A Diamond In The Rough :Wizardry Online: A review by a novice critic

Hi, im Ruiner and im really big fan of MMORPG.com and Ripper X game reviews/commentary. So naturally I wanted to try my luck at reviewing a game and seeing if I could make a readable critique.

I chose Wizardry Online because I wanted to do a little known game and I'm not ashamed to say I'm a super-nerd for dungeon crawlers.

So lets get started: I will break this down into 5 categories and we will be working on a banana  rating scale with 5 's being the highest score in a category. Then I will average these 's together at the end for a final tally.

Graphics: The graphics aren't very good and then again they aren't very bad. I would say comparable to the first gen xbox 360 game that you dug out of the Gamestop bargain bin last week. Some of late game mage spells look pretty narly especially the ice spells. But this game is not going to blow you away with visuals.

Lets give this one  out of 5 in the visual category.

Audio:  Sometimes I like to play video games while listening to its audios and sometimes I like to listen to my own thing. The audio in Wizardry is like that of old Final Fantasy games where you would have a background melody that would change when you entered a conflict. The tracks change dungeon to dungeon but some dungeons in particular are pretty lengthy and listening to the same track over and over while you progress through the dungeon can be monotonous. The sound effects on spells and combat are reasonable I guess, but much like the video category dont expect to be blown away. So I choose to keep the music off for the most part after Ive heard the track a few times and keep sound effects on.

Gamepot and SOE take out of 5 in the audio category.

Gameplay:  I really liked this area of Wizardry, the sheathing and unsheathing mechanics were the hardest to master for me because your jump mechanics change when you your weapon is sheathed and drawn. I've played the entire time as a fighter using a 2H axe. Each weapon has it owns unique properties but the 2H Axe specializes in knockback with a reasonable reach. I find myself constantly repositioning to try and make the most out my knockback to keep my party members and myself safe. The game can get grindy at times but the monsters hit freaking hard after level 10. I want you think of Mike Tison punching Miley Cyrus. You wont fall asleep grinding and you are going to die...alot... to other players and monsters. But I gotta say I actually have fun grinding out exp. The game is defiantly better with a group because of the difficulty of later dungeons. So find a union(guild) early.

PVP is great when you pick your battles with those close to your level and you can even steal their items(1 at a time). But Beware: Wizardry uses an ultima online approach to attacking non-criminal players or stealing from them. You have a seperate city connected to the main cities called "the slums" and thats where you have to go to repair your items, sleep, bid on auctions, etc. if you are a criminal until your criminal status expires.

Progressing is done by leveling and beating dungeons to unlock harder dungeons. Typically the daily quests are pretty generic...Kill x ammount of dung suckers get x ammount of exp and gold. But the story line quest for each dungeon is Unique and you will have to unlock puzzles and boss fights to complete it. The story is bad, but in an adorable and comical way. It's like watching bad scary movies. When you level up, you get a skillpoint that you can use to unlock new skills or level earlier ones and you roll for new stats like in table top DnD. 

Gameplay earns Wizardry  out of 5

Value:  It's 100% free with an item mall. You can't buy armor, weapons or power-ups from it, but spending 10$ a month will get you a 25% exp boost. 

 out of 5:  Free is good

Community:  It's a small community by most scales so everyone knows everyone and sometimes it feels like watching a reality show, I personally enjoy the drama and strife the players have generated. You may find yourself on the wrong end of a criminals weapon sometimes but people generally don't grief new players. But i'm going to dock some banana because their community-relations(customer service) is overworked, undercaring and it's SOE.

 out of 5

Average score: and 1 half banana out of 5

Recommendation: Play it, you've got nothing to lose.

Feedback: Please tell me what you thought? Am i terrible? Did you hate reading this and if so...how much? Did you try Wizardry Online and did you like it?