Eschalon: Book I - Review @ RandomNPC

RandomNPC has a review of the first Eschalon game.  It's quite positive, though they do have some complaints.  Here's a snip on the atmosphere:

Apart from versatile gameplay, this sense of isolation and danger is one of Eschalon‘s most compelling aspects.  It takes real effort, or one hell of a suicide run, to make that first trek to another settlement.  It’s far from impossible, but when you make your way from the cozy town of Aridell to the improvised shantytown at the border, you know you’re not just some fledgling amnesiac abusing the quicksave function.  The aptly-named Bordertown may only have a handful of dingy inhabitants, but they’ve got goods for trade and they’re the first sane humans you’ve run across in hours.  Even the comparatively large city of Blackwater offers only tenuous security, surrounded as it is by hostile wildlife.  The whole land feels cut off, neglected, and left to fend for itself, and this aptly mirrors what you have to deal with to stay alive.