Legend of Grimrock

I'm only a couple of hours in, but I'm already in love with Legend of Grimrock! Playing in "old school" mode without auto-mapping is fantastic. I'm not building complete maps, but scratch out some quick "landmark" maps on graph paper as I go. Getting lost just adds to the panic when getting chased by a pack of monsters. Loving the resource management. Inventory space is limited, characters get hungry and need food, and torches burnout. If you're a fan of old dungeon crawlers, you won't be disappointed. Great art, great sound, and great puzzles. I think that's enough for now... it's time to get back to Grimrock!

The review I'd like to add: think back over the last decade. Shooter, shooter, shooter, yup, shooter. Grimrock takes a tried and true formula - from the last age of gaming - and updates it to modern graphics and engine. It is just so darn bleeping refreshing to play this game. Something perfectly executed and NOT a cookie cutter sequel! Verdict: I love it!

In all honesty, this game is a stellar example of why video games just aren't made this way anymore, and what that's a good thing. This game presents a lot of things excellently in terms of style and setting, but the crunch of the game is just... bad. I'm going to get straight to the point because it's a very important point that people need to know before buying this game: The overwhelming majority of the gameplay in Grimrock is mouse controlled. Your 100-something keyed keyboard has exactly 6 buttons on it used, even as this game boasts significant gameplay depth. If you have any kind of manual dexterity issue, and probably even if you don't, then you should absolutely look into getting an Auto-Hotkey script for this game so that you can have actual keybindings for basic actions. I get that a certain group of people have a ton of nostalgia for the kind of gameplay on offer here, but there's a reason games that control in this manner stopped being made -- this control scheme is a crappy artifact of cross-platform console dungeon crawlers. It sucks, and we can and should do better in the 21st century. If you think that will make the game too easy or some nonsense like that, then make the game harder in a way that doesn't involve forcing people to play with a worse interface than a typical phone game. Character building is kinda bland, but it's basically fine. The presentation of the game is great, the themes and environmens are great, the immersion factor and exploration is great, the only real problem is that the controls grate.

I have tried every fix suggestion both official and from Reddit, Steam, etc. and nothing works. This game and its sequel simply do not play on modern systems.

Real "back to the past" in a positive way. Great oldschool dungeon crawler with quite nice graphics. Probably recommended for a bit older players who enjoyed all classic RPG games like PC Eye of the Beholder series or Amiga Black Crypy. After few hours of playing I am giving it 5 stars.