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This is the third and final game of the Eschalon trilogy. I reviewed Book I [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/jarlfrank/recommended/25600?snr=1_5_9__402]here[/url] and Book II [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/jarlfrank/recommended/25620?snr=1_5_9__402]here[/url]. Book III is very similar to Book II when it comes to technical and gameplay aspects, so I won't repeat myself too much here. Considering this is the final part of a trilogy and wraps up the overarching story, I'd recommend to play the previous games first, especially Book II as it ends with a cliffhanger and directly leads into the beginning of Book III.
When it comes to the character system and combat, not much has changed compared to Book II. It's still the same relatively simple combat system, and the exact same character system with the same attributes and skills. The only difference I noticed is that there's a couple new spells, otherwise everything is as you know it from Book II. For example there's now a light spell in the divine magic school, where previously it was only in elemental magic. This is good in theory, because divine magic has more utility spells so if you want that kind of thing it's the better school to choose, but I tried it out and it's far dimmer than the equivalent elemental magic spell. Why even add it when it's useless? Ultimately I just resorted to torches boosted with the Cat's Eyes spell, which remains the best way of lighting up dark dungeons.
Another issue with spellcasting that's either new or I just haven't noticed before is that you can't cast spells in combat when your weapon, gauntlets & shield all together have too much weight. I bought a very expensive magic sword, equipped it, went into battle - and suddenly got the message that with my strength (which was very high, above 30) I could only wield a weight of 14 or so in my hands, any more interferes with spellcasting. And that sword had a weight of 18! No weapon in the previous games was this heavy. This essentially made the most expensive sword in the game useless as I couldn't cast spells while wielding it, and its damage output wasn't even worth the tradeoff.
For comparison: Maledge, a unique sword I found in a dungeon, deals 8 damage, has +3 bonus damage, +3 freeze damage, and increases your sword skill by +2 (which further increases damage AND hit chance). It only has a weight of 5.
The expensive sword I bought off a merchant had a base damage of 11, and was enchanted with +4 fire damage. It has a weight of 18, which makes it pretty much impossible to cast spells while wielding it even when you raise strength to be your highest attribute. This weight applies to all swords of this type (Mithril Conqueror's Sword) regardless of enchantment. So for a base damage of 11 you essentially give up spellcasting. Meanwhile the unique sword Maledge has 8 base damage and +3 bonus damage, which adds up to 11 on its own, not even counting its other enchantments, and it only has a weight of 5.
Balance in general seems to be a bit wacky here. None of the Eschalon games are particularly balanced, but this one struck me as the least well thought-out in that regard. The game is much shorter but most enemies seem much harder than before, forcing you to focus on specializing your character into only a handful of skills as a jack of all trades is going to struggle against enemies that outclass him. I focused on sword + divine magic, which is a solid combo, but combat felt definitely harder than in the previous games, without being any more complex. Enemies just have bigger HP pools on average, which means you need to land more hits to kill them and suffer more hits in return. To make up for it, magic items seem like they're generally a little more powerful than in the previous games, but not enough to make a real difference.
A positive change, however, can be found in the game's exploration. You now earn experience for discovering secret areas, and there's plenty to find. Some are obvious, some not so much. There was one that required me to cast a Reveal Map spell. There are now far more places where you can blow up wall sections with explosive barrels. Plenty of secret areas are hidden behind fences or walls you can blow up this way, so carrying a few explosive barrels with you is always a good idea (as long as your strength is high enough to allow for it - those barrels are heavy). There are also several (optional) puzzles that require you to shoot a lever through a window. Environmental interactivity and puzzle solving feels a lot more emphasized in this game. So overall, the level design shows some noticeable improvements.
Visually there are also some nice additions. There's one dungeon entrance that's a giant skull, there's a beached ship whose wreck you can enter, etc. You can see those places in the screenshots here on the store page. The previous games didn't have anything this fancy. I liked how some special locations get some extra visual flair this way, and how these larger assets break away from the strict tile-based nature of the visuals.
One thing some players might be disappointed with is the length. It's the shortest game in the series by far. I completed Book I in 10 hours, Book II in 14 hours. Book III only took me 7 hours. The world is quite a bit smaller, but the wilderness areas tend to be better designed and have more to discover, so quantity made way for quality in that regard. Some of the maps here are much denser than any featured in Book I or II, and there's much less empty space - no more narrow linear forest paths like in some areas of Book I for example. And since movement speed is just as slow as in Book II, the smaller size of the game felt like a good thing to me. There's much less tedious backtracking compared to the previous games.
My only disappointment is in the game's structure. You ended Book II with one of the magic Crux gemstones in your possession, and your enemy possessing another. Now you have to find the two missing stones (there are 4 in total) before your enemy gets his hand on them. After you found the first, you are tasked with finding the second and expect to be at the halfway point, but the areas that follow are pretty much just a funnel to the final area and then the game ends. The second half feels a little rushed in comparison. I didn't have much of an issue with it - better an abrupt end than overstaying its welcome.
The real issue is the ending. Oh boy. It throws [i]yet another[/i] plot twist at you out of nowhere, tells you that everything you thought up to this point is wrong, and actually whatever you do the outcome will be a great cataclysm and trying to prevent it will cause an even worse one. The final showdown between your organization and the alien antagonist consists of a pretty cool mass battle where you fight against an enemy army with allies on your side. You can choose which side to support: Erubor, the man who has been guiding you for the previous games, or Malkur, the antagonist who claims his plan is actually the better one for Eschalon.
Whichever side you choose, you're not going to get any real answers. Regardless of who wins, the game ends with you giving all Crux stones to the winning side and then retiring from adventuring. The winners use the stones to enact their plans, but you won't find out whether they succeed or not. There's a big cataclysm coming that may or may not be prevented based on your decision, but the game simply ends with a "Well, you'll just have to wait and see what comes of it."
There is no real resolution. You don't get any confirmation about which side was right or wrong. It's a huge letdown if you cared about the story at all.
I can still recommend it for the first half, but the ending is a weak conclusion to the trilogy, almost to the point of ruining it (at least story-wise).
