Another great addition to the Wizardry universe for fans and newcomers alike...
Once you’ve spent a few good hours (or days if you’re real dedicated) creating those 6 people who will eventually save Llylgamyn you’ll be ready to test your mettle in the Maelstrom. Now some of you might be wondering why are my would be hero's risking their lives this time? Well in short a magical vortex appeared in the heart of the Maelstrom, a series of maze-like caverns home to all sorts of vile creatures and outcasts, located beneath the Brotherhood of Llylgamyn's temple. This vortex was created by a renegade Brother, a woman named The Sorn. Your job is to find and stop this renegade and free the Gatekeeper so that he may put a stop to this vortex before it consumes the world, refashioning a new one full of chaos. Sounds easy enough right?
Well there’s not much to say about gameplay. Your quest will put you in a first person style dungeon crawl through 8 levels of the Maelstrom pitting you against 100’s of monsters and other such filth with a ton of armor, weapons and other useful items to be found that will aid you in your noble quest. You move forward and backwards or turn left and right, not much to it. You’ll encounter enough random monsters to advance your characters levels, but not too much as to make the game a tedious kill kill kill fest. The first problem you’ll likely encounter are spells, without a manual you might have a bit of trouble figuring out all the effects of those odd names, but with a good memory or a piece of scratch paper and a pen you’ll get the hang of it.
The graphics are not great even for a 16-bit game, but they do a good job of conveying the surrounding atmosphere. The monsters sprites are decent, but there are no portraits of your characters so you’ll have to give them your own visual look through the use of your imagination which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I enjoyed the music in the game although most would probably disagree with me on that point, but I tend to give music more credit than it deserves just because I enjoy game soundtracks so much.
All in all Wizardry V Heart of the Maelstrom is a great dungeon crawl that will keep you coming back for more… or snapping your controller in two out of frustration of setting off a teleport trapped chest that has locked your battle party into a stone wall for the rest of eternity. Either way you’ll never forget the experience of yet another great Wizardry game.