Game Review: Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls (PS3)
Before there was Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. Even before Ultima (I think) there was Wizardry, one of the first role-playing video games in history. Despite its steep challenge and learning curve, Wizardry acquired quite a cult following worldwide. Now you can experience all the old school RPG-ness with Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls for download on PS3.
Start off by picking a character: human, elf, dwarf, male or female, etc. Then divvy out points for strength, vitality, agility, and so on. In the town, everything is menu based. Rest up at the inn, buy and sell items, revive at the church, and take on missions at the guild.
When you are ready to venture forth into a dungeon, the game switches to a first person view as you try and navigate the dungeon mazes. Enemies will appear randomly, and defeating them nets you gold, experience points, and other goodies. All the commands are turn-based through menus here, too.
It’s a shame that this game is download-only, because while the graphics are practically non-existent, the still artwork of the characters and monsters is very appealing, and would’ve made for a nice artbook as a pre-order bonus or something.
But the main problem with Wizardry is the overall challenge and steep learning curve. Navigating the dungeons is confusing, and while you can buy maps, they don’t tell you how to use them in the game. You’re better off just getting some graph paper (I remember those days). Plus, monsters are tough right off the bat, and won’t even give you enough gold for a night at the inn. Needless to say, you’ll die a lot. But if you are hankering for some old-school RPG challenge, this one may be right up your alley.
Kid Factor:
Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference, Mild Blood, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and Partial Nudity. Most of the language and alcohol reference is in the text only. Defeated monsters just disappear, so there’s hardly any violence or blood either. Some of the characters’ clothes are a bit revealing, but that’s it. Really the best reason why this game is best for older players is because of the high challenge level and steep learning curve, and reading skill is a must.
June 18th, 2011 at 7:09 am
Lets see if anyone gets this:
You are entering the proving grounds of the mad overlord
Fight fight fight defend defend spell: Mahalito
Werdna to your mother – yes, the villain of Wizardry 1 (which I still own) is Andrew spelled backwards. Wizardry was awesome and the manual is hilarious. The whole package looks like a D&D supplement from the 70’s – mainly because it might as well be a D&D supplement from the 70’s.
June 18th, 2011 at 7:12 am
oh and this download looks old school. The originals were terrifically hard and memorizing or graphing the dungeons was helpful to say the least. I might have to get this, though I wish it was just the first game reimagined. Wizardry lost me around number 3, when it decided it wanted to be more like Might & Magic. Oh, for the slightly younger, The Bard’s Tale was essentially Wizardry where the portraits moved. It was magical when my friend got that game and the dragon TURNED ITS HEAD TO LOOK AT YOU!!!! OMG! really. amazing.
June 18th, 2011 at 8:20 am
Two things: if you check the main menu, it shows the controls, including the map button. And, you should *never* fight alone – go get a party together! You should have six characters, not 1 like in your screenshot…
June 19th, 2011 at 7:14 am
Ultima1 (1980), Wizardry 1 (1981). Ultima came first, however, it was close.
June 19th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
I saw an ad for Wizardry in the back of a PC magazine, and knew I had to have it for my birthday… whoo hoo! Well, my birthday came a month or two later – no present. The game hadn’t shipped yet. Turned out the game didn’t come out until four or five months later I think. Man, THAT was hard to wait for… I kept calling the company my parents ordered from, and started to get worried maybe they were just a scam. Back in the day where I had almost never ordered something to be mailed to me before…
June 19th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Oh and I totally played that game to death. I think I still have the box with my old set of 20×20 maps I made of everything!
June 19th, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Oh and in my book, Wizardry beat Ultima. (Since we had a PC and Ultima didn’t come out on PC until much later…)
June 20th, 2011 at 5:03 am
I drove the UPS guy nuts for the 6-8 week delivery period when I was waiting for my copy of the first Wizardry to arrive. I, too, still have the game, box, manual and all my maps that I made while playing. As well as all my 5.25″ floppies with my character data on them.
I’m really enjoying the current installment on the PS3, and I’ve nly had my entire party wiped out once. It was a nice surprise to discover you get brought back to the temple and can retrieve and revive your party for a fee. No more having to go searching for the bodies of your fallen party in the dungeon like in the first game.
June 24th, 2011 at 12:30 am
I was more into Ultima back in those long-ago days. I did download the Wizardry demo. I’m thinking of downloading the complete game. There are times when I miss that kind of hardcore oldschool RPG.
And the main badguy’s name is my name spelled backwards. 🙂
June 24th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Werdna to your mother Andrew – my name is Andrew too.
Ultima was first? I interviewed Garriott some 10 years ago and it was kind of sad. His greatness is unremembered and his games are now mostly unplayable (except the odd reissue or old school gamers. Movies, books, tv, art are all experienced for all time. Less so, video games.
Also, did you seek out the creeping coins on level 2? They yield an insane amount of treasure but are annoying to kill. Unless your wizard has the big spells.
June 24th, 2011 at 9:24 am
the creeping coins reference refers to Wizardry 1.
July 6th, 2011 at 3:34 am
I found just what I was needed, and it was etnertiainng!