Wizardry 8 Preview

It’s the old theme that history repeats itself. Once, long ago, was a time when this genre nearly reached a point of being synonymous with computer games themselves. It was a time of prosperity and freedom in the gaming market, the dawn of new genres. Much later, during the role-playing “ice age,” only one game a year saved them from extinction. One historian might attribute the fall of the RPG to the disaster that was Ultima VIII (subjectively speaking of course), which unsuccessfully tried to cross action with role-playing.

Then, a miraculous recovery with the help of Diablo (which successfully crossed action and role-playing) and somewhat too by Might & Magic VI helped role-playing games to finally, now, become so popular again that gamers’ biggest dilemmas are deciding on which their money is going to rest. It was about the time of the revival, 1997, when Wizardry 8 was decided by the powers that be to be developed. This single-player indubitably promising RPG is about to bring us back to a time when stats and flash rode hand and hand together.

The Story – An RPG wouldn’t be quite the same without one.

Wizardry 8 takes place during the time of the Ascension. It’s a time when the Dark Savant, of Wizardry 7, seeks to become one of the Cosmic Lords himself by securing each of the three cosmic artifacts scattered around the universe. The first two have been found – one by the Dark Savant and another by the race called Mook; each of the artifacts carried a map to the third, which is where you come in. The Mook hired you to sail through space to a distant planet and recover the third artifact. Intercepted by the Dark Savant just as you arrive, he attacks your ship and you crash to the planet’s surface. And like in “Cast Away,” your party of 6 (increasable by 2 NPC’s) awakes to the repetitive sound of gently lapping water; they’re on a strange island and know that the Dark Savant is orbiting somewhere around the planet making plans to recover the last artifact, the Destiny Dominus.

Washed Ashore

The press release demo was immersive from the first step. The sounds of the water behind, a sandy beach on a calm sunny day, treasure chest, pack of small crabs, complete freedom of movement and of course a very detailed interface behind the pretty graphics all ready to learn the intricacies of, presented a nearly endless amount of starting options… all pleasurable I might add.

The Interface – It can make or break a game, but not this game.

Stats and flash. how does a game that’s been in development for 4 years manage to pull it off with grace? My guess is the extra time that went into finding a publisher (which they are still quiet about) went into the amazing effort of polishing the game to a mirror-like state which includes tweaking the interface as well as the graphics and gameplay (which will be expanded upon later). Nearly every option I’d want or consider is within the easy-to-use interface or one of the option menus.

Among the three main ways to view the interface is the show-everything mode. It has the smaller 3D worldview where each member’s head is viewable along the right and left sides, and along the bottom third are the radar mini, party formation mini and text area. At all times in the interface there are thinner bars along all four sides of the screen, and a lot can be accomplished by using just those. The majority of people will probably use this mode for the game’s length. But in this game, there are options for everything, so of course another third option is to combine the two extremes by having any of the mini windows up along with the 90% full screen mode.

Each click of the button takes you lightning fast to the correct place with no graphical delay. To illustrate a pair of examples, I’ll borrow both good and bad from another game. If you remember the strategy game Heroes of Might & Magic III which had to load an MP3 music file upon entering different areas of the game, quickness of the buttons can be an important issue in any integral-to-gameplay interface design and Wizardry 8 is no turtle.

While the speed of the interface is important, finding the buttons can also be an issue in some games. In Wiz 8, every button is just the right size, Goldilocks style. not too small and just a tad larger than normal, which is perfect for this game. In fact, they are very reminiscent, in a great way, of Heroes III, in that they are on the verge of being cartoonish and highlight slightly when you run your mouse over them. To someone who’s played games their whole life, this “little” stuff can amount to a big deal, and when it’s done right is immediately noticeable and appreciated. All in all, it’s the best user interface for a hardcore RPG I’ve ever been privileged to play around with. It’s just that good.

Before we actually played the press demo we were worried that the graphics might be less than spectacular. This seems to be a very valid concern, considering the fact that the game has already been in production for over four years. Well whisk away those worries like ours were because the game includes perhaps the best graphics to date in a similar-type game, featuring a full-time first person perspective point of view, also used in games like Might & Magic VIII and Wizards & Warriors. While it is arguable whether this type of viewpoint or any other is ideal for a party based CRPG, the graphics are certainly exquisitely done. The extensive indoor and outdoor scenes are nicely finished with intricate textures and are fully fleshed out with all sorts of little details like wine kegs, bookshelves, tables with candles and chairs, etc. To achieve all of this, they built a completely new engine sporting supported features like day/night cycles, dynamic lightning and a particle system.

The Combat – The meat and potatoes of the RPG

One of the best and most used features of the game has to be the combat system. Wizardry 8 uses a phased combat system, similar to turn-based but faster, where you get to first assign the actions of your characters at the beginning of each turn. After you have given all the commands, you play a single round simultaneously with the enemy. Individual initiatives, from all monsters to party members, are calculated and acted out in the order of speed. In the case that you want a character to repeat his/her last actions, simply hit “L”; or, if you are feeling lazy, the computer will assign actions for you characters based upon the weapons they’re using.

Enemies can attack from every possible direction, so even group formation needs to be considered before entering combat, making the party formation mini-window a handy tool to have. If monsters are far away and your character has a ranged weapon equipped, the computer will automatically allow them to use it, and once the monster(s) enter melee range will “auto-swap” to the melee weapon of choice for close battle. This is an incredibly useful feature when using the second and other main type of combat mode, “continuous.” It’s similar to real-time except that all the participant’s speeds are considered and only one monster/party member moves at a time albeit without pauses in between.

The Spell System – A constructive past time for the melee challenged

Both an important element to the art of combat as well as a boon to reconnaissance and travel is the magic system. Wizardry 8 features six different schools of magic and many of the classes are able to use at least one of them during their lives. There is of course the usual array of offensive, defensive and healing spells, but along with those come the non-combat charm spells, travel spells such as light, and buffing spells to enhance protection and efficiency during combat.

A great feature compared to many other games with spell systems is the ability to determine the intensity of a certain spell, maximizing mana with power against a specific target. Not only can you pick out the type of spell, but as your character gains levels, he or she can choose the appropriate multiplier, doing that many times in power compared with the original 1st level spell. There is, of course, the risk that a higher intensity will cause your spell to backfire, especially if the character’s skill is not very high. It can be a very shocking experience to expect your level 4 whipping rocks spell to lash out at the small horde of enemies, and instead backfire and do damage to every member of your party. We’ll just label those mishaps as negative buffs.

Wizardry 8 takes a unique approach to targeting area-based spells in 3D, such as which area is affected by a spell such as a Fireball. First, if it’s a monster group that needs to be targeted, a pointer will appear on screen to select the appropriate group, which is easily identifiable by an outline appearing around the monster. Then a 3D staff comes out very similar to one you might find in the golf game Links. You can move it both back and forward and left and right along the x and y-axis. As you do, monsters within the affected area will be highlighted so you can pick the spot that affects the most monsters. If it’s a cone-based spell, a 3D blue cone will funnel outward toward the monsters, again highlighting the ones that would be affected, and your party just rotates until you reach the desired angle.

If you take all the combat and spell factors into account and realize that there are over 300 different types of monsters in the game, then you’ll realize that there is some serious fighting to be done before you have reached the end of the game. Furthermore, monsters do have the ability to re-spawn, more often in heavily trafficked areas, so it’s definitely best to think before you sleep…

The Wizardry sagas have always been a stat-happy experience, and the latest is going to be no exception. While playing the demo I always had the feeling that each actually meant something (unlike the feeling in certain MMORPG’s I won’t mention) and though at first glance they seem countless, a few hours in and one really begins to appreciate all the work that went into the system. Here are some numbers: 11 races, 15 classes, 100 spells, 300 monsters, a nearly countless array of items and weapons, and we’ll just say lots of primary skills (that number hasn’t been disclosed but it’s very impressive, 30+) and even more special class-specific skills that you attain after maximizing a primary attribute at 100.

How does Wizardry 8’s interface make room for all this information? The answer is intuitively and easily. There are four submenus of the main interface. One houses the paper-doll party and character inventory system, activated by right clicking the character, pressing “I” or whatever you choose to make it (all keys are assignable… didn’t I tell you? Options galore). Then there are three other menus including the inventory that are all easily accessible by the four large buttons at the bottom of any submenu.

Each one of them holds a different galaxy of useful information so to speak (which is not too far off the mark). One takes advantage of the 6 spell circles while another has all of your character’s skills, primary and secondary listed within different categories like combat skills, spell skills, miscellaneous and special skills. And last but not least, the last submenu contains information such as your primary attributes, racial abilities, combat modifiers, item modifiers and character resistances. Everything you wanted to know and won’t know is there until hours into the game, is all right there in those four submenus.

The Rewards – Wizardry 8 keeps you coming back.

One of the main hallmarks of an addictive game are the rewards it tends to give for exploring, for fighting, for questing and for trying out new ideas during any gaming session. Baldur’s Gate II made sure to put at least a coin into almost every cabinet or drawer, keeping the players checking every niche throughout the game. The Might & Magic series is another great example of an addictive reward system. There is hardly an area in the game where the designers haven’t placed a chest, a treasure niche, event or some kind of experience reward.

Wizardry 8 is going to be hugely addictive in this regard. Chances are, from one end to another of any long corridor there will be hidden secrets your characters are going to spot. Countless times during the demo one of them shouted, “what have we got here!” (or something to that effect) and at that point items will appear in view that weren’t in plain sight before. Your party could be walking right along and a character’s artifact’s skill will rise just because he or she spotted something hidden.

Gaining levels are even more fun. During the game, if any of your stats reaches the minimum requirement for any of the other classes, you have the option of completely changing classes when you level, complete with all the perks of the new class, which gives anyone something to work for. On top of that, when any primary stat reaches its maximum, the character will be granted a special inherent skill related to that stat which helps the party even more. My fighter, when he reached 100 in vitality, was granted the “iron skin” skill which absorbed and reduced the actual physical damage done to him, and which was set to 1… who knows what would happen if that skill reached 100.

There’s always something to achieve in this game. After combat is when it’s most apparent your characters are progressing. It’s not uncommon to have 12 or more lines of text stating which of your characters skills improved during that single encounter, including the mythology skill where a character knows more about the monster and can tell its maximum hit points, health and more.

What RPG would be complete without locked doors and treasure chests? In Wizardry, they make you work for the treasure or entrance into another room by picking the lock and disarming the traps within, but it’s not overtly tedious and in fact is quite interesting, especially with the sound effects that go with it.

The Polish – It’s what separates an “A” title from the rest.

If you had any doubts about Wizardry 8, its 4 years in development, numerous delays and no publisher yet, let them be quelled here. Polish overflows from this game like molten lava from an angry volcano; there’s no way to get around it. Here’s a few examples. The framerate, even on my lowly Pentium II, 450Mhz and first-generation TNT card is phenomenal in 1024×768. The monsters have polygon outlines around them to help distinguish which ones are targeted and which aren’t, a very nice touch. When monsters take damage, smooth easy to read white numbers float slowly up from their bodies and then disappear. Each of the characters have different dialogue for the same events, and each says something at different times, making the game rewarding aurally. Waterfalls make a thunderous sound when you get close. Kelp sways easily in deep unswimmable water, something they didn’t have to do but went ahead and did for immersion. Options, options, options. “Oh… let’s add this ctrl right-click option for item info for those that would rather not accidentally right-click an item or would rather assign the right button to something else.”

There are so many ways to customize, from mouse options, to game speed, to buttons… little things that any user could configure to their own style of play. To re-emphasize this point, all of these less important things begin to add up and if there’s no significant detractor from the game (such as only saving at specific points, low framerate, etc.), they’re what help to make any game a classic. Hmm, classic… Wizardry. Imagine that.

While playing the demo released to the press, the feeling it exuded was this: that it is a game from yesteryear fully enveloped in and even surpassing today’s high graphics and gameplay standards… especially for a hardcore RPG. Free again.