Eschalon: Book I

Tibia with sounds and music. Nice.

If you like turn based RPGs with exploration and smart combat, you'll like the mechanics of this game. It's much smaller than, but reminiscent of Spiderweb's Avernum. There are some problems, but they are fairly minor, and the strengths more than make up for them. So why the 1 star? The first game does not, cannot, stand alone. I mean, it could have, with some minor tweaking, but it is very obviously the first of a series, and it is the overall tone and story of that series which is deserving of the rating. In short, the overall plot is nihilistic, and lacking in resolution. It all culminates with you making a choice which ought not be made hastily, where there is really no in-game reason you would have to make it hastily, without the ability to actually ask questions of the involved parties to determine the proper solution, with an obvious path forward to *test* the best solution, and without ever getting an answer about the resolution of the story. I strongly suggest you spoil the ending before considering spending money on this, as it is quite likely to leave you bitter.

If you are looking for an FPS or a platformer disquised as an RPG, that limits your exploration to a single town or gives you all the answers on a gloden plate, than you better try something else. If instead you are looking for a real RPG with a diverse world, meaningful quests and challenging gameplay, this is a game for you. It is an excellent choice not only for hardcore RPG fans, but also for those, who want to learn what an RPG should play like.

This game I dunno how the hell it made it any game store. - You have to create a save directory manually, cause the game gives up on trying to make the folder. - You have to jump through Windows system admin stuff just so the game can run at all. - Wanna save your game? Sorry, you can't cause the game for some reason deletes the save game directory whenever it fails to save. And say you DO manage to save it, well it will either corrupt the file or crash to desktop and refuse to launch unless you restart your computer. No game should be THIS BLOODY DIFFICULT to play. GOG, if you're reading this, seriously get rid of this garbage game. Its more broken than Cyberpunk was at launch.

No keyboard support on Mac. Tap-to-click doesn't register either. Unplayable on my system...