Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls

An average dungeon crawler that doesn't stand out.

Fans of this archaic throwback to Wizardry dungeon crawling of old may enjoy the nostalgia captured here, but those craving story and more engaging gameplay best look elsewhere.

It’s a game that feels like it should have had a big manual when it first launched, but without that manual, you only have half the picture, and so you’re stumbling around in the dark trying to make sense of everything.

The core of the game is a very old-school RPG/dungeon crawling experience, for all its positives and mostly negatives. Unless not having a map and spending hours trying to re-roll viable characters sounds like fun, this one is better off left alone. The anime portraits look nice, but they are just dressing on a framework of something that simply does not stack up to better options in the genre.

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is a great escape for anyone invested in the genre’s illustrious past.

Labyrinth of Lost Souls definitely wouldn’t be my first suggestion for someone either new to dungeon crawlers or a veteran, but I’d probably lean more towards getting someone used to the genre before getting them on a different title, unless you really have a dungeon crawler hole you need to fill.

On the whole, this game is a case study for how the small details truly make the game. It hits all the broad strokes well, and it has a solid foundation. With more polish, I would genuinely call this a good game. Unfortunately, as it is, it just comes across as a jumbled mess that slingshots between unfair and trivial, without enough fluff to make up for it.

The trip down memory lane that Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls provided has been a delight.

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is a port, and that’s pretty much where it stands. It doesn’t add anything new to the franchise or to dungeon crawlers in general, but it’s still a decent and entertaining game. The well-balanced RPG systems make this a high starting point for the Wizardry series, which doesn’t get enough attention in the west.

Nostalgic to a fault, this return to the classic series learned nothing from the decades of game development since the last main entry.