Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom

"Only the most hardcore and patient gamers will want this"

Wizardry V is an old school dungeon crawler from the DOS days of RPGs. These games are a dying breed, but they were never popular to begin with. And there's a good reason why. I see a lot of high scores for this game, and I respect that, but I want to warn gamers before they buy this.

In Wizardry, you assemble a party of 6 people, choosing from various classes alignments and races. Some classes cast spells, and some are good for fighting or picking locks. Races have certain attributes that gear them toward classes. The leveling up and class system is a highlight of this game, as there are tons of interesting spells and various abilities that change and allow you to even switch classes as you level up.

Once your party has been made, you will begin in a dimly lit dungeon in a first person view. Battles take place by random encounters, and tend to be rather concise, thanks to minimal animations. I like the imagination and mystery in the game, from the perspective to the text descriptions and absence of your character portraits. But enough with the good, it's time for my enormous gripes.

There is a huge penalty for any character death. Basically, you will lose all your money to revive somebody, forcing you to save after each battle and reset in case of death. Painstaking leveling up is needed, but because encounters are fairly sparse and there are no easy level up spots, this will take a lifetime. Also, hardly any money is earned from battles, and tons of expensive items must be bought to progress.

This game is way too expansive. You must map the whole dungeon with graph paper, thanks to no in game map being present. Even if you obtain the map item in the game, the effort required to get the item(6 hours of battles) is ridiculous and it takes 4 seconds just to bring up the map each time. And you will bring it up a billion times. Even with a map downloaded from the Internet, you get lost thanks to for getting your directional orientation. I like the mysterious look of the 1st person view,but it doesn't go well with expansiveness and the lack of lighting( plan to use map and light spells to waste MP). Also, there are traps set up to kill you the whole way through and the game is so long you'll NEVER get to the ending. Even a die-hard RPG-er will have a hellish time with this one. Finally, you never have an idea of your main objective. You must wander around to get info, and see above for what's wrong with that. There's no reason to replay this game, you'll take plenty of time just to beat it.

Graphically, there's nothing flashy. Each dungeon floor in the game has different wall patterns that remain throughout the whole floor. Enemies are nicely drawn though not animated. The graphics are decent, and the minimalistic approach helps give the game a bit of an eerie look. The music is very fitting, but there are few tunes. It sets the mysterious tone for the game, but you'll be listening to only about 5 different tunes.

Wizardry does some things well, but it's challenging for all the wrong reasons. If there had been a constantly on-screen map with markers for traps and specific areas, it might have had a chance. And iff the leveling was removed and there was less length padding, it could be quite fun. The developers obviously COULD have made a fun game, as it has a lot going for it, but instead they made a painful chore. Less would be more in this case. If you like these types of games, this probably won't bother you, but you need the patience of a saint and the courage of a warrior.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/05