Wizardry 8 Preview
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The Innumerable Stats - The visual track-record of progressionThe Wizardry sagas have always been a stat-happy experience, and the latest is going to be no exception. While playing the demo I always had the feeling that each actually meant something (unlike the feeling in certain MMORPG's I won't mention) and though at first glance they seem countless, a few hours in and one really begins to appreciate all the work that went into the system. Here are some numbers: 11 races, 15 classes, 100 spells, 300 monsters, a nearly countless array of items and weapons, and we'll just say lots of primary skills (that number hasn't been disclosed but it's very impressive, 30+) and even more special class-specific skills that you attain after maximizing a primary attribute at 100.
How does Wizardry 8's interface make room for all this information? The answer is intuitively and easily. There are four submenus of the main interface. One houses the paper-doll party and character inventory system, activated by right clicking the character, pressing "I" or whatever you choose to make it (all keys are assignable... didn't I tell you? Options galore). Then there are three other menus including the inventory that are all easily accessible by the four large buttons at the bottom of any submenu.
Each one of them holds a different galaxy of useful information so to speak (which is not too far off the mark). One takes advantage of the 6 spell circles while another has all of your character's skills, primary and secondary listed within different categories like combat skills, spell skills, miscellaneous and special skills. And last but not least, the last submenu contains information such as your primary attributes, racial abilities, combat modifiers, item modifiers and character resistances. Everything you wanted to know and won't know is there until hours into the game, is all right there in those four submenus.
The Rewards - Wizardry 8 keeps you coming back.
One of the main hallmarks of an addictive game are the rewards it tends to give for exploring, for fighting, for questing and for trying out new ideas during any gaming session. Baldur's Gate II made sure to put at least a coin into almost every cabinet or drawer, keeping the players checking every niche throughout the game. The Might & Magic series is another great example of an addictive reward system. There is hardly an area in the game where the designers haven't placed a chest, a treasure niche, event or some kind of experience reward.
Wizardry 8 is going to be hugely addictive in this regard. Chances are, from one end to another of any long corridor there will be hidden secrets your characters are going to spot. Countless times during the demo one of them shouted, "what have we got here!" (or something to that effect) and at that point items will appear in view that weren't in plain sight before. Your party could be walking right along and a character's artifact's skill will rise just because he or she spotted something hidden.
Gaining levels are even more fun. During the game, if any of your stats reaches the minimum requirement for any of the other classes, you have the option of completely changing classes when you level, complete with all the perks of the new class, which gives anyone something to work for. On top of that, when any primary stat reaches its maximum, the character will be granted a special inherent skill related to that stat which helps the party even more. My fighter, when he reached 100 in vitality, was granted the "iron skin" skill which absorbed and reduced the actual physical damage done to him, and which was set to 1... who knows what would happen if that skill reached 100.
There's always something to achieve in this game. After combat is when it's most apparent your characters are progressing. It's not uncommon to have 12 or more lines of text stating which of your characters skills improved during that single encounter, including the mythology skill where a character knows more about the monster and can tell its maximum hit points, health and more.
What RPG would be complete without locked doors and treasure chests? In Wizardry, they make you work for the treasure or entrance into another room by picking the lock and disarming the traps within, but it's not overtly tedious and in fact is quite interesting, especially with the sound effects that go with it.
The Polish - It's what separates an "A" title from the rest.
If you had any doubts about Wizardry 8, its 4 years in development, numerous delays and no publisher yet, let them be quelled here. Polish overflows from this game like molten lava from an angry volcano; there's no way to get around it. Here's a few examples. The framerate, even on my lowly Pentium II, 450Mhz and first-generation TNT card is phenomenal in 1024x768. The monsters have polygon outlines around them to help distinguish which ones are targeted and which aren't, a very nice touch. When monsters take damage, smooth easy to read white numbers float slowly up from their bodies and then disappear. Each of the characters have different dialogue for the same events, and each says something at different times, making the game rewarding aurally. Waterfalls make a thunderous sound when you get close. Kelp sways easily in deep unswimmable water, something they didn't have to do but went ahead and did for immersion. Options, options, options. "Oh... let's add this ctrl right-click option for item info for those that would rather not accidentally right-click an item or would rather assign the right button to something else."
There are so many ways to customize, from mouse options, to game speed, to buttons... little things that any user could configure to their own style of play. To re-emphasize this point, all of these less important things begin to add up and if there's no significant detractor from the game (such as only saving at specific points, low framerate, etc.), they're what help to make any game a classic. Hmm, classic... Wizardry. Imagine that.
While playing the demo released to the press, the feeling it exuded was this: that it is a game from yesteryear fully enveloped in and even surpassing today's high graphics and gameplay standards... especially for a hardcore RPG. Free again.
