It's a sad fact linked, probably, both to age and to a culture that tells people that it's more important to be the best, however you need to get there, than to do the best you can. I find it very interesting that so many want only the experience of being the uber-champ, not the experience of discovering the game world. Since Eschalon revived my interest in games (as I said, I had played only one other CRPG in the last decade, so I would be the definition of a casual gamer interested in an old-school isometric experience), I've spent some time on a few boards seeing how players react to games.

You're playing the role of a guy who just woke up and doesn't remember much of anything. I thought the work of getting there was the point of playing a Role Playing Game. Yes, you like to have fun, which you appear to define as being the ultimate fighter (or thief or whatever) and you don't like the actual work of getting there. It's telling you that location isn't really for a level 1 character.Īlso, since you clearly have a lot of knowledge and practice with cheats that include messing with the program, I don't think you could be counted as a casual gamer. If the one upstairs in the broken-down inn near where you wake up, there may be a reason for that. I'd be interested to know which lock that was.

Okay, so you're mad that you cheated to start the game (tweaking your character to make him an uber level 1 thief) and still couldn't get the first lock to open with your three lock picks. I think you'll find it's less about whether my opinion is valid for you, than that it is or is not valid for the vast majority of potentially-paying customers. I think Thomas and his crew did a great job balancing a game for the casual gamer, and I'm looking forward to a lot more fun with Book II. You have your opinion, and it's valid for you. I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you. You wouldn't think it was very much fun if you were playing a swordsman, had pushed every stat and skill available to you as regards swordsmen to the max, and found you had less than a one out of three chance to hit the very first Fanged Salamander you came across, would you? I, for one, was not having fun when I had twinked my character - cheated, in fact - my character for Thief-style theft, and found myself out of lockpicks on the very first lock I encountered. The point is, for the casual gamer, will they have fun? That's what a game is, ultimately, about, and is a point that is all-too-often missed by the hardcore gamer who does have fun by having his ass handed to him will someone have fun the whole game, or not? If absolutely nessessary, you can save/load every round until every hit you make is critical, and you've acomplished the statistically impossible simply by employing enough metaphorical typing monkies.

I wouldn't waste my breath talking about a non-Half-Life shooter.Īs for 'impossible', by definition it's not. I expect nothing less from the guys who read my writings, and I will give nothing less to the developers of games I see potential in. If you see value in something, you should be as critical of it as possible. And I enjoyed the game so much that I have played it over and over (sometimes with re-roll cheating just to see what I can get, sometimes straight). My first time through, I knew nothing of cheats or any of that, and I managed two of the three possible endings anyway. This is only the second CRPG I've played in a decade. Move on.įor some reason you sound like you're set to 'I hate everything.' For a perspective, you sound like you're saying that Eschalon Book I is impossible without cheats for any but the hardest of hardcore gamers. Just let it go, and realize that we like the game, and you (maybe) don't like it. You don't need to give all we forum-goers (who seem to love the game) a hard time. I'll repeat it again: if you don't like this game, or find that the experienced is spoiled due to having to cheat, then find another game. A specific niche that enjoys the building tension as a trace signal closes in on you, or as a government official finds the server you're hacking from, however, will love this game. Upon examination, it really is a simple game. It boils down to clicking on all your little hacker tools and then clicking the corresponding security. Most gamers would be turned off immediately by the fact that the 'game' consists of very little actual stuff identifiable as gameplay. Ever heard of Uplink? It's a game by Introversion that's essentially a computer hacking sim. They can make a game that will make one specific niche as happy as could be. Catering to the niche hardcore gamer crowd is economic suicide. Game developers keep catering to you at the expense of those of us who would like to enjoy a game, and they quickly go out of business - for good reason.

Avernum 6 cheat