Eschalon: Book III Demo

The Eschalon series is proof that isometric RPGs still have a chance at glory even today, although Pillars of Eternity made it even clearer for those who had any doubts. Role-playing games gamble a lot on story and character development, because these are the cornerstones of the genre and fans usually prefer listening to a good story instead of struggling to run the latest DirectX version.

Eschalon: Book III is obviously the third part in the series, and it also happens to be the last, which means that the story should tie up nicely and provide you with the closure you need. Whether it manages that or not, one can only decide for himself, although the writers certainly did not disappoint this time around either. As long as you are prepared to forgive a few things here and there, this should be a satisfying end.

Everything begins with the main character being teleported in a strange land after the fight with the final boss in the previous episode. To make matters worse, you are weak as well, which means that you kind of have to relearn every bit of knowledge you acquired on that last journey. Although you wake up without any possessions or equipment, you still have one of the crux stones, which proves to be quite important in the long run.

Unlike your usual RPG, Eschalon: Book III tends to put a bit more stress on the player, especially when it comes to survival. Hence, besides resting to recover your hitpoints and mana, you must also eat and drink water on a regular basis, otherwise you can die alone in a swamp and never even see a dragon. Obviously, these mechanics can be disabled by adjusting the difficulty level, but it kind of diminishes the experience.

The dialogs are just as hefty as before and you can spend hours reading in the game. Each map has been designed with a staggering amount of detail, even if you only get to see it from above. There’s a magic to the isometric perspective that makes dungeon exploration that much more atmospheric, at least if you remember doing the same back when 3D graphics were reserved for fast-paced shooters.

There are some complaints that this final chapter in the trilogy is not as good as the previous episodes, which may as well be true. However, Eschalon: Book III is definitely not a bad game and you can still enjoy it in its entirety, if only to hear the end of the tale.