basilisk Games isn’t kidding. Nowadays, most RPGs are big online games, mostly about grinding away on level treadmills. Before that, the big RPGs were massive clickfests where players tried to control up to half a dozen or so adventurers in real time.

We’re going further back. No, not like Might and Magic, a turn-based party adventure with cool graphics and a fun story. No, not even like Bard’s Tale, another turn-based adventure where you needed to click on every single space, and where each 10′ square could contain, I kid you not, 99 berserkers, 99 berserkers, 99 berserkers, and 99 berserkers.

Further back. Anyone remember Temple of Apshai? This was the first cool computer RPG, though folks complained because it could only run on computers with the ridiculously large 16k (sic) of memory. Even then, players were expected to consult a book as they play, reading out the room descriptions written there, since the computer couldn’t be expected to hold all the text needed to describe several dozen rooms.

That’s the last time I’ve seen a game like this, although, in one of the few nods to modern technology, the text descriptions of rooms are saved in the software, to pop up every time you enter the appropriate area.

Spotted on RPGWatch