Genre: RPGDeveloper: Sir-Tech Software, Inc.Year: 1992
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Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant is the second game from Sir-Tech that tells the story of three artifacts that are able to change the fabric of the universe itself. In Wizardry VI: bane of the Cosmic Forge you had to find and secure the Cosmic Forge, a magical pen that had a power to write the story of the worlds. Now in Wizardry 7 you need to travel to a small planet on which the second artifact, Astral Dominae is located, and secure it before the mysterious Dark Savant is able to get it for himself, in which case the entire universe as we know it would stop to exist.
If you played Wizardry 6 - bane of the Cosmic Forge, you can import the savegame which provides you with more experienced party and some spells, skills and items will be kept as well, the choice of which is always random. Otherwise you need to create up to 6 character for a new party. You choose the name, the race and the gender, after which there is a dice throw to determine how many points for character development you get. Depending on the amount of points you receive and the choice of the race and gender, you can choose different professions that vary in requirements of character attributes. Some professions require more points than others, and some elite professions can only be chosen with high amount of points, receiving which can take long time to archieve as really many points come only rarely. If you get more points than certain profession requires to modify the character you choose, you can spend the rest freely on attributes of your choice.
You can create as many characters as you would like, but you can add only up to 6 characters to a party. You can also delete unwanted characters. Although it's possible to play the game with only one character, it's highly adviseable to create a party of all 6 characters, otherwise the game will be very difficult to play.
After the creation of characters and adding them to the party, the introduction begins which explains the current situation and what will be awaiting the party in the coming game. Depending if you imported the savegame from Wizardry 6 and which end you chose there, or if you started a new game, the intro slightly varies to fit to the story.
After the intro your party finally arrives at the planet Guardia, where your adventures begin. Depending if you imported a savegame and of the end of the previous game, or if you started a new game, the starting location in the game also varies.
Every skill in the game requires skill points, which you will gather each time you gain a level. Also many skills improve by using them at the appropriate situations, such as swimming which will improve the skill with every move on the water or fighting with a certain type of weapon increases the skill points for it, allowing to attack more than one time per round. Without at least 10 points in swimming you will instantly drown, thus die, btw.
The story of the game is very complex and well made, and many puzzles are also quite challenging. The game is full of NPC's who have their own goals, alliances and enemies. After playing the game for some time, you will encounter more and more of them. Depending on your diplomacy skill you can either close friendships with them or be involved into a fight. When you gain their trust, you can trade with them and exchange news. If you kill an NPC, he is dead forever and you won't encounter him in the current game anymore, until you start a new game. Also the friends of that NPC can become upset with you, and it takes new negotiations to gain their trust again.
The strong point of the game is the large world full of various creatures that will keep your attention for many weeks of playing. Another point is that the game contains more than 500 different items, alone the half of which is filled with various weapons and armors. All weapons have different requirements for races and professions that can wear them, so you can never wear every item in the game. Also many weapons have special abilities, like poisoning the enemy, killing enemies with one single hit through critical strike or paralyzing the enemies.
The spells in the game are very numerous, and not all are available to all magic casters. In fact, combining different spellcasting characters in one party is the key to success.
Speaking of spells and weapons, the game consist to a large part of fights. You will spend more than half of the time in the game fighting various creatures, where the types and numbers of the enemies always vary. Some of them are resistant to some types of spells, while others are very hard to hit, so you will have to use your entire range of spells and weapons to be able to defeat them all. With higher levels of your characters the spells will hit more successfull, and the special effects of the weapons are more likely to be inflicted upon enemies and become stronger in effect. Also with higher levels your characters become more resistant against some spells or can avoid them better.
The sound in the game is adequate, ranging from sounds of weapons hitting, spells being cast or ambient effects in caves or in forests. The music is not bad, though needs some time to adapt to it. Also it's played only on rare occasions so it doesn't become annoying with time.
About the graphics, for the time of when the game came out they are not bad, but not any special. The creatures are well animated, though, and everyone of them is different looking, with same appearance for various related types.
If you like Roleplaying games, have enough patience and much free time, you should try this game out, as it has much to offer and it's large and detailled world will keep your attention until the last. And beware the Gorrors. ;)
Note! To be able to configure the game's options and to save them, the game needs to be placed exactly in the folder C:\DSAVANT. Otherwise you can't save the configurations and the game can't find a needed file to run.
[Umm I think you can actually set the game to look for save files in any 8-characters directory you place it. If you have difficulties with that, move the game to a folder C:\DSAVANT and be happy :) --Lone Lee]
