Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge

Big Wizardry fan. Played all of them when they originally came out, but Dosbox versions on Win 11 are just unplayable in their modern versions. This needs the TLC that Digital Eclipse gave Wizardy 1 or InXile gave to Bard's tale. All these titles, the original Heroes of Might and Magic series, the Ultima series, and etc, deserve to be preserved for the next generation of gamers and be playable on today's machines. I can't recommend it in its current state.

[h1] A masterpiece every RPG fan must play [/h1] In [i]Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge[/i], you must assemble a party of adventures to explore a deserted castle to determine what happened to the foul King and Queen who once lived there, and to seek the Cosmic Forge, a magical artifact in the shape of a pen rumored to be able to write reality itself. Your quest will take you through, below, and even outside the castle as you solve puzzles, interact with the strange characters who now inhabit the castle, and, of course, fight a lot of battles. It has a surprisingly interesting and tragic story for a dungeon crawler. Special areas are described using exceptionally well-written prose (with some typos and incorrect word usage here and there), and while some of the NPCs are quite goofy, the main characters are well-defined and given some excellent dialogue that is at times quite moving. [hr][/hr] [i]Wizardry VI[/i] was the first game in the series to really change things up. Instead of returning to town in between expeditions to rest, shop, and recover, your party in [i]Wizardry VI[/i] finds itself locked inside the castle with no way out but through. This gives the game a completely different feel from previous games in the series, as you are forced to rest in dangerous areas and are never completely safe. The game also introduces a lot of welcome complexity to character building, with several new races and classes from which to choose. Simply planning out your party before you even start the game can be a lot of fun, and it's even more enjoyable seeing your characters getting more and more powerful throughout the game -- it's especially fun when revisiting older areas to completely wipe the floor with enemies that once gave you trouble. Combat takes the classic Wizardry system and adds many more options, including the ability to select a power level when casting a spell, and to select from multiple attack modes for weapons (for example, you can swing for greater accuracy or thrust for greater penetration at reduced accuracy). In addition to characters leveling up once they earn enough experience points, they also have a set of skills that level up each time they are used successfully, so you have something to look forward to even in between experience point levels. All of this comes together to create a fascinating combat system where you always seem to have several options to get through difficult fights, and where even battles against easy enemies are fun opportunities to level up some of your characters' secondary skills. [hr][/hr] If the game has one fault, it's that it uses the same gray brick graphics for walls, ceilings, and floors in every single area. However, it is a testament to the excellence of the writing and area design that your imagination soon takes over. When I think back on my time playing the game, I don't recall a bunch of grey bricks; I recall exploring a ruined castle, climbing through the twisting corridors of a mine, climbing a mountain while dodging boulders hurled by giants, exploring an ancient pyramid, sailing down a river to seek out an old tomb, and being attacked by roaming goblins in a forest on my to an evil temple guarded by fanatics. [hr][/hr] Tough but surprisingly fair, [i]Wizardry VI[/i] excels in character building, exploration, combat, and pure atmosphere, and it is among the greatest RPGs ever made. Highly, highly recommended.

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

Жена сказала, что если на этом обзоре наберётся 10 лайков и 5 наград, то она подарит ящик пива. Мужики, выручайте!

作为一款第一人称地牢爬行游戏（DRPG），《巫术6》在玩法上可以说是中规中矩：网格的地牢，线性的探索，暗雷的遇敌，回合制的战斗，以及穿插在战斗间的各种解谜（找钥匙/找道具/找机关/找提示……）。不仅五脏俱全，而且内容分量也比较饱满：职业、技能、法术、装备都有丰富的build，地图大小和剧情流程也有不俗的体量，后期的战斗难度也相当之大，足以满足硬核玩家的自虐感。 尽管内在还算可以，但《巫术6》的外在可以说相当糟糕。不仅游戏画面差得令人发指，斗大的像素颗粒和偷懒的迷宫贴图即便放80年代也是最糟心的那一档，而且程序对输入的响应也非常慢，玩起来有明显的卡顿感。所以即便对于一般的DRPG考古爱好者也是不推荐本作的。 但就《巫术》系列而言，本作却有着特别的纪念意义：这是系列第一款图形界面游戏；这是系列第一款走出迷宫来到地面的游戏；它在剧情上是《巫术6/7/8》三部曲的第一部；它在玩法上更是三部曲的奠基者，包括装备系统（每个身体部位独立计算攻防）、施法方式（施法力度决定效果和蓝耗）、技能体系、法术派系、对话模式等等都为后续的作品确立了完整的框架（10年后的《巫术8》依然沿用着本作的核心数值系统），因此玩家可以将6代的通关存档导入7代（7代通关后还可以导入8代）来继承前代的通关队伍和装备（包括神器哦）。 总而言之，如果你想完整体验《巫术6/7/8》三部曲，那么本作还是值得一试的（推荐使用修改器省去开局roll点的麻烦，同时使用地图工具来获得实时小地图）。对于除此以外的任何玩家都不推荐本作，毕竟跟游玩本作所需付出的精力相比，我认为还有许多优秀的同类更值得尝试。

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One of the only games.

Short version: Wizardry 6 is a fun game that I would not recommend anyone to bother playing, unless they consider themselves an absolute dungeon-crawler diehard. It's visually-repetitive (even by DOS standards), the story feels unfocused, and while the gameplay is fun, making the most of its systems will result in a grind too extreme even for my "100%'d an Etrian Odyssey" tastes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long version (spoilers ahead!): Wizardry 6 is very weird. It's fun on a basic level, and I did enjoy my time with it overall, but it's also frustratingly underbaked in many areas. Not in the "antiquated DOS game" sense, but in the "this game isn't as interesting as it sounds" sense. --- STORY --- The scenario presented to you is actually fairly intriguing, and the environmental storytelling within the Castle is probably the most compelling part of the whole tale. It does have a bad habit of dropping lengthy exposition dumps on you, but they at least help to flesh out the mystery surrounding both the Castle and the titular Cosmic Forge. The encounter with the Queen's ghost is a particular highlight for me. It's a great instance of biased perspective; she rants about her lascivious, power-mad husband and talks herself up as being this goodly, pious woman, but if you've found her secret dominatrix chamber (complete with whip and studded bra), you know that her words - and the key item she gives you - probably aren't totally trustworthy. Unfortunately, everything starts falling apart during the last third of the game, and the endings are all particularly abrupt and unsatisfying. There's little-to-no connection with Wizardry 7, either; this does not feel like the start of a trilogy in the slightest. --- VISUALS --- This is where the game falls down the most to me. The adventure takes you through multiple different biomes - you start in the Castle, but you later travel across a Mountain and Mines, into a (questionably-themed) Pyramid, down to the River Styx, and finally to an enchanted Forest and Temple. Unfortunately, all those areas use the exact same castle-themed tileset. The River Styx, at least, has a lot of water and open space, which makes it a refreshing change of pace. But looking at the same grey walls over and over and over? It got very old, very quickly. It makes the whole experience feel almost unfinished, in a way. It feels like there was supposed to be more going on here, visually. Ultima 5 has more variety in its dungeon visuals, and that came out two years earlier. --- MULTICLASSING --- Multiclassing often gets talked up as being a big, cool part of the gameplay... and to an extent, that's entirely correct! Switching your characters to different classes isn't just a good idea; it's almost mandatory if you want to withstand later fights. HP, skills, and learned spells all stick with you even when you change, so if you're willing to grind and change repeatedly, you could spend a lot of time simply gaining more and more HP and skill points until you're exceptionally strong. Unfortunately, the only actual "character buliding" benefits are either giving everyone Stealth and Crit Chance skills, and getting access to other schools of magic (which only have a handful of exclusive spells anyway). It doesn't completely homogenize your team, but it isn't really all that complex. The main limiting factor is that you need a certain stat total to change to certain classes, and the stat increases per-level are completely random. Unless you're willing to save-scum extra-hard, you're going to have a hard time making certain race/class combinations. --- OVERALL --- Despite all this grumbling, I will reiterate that I did have fun with the game. I put 40+ hours into it and completed the thing, after all. But if you're someone who's heard about the Dark Savant trilogy, and you're wondering whether to start with 6 or 7... just start with 7. You really won't be missing much here.

I keep getting my ass kicked, but I keep coming back. So, I guess I recommend it if you also like getting your ass kicked over and over and over and over and... But seriously, this is old school Wizardry, so get in there and try not to die.

Where do I even begin with this one? This game is of its time, ahead of its time, behind its time and out of its time all at once. It is both timeless classic and aged abomination, and I am all for it. Give it a try if you've never played it. Pray that the God of Random Numerals doesn't pork you over; be ready to reroll characters and to save and reload a lot because it's Wizardry, of course the RNG porks you over; be both fascinated with the story and mortified by the evils of the King and the Queen; talk with floating gnostic wizard heads and sisha-smoking, magic mushroom dealing caterpillars; and, at the very least, hit level 2 before quitting at level 1 because a bunch of rats and magical traps on chests keep killing you and your band of idiots. I would say more, but Steam's character limit prevents me from doing so :(