Wizardry 8

One of the first games I ever played was Wizardry 1 and since then I have been hooked on the Wizardry series. Character development remains one of the strongest elements in the game. The characters are so much fun to develop and the style that you develop them is practically limitless. Ninjas differ from Wizardry 7 as the Ninja is no longer the master of disaster in, "Hands and Feet". Instead the Ninja gets a bonus to critical strike. If your a Wizardry Veteran you can mix up the game play to make it more difficult. I've thought about a few ways to do this... There are 15 classes in Wizardry 8. -Put all of the 15 classes on a separate piece of paper. For example: Fighter (2), Lord, Valkyrie (3), Ranger (4), Samurai, Ninja Monk, Rogue (5), Gadgeteer (6), Bard (7), Priest (8) Alchemist (9), Bishop (10), Psionic (11), Mage (12) Then put all of the pieces of paper in a hat. -Draw 4 classes from the hat. These classes are excluded from your party makeup leaving 11 classes left. (Let's say I drew Lord, Samurai, Ninja and Monk) -From here you can either put the remaining classes in the hat and draw 6 OR with the remaining classes you can number them (2-12). Roll the dice and decide your party combination. Let's say in 6 dice rolls I rolled a (4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 15) That means my party must consist of: Ranger, Rogue, Bard, Bishop, Psionic and Mage. Which is really not that bad of a party.

Now I am part of the Consumer's Merchant's Guild

I actually helped test and develop this game, and I really did enjoy the finished product. Although I thought the constant regenerating enemies and grinding combat got old really fast. It is a shame this version of the wizardry universe did not continue on as I thought it had a lot of depth and with today's technology could be a truly outstanding experience. Upon release I would have given it a four out of five despite being released with some nasty bugs, today I would give it a solid 3 and 1/2, but you should really play 6 and 7 first.

I have the original boxed version, I liked it a lot. The world didn't seem to be much alive and kind of silent, but that's about it, everything else was amazing. Most of all, the character generation screen and the level-up system. It gave SO MUCH content to play with, that just making chars before I started the game usually took me about an HOUR :) Nice conversation system plus very satisfying battles and awesome graphics (at the time, but still pretty today). Plus there are/were some great mods that improved upon the little things that could get boring with time, like faster enemy movements, so hardcore players with hungreds of hours played could just skip waiting for the animations to finish. Game offers a lot. Is about advancement, exploration, adventure and ROLE playing. So yeah. It's one of the LAST true RPGs ever made. Or is it the last?

There is something about this game that is a strange clash of the old and new. there's 3D Environments, but not entirely reasonable looking ones. There's the Dizzying variety of Classes, Spells, and Races to choose from, but little to no explanation of what these systems do outside of Fanmade help. It's a fully fledged turn based RPG, but it was released at quite literally the worst time possible to do so (The rising age of FPS and Console Gaming). It's a game stuck in the middle of these ages, and it shows. What's Good: Wholly reasonable graphical fidelity/compatibility on modern systems with Nglide. It also runs fairly well on modern laptops/mid-range computers. Fantastic Turn Based RPG Goodness. Easily the best mix of Old/New School Turn Based RPG I have played. Outstanding situational Voice Acting for characters in your party. All Party members' appearances/ voices are customizable at any time. Really makes the experience memorable! Plenty of community support if you are stuck or want mods that smooth out the generous jank. What's Bad: Gruelling Early game Grind that can easily turn away newcomers. I don't know how anyone Ironmans this one. You will get positively wiped out by some enemies if you tackle stuff in the wrong order. Clunkly mouse/keyboard driven UI for battles. It takes some getting used to, but try to use as much keyboard as possible to speed up battles. Intresting but somewhat lackluster plot/lore. It works, but it's not all that endearing. Mild amounts of moon logic for in-game item combinations/questlines. There is a journal, but it's not all that useful. You will consult online help a good deal if you don't want to get frustrated. Overall, I would say this is an excellent game to have a slow-burn period of play. Dive in when you feel like it, and enjoy a little peice of history!