The game is classic, dungeon crawling that usually focuses on the experience of exploring dungeons, mapping (on graph paper, if you're going full old-school!), and gathering loot and getting stronger. Though the included Five Ordeals are not at all well suited for novice adventurers, there is a lot of additional content, some official and some fan-created, that can be accessed and enjoyed even if you aren't highly familiar with the series. It, to a fault, sticks very closely to the gameplay and options of the first few Wizardry games. The mechanics for creating, adding, and manipulating party members both in the city and in the dungeon is not particularly intuitive or elegant -- similar to how they worked in the old games decades ago. While there is a basic scenario added post-release that tries to act as a tutorial and introductory dungeon, it can't cover up the fact that the interface itself is notably awkward and archaic. But these issues aside, the reason to get this game is to crawl through dungeons. Make your party, gather them at the Inn and send them through the town gate to head into dungeons to slay monsters and get loot, heading back to town to rest, recover and level up. Repeat. Get lost within twisty halls, learn which monsters are most dangerous and plan how to deal with them, learn spells that increase your firepower and defenses, kill a big baddie, recover a lost treasure, maybe unlock a new path to tougher dungeons, this game tends to be story-light -- focusing on the mazes, monsters, treasure and encounters and how you deal with them. One notable detail is the game auto-saves. If you use an item accidentally on the wrong person, it's gone. Failed to revive a fallen ally, too bad. Teleported into solid rock or into a room with no exit door? Time to make a new party. Though, there is a 'secret' key combination that can be used in a bad situation, so if you really don't like what is going on, you can 'reset' the game to reload from the last auto-save. Now while cheating the system like that might seem like heresy to some, for some of the scenarios... well. They don't pull any punches. Certain enemy encounters are incredibly deadly and recovering a party that was wiped out involves going back in with other adventurers, and is very risky, dangerous and inconvenient. Worse than simple dying are monsters that drain your experience levels, undoing hours of work, or permanently losing a cherished character. But it lends a sense of urgency and tenseness that you don't get with a simple respawn checkpoint or a Reload from Last Save menu. So it can be hard, ok. What makes this different from other retro dungeon crawlers? I'd say, it's the user content. There are a large amount of scenarios designed by various Japanese Wizardry fans, many translated into English, and each one has their own set of mazes, monsters, loot tables and items. Some are basic and fairly easy, some are incredibly large and intricate, and some are incredibly hard and punishing -- making the stock "Ordeals" look tame by comparison. You could easily spend weeks exploring some of the largest custom scenarios, You could go through a scenario with a heavily changed magic system, or find one that gives you incredibly powerful loot, or one that caps your experience gain -- leaving you relying on equipment and gear over grinding up numbers to get stronger. Note that due to these sometimes heavy differences it is not possible to import characters between any scenarios -- each one will be a clean start from level 1. I have not dabbled in scenario creation myself, but do note that the scenario editor is not fully English ready and is web-based, and requires a Steam login. Be wary that due to copyright issues, using names or content from other Wizardry games is strictly prohibited. Overall the Five Ordeals is a game package that by itself is kind of a tough sell for the price -- the fantastic Prisoners of the Battles DLC is excellent but tacks on even more of a price tag. It is the well-made custom content -- user created scenarios in particular -- that really help extend and elevate its appeal. If you're looking for some classic dungeon crawling in the vein of the first few Wizardry games, give this a look.
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