Wizardry 8

The Good
This is one of the top 5 cRPGs of all times. It's got adventure and loot and monsters, oh my! Like other Wizardry-series games, it's helpful to understand the stats and levelling system, but for a change, it's not absolutely necessary.

There's a huge world to play in and you'll find yourself spooked by insects in the swamp and without a place to hide in the desert. The atmosphere will keep you coming back for more.

Quests and puzzles are not as open-ended or numerous as in previous Wiz games, but that will please everyone but the die-hard fans. (Be careful: a few guide books and websites get some info wrong, based on the BETA.)

A fantastic new class, the Gadgeteer, adds to the bountiful set of team choices. While I don't recommend switching classes first time through the game, it's possible to play almost any combination and have a good time.

There are tons of battles (perhaps too many), but that seems to be a handicap of the genre for some reason. You can tweak the toughness of encounters (tied to your strongest character), but, alas, not the frequency. I like tweaking my RPG battles, so I really liked the phased combat system -- although battles with far-away or round-the-corner creatures aren't handled as well.

The variety of strategies, monsters, and environments keeps evolving as the game progresses -- like most of the Wiz series, there's some especially tough Bosses that you can avoid or try to take out.

Like the other Wiz games, you can join one or both of the main factions or go it alone.

The Bad
There's a few arbitrary restrictions on where NPCs can go, which makes planning your excursions less open-ended than I'd like (work-around: use NPCs as "extras" rather than key team members).

The monster AI is about the best for this genre, but it's still not up to shooter level.

And, just when you think you've gotten to the end of the game and released the final level...well, you're only about 3/4 through the game. The End Game lasts a long time.

(And, like other Wiz games, your PCs will get tired, run out of inventory space, and run out of mana sooner than you'd like -- but, if you have an open mind about this, you'll see it's probably a fair game balance.)

The Bottom Line
I won't describe the storyline in detail. Plenty of reviews on the net do that already. Instead, here are my thoughts on how different types of players will react to this game.

(I played this game on a 500 MHz laptop w/1 MB vRAM and 512 MB RAM. This was fine, although it played better on a 1.5 GHz machine w/separate v-card.)

Wizardry Fans: IMO, the best. It has all the fun of the first 7 games without all the click and get confused tedium. It has the only storyline of the 8 games that actually has a reasonable ending (although it's a let down, 8 games later).

Might & Magic Fans: If you're disappointed in MM9, this is your fix for a traditional dungeon crawling cRPG. You'll rate it one of your favorites.

TES Fans: not nearly as open ended and the 1st "team" (instead of 1st-person) perspective might trip you up, but you'll like if not love it. It might not make your top 5 list, but it will make your favorites list.

AD&D fans will be disappointed. Not nearly as much chance of role-playing. You'll complain about classes and 1st person perspective for a team. You'll dislike the levelling system. But, if you can get past that, you'll enjoy the story and adventure and have a good time.

Action-game players will also be disappointed. Limited graphics, unexciting sound.

Adventure-game players will probably like the game, unless they really enjoy high definition cut-scenes and well defined storylines. The game allows you to travel pretty much where you want when you want (except for the endgame areas...and keep in mind, some areas will be too tough to handle).

Bottom Line: a top game. Given how much they got right, it's too bad Sir-Tech is now out of business. If they teamed up (again!) with the Wizards & Warriors crowd, they'd have a unbeatable combination.

The Good
So the whole Wizardry-saga comes to an end and the eighth part of the series has a couple of novelties. There is the new character class of the Gadgeteer which is some kind of Gyro Gearloose with it's tools. He is able to construct deadly devices, which contain powerful spells, from garbage. An example: You have a broken blaster and a microwave chip? No problem, these guy will build a microwave blaster, containing a boiling blood spell. Hey, maybe Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child have played the game. In their novel Brimstone the bad guy uses a similar weapon. But the Gadgeteer is not the only one with spell containing items. The other class is the bard, but does not build the instruments, he have to find them. But again, these things have powerful spells. Beside that there are four „normal“ spell books, each accessible by different character classes. Another new thing is the character evaluation. You fight monsters / solve quests, getting experience points and new levels. OK and for each new level you can spend points on attributes and skills, that's normal. Now the uncommon part: Skills can also be increased by simple using them. Your bloodthirsty warrior loves this axe and use it always during combat? He will increase his skill soon. Of course: The higher the skill is, the more time is needed for training. But beware: Training is necessary because spending skill points will only work for some time. To reach a skill of 100 you have to train. Oh and there are some special skills, accessible only if a character increased an attribute (like strength for the power strike skill) to 100 points. Another good new improvement is the personality of you party. During the character creation process you give each character a personality. Effect of that? Well during the game they will comment events like killing of a monster or spotting a new NPC. Of course they comment also by voice. Unfortunately the personalities are all flat. Not like in Baldur's Gate II there you have extra quests and relationships within the party.

Other things that may be not new, but I like them: The game is awesome long and have an awesome range of items. You will meet a lot of different races, each with a race personality, explore strange dungeons and visit much more strange places. There is a human city with a space port, an underwater area, a city in the trees, an old monastery and a lot more. Playing this game will need some time. Another time consuming part are the combats. Again you will meet a wide range of monsters and, that's the funny thing, these monsters also have abilities and spells equal to the playable characters. Because this game is in real 3D, the monsters can attack you from the side or from behind (beware of surroundings) so arrange your party well by e.g. place the well protected war machines to the front, range fighters to the sides and in the behind them all the support characters like priest or mage. The different range of the weapons is also important for the fight. What should you do if you supporting spellcasters from the back are out of mana? Well some the weapons are large enough to hit the opponents in front of you, but throwing or shooting weapons might be the better solution. Luckily the game auto swaps weapons (if your characters are equipped with a primary and a secondary weapon) if the monsters are out of range. Nice and often forgotten, but now real: The world is a globe! Walking long enough to the north and you reach your origin from the south. I also like the environment / the story. It is a nice mix from normal fantasy like swords / magic and Sci-Fi elements like androids, space craft and high-tech tools. I can tell you much more about the great graphic of the game, the huge amount of different spells, the monster radar or the puzzles you have to solve the find the retro dungeons. But the review is getting longer than I thought, so I close with: There are to special guys in the game which will craft you unique weapons and armor. The only thing you have to do is to bring them the raw materials. Yes, you have guessed right: Most of the raw materials is guarded by strong monsters.

The Bad
There are only two things that I don't like in this game: 1)It is damm hard to survive. Especially if you have less then the maximum party size. Now I'm playing the game with only four party members and I can tell you that I often have to avoid fights. Otherwise the monster groups will rip my party to small pieces. 2)The other thing is that monster states are sometimes a little strange. You meet a group of monsters, each with health > 100 and statima > 300. After a long, tough and bloody fight you receive a little more than 3.500 experience points per monster.

The Bottom Line
Wizardry 8 is a long and tough but also a very large and wonderful game. If is one of the best RPGs that I have played and believe me, I have played a lot of them. Playing this game is an experience that everyone should have made. Even if the game itself is very time consuming (luckily you can save the game freely). I hope that someday there will be a Wizardry 9. Maybe it is already planned, after you fought the last battle, the game creates an ending save game.

The Good
Though I was leery of the change to free motion and 3D modeling, these were well used and added to the game instead of hurting it. All the things that were great about the Bradley part of the Wizardry series were there - real role-playing decisions, a plot with the right degree of complexity, continuity with the predecessor games. In the Wizardry tradition, some of the puzzles were quite obscure but they mostly made sense.

The Bad
Sometimes there were problems with controlling your party movement. Some fights were rendered artificially difficult because of 3D problems like monsters partly in walls.

The Bottom Line
If you liked the earlier Bradley Wizardries, you will likely love this one. It manages to be pretty without failing to be Wizardry.