Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

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.

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.

This is not a review of this product, rather, this is to highlight to potential customers of Digital Eclipse / Atari's products - for those who take an ethical stance in their purchases - might want to read on... This concerns the release of the DLC for ‘Atari 50’ on the GOG store. Digital Eclipse / Atari are all too aware of the fact that GOG customers often double dip to obtain DRM-free versions of games they already own on other platforms, ensuring they have a backup. Therefore, Digital Eclipse / Atari have deliberately withheld the DLC from the GOG store - for an entire year - in order for customers to purchase it on Steam first, and then release it on GOG a year later. In order to both explain the absence of the GOG DLC, and present Steam as the only viable option - Digital Eclipse / Atari have used fraudulent bait and switch tactics - to deceive their GOG userbase into double dipping. Timeline of bait & switch: - Sept 25 - Digital Eclipse stated on their YouTube trailer video for DLC1 that “something went wrong” [with the GOG DLC failing to release, along with the main platforms] and that they were trying to “fix" it. - Oct 4 - Atari' stated response to a GOG customer, posted on the ‘Atari 50' forum, claimed their “team” were “actively working on the issue” and were trying to “resolve” it. - Nov 09 - Atari, on X - "We are currently working on bringing the DLC to GOG. If we are able to, it will be available early 2025" - Jan 23 - Digital Eclipse / Atari's 'cancelation' of the DLC on Discord - "The studio's proprietary development tools don't allow for this content to be efficiently re-platformed to the VCS and GOG platforms". - April - Atari’s email response: “... Unfortunately, we won’t be able to provide a Steam key, as your purchase was made through GOG…” The DLC has now appeared on the GOG store - from nowhere - conveniently, just in time for the Namco Legendary Pack. GOG users' purchases: 2x base games of 'Atari 50' + 2x DLC (Steam + GOG).

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.