I was just thinking about how people really didn't like the futuristic parts in the Might & Magic series. But here it seems to be just fine. In all the posts I've read I've never heard a negative thing about this. And, if you think about, what the heck are the Umpani doing with spaceships, swords and gunpowder?!
I just wondered how everybody felt about this mix, 'cos they seem to have done a good job in blending the two.

Its a good question, but then again Sci-Fi's don't make much sense. I consider Wiz8 to be a Sci-Fi RPG. Its very different from all the other RPG's, a distinct flavor if you will. And does the FF series make sense, its the same thing. Sir-Tech did an awesome job in blending all these aspects.

I've played all the M&Ms up to 8, so had no problem with Wiz having sci-fi.

I personally think it is a real nice blend of the two. Diffrant races with diffrant areas of technology. Rapax with there armour and swords. Umpani with guns. It just works for me.

I think I'd prefer traditional fantasy stuff, but Wizardry 8 DOES handle the mix quite well, so I'm not complaining. It just seems a bit anachronistic at times. I mean, I'm walking around Arnika, and it looks like a medieval city, and then I stumble upon a landing strip, complete with advanced computer systems. (not to mention the scanning devices at HLL.) So, are these people technologically advanced or not? Not that it matters, but occasionally it feels like the designers couldn't decide what they wanted to do, so they just threw in a bit of everything and, for me at least, it ruins the sense of immersion a little bit.

At first I really hated the idea of anything futuristic in a Wizardry game because it seemed to go against the image established back in "Proving Grounds of The Mad Overlord" and those other earlier games. But then I remembered that they DID have elevators in those first games, so maybe this hi-tech stuff doesn't contradict the series' origins too much after all.

Actually this kept me from ever getting into some of the previous Wizardry's. Think I bought number 1 or 2 then tried it again for Bane of Cosmic forge. Never got very far in either of them (and yes I bought them as they came out so it wasn't an old computer tech problem). This one makes the tech in the game easier to ignore as most all of it is part of the backround story or quests rather than things like having to decide if a partical beam or a mace make a better weapon.

I prefer either fantasy or sci fi but since what I really hate is D&D - choices for turn based solitare RPGs games are few and far between now a'days. Not that I don't really like Wizardry 8 I just might not have tried it otherwise. The $10 price helped too, I can afford to buy a few crappy games at that price LOL.