belowmecoldhands - first post, eh?
Run while you still can.
Keep note I have not played Wizardry 8, but I have played Morrowind
They are very different games, and I'm saying it as fan of both.
Wizardry is also first person, but it's party based and has turn-based combat, which is pretty much its main focus. Morrowind, OTOH, bigger and much more open, is focused around exploration and lore.
In Wizardry 8 going around and visiting places is generally means to an end, in Morrowind it's an end unto itself.
Both have use-based character development (though in Wiz8 it's auxiliary to standard XP system), and keyword-based dialogue (although Wiz8 allows you to also enter keywords manually).
and it does have overland respawning and level scaling, I believe.
Morrowind has little level scaling - stronger random creatures start appearing in some areas, so does better random loot, but it's pretty subtle. Wizardry 8 is less subtle about that, but OTOH it's smaller and you won't be backtracking nearly as much.
I didn't like the level scaling because I felt like I wasn't given the chance to "farm" experience on easier things to up my chances of success in tougher places.
Actually I consider farming skills all the way up on weak challenges crappy design. You shouldn't be able to become master swordsman if all you've ever did was bonking barely mobile mudcrabs with your sword, no?
At any rate, respawning is a means to keep old areas valuable and/or relevant, but the problem is, almost universally amongst rpg's, respawning doesn't often change the character of a place or the available quests. So while you might get some experience going to an old area by killing respawned and scaled creatures and maybe get some satisfaction from that, you still see the same textures and people and so on.
Actually, respawning is way to keep player busy as they backtrack, make the world feel more alive by not allowing just clearing it all out, and may force some extra supply management for just traveling around.
What you will see next time depends on how the leveled lists are constructed.
I think some level scaling and some respawning can be good things, but it's how a game employs them. I also think different games will go in different directions, so players need to find out what they like and try to find the right kind of game for their proclivities.
Actually I think level scaling sucks pretty much unconditionally.
A case can be made for enemies sent specifically after the player, or tying some enemies to passage of time in narrative, but using player level instead of actual time elapsed. A weaker case can be made for big bosses if there is risk player may outlevel them (but it should be used sparingly or you might end up having local bandit boss outleveling some destroyer of worlds), and it's a band-aid for crappy mechanics.
Other than that level scaling simply breaks the gameworld by making it revolve around the player and eliminates both risk assessment and feeling of progression from gameplay.
Thankfully it doesn't impact Wizardry 8 all that much despite sucking.
