Wizards & Warriors

The Good
Bradley once again shows, that he is able to produce great Rpgs: - The Charactersystem is much more complex than the one of e.g. Baldurs Gate - The World is very Huge and there are lots of interesting places to visit - The Dungeons are very well designed - The Game reminds a lot of the old Wizardry-Games - A lot of Quest - Sometimes very difficult but solveable Puzzles - Good Turn-based Combatsystem - Great Adventuring-Atmosphere; nice Spoken Descriptions of the Surroundings and good Music

The Bad
- Some people might not like the "classic"-Style of the Game - The Icon-based Movement and Interaction-System could have been solved a lot better - Most NPCs dont have a lot to say - Graphics are not up to date (but ok) - The Mainstory isnt very original

The Bottom Line
I really enjoyed this game a lot, but you have to be somewhat a fan of the "classic" RPGs because it plays quite different from Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, FallOut, Planescape and the other new ones.

The Good
It's BIG. Strong emphasis on character development. Great sense of 'adventure' and atmosphere with some nice locales. Some parts are quite challenging and the game definetly has its moments. When the game is at its best it is a worthy successor to Wizardry 7 (which in fact it somewhat is). Of course the real Wiz8 looks to be a giant among CRPGs...

The Bad
My biggest gripe is that combat is in real-time until enemy(s) are in melee range. This renders bows useless and spells also to a certain extent. The game 'compensates' for this by making the combat generally far too easy. The interface itself is poorly designed (i.e. no 'save-game' option while in 'action' mode). The guild and promotion system is very nice in concept but poorly executed (it seems as if it was originally conceived with a single character system in mind - not a party system). There are also lots of bugs and some are show-stoppers.

The Bottom Line
If you really love big, turn-based (somewhat), combat oriented RPGs then I think you could definetly enjoy this game despite its flaws. It is after all quite an impressive game underneath it all. If not then don't bother.

The Good
The most crucial elements of an interesting RPG were all done reasonably well: character development, combat mechanics, world immersion. There weren't a lot of actual role-playing choices, but there were some.

The Bad
The graphics weren't good enough for the demands placed on them - getting into the first dungeon was terribly frustrating because you couldn't see the lever on the wall.

UI was similarly lacking. Controlling your party wasn't impossible, but it was more work than it should have been.

The story was OK, but it lacked the "oomph" so powerfully present in the Wizardries Bradley worked on.

The Bottom Line
Empirical proof that, though Bradley's writing and direction revived the Wizardry series, he didn't do it alone. I really expected, and really wanted, to love this game, but in the end it was merely "good", not "great". It just didn't hold my interest the way the best ones do, and the interface and graphics problems made me move on to other games.

The Good
Cover art and website was appealing. 3d graphics look nice. Sound and voice acting are fine. The world is huge!

The Bad
It has a poor designed interface. You have to read and re-read the manual (and visit their website) to learn to handle the game. Intuition wont help - having played one or more of the wizardry games might. Minor bugs appear often (blank textures, weird flashes etc).

The Bottom Line
Nice game for the die hard 3d-rpg or wizardry fan.