Worth Buying?

[bigblades]

I'm playing neverwinter nights right now and browsing the forums, and saw this one handily at my access for query. I saw wizardry 8 in the store earlier today and considered getting it... a few problems though

I've played none of the other wizardry games, will I start off totally confused for it? (not just playing but the lore of the game and such)

What can this game be compared to? Diablo? Nox? Baldurs gate? Summoner? (name an RPG its like, I've probably played whatever random one you name)

IS this game worth buying? It got a lot of awards and looks cool, so I assume so, but I figured I'd ask here to see what you guys think.

[the mighty stamar]

Wizardry 8 is my favorite crpg Ive played. I started it a month or so ago.
I played NWN morrowind and arx fatalis before it, and wizardry 8 is a much better game to me.
You control a party of 6, its in 3d. When combat starts it is turn based.
Great game.

[Kakero]

the game is first person perspective view. you can control up to 6 people. the battle is turn based. The game graphic is better than those games you mention. The character creation is really really good. The character can talk to each other and even talk to you.

This game is really worth it.

[Desdicado]

I would say there are far better games out there. I played it to half way through approximately and then gave up. I'd had enough of the waaay too long battles.
The graphics are a bit dated and I like to have the freedom to roam, in Wiz 8 you walk through tunnels, even in the wilderness, what I mean is unscalable mountains on each side of the narrow channel you have to go down.
There are far better RPGs out there.
Might and Magic 6, 7, 8, 9. Baldurs Gate 1 and 2. Icewind Dale and of course Morrowind. all far better.

[EEWorzelle]

Bigblades,

This game is by far the best RPG ever made. Nothing else even comes close. Not everyone agrees, but dozens of veteran CRPG players from recent and from way back do.

Why?

It is a character development strategy game. What is really fun is designing and playing your party to optimum capabilities, all the while facing well-balanced foes (they go up in level as you do).

I love the M&M games too, but they do not have this exceptional balance. Earlier Wizardry games are generally well-designed, but to not have the beauty and grace of Wizardry 8.

The game is not an easy one, so be patient with yourself. In the beginning you can run into some problems if you play at too high a difficulty level. Just start over if you need to and persist. There are also tips on many boards that can help you get started.

If you have a strong preferrence for the third-person, overhead view, you may not like the way Wizardry battles are up close and personal. Give it a try and see if you can get through that.

Good luck!

[ 03-06-2003, 11:58 AM: Message edited by: EEWorzelle ]

[yoinkdersplat]

All in all, Wizardry 8 CAN be an enjoyable game. The major problems I have with it are as follows:

Practice-based skill system -
Wizardry 8 is based on one of those tedium-inducing systems that forces you to practice your skills to improve. At level up you can choose to improve skills slightly which helps overcome this issue, but personally I would rather this was left out or optional. I'd have liked having the option to purchase skill points from a trainer/store or something. I really used to like these systems until I wasted away part of my life playing Everquest for a few months (when it came out long ago).

Excruciatingly long battles -
Some battles can take an EXTREMELY long time to complete. Even after turning up all options including little things like changing the camera to snap instead of PAN to improve speed you still have to wait for each monster to decide to do something, then you have to wait for it to move, then do whatever it wants to IN TURN. I have come to the conclusion that this has nothing to do with processor power. Apparantly there is a utility available that helps circumvent this problem (I think it's called wizfast).

The graphics are somewhat dated, but frankly when playing an RPG that is the least of my concerns.

Initially I had a lot of problems with the game, but on my newer machine I haven't had any crashes running on Windows XP.

What you may find that holds true in many games is that character/party suggestions made on bulletin boards and information sites should only be taken worth a grain of salt. Often times what is said is either not true or exagerated significantly. An example of this would be people who say it doesn't take long to raise all of your magic skills to 90+. I actually saw a post that stated it can be in in less than two "game" hours. Make a party you WANT to play, not what other's suggest. You DO NOT need to make uber characters in this game. I eventually settled on parties that have NO real casters or hybrids (not including the bard/gadgeteer), because I found they weren't needed and it made the game more fun. The most enjoyable game I played through was with a duo of Gadgeteer and Bard. The problem with this is you need to know where to find most of their equipment in the first place and I'm one of those people who likes casters more than anything else in roleplaying games.

I guess those are mostly negative comments, but since most of the posts in this message are of a positive note, I think it's already covered.

Anyway, whatever you choose, have fun...

[Fight Cancer]

If you haven't played a game from Sir-Tech, you haven't played a good game. This company did another one of my favorite titles--Jagged Alliance 1 & 2. Anyway, about this game.

It has NEVER crashed on me. (How many games can I say that about?) It is very fast on my system. I agree, the battles CAN be long, but the designers allowed an option called "Continuous" that lets the fighting flow more... fluid? real time, I guess you could say. The UI is so very easy to use. The Magic system took me a few days to figure out, but it's intuitive once ya do. IMO, it's a 5-star game, and I've already recommended it to 2 friends.

I've compared this game to Baldur's Gate, but in a 1st-person view, and Morrowind except that it allows you to control 6-8 players instead of merely the one. In either of those cases, W8 is far better than either of those 2.

That's my 2 cents,

[Aries2003]

This is a VERY addictive game. I currently have NeverWinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, WarCraft 3 and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind on my system (completed all once) but the one game I keep coming back to is Wizardry 8. I've never played any of the other Wizardry games (my loss...I think), I've played all of the Baldur's Gate series games but I must tell you that Wiz' 8 is one hell of a game. Started in early January of this year and on average play around 4 hours a day. It's not cutting edge by any stretch but really good games don't have to be now do they?

Buy it...buy it now!!! and be prepared to kiss your social life goodbye.

cheers

Aries

[snooch_dawg]

I say... buy the game (tho' if you are looking for unbiased opinions... a wiz 8 board is prolly not the best place to come [img]smile.gif[/img] )

It's a throw-back game to day when RPGs used to take between 50-100 hours to finsih and fights could last 20 minutes. The graphics aren't great but they are beautiful and at some points breathtaking. The scope of the game world is immense... and my very favorite thing about this game is ---> It's non-linear! You dont have to do stuff in any particular order, you can go anywhere you want.

And secondly --> the wandering around the landscape bashing iron weeds, juggernauts and higardi bandits does get boring fast. But, you only have to deal with that until you get to level 10/11 and have the portal spells and access to the T'rang TP device in L. Marten's Bluff.

Buy the game, it's worth the coin.

[Desdicado]

As the previous poster says, probably you will get a few biased replies on the games forum. I always look at www.pcgamereview.com/ for the views of the games players and others.

What I would say about this game is that I enjoyed it for a while but it's fatal flaw got too much for me in the end, combat.

The comabt system makes the game almost unplayable, that is only my opinion and others don't find it so, but the fact that there us a program out there designed to speed it up tells us there must be some sort of issue.

Combat can take up to 20 minutes per battle, I'm not kidding, each enemy has to perform each movement and each attack, in turn, one after each other, very slowly.
In the end I couldn't take it any more and started to run from every encounter, it was a nightmare and I deleted it.

I also didn't like the Sci Fi feel to it with spaceships etc, saying that, this didn't put me off the Might and Magic games.

I am reluctant to compare it to any other game, it looks most like Wizarda and warriors, but at least W&W has the option of non turn based combat.

The games good points are a lot of freedom to develop your character, graphics are ok.

I'd say save your money, buy Might and Magic 9 or something.