i have a confession...
don't take it personal...
said i have a confession...
so you gotta listen... :-/

men?.. how far did you get in this game without reading a walkthrough? i'm curious because i needed to cheat on puzzles several times only to reach level 4. if game had a story maybe i'd try to keep playing just to see how it ends but consulting a guide for puzzle after puzzle isn't fun? so i uninstalled mkay? i'm not good at adventure games. even combat was getting harder once i met those green slimes.. so i didn't even finish level 4 and game has 13 levels?.. who on earth can finish such a game all by himself? that's just crazy..

Don't worry, I think it's hard too sometimes. Just start the game on Easy with the pre-made party if combat is too hard. The puzzles might be a bit more difficult not to spoil. So far, I haven't found a guide similar to uhs-hints.com style.

i played on hard difficulty with a custom party - 2 human fighters with sword and mace (first weapon you find), a minotaur thief with throwing weapons (they benefit from high strength and bonus damage from collecting skulls and ranged attacks always hit so you don't need dexterity) and an insectoid mage with ice magic - had a spell which attacked every enemy along a straight line but only if they didn't fly. and another spell which can briefly stun enemies.

I think playing a dungeon crawler game is only fun when you explore it.
While playing I died many times, many times I failed to solve time trap puzzle.
I used walkthrough 2-3 times just to see the pattern of time trap puzzle else used trial and error method.

I beat it. I thought it was pretty easy, actually. If you've played and beaten Dungeon Master, Chaos Strikes back and the original Bard's Tale Trilogy without a walkthrough while drawing all the maps on paper then Grimrock is child's play in comparison.

If it was your first playthrough, you should have started on a lower difficulty. Either way, it's a challenging and very "old-school" game, so don't feel bad if you couldn't finish it. Some of the puzzles are brutal to figure out.

Try out Grimrock 2 if you ever feel like it. It's a lot less frustrating, and I found it more enjoyable overall. I finished it too, but had to look up solutions for some of the puzzles and secrets.

Some of those times puzzles were a real pain in the ass. :(

I'll always cheat or use walkthroughs without shame. Just do what you need to do to enjoy it. Legend of Grimrock is a great game but you're right, it does get incredibly frustrating.

I used a walkthrough a few times. Not often, but there were a few moments I was badly stuck. I don't really remember what those puzzles were. I think it's safe to say it was about 80-85% my own work. ALso I used a pre-made party, but then I pretty much always do, at least when playing a game for the first time. Otherwise I'm just asking to reach a point halfway through the game where it turns out my custom party is just not good enough for reasons I could not have possibly forseen.

I did consult walkthroughs in LoG 2 as well (have not finished it yet), but mostly just to check if I even can solve a puzzle right now, or if I need to go somewhere else. The more open world approach of the sequel is both great and frustrating, as it introduces a lot of backtracking, and the constant irritating uncertainty when solving puzzles, where you have to wonder "I've been at it for 15 minutes, am I just doing it wrong, or do I have to do something on the other end of the Island first?".