Overall most helpful review

Posted on: September 16, 2023

Early Access review

jmcminn

Games: 760 Reviews: 2

Needs at least one more modernization

I am dating myself, but I played the original Wizardry on PC and NES. One of the most INFURIATING things was having your level 50 party run into a group of 8 Arch Demons that surprised you, and watching the party die without any chance to do a damn thing about it. Why was this so infuriating? Well one, because the original Wizardry was sooo freaking random. Walk into the door before Werdna, and you could encounter 1 relatively wimpy monster and have surprise, or you could be ambushed by 8 arch demons, and 6 lesser demons. Even massively OP characters could be killed by random whim. But add to that, the OG Wizardry would write the results of combat to disk as it happened, and if you party wiped, you didn't just reload from the last time you saved in town. Oh no. You had to make another party and try and recover the bodies, and whatever might be left of their gear. I can see some people liking that style of play. But the "modernization" needs to include an option to allow save and load of game states so that if your party gets wiped by a group of arch demons, or drained 10 levels by a pack of wights that you can just reload back to the last time you were in town. I checked the options, and this does not seem to exist at the moment. Hopefully it is on the developer's radar.

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Posted on: June 20, 2024

cmdm1151

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 1

Brilliant idea, TERRIBLE execution.

The idea of taking a classic game, and giving it a polished, modern frontend and quality-of-life/convenience upgrades is fantastic. The stated goal of making a faithful reproduction of the game, and superimposing the classic UI over the modern presentation is fantastic. The execution of that idea, here, is absolutely *not* fantastic; this remake is truly awful. The UI ranges from "intuitive only to certain kinds of players," to "inconsistent, and utterly not intuitive at all." And the control scheme is not reconfigurable. There is no documentation. The entire thing feels slapdash and low-effort. Models are dated and amateurish. Instead of letting the player automate certain tedious aspects of the gameplay, the game makes it "unskippable." In some very real ways, the remake is harder to play than the original. Speaking of which... NO AUTO-MAP? ARE YOU #@^&% KIDDING? Playing a game with conveniences like automapping is not a weakness, and forgoing such things is not a virtue. Not everything from the Good Ol' Days was, in fact, good. If you think I'm going to play a megadungeon video game that *requires me* to do my own pencil-and-paper mapping in 2024, you're crazy. Instant refund request. What a shame, too; this could have been a great game.

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Posted on: September 22, 2023

Early Access review

Denimwizard

Verified owner

Games: 25 Reviews: 1

Glitchy and Erases your progress

I was excited to see this being released however I have twice been locked into the camp menu with no way out save to reset the game. The game inadvertantly erases the game file after this happens. So twice i lost my progress . Its frustrating to say the least. Please polish this game further to ensure such bugs do not end some one's adventure. Its one thing for a TPK its another if the game just completely screws you over.

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Edited on: September 18, 2025

Posted on: February 29, 2024

BrutusTheSword

Verified owner

Games: 83 Reviews: 1

Version 0.3.1 Is Nice

Version 0.3.1 resolved the most frequently criticisms of v0.1. They introduced mouse support which is working pretty well right now. Some hated the lack of saves slots, forcing you to play rogue-like. The devs introduced Save slots in version 0.2, then included the ability to copy and rename your saves in version 0.3. So now you can reload an earlier game before disaster struck and even reroll your level ups. V0.1 required you to enter the maze then exit to access the pooled gold. Now parties come pre-equipped with basic gear plus a little extra pooled gold without leaving town. Some including me disliked that you could not trade and equip items until you entered the maze. The original game let you to do this in Gilgamesh’s Tavern. The developers added this into the Adventurer’s Inn. But they also watched some early streams and noticed that players were not wasting gold at the inn, but instead were just using the inn to restore Priest spell points for free in the Stables, then going into the maze to heal. So they added free healing at the Inn. Some who were not paying attention complained that non-humans had only 1 portrait each for males and females. Digital Eclipse kept their promise and added more portraits, but also listened to players and added the ability to upload your own custom portraits. They even buffed up the Temple of Cant to restore levels drained by monsters. Yeah, I know, it makes the game a little easier. But I'm in favor of moderate improvements that make the game a little more accessible to newer players. Version 0.3 added a Bestiary and a 3-step ability to identify monster traits, a welcome new addition to the Wizardry series. Mouse support, save slots, pre-equipped gear, free healing in town, custom portraits, drain restoration, and the Bestiary are features that the original game did not have. Clearly, the team at Digital Eclipse is listening to comments and improving the game.

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Posted on: September 15, 2023

Early Access review

LS3OC

Verified owner

Games: 149 Reviews: 2

The first ever blobber is back!

This release blindsided me I hadn't heard of anyone talking about it but it was a great surprise. This is as old school as it gets for first person dungeon crawlers since it was the first ever blobber. Optional quality of life features exist so you can play old school mode if you prefer. As of the time of this review this game is early access and I would only recommend a purchase if you just can't wait for the full release or like me you would like to contribute your money to the developers hoping that this project becomes a success and they decide to give the same treatment to the rest of the Wizardry series. I played it for a bit over a hour and was having a blast but decided to stop playing since I read that future updates may break game save files. The modern auto mapping currently resets every time you leave the dungeon and I had the game freeze up on me once but I was happy to find that upon reloading the game my party was at the exact spot where the game froze and in the same condition. The five star rating of course is not based on the current games state but on the potential I see for it upon final release.

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