Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge Reviews

I never played this game before. But I'm no stranger to punishing old-school games. I thoroughly enjoy them. I discovered the Wizardry series by playing the old dungeon crawlers. I knew this game and 7 and 8 would be different, but I started this trilogy regardless, expecting a different but equally rewarding experience. I came away severely disappointed and couldn't bear playing any further. I don't recommend the game to anyone who has never played this game before. It's got some of the hallmarks of earlier Wizardry games. Interesting dungeon encounters, locked doors, fun treasure and obtuse gameplay mechanics. There's potentially a lot to like here. Except for the fact that all these punishing encounters are entirely meaningless because even the manual tells you to just hit the reload save button whenever something bad happens. Wizardry 6 is a game of endless save reloading, and that's what killed it for me. Contrary to older and other Wizardy games, character death in this game is permanent. You can resurrect fallen party members, which confers a penalty, but they can never be replaced. Which means that the party you start out with is the party with which you need to finish the game. Coupled with a save file, this means that whenever something bad happens, you reload and attempt the fight or challenge again. The death of a character you don't want to or cannot resurrect is essentially a game over. Something bad happens? Reload and try again. There is no gameplay loop of risk and reward, you simply cannot deal with character death like in other Wizardry games at all other than going back to a previous save. In the end it just led me to consulting a walkthrough and going through the motions. It bored me out of my mind, and I abandoned the game. When I try to place the game design in its time, I can understand it would maybe have gripped me as a child. That was a time when I would not worry about engaging gameplay and would just want to explore the game and the world. But these days, I just cannot stand a game that is so utterly devoid of player agency and meaningful consequences. If you're not playing with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, it's better to not play this game at all and just look to other, more engaging Wizardry games and Wizardry clones.

I actually can't recommend this game to everyone but i really liked it so i can't give it a thumbs down. This is a 35 years old archaic, RPG game made for DOS. It's specific genre is Dungeon Crawler. It is a game which really evolved the Wizardry series in almost every aspect but this is not a game which everyone can tolerate. It's clunky, it's old. There's no QoL stuff which the young gamers take for granted in today's games. It's pure nostalgia and a spectacular RPG/Dungeon Crawler experience for me. A true classic. I wish more games of the Wizardry series would be added to Steam