Legend of Grimrock

Not quite as good as the grandmaster but what is? as close as it get's though. Great job by Almost Human at reviving a genre from the old school with a modern take. Some of these indie teams are putting AAA games to shame!

Enjoyable for a while, but the mazes/puzzles are too hard to play it, unless you really invest time and thought in it. Comparing to, for e.g., Ultima Underworld 2, it's not even a 3 out of 10, with UU2 being 10.

I was going to put this at the end, but then I realized it's something important: I like this game very much, but I lost interest. I don't think I'll finish it. If this sounds like you, keep an eye for that. I'm too young to have played the classic dungeon crawlers this game imitates, but I feel that, by delivering such beautiful graphics and sound design, this game brings me closer to what I would've felt back in those days playing one of those games. The game just flows. As they say, easy to get started, difficult to master. You will get stuck though, and you will thank your particular god for the Internet and the guides therein.

First off the things I really liked about this game: - There are no elves, gnomes or other typically good cratures in this game. There a Minotaurs, Humans, Insectoids and Lizardmen, which I find more suiting for the typical prison situation. - The maps of the dungeons are well designed, keeping secrets and hidden items in sometimes unexpected places. - The enemy design is really good, from the ai to the models and their sound and textures. - The looks of the dungeon is as realistic as it could get. - The difficulty steep is pretty good balanced. - The magic system is great and also one of the only ways to actually break the game, as the character can cast any spell as long as you know the rune combination. Now to the things I didn't like that much: - There are poisonous enemies, ones that set you on fire and then there are holes everywhere in the floor. In the end you fight them all. I've rarely had a final boss fight this tedious and frustrating in a long time. - Who built this dungeon? The deeper you descend the weirder the surroundings get. There are no transitions between the areas. - The ending is kind of weird too. Why did we fight that cube? To get free? - Some of the puzzles are just plain annoying. All in all I wish for more games like this, because after all it is fun to play it.

Stay your hand a moment. Pull yourself away from the next twitch shooter, the almost jetpack-propelled jumping in an MMORPG, turn off the lights if you have them on, close the door and load Legend of Grimrock into your machine. Oh, and play it in old-school mode; get some paper and a pen, and map these levels out the traditional way for a much more rewarding experience. This review is based on my experiences in old-school mode. You are one of four prisoners sent to Grimrock to absolve yourself from your crimes and earn a pardon, but to do so you must all journey through a labyrinth full of gigantic slugs, reanimated skeletons and who knows what else that haven't eaten fresh flesh in... well, since the last batch of criminals. All of that sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. Party members are arranged in a box formation with front row party members capable of melee combat and the back row capable of casting. This allows for splitting of damage if a party member is taking too much; rotate your formation. Each party member has a hunger meter and it's up to you to ensure you're all well fed, which means more scampering around in the dark trying to find a source of food to prevent health and energy penalties. In addition, you have to explore each level of the dungeon for keys to unlock certain doors, solutions to puzzles you find yourself walking into, uses for other items you find along the way, whilst tackling monsters unarmed until you happen across a weapon or object that can be used as one. Don't throw rocks at slugs if it's all you have to fight with, they'll chase you, as will all monsters (to a certain extent). The puzzles that I've encountered seem to have a good balance of difficulty. If you're wanting a brain-teaser similar to Portal, don't expect that. The puzzles in Legend of Grimrock are enough to tickle the mind and break up the exploring and mapping, which is appreciated as variety never hurts anyone. Dungeon levels also contain secret rooms and passages, traps and lever- and switch-bound triggers, so there's plenty of variety in dungeon tiles. Due to the size of each dungeon some players might consider everything to be very much the same per level, but for myself the constant vigilance as I turn around the next corner blindly, mapping the room ahead and planning out my options brings enough satisfaction to not be worried. Movement, player-driven and AI, follows the traditional square-by-square movement and the food meter for each party member dwindles very partially per square you travel, which not only makes it important to map while you travel instead of backtracking, but it makes you plan out your combat possibilities before entering a fight; running backwards 20 steps isn't a good use of resources. Attacks are handled simply, with each party member having a left- and right-hand slot to equip items or cast spells from and both attacks and spells are actioned by right-clicking the respective slot of choice. The graphics, which to myself are not the most important focus of a game such as this, are beautiful to look at, which I do appreciate as I would've enjoyed the game if it were 16-bit, but am far more immersed with the high-resolution details provided. Each dark wall visually echoes the eerie atmosphere trying to unsettle your nerves, reflecting torch light, ambient light (where visible) and each object within the game has been crafted to near-realism. The audio is simple but effective, providing enough ambience to make your wary of your location but not too jarring as to halt you in your tracks crying in the corner of the only torch-lit room in the dungeon. It's enjoyable, standard dungeon faire, so while it doesn't lure me in with intensity or worry, it isn't bad at all. The game comes with a dungeon editor, which allows you to create your own dungeons and share them with others to play, which I think is pretty cool. Unlike games with modding capabilities such as Skyrim, where making a dungeon can have it's immersion ruined by players using bright lighting mods or rainbow ponies, the game keeps that in check by not allowing import of custom models, which to some will be considered to not be very modder-friendly, but I think it's a good thing for the sake of the immersion I crave in games such as these. Now, for my scoring. I decided to give it five out of five stars, because there was simply nothing within the game that I could not personally fault. This game, while not grabbing me by the edge of my seat as I explore the dark depths of Grimrock, did not have me in the back of my seat in boredom, drinking and eating as if I were watching a movie. It was engaging, entertaining and exactly what traditional dungeon-dwellers like myself enjoy. If you love the thrill of exploring the unknown, managing resources and locations so you don't get lost and love atmosphere while doing thus, for the current price ($7.49 within the Christmas Sale, until January 3), you can't go wrong.