Eschalon: Book 3 Preview - Delightfully Old School

Nostalgia for the past has seemingly been a recent and powerful driving force in the gaming industry. But before crowd-funding and Kickstarter became its popular delivering vessel, oft underlooked indepedent teams had been and continue to carry that torch. Basilisk Games is one such developer. In two weeks the third and final entry in their fantasy role-playing game series, Eschalon, is set to release, and after playing through a pre-release build it's a date that can't come soon enough.

That nostalgia is rewarded early as Eschalon: Book 3's pen-and-paper roots are put on immediate display. Dice are rolled during character creation to determine base attribute scores, and your selected gender, origin (race), axiom (religion) and class determine additional bonuses and starting skills. Further points can be spent to personalize the build you want to play. You can even choose a portrait or import your own. 

Most importantly, it's a system that revels in freedom. Skills are not tied to any arbitrary class. All they require are the neccessary number of points to learn. For example, there's nothing preventing you from creating a rogue invested in divination magick or a paladin adept at cartography. It thus becomes far too easy to lose oneself re-rolling the dice to maximize scores and equally refreshing to let imagination and not an obvious, finite path determine how a character is molded. 

Eschalon is a series with a clear focus on exploration, and this third entry is no different. After a short prologue describing few events of the previous game, you're cast into its world with nothing but a few pieces of equipment and vague direction to head in. No marker ever points the way toward your objectives. To solve your quests, you have to listen and look. And though it's not entirely one continuous, non-linear world, you are free to roam its large zones and head off in plenty of directions on your own. 

Thankfully, the game does a fairly good job of providing you with enough information on how to proceed. Aside from a strange riddle, I was rarely befuddled on where to go. It's just welcome for all of my discoveries to be born through my own efforts rather than giving me the feeling of being on rails. But discovery can also be dangerous, and Eschalon's world is full bloodshed.

When combat strikes, the battle is played out through turns and dice rolls. After making your move, the enemies will make theirs. Hits and dodges are influenced by numerous statistics, and improving your skills will unlock more advanced abilities and spells. Combat feels good, too, thanks to impactful visual and audio effects. 

It's never easy, though. Most fights place you at the disadvantage of numbers, not surprisingly as you command only a single character. Nor are the environments always your friend. The dark of night, the barely-lit halls of a dungeon or a heavy rainstorm can obscure your vision and reduce your chance to hit. You always have to be considerate of where and when you are. 

There are some risks associated with that degree of exploration and difficulty, however. If you're not careful, especially if you're unfamiliar with the series' previous entries, you can find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place in the early game. My initial foray into its hostile world did not end so well.

I began my journey as an agnostic fighter, keeping the difficulty option that required food and drink to survive enabled. I relied only on my mapping skills and a sword arm to see me through. Unfortunately, my travels into a swamp infected me with tapeworms, causing my hunger meter to deplete three times as fast. I eventually contracted a similar disease in regards to thirst.  In jubilance I later found a healer, but she refused to cure my ills as I wasn't a member of any faith. Limited gold and supplies in those beginning hours also meant I was depleting my purse and the shops of resources far too quickly. Expensive equipment put potential life-saving upgrades out of reach, as well. 

My failures could be frustrating, but learning and overcoming those obstacles was potently satisfying as the game can often have the air of a survival adventure. Preparation is crucial before setting off into the wilds. I made sure to fill up my water skins, purchase some scraps of meat and fruit for the road ahead, and began well-rested at the break of dawn. Many modern role-playing games do well in making you feel like a hero, yet so few seem to succeed in putting you in the boots of an adventurer. Eschalon: Book 3 has no such issues. 

Eschalon: Book 3's presentation isn't far cry from games gone by, either. Characters are animated sprites against 2D background with a maximum resolution of 1024x768. Don't let that dissuade you, however. Its world is lively and with enough detail, enhanced by its sense of adventure and a wonderful soundtrack, to be just as immersive as a project afforded by a higher polygon count. 

After playing through the pre-release build, I was only left with a desire to play more. The sense of exploration and discovery it offers are sparks missing from a lot of more recent games. Its February 14th release date is one I'll be marking on my calender, and if you're craving an old-school RPG, you should, too.