Is Eschalon: Book I free?

Yes — Eschalon: Book I is free to play, so you can install and play it without buying anything.

Is Eschalon: Book I Steam Deck compatible?

Mostly. Valve rates Eschalon: Book I Playable on Steam Deck: it runs, but may need some manual tweaking — a community controller layout, or zooming in on small text.

Can I play Eschalon: Book I on Mac?

Yes. Eschalon: Book I has a native macOS version on Steam.

Is Eschalon: Book I multiplayer?

No — Steam lists Eschalon: Book I as single-player only.

Is Eschalon: Book I on PC Game Pass?

No — Eschalon: Book I is not on PC Game Pass right now.

Eschalon: Book I

Name: Eschalon: Book I
Brand: Basilisk Games
Availability: InStock

Basilisk Games · February 10, 2009 · RPG, Indie, Isometric, Turn-Based, Fantasy

Eschalon: Book I is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

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Very Positive86% · 41875Metacritic2playing now

Best price

Free

Get it free on Steam

This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

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Eschalon: Book I price

Eschalon: Book I is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Eschalon: Book I

✦ AI summary

Explore a massive old-school world filled with dungeons and mysteries in this tile-based, turn-based RPG where every action is determined by stats and dice rolls. Build your character from scratch with 24 skills and 8 attributes, tackle strategic combat at your own pace, and discover randomly generated treasure across a non-linear adventure that respects your choices.

Eschalon: Book I is an old-school role-playing game that will take you across massive outdoor environments and deep into dozens of sprawling dungeons as you seek to uncover the mystery of who you are. It features a tile-built, turn-based game world where the result of absolutely every action is rolled, calculated or statistically determined. Hundreds of items and dozens of creatures await your discovery in this classically inspired RPG.

A tile-built, turn-based game world where the result of absolutely every action is rolled, calculated or statistically determined. Strategy is paramount to success; careful skill management, equipment selection and magic usage will win your fights, not rapid button clicking. We are very pleased to say this is not another "action RPG".
Hundreds of items and dozens of creatures await your discovery. A combination of randomly generated treasure and carefully hidden goodies means that no two games will play the exact same way.
Unlimited character development style: Choose from 24 unique skills to make the character you want and 8 base attributes that affect your character's every action throughout the game. The game world does not scale or adjust itself to match anyone's play style, so the ease or difficulty of the game is directly related to how successful you are at developing your character.
Combat plays out at your pace. Eschalon: Book I features a turn-based system that allows you to roll through combat as fast or slow you want...make it fast and furious, or analyze every option for maximum advantage.
A non-linear storyline means that the game world is open to explore as you desire. Follow the storyline or don't...it's up to you. Just be careful where you go and who you choose to trust- the world of Eschalon can be a deadly place for an inexperienced adventurer.
An epic adventure that you must face alone...a single-player RPG carefully designed to feel like the great old school RPGs of the past such as Ultima®, Might & Magic®, and Wizardry®

Eschalon: Book I — game info

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux / SteamOS
Steam Deck: Playable
Player modes: Single-player
PC Game Pass: Not included

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What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

✦ AI summary

Eschalon: Book I is praised by players as a well-crafted, classic indie top-down RPG with engaging mechanics, flexible character building across different archetypes, and non-linear gameplay that lets players tackle content in their preferred order. The main complaints center on long travel times between areas and minor equipment management limitations, though these don't significantly detract from the overall experience for most players who find it enjoyable and worth playing.

Recommended Jun 28, 2026

Very good game

2 found this helpful

Recommended Aug 9, 2026

i crave for games like this, man, simple, yet complex enough, with a peak plot and an interesting world. chef's kiss, truly.

1 found this helpful

Recommended Aug 7, 2026

I had a real good wizard power fantasy going on with this one

1 found this helpful

Recommended May 9, 2026

oldy but goldy

1 found this helpful

Recommended Aug 17, 2026

This was a great game! I'd give it 4.75 stars. It was everything you would want in an indie top-down RPG. It wasn't difficult, but it was quite fun and entertaining. The mechanics of the different abilities was good. The mixing between different archetypes was very fluid. Also, it didn't railroad you. It let you complete many different parts of the game in whatever order you like. I especially liked the options at the end. The only things I didn't like were that it wouldn't let you switch weapon sets between a 2H weapon and a weapon + shield/torch. This was very minor because it didn't affect your turn order except for equipping a torch. More annoying was travel time. It did take an awfully long time to get around different areas. Overall, I really enjoyed the game, and look forward to playing the sequels.

Recommended Jun 2, 2026

Yah.

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