I probably should’ve mentioned that I generally am not a fan of respawns, but they’re okay in this game, cuz the combat’s fun and, for my beefed-up and well-supplied parties, nothing to worry about, for the most part. Also, you can keep rechecking areas as much as you want, if you wanna put off doing the endgame, whereas, if there weren’t respawns, that would get boring pretty fast. Most of the time, you see them coming, or at least know they’re in your vicinity, thanks to the radar screen, but you can be surprised by them, if, say, you’re rounding a corner. But there aren’t any “enemies popping out of nowhere,” like in, say, “Lords of Xulima,” which is somewhat startling and unappreciated. I’m hoping the combat in “StarCrawlers” will be good, too, if they ever finish tweaking that.

I could also say a bit more about how good the enemies are in a fight---I mean, they aren’t confined to a couple of rows in front of you, with the back ones moving closer when they can, without their legs actually moving, like in, say, “Lords of Xulima”---I was disappointed by that, though I still played it through a couple times. In Wiz 8, everything really walks or crawls or flies toward you, and will surround you, if possible. In the Legacy topic, I already mentioned the damage skins and the flinching and vocalizing of bandits as you hit them, but they also look to the side, as if making sure their buddies are still with them, and, of course, every enemy (of which there are many) flinches when hit by anything, and flying insects, for instance, buzz and dart around a bit, gators have a deep growl, hitting a slime sounds different than hitting an android, the big, flightless birds called Picuses peck at the ground---in other words, they all have their own behaviors and sound effects. Also, walking on sand sounds like that, as does walking on a wooden walkway, or walking on metal flooring or through shallow water.

Just posting about it made me wanna play it some more, so I got my “did everything except the endgame” party poised to re-enter the Rapax Away Camp, to take on all the hostiles there, which I didn’t bother with earlier when I was rescuing Rodan and Drazic, so that oughta keep me on my toes for a while, if you know whereof I speak, and, if not, you’ll find out.

Sig, if I didn't half 50 un-played games on my shelf I'd fire up my last game of Wiz 8, which is unfinished somewhere around the end of the game. I've had tons of fun with it over the years.

Wow. Even after a dozen or so thorough playthroughs, this game still had something new for me. I re-entered the Rapax Away Camp expecting a few hours of intense fighting and was surprised and delighted to see that it had reverted to the unexplored Wilderness Clearing sector, which I had never seen. Explored it, had some critter fights, looted the Gazer cave, and met Rex the friendly Hogar. A real treat.

That really says something about the game - that you could play it that many times and still see something new!

That's a well designed game.

Fantastic price on Wiz 8 at GOG---I hope others take advantage of that, as well. Just in case anybody tries it and likes it, but finds the combat...uh, worrisome, don’t give up on it or you’ll miss all the good stuff that’s ahead. Rather, download the good savegame editor I use, to make batches of ammo and potions for them, and even to beef up their stats and skills, after which you’ll have very few worries. Here’s the link to the page where you can get it---it’s the first one under the heading “Wizardry Editors and Data Viewers”...

Simple Wizardry 8 savegame editor

If anyone needs any help with that or the game, feel free to PM me. And if anyone starts a game of M&M X, I’d be happy to chat about that, as well. We’re about to explore an optional (I believe) interior called Cursed Ruins, I think, outside of which were these 2 cool-looking, floating female spectres, with this interesting idle animation, where they cover their faces with their hands, then lean their heads back, as if they’d just been told that their ship, the Titanic, was sinking. Course, we had to put them out of their misery. Also did this little so-called Dangerous Cave, which had a Shadow Dragon in it that would’ve certainly wiped us out if I hadn’t taken precautions against that. Found a very special crossbow in there, which was a nice get. I’m sure I’ll be at this for a couple months or better, but, after this, I’m thinking about giving “Elminage Gothic” a try. Anyhoo, back to the...uh, pest control and...uh, ghostbustin’.

Thanks, Sig...hope you get some takers.