Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord Review - Die-Curious!

[Applause] [Music] allow us to take you to 1981 today a year where Ric Flair won his first championship woo MTV aired its first music video and I wasn't born yet in line with 1981 being a year of first the game Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was released the first computer game based on DN rule sets the remake of this Legendary roleplaying game sees you managing a party and delving deep into a mystical maze but is this maze one you want to see through to the Finish or does it end up hitting a dead end let's find out in our full review but hey don't you get lost in a maze of lackluster gaming coverage consider joining our patreon where you'll gain Discord access to the greatest Indie Gaming Community early adree shows shout outs at the end of every video we make exclusive podcasts and even free games depending on your tier at ID dream of Indie Games your new indie Gaming Community is waiting for you as mentioned 1981 saw the release of Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord an RPG following a DND rule set combined with dungeon crawling elements and environmental puzzles played from a firstperson perspective the game was a success leading to a Trilogy series and numerous spin-offs while influencing many modern crpgs and firstperson Dungeon Crawlers in keeping with the original this newly launched version of the game attempts to take us back to a more classic roleplay playing style this remake while keeping the same name as the original also retains the original premise a wizard named wna steals an amulet from treor or the Mad Overlord wna then goes on to create a 10 level maze underneath trebor's Castle treor then tasks new adventurers with delving deep into this maze in hopes of killing wna once and for all unfortunately for you this is easier said than done that's essentially all the story we get certain plot points are revealed when we uncover Secrets or enter a new level of the maze but the game is rather light on story personally it kind of felt like the developers missed an opportunity to extend upon the wizard re lore on the topic of the maze though get used to being caught up in it because it's an area that you'll be passing through quite often you begin the game by choosing between modern or original gameplay options which essentially act as difficulty levels I chose modern but you can freely switch between modern original and custom options as well from here you enter a small Hub area where you'll be able to choose between various buildings the training grounds an inn a Tavern a temple a store and at the center of town is the maze this Hub is a graphical representation of the basic text menu the original release used fun fact apparently this remake was built with the original game source code intact which is admirable in its own way players will create characters at the training grounds you can choose between Fighters thieves Mages bishops priests and even ninjas or Samurai eventually various races can be chosen as well human elf dwarf halfling and gnome you'll have the freedom to distribute skills from a set number of skill points entally unlocking new classes that can be assigned I liked playing around with having powerful tank Fighters right at the beginning and found this approach a fun way to start filling out my squad other than that you can name and choose a portrait for the character along with their alignment of either good neutral or evil good and evil characters cannot be partied up together this is where the lack of lore becomes even more apparent it would have been nice to have a better understanding as to why certain characters were feuding but we don't get that sadly something that struck me as a bit odd was that after creating a character you have to go straight to The Tavern to add them to your party I would have preferred being able to add them directly from the training grounds but regardless going back to the tavern this is where you'll Recruit new party members should your entire party be wiped out unless you choose to start over again with level one characters recruitable characters will start at the highest level you obtained for their respective class these recruits can be pricey though and I rarely found myself with enough money to actually recruit them after forming a party we are introduced to the main gameplay Loop involving the maze players will explore the Labyrinth from the firstperson perspective of taking steps on a grid the gameplay feels somewhere in between a Dungeon Crawler Alla dungeon master or Grimrock and a non-randomized Rog likee structure with crpg rule sets the turn-based combat is mostly random with a few scripted encounters interesting to note unlike other RPGs you don't choose which enemy to apply an attack to instead you choose the type of attack and your party members will strike Targets on their own party positioning is rather important if you hope to succeed in battle while you won't be moving characters around on the battlefield that free will you are able to position them those in the front row can use melee attacks while characters in the back row will use abilities such as spells or hiding speaking of spells you have a limited number of spell points it took me some time to realize that spell points are determined by the number of spells you have if a character only has two spells then they only have two spell points this isn't explained to you all that well and in general a lot of the gameplay mechanics aren't explained in detail as there's no real tutorial the first two floors of the maze are instead intended to be easier in order to gain experience and help players come to grips with the core gameplay Loop enemy encounters will take you to a firsters battle screen similar to many classic RPGs such as Dragon's Quest there are times where you have no information about the enemies you're battling but thankfully investigating foes by using party members of high intellect makes this less of an issue learning more about enemies will teach you their names strengths weaknesses and attacks this is all recorded by the game as well and you also have enemy cards that can be brought up in battle all actions are depend on a dice roll which often led to missing or failing that could be pretty frustrating for good aligned parties some encounters will be with friendly monsters which means you don't have to fight them at all this was the only time I found alignment really mattered in the game side note something I found funny was Orcs tend to run away often and the image of a big brutish scary orc running away from a level one Mage with three health is kind of silly either way the majority of these encounters are nice and snappy which makes them feel fun and impactful each time though they don't always mesh perfectly with the rest of the gameplay Loop unsurprisingly you'll gain experience gold and treasure from defeating enemies when your characters are able to level up you'll have to leave the Maze and head to the Inn at the Inn you can rest your party to regain health and spell points you can also Level Up characters individually and apply new skill points with gold you'll want to head to the store and buy new equipment equipment and consumables are very pricey so yeah expect the game to lean heavily on resource and party management back in the Maze you can choose to Camp should you find yourself in a safe space when camping you can use healing spells consumables or equipped items you can also choose to exit the maze however this leaves your party behind so you won't be able to leave the maze from just anywhere instead you have to take your party with you and leave the maze the way you came in personally I found no use in leaving the maze without my party and that is more or less the core gameplay Loop of Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord go back and forth exploring the maze gain Loot and experience and it the maze to level up and purchase materials while you will eventually discover teleportation expect to be exploring the same corridors often in the early going making this a very very grindy experience and what a maze this is it's designed in a way to confuse you no matter how many times you run through the same corridors you'll often find yourself stuck in looping doors and can't figure out the puzzle necessary to get through or you'll find a secret door and open up a new area only to become lost soon after it doesn't help that many of the hallways are exceedingly dark if it wasn't obvious Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is very difficult the game can theoretically take hundreds of hours to complete that said more seasoned players who really know the ins and outs of its intricate web can theoretically beat it in a few hours it is a game that requires taking time to learn all of the mechanics and enemies and that can often feel like work sometimes you'll have easy encounters sure but other times you'll come across 10 enemies at a time this gets frustrating as your party dies down and you keep failing attack and Escape roles truth be told dying not having enough gold to buy new recruits and having to start over with level one characters just gets tedious at the least you can resurrect Fallen party members at the town's Temple for free if you successfully bring them back to town but if the whole party is annihilated then there will be a hefty price to pay not only that you'll have to once again Venture into the maze with a new party and recover your Fallen friends which could lead to your new party dying in the process which mine did quite often the temple can resurrect characters but a role is required if you fail one role the character will be reduced to ashes if you fail a second role after this the character's just gone forever so yeah players should expect a lot of RNG backtracking management and tedious exploration your reward reaching the third floor of the maze where the difficulty really ramps up ominously you are greeted with a message on this floor telling you to turn back if you think you're underpowered I say it's best to heed this warning progress is slow and the gameplay Loop feels dated as if to artificially increase game length though fans of the original release and other classic RPGs may feel a bit more comfortable with this for me however it just didn't click and I found myself either becoming disengaged or frustrated when my more successful builds ended up failing I felt as if I never had the chance to get a solid grip on the mechanics as an example during one of my runs I found a bronze key but I only found a silver door so I tried to find the correct door for this key and ended up coming cross five voral bunnies which is a death sentence when you're underleveled luckily you keep your keys on death so I didn't have to find the key again and could try to make it to the bronze door eventually but you get the point performance-wise the game runs well and I didn't experience any bugs or crashes that are worth mentioning running Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord shouldn't be an issue on most PCS and consoles are unlikely to experience any issues either given the lightweight of the game itself visually the game resembles more of a Dungeon Crawler than a typical crpg at first glance anyways you walk down tight corridors in the dark through first person and it all looks kind of nice however the environments don't change very much and the maze's look becomes stale after a few hours of exploring it it makes sense from a gameplay perspective since it is a maze and you're supposed to get lost but I feel similar games have had success creating mazes with more varied environments battle scenes are also nothing to write home about there are some differences to the look of the encounters depending on which floor you're on but nothing ever stood out at the least battles do feature some some decent visual effects to make things a bit more interesting looking something that I do think is neat on the right hand side of the screen there's this little wireframe interpretation of the Maze and that's what the display looked like for the original PC release back in 1981 on the left you have your Auto map which is filled out as you move similar to how players of the original would draw their own map since the game originally had no Auto map by the way if using the original settings this Auto map is no longer displayed at all you can also fill this map out using a spell your characters can get from from leveling the enemy designs are decent if not a bit generic some enemies are just pallet swaps of each other but shout out to the gas cloud he was rather fun and colorful you can view the character models in full detail which is a nice addition to the game the town screen is pretty goodlooking and well drawn along with all of the character portraits the art reminds me of something you'd see in a fantasy story book which could be thought of as a throwback to TBL doop D and modules overall the visuals are a bit of a mixed bag but not half bad thankfully music is one of my favorite aspects of the game everything sounds so epic and well produced the in music is restful the victory music is Grand and it makes you feel powerful and the theme that plays upon death is doomlike and taunting the start menu music was also lovely and made me feel ready for an adventure however music Alone can't save this game for me though I wish it could I'm a fan of RPGs both of the video game and tabletop variety as well as fantasy and general I've only ever heard of Wizardry and seen gameplay Clips before taking on this review so I was eager to try out this granddaddy of the genre but it didn't end up clicking with me I found the gameplay to be too dated and grindy for my liking and the presentation while admittedly a big step up from the wireframe days of old was just too generic to keep me engaged I believe a more casual gaming audience will find the brutal difficulty offputting and two RNG heavy which makes things feel unfair I can fully admit when I lack skill for a game but that just didn't feel like the case here combined with a lack of lore and dialogue this version of Wizardry ends up feeling old and flat I will say I appreciate the dedication the devs had in keeping faithful to the original design I believe those who played the original and serious fans of RPGs might be interested in this however I'm not sure if they need to buy the Remake in order to get the experience the original Wizardry already provides as such I can't really recommend this game unless you're a fan of Wizardry already or have a strong passion for super super difficult dungeon crawling RPGs uh-oh [Music] [Music] a [Music]

Channel: I Dream of Indie Games

Views: 22,361

Keywords: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, wizardry review, wizardry proving grounds review, wizardry proving grounds of the mad overlord review, crpg, indie games

Id: 56wFdfKvMz4

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024