Mediocre questing thrills
No prizes for guessing what you're getting yourself into if you fire up this title. Yes, that's right, it's a fantasy RPG that plays out very much like the classic Wizardry series and while it might not bring anything staggeringly new to the genre, it remains a decent enough example. It's quite traditional in its approach to things, with players creating a party of heroes from selection of several races, with a number of professions available and with more opening up as you progress. The story revolves around the usual ancient artefact of awesome power, in this case the Mavin Blade, and the evil villain who has his own nefarious goals and who must be stopped before he can bring devastation to the land. The game itself plays out in first-person fashion, with plenty of exploration, character interaction and of course combat to engage in. Battles are a mix of phase-based and real-time, while the well-realised magic system offers allows players to use spells from their chosen school. There is certainly a strong sense of the epic about the game, with a massive world to explore and lengthy quest to complete and which is pretty challenging even for genre veterans. Unfortunately, it's let down somewhat by the poor interface which is overly confusing and a lacklustre story. Visuals too are less than spectacular while the general lack of originality and personality is also slightly wearing. If you are a die-hard fantasy RPG fan, you'll probably get a kick out this but newcomers will probably find themselves underwhelmed and might be better off with the later Wizardry games, like Wizardry 8.
