Old School Classics - Wizardry - Tale of the Forsaken Land

We are going to take a moment to appreciate a game that may have flown under the radar when it was first released and not as appreciated as it should have been. The aforementioned game is Wizardry: Tale of a Forsaken Land for the Playstation 2.
Wizardry is a bit different from your typical role-playing game. Instead of running around a town through the control of your avatar in a third person perspective, you move the directional buttons to pick which building you want to enter and see the town through the character's eyes. You start the game off in a quiet town in the dead of winter where you are beseeched by an injured knight, who for some reason recognizes you and asks you to follow him into a dungeon that is known by the townsfolk as the source of the village's problems and a place of evil, where many adventurers have gone, but few have returned. The main stretch of the game is diving into the dungeon and going deeper and deeper, while unraveling the convoluted storyline. I can't get into much more of the story without spoiling it, but there are much deeper developments that delve into the past of the character you are controlling and what his connections are to the queen of the land.
The 3-D graphics are not the focus point for Wizardry, nor is it the forte. Even in 2001 when the game was released, the graphics seem to be fairly average. But what really sets the atmosphere for the game are the insides of buildings and the character drawings. One place the character visits often is the tavern; where the soft glow of the lamps dots the room and the roaring fire keeps the bar patrons warm against the winter chill. The hushed murmur of the tavern surround the gamer and make them feel like they are actually requisitioning quests from the highest bidder while those around them down tankards of mead while telling tall tales of an age long gone. The characters are also really well drawn and the detailed imagery represents well what profession they hold. Like the rogue, for example, wears little armor to ensure agility and the knight is encumbered with plate mail to ensure defense while the gladiator is heavily muscled and wears a simple leather jerkin. I was actually very impressed with how well the game immerses the player despite using fairly simple techniques like lighting and sound.
For Wizardry, the main focus is dungeon crawling and seeing how far you can get and having the sense to head back before you get killed and lose all that experience and loot. The battles are turned based and the view is through your characters' eyes, so you only see the enemy, much like Dragon Quest battles. There are a few interesting features to break the monotony of the battles, like combining attacks to deal massive damage to a sturdy opponent, or using team defenses to weather the devastating stampede of a sea of enemies. The battles aren't random, however, so it's nice to be able to avoid low level monsters when you have to head back into the dungeon after unloading loot. A nice feature is the class system, where if your player meets certain stat requirements they can become one of many different professions, like a knight, a samurai, or a ninja and these give the players various strengths and weaknesses in different areas.
I would definitely recommend this title to anyone familiar with the Wizardry franchise, Dungeon Master, or Eye of the Beholder games, because Wizardry is a dungeon crawler through and through. I enjoyed my experience with the game and I'm sure any RPG fan would too.