Wizardry 8 - Parting Shots

Jay 'Rampant Coyote' Barnson ponders his recently completed Wiz8 playthrough, making some observations about the game (spoilers apply):

One thing I appreciated was how so many of the quests allowed alternative approaches. Even the alliance between the Umpani and T'Rang was completely optional - though extremely satisfying. And I managed to muscle through it without first completing the apparently pre-requisite Al-Sedexus quest. I came back and did it later, just 'cuz I could… but I liked that the game was flexible enough to allow this.

I also think it's sad that this is noteworthy. Not that this sort of thing is in notoriously short supply. I think it pretty much made Oblivion for me. But I think we've all played those games where objectives must be completed exactly as the designer intended - though sometime with one or two variants, sometimes… usually with lame "total jerk" and "neutral apathetic" options.

More information.

Although I found the combat to be a little less oppressive than Rampant (perhaps my tendency to favor melee tactics accelerates things some), I have to agree with all of his conclusions. He touches on the gameplay a little bit, but I would have liked to hear more detail on his opinion of the wildly deep character development. That was definitely the biggest draw of the game for me and I think it's a structure that is nearly dead in the industry these days. Shame, that.