Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord Remaster

May 28, 2024

Digital Eclipse has made this journey as earnest and effortless as possible. For those who want to forge a deeper bond with the medium (you know who you are), Wizardry 2.0's worth your time and money.

Jun 4, 2024

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is an excellent remake, but not one to be taken lightly. In a change from Digital Eclipse’s usual documentary approach, this remake simply offers the original game with a fresh lick of paint and a few new optional features to make it more convenient (not easier!) to play. This is, at its heart, the same merciless dungeon crawling RPG it has always been. Whether that’s a challenge you want to tackle in the modern age is up to you, but there’s no better way to do so than through this fine effort. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Umbraclaw ($24.99) Inti-Creates has often experimented with the idea of putting the degree of difficulty in the players’ hands in ways outside of a simple setting in the options menu.

Aug 20, 2024

Summary and quote unavailable.

Jul 1, 2024

Wizardry: PGotMO is one of those games where every step could be your last, but you’ll be entertained making those steps. Despite being a foundation of the genre, it does not provide an easy entry point for new players. It requires a high degree of patience, and this slow approach won’t be to everyone’s tastes. The graphics, sounds, and overall user experience are detailed and well thought out, with some lovely homages to the original in both setting and the number of OG player options. For a game that laid the blueprint for so much videogame history that followed it, taking a step back into the Proving Grounds felt like entering hallowed ground, like remembering a dream in vivid, modern detail. Just know that such a dream can become a quivering nightmare without warning. Be prepared to possibly lose everything in a single run, or a single combat, or even a single fudged combat round, and it’s a grand old time.

May 30, 2024

Summary and quote unavailable.

Jun 3, 2024

If you like RPGs, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is an interesting glimpse into the past; an intriguing game in its own right.

May 22, 2024

Your enjoyment of Wizardry in 2024 is going to depend a lot on the amount you’re willing to put into it. I quickly became obsessed with taking a quick run into a new corner of the dungeon every night before going to bed. But a lot of that was built on an existing interest in old western RPGs, an understanding of Dungeons & Dragons mechanics, and a willingness to look up the older rules. The game itself isn’t really interested in helping you with any of that. Instead, they’ve made some smart adjustments to smooth out some of the aging gameplay while still staying very true to the original. It is also worth noting that every quality-of-life change can be toggled on or off, so if you want this to play exactly like it did in 1981, that is an option. You can even swap to the dungeon layouts from the later console ports. This is an extremely faithful update of an important game. And if you’re willing to give it the opportunity, you find it is just as addictive today as it was forty years ago.

May 22, 2024

Digital Eclipse’s new take on Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is an impressive and ambitious attempt to bring historical flavor and contemporary approachability and appeal into one neat, modern package. I may prefer the sprites and chiptunes of the Game Boy Wizardry remakes, but the effort and passion for video game history is just as powerful here as it is in other Digital Eclipse works. I would have loved some more museum-style content these folks are known for, but the laser focus on the game here is a fascinating new approach. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is available for the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S on May 23, 2024.

Jun 3, 2024

Summary and quote unavailable.

May 23, 2024

Digital Eclipse's stylish and subtle retooling of a classic retains the spirit of the original while providing just enough quality-of-life aids to make it approachable to modern gamers for whom having to fetch a pen and paper and ‘bad design’ are one and the same. The team's genius lies in recontextualising classics in such a way that they also serve as great introductions, and for genre newbies to have this Wizardry remake potentially be their first old-school dungeon crawler is a real gift. Be prepared for the grind, but Wizardry's unforgiving style has been back in mainstream vogue for a while now, so if you're at all curious, Trebor's mission is absolutely worth accepting.