by Rainier Wong

Created on: June 14, 2008   Last Updated: January 09, 2012

Name of game: Eschalon: Book 1.
Type: Adventure.
Produced by: Basilik Games
Ratings: 4/5.

This is an adventure game for those who love watching fantasy movies that depict times when fighting were done with swords, and frightening creatures roamed the earth.

Playing this game was not that difficult but could be challenging at times. Before, I could start playing, I had to create my own character by entering a name for it, and then by choosing the various skills, the place of origin, the religion, and other important items for it. I could even select a different face for the character. Once, the character is set up, the real adventures began.

This game required me to move my character around in beautifully designed scenery. As I moved along, I could enter buildings, walked through the woods, picked up objects, open boxes, and perform other stuff. The real challenge comes when I had to fight against creatures and conserve my hitting points at the same time which was not an easy task to do especially there was literary no space to escape from the creature. The number of places my character could go seemed to be limitless. and I did not have to be stuck in one particular area. I could scroll along as I walked my character to other places of which some were known located outside the boundary of the screen, thus, making the game fun to play with. Having the opportunity to move to new and unknown place made the game interesting for me. Apart from moving around and picking up objects, I could cast spells on any opponents or creatures.

The graphics was great. The buildings, and other objects including the doors, the treasure boxes, the fire on the torches, and the woods surrounding the buildings looked quite realistic.

The sound effects were also very good. I could hear the opening and closing of boxes, for example. The sound of the heartbeat signifying the near end of my character's life caused me to feel desperate. The theme song sounded very much like those used in Hollywood movies.

I like the overall interaction of this game. At the very beginning of this game, I could either choose to start playing it straight away or get some help first. Whenever my character was near an object, a caption at the bottom of the screen telling me what it was, and other important information regarding it appeared. I did not have to endure any long tutorial that happened at the beginning of certain games. The only setback of this game was on certain occasion I had to bare the 'loading process' during the course of playing.

I did not find much innovation or creativity in this game as its plot is quite common in games like this. However, the game is fun to play with, and I give an overall rating of four out of five.

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