Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord - Review

RPGamer reviewed the remake Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord:

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord Review

Sally Forth Brave Adventurers

The video game industry is constantly shifting.  As an entertainment medium it has only been around for half a century, and yet, even the earliest of titles have grand legacies.  Wizardry has been around since 1981, dazzling audiences with a tabletop-style dungeon crawl brought to life.  Digital Eclipse has elected to bring back these early days of gaming with a remake of classic turn-based dungeon crawler Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.  While it has a few modern amenities and glossy visuals, the remake still harbours the most unforgiving of gameplay for those unaware.

In Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, players are contracted by their local Lord Trebor to dive into the nearby labyrinth to retrieve his lost amulet from the wizard Werdna.  The early floors of the labyrinth have little messages scrawled out that players can read, but that’s it for the story.  There’s no offering of gold or other riches, just a good luck wave.  This is thoroughly in keeping with the original release, and Digital Eclipse’s remake is built on the original code.  The harrowing journey through the labyrinth comes entirely from the gameplay.

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The addition of extra layers and modernity to a classic old-school dungeon crawler makes Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord‘s remake an enjoyable accomplishment.  The gameplay is still punishing, but it’s more manageable with added layers of strategic planning to make bad luck easier to swallow, while the presentation’s overhaul adds enough to make everything feel exciting to be a part of.  The biggest detriment is that it is perhaps too faithful to the original as the punishing difficulty is sure to turn some away even as it brings turn-based thrill-seekers ever closer to see just how hard these games can really be.  So, with that in mind, there’s still a lot to enjoy in this faithful remake of a true classic.

Score: 3.5/5