Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Instantly bought this the day of release to show support for the genre. While I don't regret the purchase, I am hoping the developers do a bit to modernize the interface in the coming year of Early Access. As it stands, it often feels like a jumping puzzle trying to access the submenu that I need. In '81, all these menus were split up to work within memory confines; there's no longer a reason to split up user access to equipment, characters, and other needed information to such a degree. Mouse support is stated as being on the way, but I hope the devs don't simply paste the support on to replace Q, E, lAlt, rAlt, etc. Controls aside, the gameplay needs (at minimum) a save-in-town option. The RNG encounters are otherwise too extreme and often discouraging in the face of total party kills.

It's funny, I played this in highschool on the Apple IIe. My group of fellow nerds sat around a single computer with one of us driving and the rest watching. We all had a character that we played. We made maps on paper (so many arguments when we got lost/mixed up, too funny). I remember being sad when one of the party would die (and die they will), hoping we'd make it back to town before a complete party wipe. We got so addicted we propped open the window in the school and snuck back in to play at night/weekends. No alarm systems back then. Great to see this game getting some love and I especially like the QoL features they put in to allow the player to choose which gameplay style choices they'd like. You can make it as punishing as the original if you like. Also really enjoying the added 2-d vector map on the side showing you the original game view. I even can remember some of the maps! Be wary friends, this game punished you and it still does. There's very little hand holding so if you're scared of games that don't allow you to save every 2min then you might want to avoid this one. I really hope this does well and they can move on to the sequels. Keep it up!

I was really surprised when this game showed up. I had not heard any buzz about it. Wizardry was the first game I played on a personal, portable computer (Apple ][ ), and I have many happy memories of it. The new 3D version is true to the original game. Death is frequent and brutal, and you need to exercise some significant party management skills. Your hands sweat as you try to get out of the Maze before a random encounter kills off one of your prized party members. The controls are a bit clunky at times. For example, in the original game, I remember being able to swap equipment between players, but I have not found a way in this new version. There were also some wanky mechanics where the Maze shifted before my eyes. It was the second level; so it is highly probably a bug rather than some magical effect. I have only been down to the second level, and then, I had to start over because of a random encounter gone wrong (party was *extremely* unlucky), but that is also the way the original game was. All in all, for a game in development, it is already a lot of fun. I look forward to continued play and see the improvements as they are developed.

Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is back now with modernizations and better introductory improvements to the original. This remake contains a great soundtrack, impressive enemy models as well as 3d environments, and an overall classic dungeon crawler experience. The old-school Wizardry grind of overcoming the maze floors and defeating tough enemies with initially stacked odds is a satisfying experience to overcome. Misplays and overestimation will cost you dearly and party wipes are crushing. Sometimes the game is just brutal. The series is infamously known for this difficulty, and this title stays true to all this. Wizardry is a game franchise that makes you play smart but also take chances for better and for worse. Hopefully the developers will give more options for newcomers as the old school faithfulness likely won't align with modern sensibilities. The poor newcomers that come to this expecting some typical RPG are bound to get rocked hard even with the custom difficulty options. The UI needs some adjustment for better facilitation of party and menu management. Faithfulness and Opportunity for this remake seem to be at odds with each other, which as a new title I hope it overcomes. I had fun though, and now I just want more Wizardry. This game is in early access and definitely still needs tweaks/polish for accessibility and player input, as to be expected. As both a restoration, reimagining, and/or remake it faces some challenge on what it will ultimately be but it has plenty of promise. Knowing what you’re getting into really makes it or breaks it. More updates are on the way for additional features and tweaks. I'm look forward to what comes next. P.S. Please Add quicksaves/loads and rebindings. If you know you know.

Played the original 40 some years ago on my old Apple IIc ... this version is just breathtaking and really makes me weep with joy every time I play. So pretty. And built right on top of the original Apple II codebase to boot ! Wow .... just wow.