Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - What do you all think of wizards and warriors?

EEWorzelle · 03-05-2003, 10:28 AM

One of the keys to this game is thoroughness. Many of the veteran Wizardry players complained that there are no puzzles in Wizardry 8.

This is not a matter of intelligence, it is more technique. As Gimli demonstrated for the specific "puzzles" encountered, there are lots of hints for everything that needs to be done inside of the game.

It is pretty basic to check out every building found, to see if there is an entrance and for every object to see if it can be manipulated, if a "specific item" is needed to do so, or if it is just part of the scenery. It can take a long time to literally go everywhere and check out everything, but that's the game. It's fun. The hints and clues are often not where you expect them to be, but they are there, usually in several places. Retero dungeons, as Gimli says, are a special case, but a few players claim to have figured out one or more on their own.

Actually I agree that with those players who claim there are few puzzles in W8, but that's a good thing. Wizardry 8 is, IMO, most fun when viewed as a character development strategy game and there is plenty of difficulty there, if one goes and looks for it, by playing challenging parties. The problems with long battles are not a problem at lower difficulty levels nor at higher difficulty, even expert, once player skills improve. There is also a utility available to speed up combat, if desired (although only player skills will prevent getting surrounded by too many enemies at once and toasted, if you are not careful.) Magic heavy parties tend to have shorter battles also, but are more difficult to play, at first.

I played W&W a bit and liked it... some. It has the same feel of a console RPG in the sense of channels one must followed when outdoors. There is no freedom of movement in every direction such as in MM6, 7 and 8. Those later games were 3D, in the sense of flying and 2D freedom of motion, while W&W and MM9 (the later played all the way through twice) seem more 1D in the sense of channeled movement only along certain paths. I am referring to game play, not what is "technically" called 3D or 2D. Wizardry 8 does not have flying, of course, but the freedom of motion in two dimensions (when outdoors, in places like the swamp) is excellent. In places like the Rift there are even some 3D aspects that are pretty cool, too. This is just my impression of the feeling those games give and I do intend to play W&W more, at some point, and give it's merits a better opportunity. The "channeled" effect is probably just due to necessary limitations of the "engines" used for those games.

03-05-2003, 10:28 AM	#17
EEWorzelle Manshoon Join Date: October 25, 2002 Location: Gilbert, Az Age: 73 Posts: 234	One of the keys to this game is thoroughness. Many of the veteran Wizardry players complained that there are no puzzles in Wizardry 8. This is not a matter of intelligence, it is more technique. As Gimli demonstrated for the specific "puzzles" encountered, there are lots of hints for everything that needs to be done inside of the game. It is pretty basic to check out every building found, to see if there is an entrance and for every object to see if it can be manipulated, if a "specific item" is needed to do so, or if it is just part of the scenery. It can take a long time to literally go everywhere and check out everything, but that's the game. It's fun. The hints and clues are often not where you expect them to be, but they are there, usually in several places. Retero dungeons, as Gimli says, are a special case, but a few players claim to have figured out one or more on their own. Actually I agree that with those players who claim there are few puzzles in W8, but that's a good thing. Wizardry 8 is, IMO, most fun when viewed as a character development strategy game and there is plenty of difficulty there, if one goes and looks for it, by playing challenging parties. The problems with long battles are not a problem at lower difficulty levels nor at higher difficulty, even expert, once player skills improve. There is also a utility available to speed up combat, if desired (although only player skills will prevent getting surrounded by too many enemies at once and toasted, if you are not careful.) Magic heavy parties tend to have shorter battles also, but are more difficult to play, at first. I played W&W a bit and liked it... some. It has the same feel of a console RPG in the sense of channels one must followed when outdoors. There is no freedom of movement in every direction such as in MM6, 7 and 8. Those later games were 3D, in the sense of flying and 2D freedom of motion, while W&W and MM9 (the later played all the way through twice) seem more 1D in the sense of channeled movement only along certain paths. I am referring to game play, not what is "technically" called 3D or 2D. Wizardry 8 does not have flying, of course, but the freedom of motion in two dimensions (when outdoors, in places like the swamp) is excellent. In places like the Rift there are even some 3D aspects that are pretty cool, too. This is just my impression of the feeling those games give and I do intend to play W&W more, at some point, and give it's merits a better opportunity. The "channeled" effect is probably just due to necessary limitations of the "engines" used for those games.