It's a quiet enough April, so what better time to get back into the old-school RPG spirit? Eschalon: Book II is a 2010 game from Basilisk Games and the sequel to Eschalon: Book I, which I covered... huh, this very day last year. Weird. Both games are vaguely Ultima-like CRPGs, in that time only passes when the hero moves or performs actions and they have a top-down, isometric perspective. They're also single character games where there's a lot of freedom in how you choose to spec out your solo hero beyond the limits of their starting class. Everything from combat to armor to spells to thievery to lore to secret detection is linked to skills that the player can earn after levelling, from training with NPCs, or from reading skillbooks: acquiring the skills isn't the problem, but levelling them up until they're reliable is another matter. For more details, I'd suggest reading the linked review of Book I above - many of the same characteristics have been passed down to its sequel.

Sensing that Book II would be very similar to the first, and that there's no character import process to worry about, I've built my new protagonist to be far more dependent on magic in comparison to the burly warrior from last time. Turns out I was right on the money: the game is almost identical to its forebear, excepting a few tweaks to the combat system, a rearranged UI that puts the various vital shortcuts in closer reach, and some new "survival" mechanics that I'm not sure the game needed. (Fortunately, the game also now has a female protagonist option if you're so inclined, perhaps retconning the male-only hero of the first game.) In fact, it's these survival mechanics that the game uses for its difficulty tiers: you can opt to play with thirst/hunger meters to worry about, item degradation, a block on saving (and loading?!) in perilous situations (say, if enemies are nearby or you're currently poisoned), and having all actions with random results instead be fixed (so no save-scumming before opening chests or picking locks if you didn't like the first result). The more of these modes you decide to suffer, the higher your final "score" and the better the treasure you'll find.

Beyond that, it's really more of Eschalon: Book I. The game still has this nice and crisp if sorta utilitarian mid-90s look to it that almost resembles one of those NetHack graphics packs you can find that helps makes that game more aesthetically palatable and easier to read visually if ASCII isn't your deal. The gameplay is solid and accommodating for lots of playstyles; I'm having a significantly different time has a ranged spellcaster who must constantly deal with a dwindling mana supply, because there's a lot of practical spells that ably replace thievery skills (melting locks and remotely detonating traps never gets old) and torching enemies at a range leads to a lot of merry chases as I toss fireballs while constantly backing away. The game's setting has shifted slightly north in its geography - though I've yet to discover the more glacial areas, so it's just been more of the same forests and beaches so far - and the story mostly negated all the good I did in Book I with an inevitable unstoppable invasion of that game's region that my character only narrowly escaped from (definite shades of how The Witcher trilogy panned out). It's also not a terribly complex game, which is both to its benefit and to its detriment - fans of more modern RPGs with oodles of systems might find it a bit slow and rudimentary, but if you're seeking to escape from all those complications then the Eschalon series makes for a fine oasis.

It's not like I can be too disappointed that it's more of the same. I enjoyed Eschalon: Book I because it felt like a retro CRPG with some modern thinking behind it; one that alleviated the irritations of playing antiquated games while still retaining the soul of that era. That each of the game's many map regions has an ideal difficulty level and an equivalent level of treasure quality means that a brave player can march in there and take some high-level gear without hopefully getting stomped in the process; it's also fun just to pick a direction and see what's out there, even if you're not going to live long doing so. I was even inspired to start drawing a world map - the game brings back an auto-mapping system that is tied into a player skill you have to level up to get a more detailed mini-map, but it's not as easy to remember where every region fits together - so that's about as classic CRPG as they get. The designers clearly had an audience of old farts - or perhaps the type of millennial who enjoys Polaroid cameras and record players - when they implemented all those hoary, unpopular, but mercifully optional features outlined a few paragraphs above. Eschalon: Book II can be as gritty and unpleasant as you want your throwback CRPG to be, so you can't say Basilisk isn't catering to the audience they have.

Rating: 4 out of 5.