The monsters' strange tendency to ignore any attackers but the player's party is just one of the annoyances with combat in Wizardry 8.  First of all, it occurs fairly regularly and the player's party is often outnumbered.  With all of the parties involved, combat can often take some time to resolve - 15 minute plus battles are not too uncommon.  Back-to-back attacks can leave a large portion of a party dead, requiring a reload after investing half an hour in the doomed combat endeavor.  Secondly, the special attacks in the game are way too powerful.  Far too often the player will find his entire party suffering from various effects of paralysis, unconsciousness, and blindness, leaving the party helpless to do anything but take its lumps.  Finally, spells tend to backfire with alarming frequency, especially at the early levels, often injuring the caster and other members of the player's party.

After a battle, characters will have a chance to improve in any of the skills used in the battle.  For example, a fighter who hacked through several enemies with his sword may be rewarded with an increase in sword skill.  Characters which gain a level as the result of the experience won in combat are provided with a set of bonus points that the player can spend to improve the character's skills and statistics.  The player can even choose to change the character's profession at this point.  The degree to which the game allows characters to be customized as they advance in levels is a nice feature and makes the player really look forward to the next character level-up.

The NPCs in Wizardry 8 exist for more than combat, and the player will often need to interact with them.  NPC interactions are handled from a special interface screen that allows the player to ask questions of the NPC by selecting keywords from a list, clicking on words from the NPC's conversation text, or typing in words directly.  Each NPC is provided with voiceovers that are generally well-acted and help to give each one a unique personality.  They are used not only to drive the game's main storyline, but also to provide the player with numerous subquests that can be completed for experience or special item rewards.  These subquests are optional, and the player can choose which to pursue or ignore.

The game's graphics are a mixed bag of adequate and good.  The character portraits look like they were created for a game five years older and a lot of the building interiors are very sparse.  Also, outdoor environments are perpetually fog-shrouded, preventing the player from seeing very far into the distance.  However, some of the environments look pretty good and include nice touches such as reflective marble flooring or light filtering through windows or openings in a ceiling.  The various monsters and NPCs inhabiting Dominous look good as well, although some appear slightly blocky at times.  The textures used give each creature a distinctive look, and they change during combat to reflect damage inflicted by the party.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 85%. It might prove to be a bit frustrating for the casual RPG player, but those who enjoy the genre will be pleased by the intriguing world and huge amount of gameplay provided by Wizardry 8.  Despite a few quirks and annoyances, it is a worthy successor to the Wizardry 8 line and will be a welcome addition to an RPG gamer's library.

System Requirements:  233 MHz Pentium II CPU; 64 MB RAM; 8 MB Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 1.2 GB Hard Drive Space; Mouse.

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