Thusfar, Eschalon book I is proving to be an incredible find on GOG. The premise is generic, seemingly:you awaken after a nightmare with amnesia in a ruin amidst woodlands. A mysterious note directs your path to a nearby town . So far so good in terms of genericness, right? Well, the truth is far different, you need to be careful going around. Though you can beat them, most enemies can equally swiftly dispatch you. Resting is essential after almost every encounter that way. Yet the difficulty curve isn't what sets this game truly apart from the rest. The pool of skills has profoundly unique ones amidst it that really do make a difference. My favorite among these rare ones thusfar is cartography. In most games maps fill in on auto. Not so here, if you have the skill, your minimap gets filled in as you explore. If you invest points into this skill, your minimap will also become more detailed. Since there's a very diverse pool of skills one might think a wrongly placed point might have dire consequences... Not so, though it does up the challenge a bit this game is designed for balance. Still, there are some things you might want to keep in mind: some ranged weapons/magic come will come in handy. Since healing costs a lot, avoiding contracting diseases from foes is a must in the beginning. Whilst I don't want to spoil the fun too much, I would say that anybody who likes the IWD or BG should look into this game.
King of Dragon Pass is first and foremost a very unique game. In over 20 years of gaming I've not seen anything quite like it and that's a fact. Basically you're descendant from a people who once walked alongside the hero-gods known as the lightbringers who stood at the cradle of your civilization. After a long line of ancestors your people of today have made a choice: Rather than stay in Heortland and be thralls to a nasty piece of work called the Pharaoh they decide to up and leave for the Dragon Pass. How their history was shaped is determined by choices made by the player in the intro. Insignificant though they may seem at the time, these choices have profound effects upon the way you can play the game. If say you start taking thralls or made peace with beastmen whilst your ancestors abhorred such practices then you'll have at the least quite a bit of misfortune. The game consists of guiding your clan from then on and making decisions during events as they are brought to your clan ring. The ring initially consists of a mixed match of people, who may or may not be suited for this task. Primarily they will give you advice and be held responsible for decisions you make. You can replace one or all of them with folks held in reserve, all will grow older and eventually die only to be replaced by young'uns. These pop up at random, so you may go ages without a new healer ready for council or be stuck with hundreds of cattle-cods at once. As mentioned before, all age and their appearance changes as they do. (A merry trickster with a head full of hair may turn into a wizened eagle with a demonic gaptooth smile.) Life in the clan is not easy, with the struggle to survive depending on the amount of farmed/wild lands in the tula, cattle and trade agreements. You even need to weigh how much you wish to raid into that balance and how well you treat your neighbors. Events occurring have longlasting effects, if you kindly hil most peculiar lizardman you may find some eggs that hatch into dinosaurs. They may make good aid on the farm or in battle, but may also be more trouble than they're worth. Supporting a false prophetess may bring shame or glory. The sheer number of events and consequences is mindboggling. In short, this game could be described as a combination of a civilization, text adventure, D&D and Art game though that description fails to encompass the whole gamut of it. Better to say is that King of Dragon Pass is amazingly addictive and infinitely replayable, though juggling all concerns can cause a whopper of a headache.
This game had been on my to get list for GoG for quite a while. So when I finally got it recently it was quite the experience. Master of Magic plays very much like Master of Orion, you choose your race, erh.. Wizard and start out in a small town with a few basics such as low level troops and whatnot. You research spells, build stuff in town and thereby are able to field a more capable army. (Those poor hobbit spearmen you start out with are better suited to living quietly at home) You can send out your forces to explore land and sea and later the other world in the game. Yes, you heard it, MoM has two paralel worlds to explore. In either world you'll encounter monsters, ruins, chaos nodes, free towns and the mind-controlled-minions of other wizards. In the latter case you have a plethoria of options: be diplomatic, keep your distance, play the raiding game or go for KKND. (Krush, Kill 'N Destroy) Whatever you may choose, this game provides hours of fun. Thing is though that there are a few flaws that might put you off if you are blind to the qualities of the game. First off, the graphics are where the game shows it's age the most. It looks almost like Gemfire or Uncharted Waters 2 for the SNES.Armies are represented by icons and battle scenes feature models about 1,5cm². The research completion animations differ per wizard, but get repetative. (Merlin and his snake are point in case) Secondly, it takes a while for your armies o amount to anything much. Most ruins and such have monsters that see your starting party as a quick snack, even on easier difficulty levels. So the difficulty curve can be quite steep. Thirdly, the AI isn't too great either, but maybe I'm a bit spoiled by MoO2? Opponents turn from licking your boots to raging nemesis over one turn at times or so it seems. On the more positive side though, the music is really good, if considered for it's time. With many memorable themes in between the OST that GoG provides is a welcome bonus. Aditionally, if you like MoO 1,2 or 3 then MoM is without doubt right up your alley. To me the old graphics are a bonus as I do like the SNESsy nostalgia they invoke.