Eschalon Book 1 is a deliberately old-school computer role playing game produced by the indy studio Basilisk games, and available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. By old-school I mean turn-based, isometric, fixed camera, with strong textual elements, think of an intermediate between Legend of Zelda and Neverwinter Nights. If you liked those games, then for $19.95 Eschalon Book I might be worth your consideration.
Online reviews of the game can be found at the following sites:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/
http://jayisgames.com/
http://www.2404.org/reviews/
http://www.scorpia.com/?p=812
Overall, I quite enjoyed the game myself, although the first few hours were tough on the Ranger character I generated, as I soon ran out of arrows and the money needed to buy arrows. The strong element of random encounters in the game, while familiar from the pen and paper RPGs I used to play as a teenager, also made life difficult as I'd camp to try to heal wounds only to have camping lead to a random encounter that would cause me more wounds, and exhaust my meagre stock of healing potions and arrows. Reading the reviews shows that others also thought that the random encounters and early game money scarcity needed better play balancing.Ultimately I got a bit tired of the grind - at one point I had to fight opponents with my fists as I'd broken my only dagger trying to open a sealed barrel (note to self: I should have RTFM before beginning playing, as it tells you to use cleaving or bludgeoning weapons on barrels and chests) and didn't feel like restarting with a swordsman or a magic user.
For the Linux version Basilisk had fixed the game exploits found in the Windows version, so I took matters into my own hands and used a hex editor on the same game file to give myself 45000 gold. After that, able to buy whatever I wanted, and all the arrows I needed, the game was actually a lot more fun.
I was finally able to take the time to notice the excellent audio(*) sound effect work (owls hooting as you walk through the woods, for example), and the prettiness of the level design given the limitations of the isometric engine.
I've previously mentioned I was giving Indy games a try, given my recent dissatisfaction with recent big-budget big-game studio games that given only a few hours game play for $60. Fully playing through Eschalon Book 1 took me about 25 hours (a little longer than the 20 hours some of its reviews mentioned, but for reasons I mentioned above), so at approximately $1 per hour its pretty cheap entertainment. While you won't get as much for that $20 as if bought a big-studio like NWN a few years after it came out, there is something to be said for supporting Indy game studios that do a decent job. Think of it as buying Organic food - maybe its better for the environment.
(*) One annoyance I experienced was occasional interference-like audio buzzing, but I'm not sure if this was intrinsic to the game or really a pulseaudio problem in Fedora 9.
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