Customer Reviews

Wizardry 8

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sirtech really outdid themselves with this one. So 6 and 7 were a little lackluster. So what. Sirtech proved that they were more than on the ball with this one. This is absolutely the best-playing, turn-based RPG I have seen in a LONG time. There are many who have tried, and failed, to make a realistic, 3-D, yet still turn-based combat system. They almost always fall short in some way, such as not being able to move around very much during combat, or having a lackluster magic system, and too few special abilities. This is not something you will have to worry about in this game. The combat system runs smoothly, is extremely intuitive in its setup, and has so many options, that you could literally play through the game more than a hundred times, and not even end up with the same character combinations any of those times, let alone to solve all the secrets, and hear all the voiceover lines, and such. This game is MASSIVE, and it was designed to be played forever. There are 15 classes, and 12 character races. The character creation system is the best ever in a Wizardry game, and is in fact better than many other character creation systems out there, as well. It's based on what you want to play, not what you roll on random dice, to create your character with. The areas are huge, and there are over 100 spells, and a myriad of items and monster types, that will keep even the most seasoned RPGer busy for a while. This game is a MUST HAVE for any true RPGer. I would give it more than 5 stars, if that was an option, this game is just THAT GOOD.

Wizardry 8 outshines them all! And I've played them all (practically). I won't repeat all the positive comments given in other reviews except to say that I agree with them all! I will comment on the battles: Yes, the fights take a little longer than in most games (as one person commented), but so what? The battles are handled so efficiently by the AI that it is actually fun, unlike some games where battle is more a chore of click, click, click as fast as you can with the mouse. You can let the computer handle the battles and just sit back to enjoy or you can handle every aspect of the battle yourself. Or anywhere in between the two extremes.
Best yet, it works on XP (which is what I have). So all you XP's out there, there is no excuse not to get this great game.

I played Wiz 6 & 7 and I've been playing CRPG's since Might & Magic 1 was released on a single 5" floppy. So that's where I'm coming from.

This game is a labor of love from people who also played and enjoyed the Ulitma, Might & Magic, and Wizardry series way back when.

What does that mean? It means: party play - lots of stats & numbers - oodles of badies to kill - an interesting story (that's mostly an excuse to kill even more bad guys but interesting) - quirky classes - uniques skills - odd humor - wide open fields of exploration.

If you love games - well remember the people who made this game love them just as much as you do. It's a steal at this price.

This one is a real winner.

Character creation is fun, with a whole stack of races and classes to choose from, plus a decent selection of voices and charcter portraits. The game world is huge - I played the game for about three months and still didn't see everything there was to see. The plot is fairly engaging - not novel quality, or even as interesting as Fallout, but interesting enough to keep you going. There are multiple endings, and the choices you make can have a major effect on the plot.

Combat is where the game really shines, which is good, because you'll be doing a lot of it. It's not uncommon to have one tough battle after another after another in this game, and you'll have to make creative use of terrain, party formation, and the wide variety of weapons, spells and magical/technological items available to you to survive. Seriously - if you don't like very frequent, very hard battles, you should look at another game.

Though the graphics are a mixed bag (a lot of ugly polygons), the designers made good use of 3D, making it quite a bit of fun to explore the maps, and see what's around the next corner. The music is all right - atmospheric, but not very good. The voice acting is so-so, but almost every character has a voice, which is neat.

In continuing to dig through old games, I came across this, a stop and start RPG I'd never been able to get into. Apparently this was because it had more in common with a WoW raid than I was able to swallow when I could only play the game for 30 minutes at a time.

Wizardry 8 follows a group of 6 random strangers all from a Dark Age planet to Dominus in a rich merchants magic metal sky ship (i.e. spaceship). Arriving at Dominus, you are shot down by the ship belonging to the Dark Savant, who has arrived, in line with two other factions, searching for the three Dominae, with which you may supposedly Ascend to join the Cosmic Lords. While the story is a bit of a head sratcher for many reasons (why would a space-faring civilization would bring along 6 backwaters who've never seen a starship to a planet to compete with what amounts to Darth Vader, for starters) the sheer depth of the back story and space opera-esque feel of it gives it a lot of leeway. At whats a better goal for a D&D group than becoming gods?

As for gameplay, some of the built in functions will make your jaw drop. Intelligent party AI (They're now in close range. I'll automatically put away my level 1 sling and pull out my level 67 killing death spear). Interactive spoken dialogue, in a game made during a time when you maybe had ten or twelve spoken scenes, if you were lucky. Insanely easy-to-use, easy-to-customize interface, despite being a game that had 897 functions from one screen. Spellcasting that was more than magic missile. Skill-based and level-based character improvements. NPC comments that're actually worthwhile. I could go on and on, but I'll stop there. Suffice to say, this game had about a dozen key functions that I still don't see in most games today.

But, like trying to shove a bowling ball into a sock puppet, this fell falt in several areas. Certain story features are blatantly papered over, showing that they rushed to gold rather than actually finish the project. Combat at times is insane, with your group stumbling on 8 or 9 random monster groups at once. Combat also got boiled down to leading them to a bottleneck, or putting your back to a wall, which sometimes did little to assuage the fact that you were facing a group of 40 monsters in one combat. Some of the dialogue were impossible to follow, and it was a stickler for capitalization, meaning Dark Savant and dark savant were seen as two different entries, one wrong and one right. Also, the difficulty is likened to the first ramp of a rollercoaster. You could encounter a TPK fight within the first ten minutes of the game, which is probably why it gathered dust on my shelf for so long.

Regardless of its flaws, the sheer enjoyability of the game, combined with entertaining dialogue and simple game options that will make you smile, and wish other games were made just as deeply, makes this still a worthwhile play. Try to find it on a pay-to-download site first though, since this was not widely printed, as is now a rare collectible.

Wizardry 8, by the now defunct Sir-Tech Software, is an excellent neo-old-school RPG. By that I mean it retains the feel of classic RPGs like Might & Magic, Bard's Tale, and the early games in the Wizardry series, while updating the gameplay nicely. Wizardry 8 is to RPGs what Zelda: Ocarina of Time was to adventure games.

Wiz 8 takes the original Wizardry formula, turn-based first person RPG adventuring, and brings it into a fully 3D world. The upgrades are many. Magic is simple and easy to learn and use. Combat is intuitive, using both ranged and melee attacks. NPC interaction isn't bad, especially compared to some of the older RPGs.

Where this game shines, IMHO, is the skill system. Characters have access to various skills based on their class and race. Skills can be upgraded through use/practice, and when leveling. This creates a very satisfying system in which players are constantly rewarded for completing what could otherwise be repetitive combat. Sure, you only go up 1% at a time, but after finishing a long battle it's very cool to see what areas characters have improved in.

I didn't love the story, music, or graphics, but the overall gameplay was great. Be warned: The first 5-10 hours of this game can be extremely difficult, especially for players new to the Wizardry world! But it's cheap now, so check it out and have fun.

ScL

This game is epic. I got it years ago, but I find it better than most of the new stuff being thrown out onto the market nowadays. Lots of characters (who blurt oddness out at various points, dependent upon the personality you assign them), lots of races and professions, lots of NPCs to add to your party, and there is even an area that changes mid-way through the game!! You want a psionic to mind blast your opponent? or a mage to cast a fireball ala Lina Inverse? A fighter that goes beserk, or a pious lord that can (at level five) do priestly magic? A bard, an alchemist? A gadgeteer? It's all here. All you need to do is create up to six characters (number is optional) or use the character templates premade, and then dive into the world (starting with a rash landing at a monastary). There is a lot of land to transverse, a lot of fun to be had, a lot of baddies to slaughter. Despite the older status of this game, there are still online sites (such as Flamestryke) that provide info that people who enjoy walk-throughs will appreciate, so, don't worry about a lack of Prima game guides or such.

I just finished Wizardry 8 this weekend after playing it for about six weeks. There were several marathon days of game-playing in that time, and the purchase of the game was certainly well worth it. I could not bring myself to give the game four stars, however, and I wish the rating bar would allow me to give it a 3 1/2 star grade. 3 is just too low.

First of all, let me begin by saying that I played and loved the original Wizardy, which I played like a madman on my Nintendo back in the late eighties. I actually remembered the characters names that I'd used back then and incorporated them into this game! Many of the things I liked about the original game could be found in this one; turn-based gameplay with myriad strategic possibilities, good (not ideal, but good) D&D character ability progression, and some fantastic -- if not epic -- battles.

Fighting in this game was, in my opinion, terrific. It wasn't just hack & slash... you benefitted from thinking about the situation, the formation of your party, what creatures you were fighting, what spells you should use early on in a fight and what spells to use later, and which weapons you wanted to select. Still, if you wanted to get your fighters in there and slice & dice, you could do that. But I must say here that the actual combat was much better than in my favorite all-time RPG, Morrowind (GOTY Edition), which is a first person, one-player (non-party), live combat game.

Character creation was honestly mediocre. Again, compared to Morrowind, the pros and cons of choosing a particular species wasn't particularly exciting, especially when you're hoping to create a specialized character with an excellent "long-term growth potential" for what he/she does. I created a ranger that I was excited about at first, but the class never really mattered much, aside from finding objects a little more easily, and the ability to use a special bow. As I went through the game, I realized that if I'd created a bard or a ninja, I'd have discovered some interesting armor and weapons for them along the way! The non-player characters that you meet in gameplay will never advance to your level if they join you too late.

You have a limited number of character faces to choose from for each species, but dozens and dozens of different voices. I had a hilarious dragon-like character in my party who spoke snobbishly, and a blue tinkerbellish sprite who spoke with a Pakistani accent. They all kept me entertained throughout the game with their dialogue.

Some of the quests in "W8" seemed to go on forever in the same landscapes, and they were a little obtuse at best. I was frustrated many times over when I came upon a door or an altar where I new I'd find a new "area" and I'd read the message "a certain object is needed here." In other words, imagine standing at your front door in the darkness and rain and having to fumble through the 40 keys on your keychain... and then realizing the key you need isn't there. You're getting tired of seeing the same old things, and sure would like to travel somewhere new! Happened a lot.

One thing I liked a lot with W8 was how many different varieties of creature there were to fight. There always seemed to be something new, and the AI of the game kept things challenging for the most part. There were plenty of push-over brawls, where your party just demolished a group of creatures that you'd seen 50 times before, but only in areas you'd seen at the very beginning of the game. As you went to new places, things got tougher, and eventually, things got tougher in most of the places you frequently traveled. There were two or three times in the game where a battle might go on for a half an hour or more real-time, when your party was outnumbered 6-to-1. Fun stuff.

Pretty good magic selection... lots of spells to buy and lots of spells that just come with experience for the magic-users. Like I hinted upon earlier, you're not always going with the same spells in all situations; you have a limited amount of spell points in 6 different categories of spell, and some creatures have natural defenses against certain kinds of magic, so you have to be creative. Instead of always pulling out the "big gun" spells, you might want to try to paralyze or frighten large groups of hungry monsters first.

The endgame, like many RPGs, wasn't as thrilling as I'd hoped. I won't give any spoilers here, but one day, someone will script something that blows me away. This one really didn't; it just kind of signified that the game was over.

To sum up, I would certainly recommend W8 for someone looking for a good turn-based, D&D style party adventure. By the time you've grown accustomed to the controls, the fighting rocks. If Morrowind (GOTY Edition) wasn't a first-person adventure, I'd say go with it instead (and I still feel that every gamer should play it if not own it!) but W8 does offer a lot that Morrowind doesn't. Wizardry 8 really did entertain me for the month and a half I enjoyably envested in it.

I have played this game a number of times and I have to say that it is still a better game than WoW, better than Morrowind or Oblivion, better than Deus ex and truly better than any other game I can mention. You can imagine my horror then that after a few years away, my damned copy wont install. My wife is so happy not to have to hear the music again.

Where the heck is Wizardry 9? Come on you programmers I have £40 burning a hole in pocket waiting for the next instalment!

I loved Wizardry 7 and this final sequel did not disappoint. I was sorry to see the series end. It is a great first person, party based game. If I remember right, this came out around the same time as Baldur's Gate and I enjoyed this one so much more. I actually finished it whereas in BG I only got about halfway through before I got so annoyed with the 3rd person view I could not play it any more.



Some may call the Wizardry series old school, but it is the way I like to play. Highly recommended.