Legend of Grimrock

An impressive achievement for a group of four, independent developers, and shows flashes of brilliance, but really doesn't go deep enough to be great. Once you figure out how the combat and magic system works there's really nothing to look forward to other than lots of q-d-click-q-d-clock. Never really has a satisfying storyline payoff either.

Starts fun, get’s nasty too quick, IMO (3 is a nightmare, especially for aracnaphobes) then gets fun again for several levels & culminates in one of the most disappointing endgames I’ve ever encountered. The “Boss” may be the dumbest game villain ever imagined. The endgame has noting to do with the skill building and you’ve worked on for the whole game. Success comes down to the random chance movements of AI monsters. Endgame aside, it's a lot of fun. I’ll admit to hint peaking, as there are some incredibly obscure puzzles around the ¾ mark, otherwise a nice balance of battle & brains. The designers cleverly manipulate basic ingredients into a wide range of puzzles. I suspect I will get far more fun out of the included dungeon editor than the game itself in the long run. Expect to die dozens of times. Toward the end of the game there are very lethal traps & monsters that you will not learn how to overcome without several reincarnation experiences. Save often and get used to hearing your PC’s death scream. Even the most powerful monsters are easily defeated if you strategically retreat to a place where you can do the strike-doge do-se-do. Death comes quick when you’re cornered. I don’t think I’ll remember much about this game six months from now but for a week it was a compelling bit of fun.

There are a bunch of 5 star ratings that seem like just a "me too" reaction to anything shiny. I like the game over all but there are some problems. The good: Graphics are current and well done. The skill trees are nicely varied. Character creation is detailed. Good sound queues. Potion creation system. The Bad: Items are fixed in number and location. No hot keys for throwing things, magic, or potions. Attacks using magic are slow due to the rune selection system. The ugly: Timed puzzles are split second leaving no room for error. This coupled with no hot key for throwing things or the need to find and click wall buttons with the mouse makes level 5 frustrating enough that many will stop playing right there.

On the first hand, I love LoG. Finished it twice, tried several mods, and enjoyed almost every moment of it. I've always loved the dungeon crawler style, as well as the idea of exploring a huge, endless dungeon. The games feels just creepy and oppressive enough, the level design is top-notch and the puzzles are well thought-out. There are dozens of secrets to find, doors to open, areas to explore. All this is great and very well done. What bothers me though, is the combat system. I never played old school dungeon crawlers and, as a former MMORPG and tactical RPG player, I find the whole circle-strafing system absolutely ridiculous. You see, most enemies will absolutely trample your team, either because they are way too strong (Ogres) or outnumber you heavily. Knowing that, your only option is to circle around them, hit them while they look elsewhere, and never find yourself in front of them. The same goes for ranged opponents: you wait for them to shoot, hide behind a pillar, come out and shoot back. Rinse and repeat, until they are dead. This feels completely gamey and destroy any sense of immersion. In my opinion, the game would have been much better turn-based and with fair fights.

I would have to put LoG as a 3.5, but have no problem rounding up as this genre is intensely under represented these days. I'm a huge first person dungeon crawler fan, so without a doubt I was happy to play through LoG, but it does have some glaring problems, that largely seem to stem from being made by such a small company. Character developement doesn't really fill out, if you intensely speacialize, putting all your points into literally one skill, you will have only made mastery in one field with a few points to spare. So there is really no room for exploring more nuanced character builds (in vanilla that is). My other problem is combat, while it starts off quite fun, by the end you are just doing the same little dance with every single monster, over and over - move to the left, turn, strike, move to the left, turn strike, move to the... right (ohh), turn, strike. This becomes quite tedius, and it is really a shame that each new monster, even the final boss, is limited to this little dance. With this said, if your a fan of a genre, you have to go through LoG, it is a true throwback dungeon crawler with a lot of fun to be had, and some decent puzzles. There is also a rich modding community, which adds all sorts of dimensions to it if you choose to go down that path. Cheers!