Wizards & Warriors

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004U55B
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 1 x 8 inches ; 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 28, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,468 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Creator D.W. Bradley (Wizardry VI and Wizardry VII) slaved for four long years to bring fans his epic Wizards & Warriors, a decidedly old-school role-playing game in the mold of such classics as Wizardry, Might & Magic, and The Bard's Tale. Three production companies dropped the game during its convoluted development and Activision finally picked it up. Well, the wait was certainly worthwhile, with only a few reservations.

The story concerns an evil Pharaoh who has returned from the grave to terrorize the fantasy world of Gael Serran. Only the mystical Mavin Sword can stop him, so it's up to the player to organize a party of six to find the sword and save the world. You can choose from several fantastic races that include your standard elves, dwarves, and humans, but also offers the more interesting and bizarre rat-headed Ratlings, pig-headed Gourks, tiger-headed Whiskahs, tiny Pixies, reptilian Lizzords, and elephantine Oomphaz. Four character classes are available initially (Rogue, Fighter, Sorcerer, and Priest), but after gaining experience characters can switch to other classes like Samurai, Valkyrie, Paladins, and Ninja.

The adventure is in first person using a less-than-satisfying graphics engine. It's the old-school six-characters-act-as-one interface, but the inclusion of too-frequent jump puzzles makes the interface hard to control at times. There is almost nothing in the way of the special effects fans likely expect and the audio is substandard. Parents should note that there is also a small amount of nudity. The technology may be unsatisfying but that doesn't bar the game from greatness and wonder. You'll be hard-pressed to find an RPG offering more depth than Wizards & Warriors. Welcome back D.W. Bradley. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Good story and a great deal of depth
• Multiple character types and classes ensure replay value
• They just don't make them like this anymore!

Cons:

• Poor control interface
• Old, unimpressive graphics engine
• Poor voice acting

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old School Rpg Goodness!!, September 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Wizards & Warriors (CD-ROM)

This game takes me back to when First person RPG's were king ala Wizardry and the Bard's Tale series of game's. D.W. Bradley, who designed the Wizardry series of games, is back with a vengenace with Wizards and Warriors. At the start of the game you must make your characters from a choice 10 playable races, which include elves,dwarves,and more exotic races such as whiskas(Tigerpeople) and Pixies. Once outside, the world is in 3d and IMO the graphics are well done, actually making you feel very apart of the world. Combat is done either real-time or turned-based, leaving it up to the player how they want to fight there battles. There are tons of quests for the player to do, there is always a cool place to explore or somebody to talk too that needs a quest done. One of my favorite things about this game is it does feel like you are in this land, it draws you in and once you start playing it you realize you cannot stop playing, which is what happened to me! This game is not for everybody, gamers who don't like First person games should prob not get it, but any body who loved Ultima Underworld and Wizardry go directly and pick this game up, it is one of the best RPG experiences I have ever had.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Serious Technical Problems., October 23, 2000

By 

Keith R. Hartman (West Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wizards & Warriors (CD-ROM)

Like the other reviewers, I found the gameplay itself to be quite interesting. However, the game has a number of technical problems that render it unplayable in its current form. Namely:

CRASHES FREQUENTLY: Not only does it crash often, but it crashes reliably whenever you encounter certain events. One singularly annoying example is that it crashes every time you kill a particular monster. Since you have to kill this monster to proceed with the main story line, this effectively ends the game.

VERY SLOW: My computer is actually a bit faster than the requirements on the box, and I find the game ponderously slow. Restoring a saved game takes a whopping 5 MINUTES! Also, the game has to stop at various points to load new adventuring areas, with similarly long pauses. Let's just say that you'll need to have a book handy to read while playing this game. One mysterious delay lies in the fact that that quitting the game WITHOUT A SAVE can sometimes take five minutes or more. In the same amount of time, one can manually terminate the game using the escape key and restart it, so I have no idea what the computer is doing during all this time.

There is also a modest problem with game balance. Virtually all of the monsters in the game are push overs. They're so easy, that you won't even bother to cast your enhancing spells-- they're just not worth the trouble. Then you finally encounter one of the big monsters, and it's completely overpowering. Someone really should have paid some more attention game balance back in the design phase.

That said, it's an interesting enough game, and I might take another shot at it once they get around to putting a patch out. Until they release a patch, however, I would strongly discourage anyone from buying this game.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unplayable in it's current form., November 10, 2000

By 

Keith R. Hartman (West Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wizards & Warriors (CD-ROM)

Revising my previous review: having tinkered with this game some more, the problems are even worse than I thought. If I could give this game zero stars, I would, because it is absolutely unplayable in it's current form. In spite of some interesting design elements, there are EXTREME problems with both programming and game balance. I honestly don't see how this game could have made it through alpha testing without someone catching these problems. It is clear that nobody at the company ever played it all the way through.

About half way through the game, you hit a pair of monsters called "Amazoni man traps". I don't use the term "unkillable" lightly, but these things deserve it. They have an ENORMOUS, rapid fire, area effect attack that paralyzes and poisons, and always whipes out the entire party in the first volley! I had to replay the battle five times just to last long enough in order to be able to turn around and see what was attacking me! Their attack is so disproportionate to anything else in the game that it has to be a programming glitch. I really can't believe that any playtester on the game made it past these things without using some sort of cheat code-- if they even tested this section of the game at all. The Man Traps can't be bypassed, and even a party which has completed every quest possible by this point will be woefully inadequate to deal with them. Basically, the game comes crashing to a halt at this point.

Anyway, like I said, the game is unplayable in its current form. I'm annoyed that Activision released it in this state, and I feel cheated at having spent money on it.