Eschalon emulates and celebrates Old School cRPG's as in those from "The Golden Age of cRPG's (1985-1993), basically 'pre-Baldur's Gate', which, I suspect, is why a lot of people seem to have difficult grasping the core concept of Eschalon; much like the Bard's Tale series, early to mid Wizardry series, early to mid Ultima series, Times of Lore, Early GoldBox titles; it keeps things rather 'plain and simple' and focus more on the world-building and atmosphere
Sure it doesn't have the depth of the Ultima series, nor the dungeons of the Wizardry series, or the class-system of Bard's Tale; but Eschalon brings its own flavor to the table and feels somewhat like Times of Lore, in terms of 'adventure', mixed with some Ultima, in terms of world-building and oozes of atmosphere, much like the Goldbox games, add to that a rather 'nifty' class-system, within the games' limitations (cartographer, as many have mentioned, is an interesting addition, as being a skill)
All in all, I believe that Eschalon is a fine example of the 'spirit' of The Golden Age of cRPG's done right: it's not overly complex, nor is it just another dungeon-crawling hack'n'slash; it's that fine middle-ground; a game you can spend however long you feel like, just soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying decent gameplay to a decent story
With regards to music and sound effects, they are simply brilliant and truly evokes some sort of nostalgic sensation - perhaps due to the sparsity and simpleness, but there's something to it that just feels 'right'
Graphics-wise I personally find it to be very enjoyable pixel-art and although you're basically stuck with 800x600 (16bit, or 32bit color), it more than does the job, especially for me who am playing it on a CRT
I would recommend this to any and all of you who enjoyed the cRPG's of the 80's to early 90's - this 'fits right in there on the shelf', with other perhaps less remembered, classics of a time before Baldur's Gate, Fallout and Daggerfall came about
