- Hunger/thirst timers run even if you aren't moving. I don't like this at all; it kinda defeats the purpose of "turn-based". Would very much like the timers to "tick" only when you move/do something. Haven't figured out if there's a way to be in "combat mode" all the time (seems like combat mode is more logical that way).
- When I went to the safe place, my pet came with me automatically, but when I returned to the main map, the game said I had to dismiss my pet. :( Why? Why can't it just come back with me?
- My first combat was triggered when I clicked on a dirt pile and three enormous grubs appeared. I expected these would be standard intro-to-combat monsters, but I had no chance to beat them. At all. :( Maybe if I'd had my pet, it would have been different, but I doubt it. (Even Gothic had stuff you could beat to introduce you to combat.)
- Somehow I managed to click on something and get NPCs to suddenly attack me (without entering combat mode, I might add). If that's a stealing mechanic, then it's way too easy to trigger it.

So, I haven't gotten far in exploring mechanics, and I want to like the game, but I'm tempted to return this one.

Git gut skrub

There's a button you can use to bring your dog to you.
Click at recall:
http://imgur.com/h5aKVWp Did you look at their levels before you started swinging your sword/shooting arrows?
There's no hand holding in this game, you're supposed to figure how to survive in your own.

I can give you some advices:
Start by killing deers/fawns (exiting your farm, and moving to north, you'll find some), get used to how combat works in this game, learn how to give commands to your dog.
Jax is a great help at the start, when your character is weak.
Steal buckets, fill them with water in the well in front of your farm.
Go to your neighbours and steal their crops when they're not looking at you.
Collect everything you find, except rotten food. Sell the things you won't use to NPCs. Don't be salty.
Be more careful next time.
Game would be boring if you could steal everything without worries.
When a person leave his/her house, remember to close the door before trying to get items.

It's pretty much figure it out by yourself, no tutorial, no hints, no nothing.
And yes, some things are not really well balanced or thought through... Great you like it that way! Others still might disagree.

Why did you feel it was necessary to tell me that?
It is not.
I, and many others, like the game the way it is. He doesn't.
Thanks but I already know that.
If he disagrees with my opinion about something, he is free to elaborate why.
He is free to ask me questions.
He doesn't need help with that, he has his own hands and can think for himself.

Thanks for the tip about recalling pets; that worked. I wound up restarting because I thought I'd lost Jax, only to lose him again at the first nightmare sequence. :(

I'd resigned myself to that mechanic being broken. So, that helped.

Clearly, the game has some hints in it (otherwise there wouldn't be any tutorial popups). The clicking interface is clunky, which isn't abnormal, but it can result in unintentional stealing. I like games that put an "Are you sure?" in front of that.

I also wish that you kept the empty bottles after drinking potions (bottles are expensive, and I guess they should be if everyone breaks them after one use)... :P

At any rate, I'm enjoying the game enough to not have returned it.

Mind telling me how that happened? In that we agree. As long as it's optional, I don't see why not. It should be optional because some people are used to how the mechanic works at this moment, and they may not want to answer the message every time they want to steal something. I'm glad for reading this!

I lost Jax initially when going to the safe place, I think because he wasn't following me when I went there. The game popped him in, but when I left it forced a dismissal (which I thought meant he was gone).

At the first nightmare when I restarted, he was following me beforehand, and vanished when the nightmare started. After the nightmare, he didn't come back, although it hadn't said he was dismissed.

Because it would be boring if I couldn't.

Good to read this, i havent played it yet and i just started the game 7 minutes ago.
So there's a lot of bugs and other things that needs a lot of tweaking?
one thing they might change is the recommended system: it is not good enough to run the game fluently, i had to turn of all the default settings, and switch 30 fps mode cause the game use > 55% cpu which is quite high for such a simple looking game, maybe its because of jre and maybe jre isnt optimised enough.
Anyways i had to switch off everything and now my cpu usage is around 20 to 32% instead of 57 tot 67% and things wont get hot anymore so the recommended system should be changed and the minimum req. should be replaced by the recommended.

my setup:

i5 750 quad core 2.67
8gb ram
GTS 250 1 GB
my gpu is faster then the one in the recommended but i have to turn all extras and run at 30 fps, if the devs could adjust the recommended requierements that at least a GTS 250 is needed :D all will be okay.

I'm a level 6 wizard now (woo!), and I've got more impressions, in no particular order, both good and bad:

- Wizard combat suffers from the Baldur's Gate "nap" syndrome: I tend to use up most of my mana on one monster, and need to rest/wait afterwards. That can be tedious. Mana potions are good in dungeons, but are expensive. Only recently have I gotten enough wisdom to really make a difference in mana regen.
- Mana potions cost only a little more than the empty alchemy bottles you can use to make them yourself. This is disappointing (I really wish bottles were re-usable).
- Combat is highly dependent on RNG, especially against monsters that outlevel you enough to make your hit chance drop. The "dynamic range", so to speak, is huge: I can waste them easily, or get wasted easily (which means a reload, which is tedious). I preferred Gothic's system, where if you were outclassed, you were outclassed. Or, HoMM3's system, where RNG played a small part, but not a huge part.
- The gear is well done, and there's a lot to find in nooks and crannies everywhere. It works well with the stat system (base attributes + extended).
- I like the stat system: simple, effective, and it develops well.
- I invested precious learning points in Alchemy 1/2, only to later find books that would have given that to me for free. I dislike that in games, where you're penalized for not following an order of operations you couldn't possibly know in advance without probably spoiling the game. (Gothic had that problem in spades.) That also makes me question increasing other skills.
- I've invested no LPs in anything mundane (cooking/farming/mining). If it were a question of only money, I think I'd do it, but LPs are hard to come by, and I need them for Int/Wis/Arcane/Mana. Also, there's nothing I absolutely need gated behind those skills, not like making my wizard better in combat. (Min/maxing works so far.)
- The story is cool. I'm enjoying finding out more.
- The quest about the man who died in the well is frustrating. I spent a lot of time looking for another entrance, not realizing I just needed to follow the main quest.
- Monster diversity seems fair so far. I do question the number of spells animals can cast, however. :)
- The safe place is cool. I've only built what I've needed so far (teleporters/tent/campfire/alchemy bench). Mostly I'm using it as a dump for stuff I've found (bags everywhere).
- There's so much loot in the game that earning money isn't the challenge: the challenge is in not selling too much to the merchants, and going back to them when they (hopefully) have more money. Buying skills from merchants who will buy gear from you really helps (you can get your money back right away).
- Shrines are interesting: took me a while to figure out which ones I wanted (Wis/Int rather than Str/Dex), but in the end it worked.
- Like Gothic, you get more experience from completing quests than from killing monsters.
- I like that there's a rat named Boo in the game. :)
- I like the objects you can find with special powers; some are very useful.
- The graphics are simple, but pleasing. The atmosphere is good.
- The music is appropriate and supportive of the immersion, but not remarkable (so far).
- On the easiest difficulty, food/drink aren't annoying. Water is available nearly everywhere, and food is plentiful. You don't need to grow/farm any yourself. At this level, at least, the mechanic isn't badly done, and I find some gameplay value in it.
- The bug in the backpack was cute the first time, but it does get tedious after a while.

Finished, as a level 8 wizard on easiest settings. Final impressions:

- I discovered speed potions near the end. Made the game a lot more fun; was easier to explore areas and kite enemies.
- Alchemy was confusing for me, until I realized the point of the better bottles wasn't to combine things to make new effects, bur rather to make potion-taking more efficient, so as to cram more effects into your limited ability to quaff potions in combat.
- I was disappointed that you couldn't duplicate Alchemy recipes on your own, or experiment with adding substances like ectoplasm.
- I didn't finish all the side quests (and I barely entered southeast Balrum). I should probably have leveled up at least one more time before facing the final boss, but I wanted to see if there was anything in my inventory that I could use to beat it, and as it turned out, there was. I created a super-potion, whose most important ingredient was black blindweed, and using it a critical juncture turned defeat into victory.
- I enjoyed casting Pure, using a Preparation scroll, and casting Chaos Fire. :)
- I found some wizard gear that increased fire damage, and I realized that made the basic fireball more efficient. With the speed potion, it was easy to spam the minor fireball until the enemy was ablaze, kite until the burning damage was done, and then repeat. I never ran out of mana in combat doing that (with effective wisdom at 20+).
- Overall, I had fun with it. I don't think I'll play it again, but I usually don't anyhow. I don't regret buying this one. :)

Can't really say, haven't play Eschalon long enough to have a valid opinion...

Balrum and Eschalon do look *very* similar.

Eschalon is easier to get into - its interface is simpler and combat much less demanding. But I found the gameworld overly simple and the story somewhat thin, even over all 3 games in the series.

Balrum has far more "meat" to it - more complexity but much more to do. NPCs don't just wander around, they have specific patterns (woodcutters will go to the forest to chop trees, blacksmiths periodically go out to mine stone, farmers till fields) and almost everyone goes to sleep at night (hint: a good time to check out their belongings).

Overall, I'd favour Balrum though it's harder at the start and you can spend an awful lot of time just exploring and travelling (the areas are far larger than Eschalon's and the second floor tower labyrinth is the biggest maze I've encountered in a CRPG).