Overall most helpful review

Posted on: May 5, 2022

Nervensaegen

Games: Reviews: 102

Overhyped and underpowered

First: the specs above are incorrect - fortunately, as it does work on some (not all) Windows 10 systems. Unfortunately, as instead of 4GB RAM, you need at least 12GB. Otherwise your memory will max out and your machine will start to swap, making the game unplayable. It also maxed out all my 6 CPU 3GHz cores. And when I tried it on my laptop, it ate through my battery in no time. It's fair to say that "optimization" isn't exactly this game's strong suit. Unfortunately "gameplay" isn't its strong suit either. The maps feel lazy. Wall textures are highly repetitive, monsters are repetitive, the world is unimaginative and empty, everything feels random. Immersion isn't really there despite the game trying very hard to invoke some diabolic vibes. Music... just turn it off. The story is a one liner: Demons killed mankind and you are a lone survivor dash one-man-army. Also works as explanation why it doesn't include NPCs. The magic system sucks. Period. If you start as a spellcaster, you begin with zero spells, forcing you into meelee. And if you choose the wrong specialization, you won't get a single spell for a very long time. Plus you are constantly low on mana. Leveling up gives you a few upgrade points plus random effect cards. So instead of gaining +1 to intelligence, you might also level up to get -1 to intelligence. Maps don't really have puzzles; plays like random terrain with randomly placed monsters. Fights are tactic-light. In theory, you got limited tactical options--in practice, fights feel too random to employ most of them; you end up repeating the same strategy over and over again. In short: Grimrock this is not. Neither in gameplay nor quality. If you keep at minimum one eye and an ear shut, you could call it a "rogue-like" without perma-death, so if this is NOT what you want, I wouldn't recommend this game at all--not even on sale. On the other hand, if this does sound right up your alley, you may want to give it a shot.

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Posted on: May 29, 2022

singbird

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 4

Repetitive and easy

Hard to see why so many 5/5 scores. The game starts out very well. You're told it's a hard game, you have to scavenge for food, water and firemaking items. Unfortunately, the reality lasts for only a little while. I like summoning and necromancers in games, so I took necromancy. I read the manual (most negative reviews didn't even glance, it's clear) and figured I need white magic to heal. After 200 battles of "summon a summon, defend whole battle to regenerate magic points and heal as needed", I got a bit tired of it. I upped the difficulty once and then twice, but it makes no difference. All the enemies are exactly the same, excepting regenerating enemies, which are a slog to chew through. That is, until you get to the spell-creation part. You can create a single custom spell to use in battle. You can choose some effects for this spell. The important part, though, is that you can choose to make it deal enough damage to one-shot almost anything (until a bit later). To cast the spell you need blood drops, which you get by killing enemies. There is an "adrenaline meter", which, if at 100 % when ending the battle, let's you get 5-10 times the amount of blood drops. You increase the meter by hitting enemies with weapons. There are different kinds of weapons, but notably, one type of weapon hits the enemy twice per single attack action, letting you increase adrenaline twice as quickly. Indeed, some more powerful weapons will kill enemies before adrenaline is full; don't use these obviously. So... Get into battle, bash with your dual-weapon until adrenaline 100%, summon a summon, defend, recover MP and heal as needed. If enemy regenerates, blast with your supermagiccannon once or twice. Do this every single battle. The survival resource gathering is only meaningful for the first hour. Battles have movement as well, which is never meaningful. It has potential, but tactical enemies are needed to realize the potential. An enhanced version. As is, it's a button-masher.

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Posted on: May 11, 2021

Kublacron

Verified owner

Games: 386 Reviews: 5

An excellent Grid Dungeon Crawl.

I have played more RPG games than I can remember in 45 years of gaming. This game has that one more turn feel as well as a true sense of building a powerful character. The graphics are nice and creepy and the balance and difficulty are just right for me. I think this game has soul and heart and is an old school gamers wet dream. Give it a try and use your brain to build the perfect hero/explorer for mankind that is left; the monsters killed most of them. Happy hunting.

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Posted on: April 30, 2021

flabbyjack

Verified owner

Games: 258 Reviews: 7

Grimdark Single-Character Blobber

This fun cRPG dungeon blobber has the fundamentals down pat. Pros: * Grimdark setting and art that ooooozes style * Huge gameworld * Crafting and non-combat skills * Interesting character system with exp levels, skills, perks, and level-up card bonuses * Unique magic system with tons of spells * Streamlined combat system that is deep yet intuitive and approachable * Heavy metal music * The mandatory puzzles are 'solvable' with a little thought, none of those ****ty adventure-game style puzzles that make no sense Cons: * ?!?None?!? Haters gonna hate! * The optional magical square puzzles are a little hard, especially before you figure out what to do * Optional missions for the town don't give great directions about where the target area is I see some reviews on here about the game being too hard -- People are running out of food and water an hour or two into the game and are feel like they are unable to heal. That's not the case at all, especially if you read the material the game presents to you (in a short and straightforward PDF manual). I'll admit that I burnt my first character and had to restart too. If you stick with it and save-scum just a little, you'll find a cRPG that oozes style and doesn't penalize you like those _other_ party-based blobbers, where you find out halfway into the game you made your cleric wrong and have to start over from the beginning. The setting and art are creepy as Hell. Character progression is rewarding, and since you have one character there's no need for micro-managing a whole team's stats. There is a compelling story about pulling humanity's fate out of the gutter, but don't expect the NPCs to be deep fonts of exposition that have pages of dialogue. That's one area that the sequel could really shine in. Much love for this game.

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Posted on: August 30, 2023

olecky

Verified owner

Games: 251 Reviews: 1

Demon hunting w. heavy metal soundtrack

Pros: + Music + Art style + "Learning by doing" skill system + Satysfying character progression - you feel the impact of each level-up, raising different stats makes a difference + No level scaling (except for dopplegangers and optional "arena") + Fair - there are spells and potions to remedy all the problems, find out secrets etc. Cons: - Deck of doom mechanics - encourages you to save your draws until you get better cards, but you get better cards so late that it's not relevant anymore - Inventory mess - you cannot sort it, even manually; different items of the same category are not distinguishable from each other - Insufficient variety of monsters and areas comparing to the length of the game - Lack of achievements +/- The magic system is interesting, but if you play organically, you only learn some spells in final dungeons, when you can punch everything to death anyway. Most of the game I kept using the same 3-5 spells over and over, only changing them to practice different magic skills and get varying passive bonuses. +/- Similarly with crafting - early in the game I scrounged up everything and because of the survival aspect I was hesitant to experiment with crafting, later it became pointless. I found the game enjoyable to play in small chunks, an hour or so at a time. Would be probably even more fun with achievements that would give you some motivation to change tactics/try out different skills.

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