Every new generation of games takes the things that worked in the past, enhances them and drops things that didn't work. This game is not discriminating, it embraces the past wholy. Using a evolution methaphor, it's a modern midle aged guy who strips nacked in the zoo and climbs into the primates enclosure only to run around and fling his droppings at the visitors. It's amusing on paper, but in reallity it stinks. Why ? read on.. The game is not optimized for PC, you can feel the console orgins in every menu and option. Play with controller if possible, keyboard and mouse is akward. As the game barely explains even the simplest things ( no description or flavor texts for options) you have to RTFM. Graphics department is a mixed bag - Most sprites are nice, which a big helping of japanese weirdness, enviroment and dungeons would be ok for year 1999 (they give a early quake vibe). Gameplay is classic Wizardry, a unappologic grindfest full of lol random "yer dead, Harry!" moments, "please pay for ressurection (which may fail and destroy your char forever)". You have to pay for everything, even identifing basic trash items. So why not one star ? Beacuse somewhat it still works. There is a satisfaction to get a good set of attributes on char creation after smashing the reroll button like epileptic monkey for 20 minutes. It's a grimm fun to escape another unfair encounter. It's a test of will. Shame nobody cared to polish it.
