The good points are as follows:

1. I was amazed by the little details in the game such as the way objects could be crushed by moving doors or lifts etc.

2. Each dungeon has LOTS to do, with far more than just straight forward find object/kill monsters objectives.

3. Apart from shop keepers and guild members, every other character is voice acted.

4. There is a clear sense of adventure right from the start.

The bad points are as follows:

1. What do you want to see when you enter a city in an RPG? You want to see people walking about - doing their own things, so you can approach them and speak to them etc. NONE of that here. You get a static screen that you can scroll left or right so you can choose which building you wish to enter. You cannot explore the buildings.

2. To complete any dungeon you have to be: psychic and unusually patient. There is no explanation anywhere on how to do things within the dungeon. For example: to do the 2nd dungeon you have to find 5 snake figurines scattered throughout the dungeon (one which is carried by a monkey that you let out of a cage), a coin which you have to get from killing a disciple (which you then place in a snake head to get some incense), place the monkey figurines on some bookshelves (why I don't know), get the revealed wand, go to a pyre, throw on the incense cast the magic wand, say some lines from some book you found randomly and then kill the serpent that appears. Now believe me, to get these things you have to go through much torture.

If you wish to see how convoluted and sprawling these dungeons are just check out a walkthough on the internet!

3. There is no background to this game. There is no feeling of history. It's just a bunch of dungeons that you have to access through windy paths. Difficult dungeons.

Now I am not a negative person when it comes to games, in fact I was willing to put up with Daggerfall's hiccups to enjoy it. But that game was filled with interest, whereas this game isn't.

If you want an amazing RPG experience play Morrowind. By a new PC just to play on it. It is so much better than anything else of this ilk.

"Killing for Fun and Profit"
Simply the best on the market right now. Level 1 (of 3) is cake. However, Level 2 is pretty intense w/ some extremely nasty monsters (learn to save game ASAP as soon as you sense ANY mantraps because you will be killed almost every time you meet one until you master blanketing them w/ top level spells - which always works - unless you're standing too close or the software lets them beat up on you first, in which case you're still dead). Level 3 rocks. A word to the wise: this software is NOT compatible w/ Windows 2000, even w/ patches, so beware & have fun killing everything that crosses your path.

"Wizardry is finally back!!! I waited a decade....."
Ok I know that [as is true with every wizardry game] there are technical issues and I recommend patching the game before you even play it. If you have any virus software --turn it off and disable all tsrs on your machine. Now you can play the best RPG in a decade. It weaned me off Asheron's Call in 2 days. The story line is well thought out, and engaging. The character creation process is very fun and one of the best features. I especially like the fact that you carry your dead with you instead of having to go back and look for the corpse. I feel that this game is the sequel to crusaders of the dark savant in spirt. I missed DW Bradleys artwork and he is in prime form here. For true RPG gamers there are many paths to take and you can roleplay through it. I am still playing it but i am impressed with the loot generator and the variety of items available. My criticisms are to do with the spellbook. It is a real pain to have to change spells, it would have been nice if there was a hotkey and a popup spellbar where you could store maybe 4 spells at a time for quick use. As it is you have to go into a character screen to change spells and monsters are still hitting you in real time so it is cumbersome. All in all it was well worththe money i paid and I look forward to more games like this.

"Overall, not a bad game"
I bought this game and played it most of the way through (my computer crashed, not as a result of the game, just before I got to do Cet's pyramid.) The storyline is okay, the graphics and music are great. If you're a fan of the Might and Magic series, you'll like this game. There are a few things in the interface that are awkward, but you get used to them quickly enough, like Having to switch between different menus all the time to do things that should be on the same menu. There are also a lot of red herrings - active objects that give you a description when you mouse-over or click on them, but don't really do anything. Otherwise, the game is pretty good.

"Starts off good, but sours."
This game is based around three towns on your journey where you can join guilds and do quests to gain experience. Those quests also enable you higher rankings in the guilds and the occasional super-elite role, such as the Valkeryie, Assassin, and Zen Master. The armor and weapons become increasingly interesting (through the first 1/2 of the game, anyway), although the assortment of weapons is rather low unless your characters use swords. You can do a full array of movement - back, forward, side, looking up and down, running, and swimming (except no squatting/ducking). You'll even ride a horse and a few other modes of transit.

The early characters you'll come across are memorable. My mate and I have come to deem the game "Ukabu," a name you'll be given by a strange group of toad people. You'll kill spiders, skeletons, trolls, and some other interesting characters. Watch out for the Mana/Lily Traps. They're a sore point of the game.

As for technical issues-- the game stopped crashing after I installed the patch. Overall, you should be fine as long as you save fairly often and don't try to ALT-TAB to another program.

I still haven't finished (I have the final dungeon to complete), and I've put twice as many hours into the remaining dungeons and getting to them as the ones before.

My opinion of this game has dropped the more I play because the quality of this game went down considerably after the first half. Except a few new monsters/things to fight that appear when you reach the ocean, you don't see much development in the fighting. It became boring and required little skill. My people are almost invincible to all the monsters, which makes fighting just an annoying task. Unfortunately, you can't level up to get the spells you NEED to do the dungeons and travel unless you fight.

The worst part of the game for me has been getting to and being in the sunken city. You have to spend forever searching for crabs to kill for their shells, then go all the way back to the second town to turn them in. Then you have to buy them back as breathers and helmets. You need BOTH a breather and a helmet to survive the long dives with your characters, totaling _12_. It took me hours just to get the shells... not a fun task. I finally gave up trying for all 12 and had to let 2 characters die during my dives until I found breathing areas to resurrect them.

This games needs a quicker way to get from town to town and town to dungeon. It's okay to have to take the long road there, but once you've gone through a dungeon once, it's crazy to have to travel back through the same dungeon just to get back to the town . It just wastes time.

I was really disappointed that this game went from being so good to so cruddy. I guess the changes in who developed the game really hurt it worse than I expected.