Wizards & Warriors

aka: Deep6, Swords & Sorcery: Come Devils, Come Darkness, Wizards & Warriors: Quest for the Mavin Sword
Moby ID: 2828
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Description official descriptions

The land of Gael Cerran is in trouble. An evil ruler named Lord Cet, thought to be long vanquished, has been mysteriously resurrected. There is only one way left to defeat him once again - by wielding the magical Mavin Sword, forged from two metals bearing the property of the opposite forces, good and evil. The Oracles of Ishad N'Ha have charged a group of adventurers with the task of finding the sword and putting an end to Lord Cet.

Wizards & Warriors is a traditional role-playing game similar in many ways to Wizardry series. In the beginning the player creates a party of up to six characters, choosing between ten races and four initial classes. The races include, besides traditional fantasy humanoids, animal-like creatures such as the boar-like Gourk or the Omphaaz, which resemble elephants. Each race is available in both genders and comes with bonuses and penalties to base attributes, as well as unique traits, such as improved treasure-hunting for Ratlings or night vision for the feline Whiskahs. The four initial classes (Warrior, Rogue, Priest, and Wizard) can be promoted to eight elite classes and three special ones, which include such rare professions as Valkyrie and Zenmaster, and require completion of specific tasks.

The party starts in one of the few available towns, with still pictures representing locations (town hall, inn, armory, etc.), and navigation limited to clicking on them. However, the rest of the exploration (outdoors and in dungeons) is done in full 3D, with free exploration and camera rotation. Dungeons are connected by roads, forest paths, and other areas, and the player is usually able to explore freely, though access to certain locations may be restricted. Enemies can be found on set spots or appear randomly; the frequency of their appearance, as well as the overall difficulty, can be regulated in the main menu.

Combat is real-time from the distance, but becomes turn-based when standing near the enemy. Magic comes in six schools: Spirit, Sun, Moon, Vine, Stone, and Fiend, with seven levels of spells each, and several spells per level. Casting spells drains the mage's mana pool. Characters can only cast spells within their own schools, with intensity of magic depending on his skill level, and limited by the amount of spell points in the school. Characters may join various guilds available in the game and thus gain access to special quests and promotions, take jobs, and perform other side quests.

Spellings

  • 巫师与勇士 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

202 People (186 developers, 16 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 70% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 24 ratings with 4 reviews)

A very engrossing RPG with some large problems

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.

Windows · by BreadSlicer (2) · 2000

A decent game, but not what we all expected from Bradley

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.

Windows · by weregamer (155) · 2003

Nice try, but there are many better games available

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.

Windows · by frank rieter (146) · 2001

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Contest

Wizards & Warriors had an interesting incentive to register. Sending in your card entered you in a contest to win a full sized mounted replica of a 16th century suit of armor. Some copies of the game even came with a sticker on the front touting this contest. In case you were wondering, second place was a $200 gift certificate from Ral Partha and there were ten Activision game packs as third place prizes.

Development history

The game was slated to be a Virgin Interactive release. When the USA branch of Virgin was shutdown, EA kept its Westwood branch alive. "Swords & Sorcery" (including "NOX") development was continued under the Westwood label. Heuristic Park and Westwood parted ways a year later. Another year later, Activision voiced an interest in publishing the RPG as "Wizards & Warriors"

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  • MobyGames ID: 2828
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kasey Chang.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, ClydeFrog, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Riley Beckham, Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Jeanne, Alaka.

Game added December 27, 2000. Last modified March 27, 2024.