Eschalon's claim to be an old school RPG is correct in that it will certainly allow you to build your character however you like, then ruthlessly punish you if you didn't build Mr. HackStabby McFireball. Specialization in combat, especially of one weapon type, is vital if you'd like to progress at all. I hope you like sleeping for a day after every fight, or blowing all your cash on healing. Sneaking by encounters is next to impossible and won't get you any XP, leaving you in the lurch. Your only warning of ramped up difficulty in new areas is death. Yes, you certainly can wander alot of places, but get ready with that reload. Spending alot of points getting that nifty cartography skill up will also leave you inadequate in the fights you get into every 10 steps. Quests are fairly common but their locations are so general or incorrectly described, leaving you to do alot of confused wandering. For example, the main questline directs you to the heart of a certain forest. I found the objective in the center of the NORTHERN map of that forest. Keep your money unless you really really really enjoy turn based hack and slashers with sparse storylines.
