While attempting to give away the storyline, the game does a great job of introducing your main quest very early in the game (as early as the second stage!), and if you are new to the game you will be saying at that point, 'Whoa. The storyline is good (mostly *), yet it does not lock you into a linear plotline progression where you have to go here and do this, and then do that, ad nauseum.
Wizardry 8 is perhaps my favorite CRPG to date.
