Reviews for Proving Grounds
Below are some reviewer's comments which we thought might help you decide
on whether or not you'd like to play the scenario. This page is not a
list of all the reviews the scenario received, only those that had thoughful
and/or useful comments to make. |
| Rating:2 Comments:Maybe if you have fond mememories of the original Wizardry game and can chuckle at any likeness. Otherwise probably not. I like some feeling that I've got a reason for the mass murdering my characters are committing and I didn't play Wizardry. |
| Rating:4.3 Comments:A very fun scenario, but could use a bit more plot and structure. Also a little short, but still very enjoyable and well worth downloading. |
| Rating:3.1 Comments:A faithful recreation of Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. The problem is that while it is a technical achievement, the scenario hasn't aged well. The dungeon is visually unappealing, there's no logic behind the layout, and BoA features that make location easy (like the overhead view and the map) take away some of the real difficulty of Wizardry. In the end I killed everyone, because there wasn't enough engagement to make me care if the townspeople lived or died. If there had been, it wouldn't have been a faithful recreation of Wizardry I. |
| Rating:3.8 Comments:An excellent porting of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. While the author expanded the character interaction in the town, it remains a straightforward hack and slash adventure (of course 20 years ago I thought it was great on my Apple II+). I greatly enjoyed it, but like the original large jump in difficulty when you descend from level 8 to levels 9 and 10. The one major flaw that prvented me from rating it higher is that the room sizes are too small for Blades. In the original, the entire party and up to four groups of monsters could fit in a one unit by one unit room. While the author doubled each dimension so that the one by one rooms are now two by two, it still does not work out very well. Expanding the one unit rooms to four units by four units would solve this playability problem and prevent anoying little quirks like when I reformed my party after combat and they ended up being sent through a secret door that I hadn't planned on entering. |
| Rating:4.10 Comments:With the ten level maze, this game is good for a fair amount of diversion. There is an elevator and transporter system, so not TOO much time is wasted going up and down the maze levels in order to sell, train, recharge. Looking for hidden passages can get a bit old at times and "far sight" definitely makes this game more enjoyable. I did save regularly just before opening the many, many doors. Very little dialogue and a very simple plot. The ending is truly anti-climactic. In short, for those who like to "kill and collect" stuff, a decent scenario. For those looking for characters and plot, not much here. (It is fun to kill the Overlord and wipe out the one town after completing all the quests--and you get some neat "stuff.")I did manage to navigate the mazes fairly well but there is still one door I never got through on level 2. Still, a step up from very early scenarios like nine points and babysitting. |