The Drunken Lizard Pub

Ive never really got around to playing any of the Wizardry games, recently I took notice of W8 after seeing it in a bargain bin for $10. What put me off buying it was the fact that I have barely read/heard anything about it - and so I am curious...

For the dudes who have played it, is it worth my time?
And, how does it compare to the old games?

cheers

I enjoyed it and recently started playing it again. It's not perfect, but it definitely feels old-school and I have drawn some inspiration from it. For $10 you should get it.

Yes. Play it. The Story is good. The gameplay old school and it got some nice characters. The only drawback are the number of fights you get in. Especially the random encounters are somewhat annoying. But all in all the game is fun.

You definitely need to install the patch which speeds up movement (fastwiz or something?), or fights take forever. Even with that patch installed, missile combat is still boringly slow in places.

However it is a good game. Not perhaps quite as good as Wiz 5,6,7 were when I first encountered them, but times (and expectations) have moved on since then.

Gothmog wrote:Yes. Play it. The Story is good. The gameplay old school and it got some nice characters. The only drawback are the number of fights you get in. Especially the random encounters are somewhat annoying. But all in all the game is fun.

If you turn off panning during battles and download the wiz8fast patch it's much more playable. It's a great game, and even once you've won it many times there are reasons for you to go back and start over and try again (FUCK! I need a faerie ninja character!? )

I loved it. In fact, once I get off my latest Oblivion kick, I may just go back and play it again. To me it was a little short, but maybe because I was just so into it.

I just tried to load Wizardry 7 Gold and it didn't run worth spit. So I had to erase it.

I'm also still waiting anxiously for the Might & Magic Tribute came to come out. That should be awesome.

Of course, Eschalon Book 2 would be nice too!

W8 is good. Lots of detail in character development. As I recall, skills are improved through use (and maybe through points as well?) which I generally prefer. It can be tough deciding your party composition since there are more nice abilities than you have slots. Tough decisions make for a better game, I think. There is not necessarily a "best" approach, just several good ones.

On the down side, I got really tired of the incessant random encounters. Nearly everything respawns, and quickly. It does mean there is unlimited XP in the game, but traveling is a chore.

The random encounters were extremely annoying and the game seemed geared towards getting certain devices and having a gadgeteer and bard to use them. The enemies unlimited magic and unlimited numbers was a serious problem after a while and made some of the late stages extremely difficult.

Would be a GREAT game, but leveling monsters is a downer.

scback wrote:Would be a GREAT game, but leveling monsters is a downer.

Leveling monsters were within a certain range. Easier places never spawned the very difficult monsters. The designers split the difference between complete area-dependent monster levels and complete character-dependent monster levels.

I'm unaware of any game which has complete area-dependent monster levels (there my be some!), probably because it doesn't sound like a great idea.

Of course Morrowind style character-dependent monster levels is as broken as it could possibly be, on the other side of the spectrum.

scback wrote:Would be a GREAT game

It is a great game. It's also a lithmus test for whether a person is a fan of cRPGs at all.

Adventure gamers don't like Wiz8.

Horace2 wrote:

scback wrote:Would be a GREAT game

It is a great game. It's also a lithmus test for whether a person is a fan of cRPGs at all.

Adventure gamers don't like Wiz8.

Hmm well, I played and enjoyed Ultima 4,5,6,7,8, and Ascension; Might and Magic 4.5,6; Eye of the Beholder and countless others - but because I didnt enjoy the game mechanics of one game, Wizardry 8 you say I dont enjoy CRPG's?

lol, BS.

You're entitled to your opinion, same as I am mine; but a flat-out broad-based assumption just makes your argument less likely to be taken seriously.

Feidb wrote: I'm also still waiting anxiously for the Might & Magic Tribute came to come out. That should be awesome.

What Might & Magic tribute? I played most of those games on my old Mac a long time ago.

Jude

Jude,

There are a lot of major fans of the Might and Magic series, especially games 6-8, enough that a group of people got together to program a tribute game. You can find it by Googling Might & Magic Tribute. A Dutch lady named Ribannah is the lead programmer. It is truly a worldwide effort and the people the participate in the forum are from all over the world. To me, it is my favorite RPG series of all time. First person, party and turn based combat, huge worlds.

The reason the Tribute is being made is that Ubisoft bought the rights to it and put out that dog of a game Dark Messiah and tried to pass it off as M&M. Not even close! From what anyone can gather, they are not even interested in continuing the original series. I just hope they don't ruin the reputation of what 3DO the original publisher accomplished. They (3DO) almost did that themselves with Might & Magic 9.

Feidb

Oh, Windows only. Oh, well...

Jude