Eschalon: Book III

If you're reading this, you've probably completed the first two and are considering whether or not this one's worth it. I can't answer this for you, but I will say that Book III will not leave you with a better conclusion than Book II did. Frankly, I find Book III disappointing, considering how Book II built upon on the original, I expected additional improvements. Only buy this if you want more of the same II: rewarding exploration (with some truly unintuitive bits which will likely require you to look up a walkthrough), and minimalist old-school gameplay. This one is notably shorter than the second one and feels rushed, I recommend waiting for a sale.

Наверное лучшая часть из трилогии, наконец-то добавили и продумали секреты которые интересно искать и подземелья которые не бесят. Визуально игра не стала лучше или хуже, но внутри её механики смазали и кое где подкрутили. Сюжет всё такой же накуренный, концовки воспринимаются без эмоций, ну и в целом вся трилогия это игры которые можно пропустить. Читая обзоры на эту игру на других ресурсах например на stopgame складывается впечатление, что они играют в совершенно другую игру, а ты получил классическую компоновку ролевой игры, герой-инвентарь для бесполезного барахла-20 квестов-город из 10 человек иди спасай мир, больше делать в принципе нечего и смотреть не на что. 70% навыков бесполезны, алхимия не нужна, магия за исключением пятёрки заклинаний, тоже не нужна, в игре есть хай лвл вещи но из-за рандома и тупейшей системы лута ты их не найдёшь. Если выбирать - 2 полторашки пивосодержащей мочи или трилогия эшалон - выбирай ничего.

[h1]Compared to the two predecessors this one falls a bit flat but it's still good.[/h1] While I loved Eschalon Book I and II in every respect, Book III felt a bit rushed and I found the ending to be anticlimatic and very sudden. Nevertheless it's still Eschalon and I enjoyed playing it very much to the point that I neglected household chores for 2 days.. If you liked Book I and II you cannot go wrong in buying Book III just for the sake of completing the series but I recommend to buy it on sale. The cons: - much much more walking than in Book I and II, however it becomes doable with more short-travel markers activated, but hey, sometimes you circle an area for 3 screens just to get to a tiny point in e.g. the north of the area :-/ - rushed anticlimatic ending - it took me a bit to figure out which area to clear first or which quests to do first because ALL enemies were too strong in the beginning - I sold an important item I found twice but you need it to progress the story(that wasn't clear at first), thank God I found another one or I had to start a new game D-: That should have been made more clear in the game that one mustn't sell the [spoiler] Sigil of Fire ring[/spoiler] e.g. by letting all merchants say that they are not interested in buying it. The pros: - cute monsters and great lore like in all Eschalon games - the music (my cat liked the calming music very much) - the battles were fun as in Book I and II, I simply like the battle system - although the ending was rushed I enjoyed the final battle very much, I saved all my gold for this nice super strong mauling hammer and crushing my enemies with it was so much fun and very effective!! - the landscapes and dungeons were interesting - an interesting point: in Book 1 I remember the noximanders to be a huge pain and quite a challenge for me because I got poisoned or sick like every three seconds, in this part however beware of the swampy areas, save everytime before you want to walk through a swamp, the swamps are this game's noximanders :-D Well yeah buy it!! But buy it on a sale!!

Much of the same if you liked the first two, but this one definitely feels a bit more rushed and the world a lot less inspired. I didn't mind the ending [spoiler]if you stayed with Erubor[/spoiler]. On the other hand, if you decided to [spoiler]switch sides and fight with Malkur, I felt like the swapped text was pretty lazy. Even though I can accept that Malkur might have been telling the truth, the fact he is a mind reader and working solo can also argue a strong point that he is just manipulating your character for his own gains. It would have been nice if this was focused on more if you decided to help Malkur instead of the ambiguous similar Erubor ending.[/spoiler] The game never had a truly in depth story, but neither do games like Baldur's Gate (more characters than story in my opinion), Avernum, Diablo, etc. I think this games strong point was the character building system (even if it was far more simple then it lends you to believe), and the art/assets/sprites. I've played bigger games (looking at you Wasteland), where the character portraits were obvious palette swaps, which does not happen with this game. I also appreciated that pieces of armor actually changed your sprite. I really did like the overall look of it, and even though some skills seemed pretty useless or like they had minimal impact, I had fun roleplaying my self inflicted amnesiac that could colour in a very basic map. You can't go wrong playing through this trilogy, it definitely is unique in its own way.

Остання частина олдскульної трилогії вийшла достатньо неоднозначною, хоча вона й розставила в історії всі крапки над і (як би небагато там цих самих "і" не було). В третю частину я награв найменше, якщо бути чесним, то я її проходив всього двічі в ті стародавні часи після релізу, і третій раз - ось буквально щойно. І це може слугувати для Вас лакмусовим папірцем при оцінці продукту. [b]Мінуси[/b]: - дуже коротка кампанія. Нікуди не поспішаючи і заглядуючи в кожен куток я пройшов гру всього за 25 годин. Наче, і не забагато, на перший погляд, але проблема в тому, що нормально розкачатися ви зможете лише ближче до 20 години. А потім коли ваш персонаж буде готовий йти вперед і ламати обличчя ворогів - гра закінчується. - найслабкіший сюжет в серії, хоча фінал вже не таке дно, як у перших частинах. - невеличкі нестиковки по сюжетним героям (одного з них, наприклад, ми могли вбити в попередніх частинах, але тут він живіше всіх живих) - Все, як на мене. [b]А тепер плюси[/b]: - додали кілька пасхалок та механіку секретних локацій (якщо знайти таку локацію, то отримуємо не лише невеличкий приємний лут, а й дорогоцінні очки досвіду, які будуть збільшуватися з кожним новим знайденим секретним місцем. - ще підтягнули графіку. Так, вона все ще застаріла, спрайтова, і навіть на 1080р моніторах виглядає стрьомно, але в цілому стало краще і деталізованіше. - новий бестіарій - нові айтеми для ваших герої та розхідні матеріали. - нові заклинання (з'явилось навіть заклинання саммону, але я його так ні разу і не випробовував:)) - цікава карта, цікаві локації - все ще офігезна атмосфера. геймплей дуже затягує і це найголовніше!

if you love rpg isometric with a UO feel.. this is it.

2/10

end of the series. pity that nothing followed it in this "classic" style