Wizardry Gold

                  Reviewed by Bill Commons

For the past two or three months I have been playing this game. I
understand that it is Wizardry 7 upgraded to Windows 95
specification.

On the Internet there are lots of complaints regarding it being
unplayable due to its slowness, while I found this true on my 486
it plays fine on a Pentium 166. I did have trouble on my main
computer, a classic 200Mhz. The graphics screen was completely
scrambled and followed by an un-recoverable fatal exception error.
I could not work out if this was due to a conflict with my Matrox
graphics card or the Win-tv card. I bought my CD by mail order
from America and I do not know if it is available in the UK.

@~Yes it is, I bought it at a computer fair ... Sue

As I have five PC computers now (built to allow my Grandson and
his friends to play network Diablo) I had a choice of machines to
try it out.  The game is a little dated in comparison with some of
the later RPG adventures with its random monsters appearing from
nowhere but I find that I keep loading it and playing just to get
a bit further into the game. It is a sequel to Bane of the Cosmic
Forge. Some years ago one of the Syntax readers recommended this
latter to me to play on my ST but I could not find it for sale.

The play area and style is similar to most RPGs in that it has
the graphics in a central window and all the controls and player
faces around it, it is mostly mouse controlled but there are
several unlisted keyboard shortcuts.

The game is huge, I have only reached the third Town and there are
lots on the map. It is turn based and the choices are displayed in
a pop up window.

You start by choosing a party of up to six from a huge range and
it is recommended to keep rolling to get the best attributes. I
did not know this and chose a pre-formed group, once I had got
through the first dungeon I did not want to change them.

After two weeks of play and having to keep restoring because it
was too hard for me, I had a choice of throwing the game away or
cheating, I chose the second. There is a save-game editor on the
Net and I just put the spell level numbers up to give me a better
chance, this made the game playable for me but I read that some
people have completed it with just one character.

The game contains lots of puzzles, and in case like me you get
stuck often, there is a built in hint file by pressing F3. Also
there is an FAQ on the Net.

Some locations have set battles the first time you visit but
throughout the game there are random monsters appearing.
Sometimes these are impossible with the current party, for
instance, in the first round all your party are put to sleep,
paralyzed (their spelling) and blinded. All you can do is
terminate the game or watch while you die. This means going to a
restored game, perhaps one step back from the location.  When you
step forward there can be no encounter, an absolutely easy one or
one that is ten times worse.

The game is non linear in that you can wander wherever you like
and I found that the monsters get progressively more difficult if
you go too far. Some NPCs send you to the next location but if
this is missed you can go back.

In conclusion, I can recommend this game if you want hours of game
play and want to put your thinking caps on.








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