Hi. I'm a bit overwhelmed to say the least. Is there a step by step guide on how to get things to work, fighting and gear and whatnot?

Read the manual?

The above post may sound snippy, but it's actually a good idea. Wiz8 is from the era when game manuals were both substantial and reasonably comprehensive in explaining how the game works.

Wizardry 8 is a game that doesn't hand hold the player. I can understand why you might feel overwhelmed so here are a few tips for how to begin getting to grips with the interface.

For your first run through start with a party of 6 and aim to create a balanced party. There are a number of threads that cover this.

Once you've started the game, take a moment on the beach to familiarise yourself with what is detailed across the bottom of the screen e.g. feather = journal, fire = rest etc. To the right of the screen are a button for 'Party Move' and 'Party Formation'. The Formation of your party is colour coded and you can move where your characters are situated, so place your fighters to the front and aim to protect your spellcasters.

Then look at how the inventory works:

For instance, if you Left click on a characters portrait to select him/her then click on the hand icon, the section that appears above will detail what the character has in their inventory allowing you to select items. However, you can only select those that are detailed in white. Those in red will be usable at different times e.g. when in battle. You will see that you can select items for each character from their individual inventory and from the party inventory.

To access the complete inventory, Right click on any character portrait. This will take you to a screen where you can allocate primary and secondary weapons, take things from the party inventory into the individual's inventory, merge and split items. Merging items is important for Gadgeteers and Alchemists, splitting items means you can divide potions and arrows between party members. You can switch between party members in this mode. Again, the bottom of the screen has a series of icons to familiarise yourself with and the exit button is to the far right of the screen.

Once you've got to grips with the inventory and perhaps opened the chest that's on the beach, you will find you are confronted by some crabs. Battle is turn based and takes time to get the hang of. Once a battle has started, the controls for switching between 'Phased' and 'Continuous' combat are to the bottom right of the screen. I switch to Continuous as I find this better, but do experiment. Once you are in battle mode, you can select each character and decide what their action will be. At the beginning of the game these options are limited, but your spellcaster should have a couple of spells you can switch between to begin getting used to what to do. Also, you can set a character onto 'Defend' (look for the shield icon) which can be a good move if they are damaged. As you journey through the monastery you'll soon get the hang of what to do when and how damage is dealt out by both your party and the critters you meet.

One thing to bear in mind with combat is that your characters are rookies, so they will miss, take damage, spells will misfire etc. With spells, cast them at very low levels to begin with. Each spell has a series of circles representing how powerful the cast is. Keep it to 1 or 2 only, as that way you should avoid killing party members if they misfire.

Finally, when you rest, do so backed into a corner and make certain that Search mode is off.

I hope this is helpful and that you enjoy the game.

Definitely reading the manual is the way to go. You don't have to read the whole thing in order to start playing. Read about character creation, interface, combat. You can get in detail tooltips of attributes, races, classes in the game. Still read the whole thing slowly if only for even better understanding of the game mechanics and the world.

I am also a neophyte Wizardry player and doing the above helped me very much. I've actually managed to create a decent party after devoting some time to the manual.