Wizardry 6 + 7 + 8 all for £0.99

Gusington · May 18, 2015, 08:20:20 PM

Just read the piece over at RPS...I will be backing this new Bard's Tale. I should probably also pick up Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity. Well at least I still have to purchase them and they are not sitting, rotting on my HD.

If the Kickstarter begins June 2, release of this new Bard's Tale will be when...2018?

BanzaiCat · May 18, 2015, 09:29:57 PM

^ Did you ever finish Grim Dawn?

Nefaro · May 19, 2015, 01:37:30 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on May 18, 2015, 09:29:57 PM
^ Did you ever finish Grim Dawn?

The Devs haven't even finished Grim Dawn! ???

BanzaiCat · May 19, 2015, 05:33:39 AM

Well, to be fair, there was an update recently (5/11/15 to be precise). So at least it's not abandoned.

He's probably gotten further into it than I have. It's been a while so I'd have to start it over. What about you, Nef? I take it you're playing it too? Strange I'm not seeing any of my Steam friends listed on this game.

Gusington · May 19, 2015, 07:37:22 AM

I haven't started Grim Dawn yet :)

Nefaro · May 19, 2015, 10:32:11 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on May 19, 2015, 05:33:39 AM
Well, to be fair, there was an update recently (5/11/15 to be precise). So at least it's not abandoned.

He's probably gotten further into it than I have. It's been a while so I'd have to start it over. What about you, Nef? I take it you're playing it too? Strange I'm not seeing any of my Steam friends listed on this game.

I picked it up awhile ago but haven't played. Hoping to wait until it's finished.

It's been in perpetually slow development, though, so that may not be for another six years. ???

Zonso · May 25, 2015, 05:26:02 PM

Quote from: Gusington on May 17, 2015, 06:05:13 PM
Wizardry has always intrigued me, but I don't know any details on the games. Any of you guys play them?

Not sure where you went with this, but being a Wizardry fanatic at one time these games are definitely hardcore. Wizardry 8 is much more approachable for a new player both in presentation and difficulty; 6 & 7 are DOS based and are brutally hard and frustrating. I can guarantee you would need to isolate yourself for several weeks to complete. The games are just as much about completing the overriding story, a mix of fantasy and science fiction, as they are about power gaming and planning(and gaining) the levelling of your characters. I started a new game of Wizardy 8 again about 3 years ago and put in A LOT of hours, compiling character creation and progression notes, spells and quests etc. (wife hasn't seen me doing that in years!) then abandoned it for some reason. I think my group was about Level 13-15 and as I recall I don't think I was even half way through the game at that point as you would have around Level 25+ characters at the end.

It is a very unique game system though. Watching your characters grow and develop and become more powerful is a tangible thing, more so than other RPGs I have played.

Gusington · May 25, 2015, 08:36:04 PM

^Thanks Zonso. I remember being a kid in the game shop and listening to the clerks there talking about Wizardry circa 1988...just them talking about it blew my mind. Not sure which one they were talking about. But it sounds like the game has stayed true to it's formula since then.

Nefaro · May 25, 2015, 11:00:29 PM

Wiz8 is still good after all this time and is a pretty big game with a somewhat modern UI.

If you pick it up, I recommend also tracking down the Combat Speed Mod. Even though it comes with an AI Animation Speed slider in the settings, the battles with many enemies still tends to take too long. IIRC, the mod just a text file in which you can manually raise the animation speed value higher than the normal limit. You can play without it, but you may be occasionally watching long-ish stretches of AI turns.

Wiz 6 & especially 7 a good old DOS games but they're much older than Wiz 8 and they feel very antiquated too. Even more so than their closest equivalent, M&M4-5. I grabbed #7 for nostalgic purposes and actually played it for a bit but Wiz8 is a huge leap ahead in all ways.

Gusington · May 26, 2015, 08:14:33 AM

Thanks Nef...Wizardry has always been on my radar - Might and Magic not so much. Didn't really play RPGs until I got older.

BanzaiCat · May 26, 2015, 08:21:46 AM

Might & Magic is even less forgiving than Wizardry, especially M&M I and II.

In M&M I, even the lowest level of encounters can slaughter your party, so there is a tremendous amount of luck in surviving long enough to accumulate experience and items to make your characters able to face even tougher challenges later.

FarAway Sooner · May 26, 2015, 09:20:37 AM

What makes Wiz8 different than the games from any of the Ultima series, Bard's Tale games, Might & Magic titles, or others? I did play Bane of the Cosmic Forge (which had some vague affiliation to the Wizardry titles, as I recall) and enjoyed that a lot, but recall all of those titles being fairly formulaic and involving a lot of grinding around repetitive use of particular combos.

An old-school RPG that involved some novel strategy and game play would be cool.

JasonPratt · May 26, 2015, 10:05:12 AM

Pretty sure Bane of the Cosmic Forge is one of the Wizardry titles? Specifically Wiz6 (the start of the 6/7/8 trilogy)?

Nefaro · May 26, 2015, 10:08:56 AM

Quote from: FarAway Sooner on May 26, 2015, 09:20:37 AM
What makes Wiz8 different than the games from any of the Ultima series, Bard's Tale games, Might & Magic titles, or others?

The most notable difference is that it uses a 3D world and a modern UI created for a Windows OS. I suppose the latter Might & Magic system also had a 3D environment, but it used "billboard" 2D stuff for everything in it which looked bad even back in the day. The UI is also much more friendly in Wiz8 IMO, and it needs to be because there is a lot of info regarding stats, abilities, etc.

Wiz8 isn't literally tile-based, as the earlier ones were, but it still plays much like one. Albeit with more modern UI & controls.

Zonso · May 26, 2015, 03:51:03 PM

Bane of the Cosmic Forge is Wizardry 6. Yes, Wizardry 6,7 & 8 are all old school RPGs with a lot of combat and grinding, sometimes frustratingly so. However, I think what makes them stand apart is the depth of the system whether combat mechanics, character creation/progression, skill and spell combinations etc. The back story with all the different races and factions, alliances and allegiances is really very deep and involved. That said, I do think the games are an acquired taste mainly due to the difficulty and heavy combat emphasis.

Good call on the Combat Speed Mod for Wiz 8, forgot about that. Sometimes you can have lunch while watching the enemy monsters grind down your characters, then when you finally breathe a sigh of relief after 'winning' another bunch initiate combat and you sigh in fear, here we go again! :)