Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna
| Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sir-tech Software, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Sir-tech Software, Inc. |
| Designer(s) | Andrew C. Greenberg Robert Woodhead |
| Series | Wizardry series |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, DOS, NEC PC-9801 |
| Release | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna is the fourth scenario in the Wizardry series of computer role-playing games. It was published in 1986 by Sir-tech Software, Inc.
The Return of Werdna is drastically different from the trilogy that precedes it. Rather than continuing the adventures of the player's party from the previous three games, The Return of Werdna's protagonist is Werdna, the evil wizard that was defeated in the end of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and imprisoned at the bottom of his dungeon forever.
Gameplay
The game begins at the bottom of a 10-level dungeon. Most of Werdna's powers are depleted, and must be gradually recovered throughout the game. The initial goal is to climb to the top of the dungeon, reclaiming Werdna's full power along the way. Each level has one or more pentagrams at specific points. The pentagrams have three purposes: The first time a pentagram is discovered in a level, Werdna's strength increases, and a portion of his powers are restored. This only happens once per level; finding multiple pentagrams on a single level will not increase his powers multiple times. The second purpose is that monsters may be summoned from the pentagrams. The higher the level, the stronger the monsters available. There is no cost to summoning monsters, but only three parties of monsters may be summoned at a time, and any existing monsters will be replaced by the summoned ones. The third purpose is that pentagrams refresh Werdna's health and spellcasting capacity.
Instead of fighting monsters, the player fights against the heroes from the past three Wizardry games. Players of the first three games who sent their character disks to Sir-Tech might have their characters present in Wizardry IV.
Difficulty
The Return of Werdna is considered an extremely difficult game; as Computer Gaming World notes, "This game was designed expressly for the expert Wizardry player."[1] Knowledge of the first game of the series is vital to completing Wizardry IV. It is equally unforgiving of mistakes and bad luck as its predecessor trilogy, but unlike the trilogy, there are no experience points for defeating enemies, and therefore no reward for surviving difficult battles, or opportunities to grow stronger at the player's pace. The only way a player may grow stronger is to fight their way through the current level, and find a pentagram on the next level, no matter how overwhelmingly difficult the foes on the current level may be. Some of these foes include ninjas capable of killing Werdna instantly with a critical hit, mages with area-effect spells that can wipe out entire parties of monsters, thieves who can steal items that are critical to completing the game, and clerics capable of resurrecting Werdna's fallen adversaries.
Like the previous trilogy, mapping out levels is vital to avoid becoming lost. But the difficulty of mapping out levels is increased exponentially. While the previous games included occasional traps that could throw the player's maps off, such as dark areas, teleporters, pits, chutes, and rotating floors, these traps and many more are abundant in The Return of Werdna. An early level contains a minefield, with an invisible safe path that can only be discovered through exhaustive trial and error. Another level is a series of seemingly identical intersecting pathways, with rotating floor tiles on each intersection. At the top of the dungeon is the Cosmic Cube, a 3D maze consisting of dozens of rooms, connected by passageways, chutes, ladders, and teleporters, all of which have their own unique tricks, traps, and mapping difficulties. In addition, some of the most deadly foes in the game roam the cosmic cube, and because it contains the final pentagram, no further strengthening is possible.
Another major example that seriously hinders unfamiliar players is the seemingly impossible task of exiting the very first room. The only way out is a hidden door which may be revealed by casting a "light" spell called "Milwa". The only way to do this is to recruit a group of Priests. This seemingly-simple task is made unintuitive due to the lack of any evidence that there is a door to begin with, the necessity of recruiting a group of Priests, which are ineffective in combat and take the place of effective combat recruits, and finally the need to enter combat until the Priests cast this spell. There is no suggestion in the context of the game as to what Milwa or any other priest spell name means; only players familiar with prior Wizardry games would understand its function. To a player unfamiliar with these earlier Wizardry titles, it would seem that the priests cast a useless spell. Furthermore, the Milwa/Light spell eventually expires, meaning that there is a limited time to find the door once the spell is cast.
Copy protection
The Return of Werdna had an unusual form of copy protection. No attempt was made to prevent copying of the game disks. Instead, the package included a book containing a long list of 16-digit "MordorCharge card" numbers, designed to resemble credit card numbers. This book was printed on dark red paper to make photocopying difficult. After completing the first level in the game, the player is given a randomly chosen 12-digit number, and asked for the last four digits. The player must look up the corresponding number in the book and type it in to proceed.
This tactic effectively gave those who made copies of the game a free demo of the first level before demanding that the player show proof of purchase. However, the algorithm for computing the MordorCharge numbers was not very complicated, and consisted of little more than adding three numbers modulo 9000. Those having knowledge of the method could calculate the correct response using a small lookup table and some relatively simple arithmetic.
Although such means of discouraging copying would be considered little more than a nuisance today, it was fairly effective at a time when few people had access to online services. A similar copy protection, with a more sophisticated code system, was used in the next Wizardry game, Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom.
References
- ^ Scorpia (November 1987), "Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna", Computer Gaming World, pp. 10–11, 62–63