[elkston]

Well, I finished Wizards and Warriors for the first time this evening. The game surprised me because I did not expect to have so much fun or see so much depth in a game that I had given up on.

Let me explain. I got this game back in 2000 when it came out. I battled through the numerous bugs and eventually got all the way to the Stout Mines. Then, for some reason I can't recall - maybe boredom, maybe another real life issue, I stopped playing.

Since then, other games got my attention and I forgot about W&W. It stayed in my closet for a long time and I had no desire to play it again because I was annoyed with the bugs and other clumsy things about its interface (like the guilds).

Anyway, cut to a few weeks ago. I'm looking for a new RPG to play and I've done pretty much all of the recent ones. I am on the Ironworks and I notice that the W&W forum is still alive and kicking after all this time. I figured if some sharp people at Ironworks are STILL talking about this game, then maybe it *is* worth more of my time. I recalled reading that a patch had been released that fixed many issues. So I grabbed that as well as a Ross Ridge's fan patch that lets you run W&W at high resolutions with an ATI card.

And besides, I still love party based games with puzzles, lots of character buildings, and first person perspectives. If Wizardry 7 & 8 were amongst my favorites then I sure figured I should give W&W another chance.

So I was off to play again.....

I guess the thing that impressed me about this game is its scope. The game just feels "epic" and the combination of voice acting, music, narration, and the various dungeon locales really add to this.

The story is very cliched. Chosen ones must defeat evil, etc. But the game never turns it into a parody. It is very serious about presenting this story and the various characters you meet are well written and make you feel a part of the story. And this is what is important in a game. It doesn't matter so much that the story isn't clever or novel. Because it is happening to *you* and you're not reading about it as a 3rd person. This is why setting up those light beams in the Shrine of Aenapus had so much suspense, why exploring the Collasium gives you the feeling of a noble treasure hunter, or why freeing the Lich from his torment really makes your character feel like she has earned the right to be a Valkyrie.

They got the atmosphere of this game *right*.

Also, this game has some really inspired dungeon designs. Every locale has its own "motif" that is consistent throughout that dunegon. The puzzles were for the most part, very well done. Mostly logical, and some that appeared to be trial and error bur revealed logic when studied further (for example, the pull chain puzzle in Shurgeon Castle Treasury).

Making good puzzles seems to be going by the wayside in modern games. I hope this art isn't totally abandonded.

Now of course, there were problems and interface annoyances but so much has been covered regarding this, so I'll leave it out of my post.

So, kudos to D.W. Bradley and the W&W team. I know its really late coming, but I'm glad I came back to W&W to discover its hidden charms.

Now its onto my next game with only 4 chars (from the previous run):
Ranger, Valkyrie, ZenMaster, and Assassin.

[ 10-01-2003, 11:24 PM: Message edited by: elkston ]