In order to really understand what we are witnessing we need to flash backwards. Back to a time when playing table top Advanced Dungeons and Dragons happened to be what we ‘socially challenged role playing game fanatics’ did outside the bbs world. Then along came a role playing game that should never be forgotten.

Wizardry for the NES was revolutionary, it was a port of the must have PC title that first hit markets in 1981. Now granted, we didn’t have Baldur’s Gate, or Blizzard making games for that matter. However, the idea of role playing and fantasy based parties coming together for a common cause was still an outlet to many people world wide already. Everyone could save the princess, slay the kobolds, and find the Dragon Sword + 7 in their own home. All this was available without sitting across the table from a stale smelling game master who chomped on his sour cream and onion chips, corrected you with the AD&D manual every three seconds, and gave you horrible situations to fight from with your table top rolled AD&D Level 10 Paladin Human. It’s no wonder RPG geeks alike adore this title, yes I too have more fond memories of the previous installments to this series then I do of my family!

Finally the last version of Sir Tech’s Wizardry is upon us. Will Blizzard take it over and continue the tradition? We can only hope so.

Each and every Wizardry release has been based on the same formula, and Wizardry 8 is no different. That is to allow the player to create his own party, and arrange them in a formation where the fighters, samurais, ninjas and the like lead your melee core, and behind them stand your mages, bards, thieves, priests and ranged fighters. After selecting a name, class, and race you must distribute your points for each character. That is the character creation, which is also referred to as ‘the character roll’ (Courtesy of the AD & D fan base). Each race has certain skills you can increase, such as the monks hands and feet skill, the thieves ability to pick locks, or the mages ability to cast a spell successfully and all the like you expect to see from Wizardry. After organizing who’s going to lead, use the bow, swing the sword, and cast the spells, you are ready to start your adventure!

For the first time ever, you will see a completely three dimensional world, rich with lush textures, exotic scenery, first rate lighting, and brightly animated characters. Each character has its own dialogue, animations, and unique voice tone. The characters and the way they interact with each of the non playable characters (NPC) have come a long ways since Wizardry 7: The Dark Savant. Your personality, communication skills, and the way you and the NPC view each other all determine what happens during a confrontation. You can talk by either typing in complete sentences (Such as: Where is the city, Arnika?)or by selecting saved words from your word bank. The game also saves important words and information making your Wizardry notepad you used in the previous games obsolete. I think we all remember scribbling down little hints and rumors of what to say when we got to this guard or that creature in past releases. All of which you can easily highlight and ask random NPC’s quite quickly. You just don’t need to fuse about names and place details anymore. Not only could you barter, steal, buy rumors, befriend, despise or sneak attack the NPC, you could also get certain ones to build you elite items after collecting a recipe. This isn’t something new to the genre, but it is to this series in particular.

Now on to the combat engine and how it has evolved. First of all, you setup your characters in a formation that could be anything from ‘fighters around casters circle’, to a ‘fighters in front of casters wedge’. Based on a 5 grid circle you could setup virtually any formation you wanted. Either way you will be able to change the way your party attacks/is attacked and do so on the fly, letting you devise a new formation during battle to meet different situations. That is if you use the continual battle option. Many are still fond of the turn based system that has piloted this series throughout its existence. You are able to choose which way you will encounter enemies, under a no time limit turn based mode, or a real time strategy mode where everything happens at a quick pace. In this new mode you feel as if you truly have stepped foot in front of The Dark Savant. Weapon swapping on the fly makes it much easier to setup your party and helps determine who should be where based on the characters range with each weapon, and how much armor they can use in order to defend. Now even though the spell targeting system within combat involves a simple click, select targets, and cast, it works quite well.

Even more to my surprise is the bartering system, and how much better it has become. A little bit more in-depth, you can now see how much damage a weapon does, and yes how much that armor weighs and helps defend prior to buying it from a store clerk. In the previous Wizardry installments, buying items meant you had to search in the book that came with your game for each and every item to determine its worth to you. Much like the ultra classic role playing title Eye of the Beholder, now your six man party is able to grow! Never before could you try recruiting NPC’s, but you can now! Actually you can recruit up to 2 others, giving you a total party size of 8. Now let us say one member isn’t pulling their weight in your party? You can dismiss a current member at anytime and harass another to join. It just doesn’t get any better than this baby!

Now we all know Wizardry has never been a graphical game, but then again most hardcore RPG fans have a good way of not focusing much on the graphical appearance as they do on all the dialogue, class/race systems, diversity of items, and intriguing storyline, all of which you will see plenty of! Now for the first time, we see ‘Dominous’ (the world of Wizardry) in a three-dimensional engine and we can also enjoy a huge addition to the character/monster animations. Actually, there’s more then ever before! Even better yet, as you begin to weaken and kill your fully three-dimensional enemies you will see them take wounds, and carry status effects above their heads from any status effecting spell you may cast on them. So if you were to poison one creature out of a pack you could easily tell which was poisoned, which is another addition in this installment. Many of the textures and environments are simply awesome. The swamp, when it is raining is about as life like as it gets. All of the NPC character models are done really well; some of the textures even look like they were taken off a brand new anime.

The real tragedy with the graphical system is not the textures, environments, or even the weather as it is with most newer titles, but actually its more of the rendering that is going on in-game, it is at best: just above average. A good deal of the time polygons will disappear letting you see through the mountains, or buildings when the camera angle is focused at an awkward angle (Which happens a lot in battle accidentally). Creating that ‘landscape disappearing’ error, this plagued the first generation of 3d driven games. On an even worse page, I really found it annoying when I would get stuck behind a treasure chest or any small object that seemed little more then a three inch high graphic on the ground. Then to further my disgruntled state I would watch my party start walking back and fourth stuck on whatever I crossed, and continue to do so until I reloaded my last save.

Like the many Wizardry releases before you will see night and day pass as you continue your adventure. The moon shines brightly at night illuminating the land ever so slightly, while your light spell lights up the dark forest and the realistic ground below your parties feet which glimmers at night and shines brightly at day in a visual triumph. Naturally the creatures get harder during the night, and at day they are easier to spot, and usually much weaker. Try not to get caught resting at night without a good watch guard! When it comes down to it this is still a leap for the graphically challenged title that is Wizardry.

Well I must say, I could literally count the amount of tracks in this game on one hand, but I’m still not disappointed. The music and sounds that were heard in each area while progressing through your adventure fit the atmosphere of each area so perfectly it was almost eerie to play at times. Especially while meeting the ever so ugly and hated alien race, the T’Rang. Perhaps a greater variety of music would have been nice, but it really doesn’t hinder the experience in any way. I hardly ever noticed when the music was about to loop (talk about unusual!). While you were in the caverns, the wind whistled behind you, the footsteps echoed across the floor, and the role playing experience that is Wizardry was just alive musically as it was in any other aspect. As you went from one area to another the music and sounds changed between loading screens.

I thought it was really neat that each personality I selected for my character had a unique voice, including a male or female version. In total there was over 36 unique voices and thousands of lines for the characters to say. I still wanted a little bit more of a selection when it came to the voice sets for my own party, but every character you encountered on Dominous had its own unique voice, and lines to say. The voice acting is wonderfully done, and never has the Dark Savant sounded so sinister! Even the spells and attack sound effects are awesome. You would hear your magic missile smash on impact with the amount of creatures you targeted, your sword slash an opponent, bounce of a shield, and of course when being attacked you would hear the same. What really stuck out was when your party would taunt the enemies while you won, beg for mercy when you were losing, thank another member for healing them, and even war cry before going into berserker attacks. All in all, this is one game you won’t mind listening to.

The same characters and classes we are use to have managed to survive the Blizzard take over, but with new skills added to each race/class you may want to see the multiple endings with different parties. Yes there are three endings to Wizardry 8, none of which I will spoil. This I will tell you: each one is definitely worth seeing. Not to mention, if you import your Wizardry 7 party into a new game, there is a fourth ending reserved for us true fans. I for one say, “Oh thank you, and god bless the publishers at Sir-Tech!” Best yet, like every version prior, you may want to do side quests differently, ally with other factions, while turning on ones you allied with before. This in turn will let you see a different side to ‘the story’ and each race will give you a different outlook on things in Dominious if you play it through enough times. This option to see and encounter new things has always been one of the major reason one could go through a Wizardry game many times over and still miss a ton of side quests or options only available if you do something one way. Usually the different way you go through the story leads you through a different set of tasks and goals, making it well worth playing more than one time. Sometimes in order to fully understand what was transpiring in the current installment you truly did have to beat it a few times.

As one of the best role playing games out there, Sir-Tech has always been able to make a good game that you really wanted to go through many times over, there is no exception here. RPG fans don’t pass this one up! But to those just diving into the series, be ready to lose many hours. It’s not ‘Evercrack’, but I tell you this, “beating this game one time, just doesn’t cut it.”