Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Oh, what a glorious remake. In 1981, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was released and changed gaming forever, with its deadly monsters and devious dungeons helping to establish the template for party-based computer role-playing. Still, important as it was, it was hard to go back to that game today; at the time, players’ eager imaginations would fill in the gaps of its wire-frame dungeons, but nowadays, those primitive visuals and the game’s many other inconveniences stood between most players and the excitement and cultural impact of Sir-Tech’s masterpiece.

Enter Digital Eclipse, who knew exactly what to enhance and what to leave alone in bringing PGotMO into the modern era. Transparently built right on top of the original game, this remake brings the dungeons and monsters to vibrant life with lush, atmospheric 3D visuals and terrific sound effects, while also implementing a slew of quality-of-life improvements that cut down on needless frustration while preserving the original game’s vision and difficulty. In the 40+ years since Wizardry’s release, storytelling in role-playing games has evolved tremendously, but playing it this year reminded me that there’s still no substitute for the thrill of delving ever-deeper into a deadly dungeon, enduring hardship and defeat on the road to conquering its traps and defeating its monsters, and making up a story in your own head about the party of heroes you’ve created to tackle it all. — Carolyn Petit