I want to buy this game... but I have some questions first...

[The Cavalier]

Well, what's the main story? I started a game of this a summer or two ago, and I loved it... however, it was at a friends house, and I was not able to get far. (He got mad cause I was supposed to fight some hard spider boss or something early on, and I whooped it.)

Also, how good of requirements will I need to run it?

Where can I find the game? I can't seem to find it in many places.

And, is there an editor for the game (Like Shadow Keeper for BG2 SoA)?

[Vaprakgruumsh]

It is a story that continues from Wizardry VI, through Wizardry VII and concludes in Wizardry VIII. But by no means do you need to play those previous games, to get into it.

Without blowing it, there's someone named The Dark Savant who is after 3 Sacred Items, to do something that is called "Ascending." What that entails, you will find out as you play the game. But it becomes very obvious that you need to stop him. Also, there's other races (mainly Umpani and T'Rang, both which carried over from Wizardry VII) that hate one another - with them, you can side with either one, or if you're careful, you can find a way to unite both races and end a war between them that has been going on for so many, bloody years.

As for the requirements for the game - PC, 233 MHz or better, 64 RAM, Windows 95, 98 or 2000. (Not sure if it works on XP). 1.,2 GB free on the HD, 4x CD ROM, 3D Accelerator card with 8MB Textture memory, sound card, and mouse.

Not much for requirements, heck I play it on a laptop.

As for where to buy it, I think it's only available through ELECTRONIC BOUTIQUE. You can order it directly from their site if you can't find a local store here:

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categorie...8&site=WIZARD8

Or probably even find it on ebay.com

And as for editors - do you mean like character editors? Yeah, there's a few but most don't work with version 1.24 of the game, which is the newest ones being sold (early buyers got 1.0 of the game which had a number of bugs in it). The patches are available on the wizardry site at http://www.wizardry8.com

Good luck. It is WELL worth it.

[Deejax]

One bit of advice: Do NOT play this game with the minimum requirements!
My new computer was a blessing. Playing the game with all graphic and audio settings at the lowest level and still experiencing slow reactions and frequent crashes was quite frustrating.
I had to reboot at least every 2 hours. Now everything runs smoothly for hours on end. And with this game you want to be able to go on for more than 2 hours!

[Wereboar]

One bit of advice: Do NOT play this game with the minimum requirements!

Seconded.
The game has a memory leak (big in original version, not as big in patched version). I'd recommend at least 128, better 256 MB of memory.

[Desdicado]

If you buy it, you should download the Wizfast program, to speed up the awful combat system.

[EEWorzelle]

I just what to say that there is nothing wrong, IMO, with the combat system in this game. I understand and respect the opinion put forth so strongly by some here about that, but I just don't agree.

After playing this game many times, for hundreds of hours over the last year, without ever using a combat-speedup system, I can say that long, slow battles, other than a few places in the later part of the game, only happen when I mess up. For these rare few, I just use patience. If you prefer to speedup combat rather than watch as the enemies move one at a time, by all means get the Wizfast program being promoted here (sounds like a great utility), but to tell a new or would-be player that they have to get it because the combat system is awful is simply not true, according to the vast majority of experienced players.

IMHO, this is a great game with a great combat system. If you find yourself fighting too many enemies at once, or with too many helpers (the classic ways to create long, slow battles), then change your strategy and tactics.

Any product can be improved. I am only intending respectful disagreement here and expressing another opinion. LOL

[Ziggurat]

I agree with EE. Combat is fine unless you are attacked by 20+ creatures and decide to use Terror or Slow or Blind, which can prolong the battle to 20 minutes. (Never, ever, use these on Millipedes!) I have 256 MB now, had 128 most of the time I played the game. The 256 mem really speeds up the loading new areas and map view delay. Other than that, the mem upgrade did not effect the battles or rest of the game.

[Wolfie]

Personally perfer this type of combat (phased) to the mouse-click feast that many other CRPGs have become (one of my main gripes with the so-called "Infinity Engine" games, the only infinity seemed to be the number of games they'd make using the same engine and the number of times you had to click yer mouse!).

As always, this is only IMHO and you are entitled to make up your own mind.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

[kev]

If you have a pcchips motherboard with no pci slots you may have problems with sound, as I have.
Only 8.5meg of graphics ram still lets the game play.