Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is a full 3D remake of the first game in the legendary Wizardry series of RPGs.
The first party-based RPG video game ever released, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was a direct inspiration to series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Digital Eclipse's revival preserves the appeal of the classic, with many upgrades for modern role-playing game fans.
Dungeon Crawling, Deluxe
Craft your own party of adventurers and head into the labyrinth at the behest of the mad overlord Trebor, in search of the amulet stolen by the evil wizard Werdna. Battle groups of challenging enemies, avoid hidden traps, and make your way deeper into the dungeon as you prepare for the ultimate battle: Facing Werdna himself.
Commitment to Accuracy
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is built directly on top of the original 1981 game's code. Although it looks all new, underneath the hood is the authentic game. You can even view the original Apple II interface as you play.
Challenge Without Hassle
While the well-known difficulty of the enemies has not been altered, quality-of-life improvements have been added in every area. Party management, navigation, spellcasting, and combat have all been significantly enhanced.
A Legend Reborn
If you're just discovering the legendary Wizardry franchise, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the perfect jumping-in point for new players. Series veterans will love the gorgeous new graphics and sound, and the streamlined interface.
Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co. use of certain elements from Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord have been authorized by SirTech Entertainment Corp.
2024 Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners, Co. WIZARDRY and the WIZARDRY logo are registered trademarks of Drecom Co., Ltd. in the U.S. and elsewhere. Digital Eclipse and the Digital Eclipse logo are trademarks of Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners, Co. Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord licensed by SirTech Entertainment Corp. All rights reserved.
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Posted on: January 24, 2025
Ladob
Verified ownerGames: 41 Reviews: 1
A job of love
The game is amazing. The price may be steep and sadly they did take the original remastered music from the pre-order out (for legal reasons it seems). But the new music is good and gameplay is smooth. A worthy revisit to Wizardry. I do hope they add some DLC in form of Wiz 2,3 and 5 which use the same engine.
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Posted on: October 16, 2025
Northern Soul
Verified ownerGames: 276 Reviews: 17
Game Doesn't Respect your Time
Out of the 10 floors, there are only 3 that actually have anything worth doing on them. Once you get your characters level 8, you can do the repeated grind of hoping you get moderately better gear. Does it matter? Not really. Low level wizards and mages can hit your whole team for 20-30 damage per round (usually in teams of 2-5), and you're going to be around 100 HP tops after a long grind with the fighter types, and 80 or less with the caster/thief types. Level 13 seems to be the expected "top off" before you try to finish the game, but if you're lucky enough to bump into Greater Demons, they instantly paralyze and poison your high level characters with melee attacks, and when not doing that, spam spells for 30-50 hp damage (I have never seen less than 4 of them at a time). If you want to give Werdna a shot, which I did with level 13 heroes, he appeared with 3 vampires and a vampire lord... guess what? They spammed magic and wiped 4 of my heroes in the first round. So what am I saying? This game has no protection against magic, which seems to be the go to for most high level creatures on the 10th floor. Your hp doesn't matter, your gear doesn't matter, AC seems to be irrelevant. The game expects you to frequently lose heroes and waste countless trips "recovering" them. This may have been a good strategy in the 80s when you had one game until your next birthday or Christmas, but these days, there are better things to do with your time, and this game requires minimal to no skill and has a shallow system. Play Wizardry 6 and 8 instead for a much more rewarding experience.
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Posted on: September 25, 2024
draxvbion
Verified ownerGames: 76 Reviews: 4
Death
Back in 1982 my brother killed my 9th lvl party when he was surprised by a group of gas dragons. I was playing basketball with my neighbor when he told me. I winged the basketball at his head and scored a critical hit! I'm now 55 and he is 58. I still haven't forgiven the BUM. 5 star game and the crpg that started it all for me.
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Posted on: September 26, 2024
WolfEisberg
Verified ownerGames: 482 Reviews: 16
The game is so much fun.
I am having so much fun with this game, I am getting lost a lot and I have been playing 4 hours on the first floor and still getting lost. I really need to get some graph paper, lol. Hatlock's review really says it best, give his upvote "Let's be honest, this is one of the greatest remaster/remakes of all time. In it's current state, the game has so many options to relive the old school experience or shave off all of the pointy (razor sharp, rusty, poisoned, level draining) edges. In the end, what made this game truly shine stand out. It was great, it's still great. Wizardry 1, already inspirational, can now show off it's great ideas and immense fun without players needing to know all of its rules and idiosyncrasies first. That said, you need to engage in the game's systems, understand each monster's peril, carefully manage your resources. What this game takes out: -Needing to create your own game guide while you play (it can still be very useful to draw your own map, but now you can cast a spell to confirm if you are correct and reveal your mistakes) -Needing to grind up a recovery team when things go wrong in the dungeon -Rerolling characters to get decent stats If you liked those things, guess what, the options are still there! What the game puts in: Basically everything from the previous definitive version (the SNES "Nintendo Power" version) including: -Better in game map -colorful enemy sprites and animations -thieves and ninja can hide from the backrow (basically allows them to attack from the back row every other turn) Things that weren't in that version: -lots more QOL features (all optional!) -sweet mini view of what the original game looked like in the bottom right corner (best feature) -mouse controls! (but the keyboard ones are very good) -Your highest party level is noted to help you recruit a recovery team (all of the financial pain of a party wipe, the thrill of the recovery, but none of the grinding). -better DUMAPIC usability and bestiary
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Posted on: August 7, 2025
jimgear
Games: 10 Reviews: 1
Wizadry: Proving Cround
It's great. I just can't find the courage to go to level 10, so i just keep leveling-up.
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