There are two ways to look at and review "Legend of Grimrock" -- you can view from the eyes of a contemporary gamer who expects certain things from modern RPGs, and can you can view it from the eyes of a veteran gamer who grew up with "Ultima," the Gold Box Games, and "Eye of the Beholder." Undoubtedly, this game was aimed at the latter, and given that, it is a great success -- not perfect, but great. It shares many of the elements of "Beholder" in particular, and while not as fun or detailed, it succeeds at creating atmosphere and bringing you back to the glory days of old when you had to make maps on grid paper. As a love letter to the fans, it deserves 5 stars -- or at least 4 -- just for trying. For contemporary gamers who expect modern RPGs to have cut scenes, jaw dropping graphics, and a long campaign with lots of interactions, tons of monsters, weapons, skills, classes, etc... LOG just doesn't wow and feels decidedly barebones. From this standpoint, it seems to be unfinished -- a part of something that could have been bigger, grander, more epic. Yes, it is supposed to just be a dungeon crawl but there could have been more content -- a lot more. To go back to "Beholder" again, such games were fun because there were so many options, so much content, so many things you could do to customize the game to make each go-round different from the last. Again, LOG doesn't wow -- it's just okay. From a modern gamer's standpoint, I'd give it 3 stars. But of course, LOG is for a specific audience -- and keeping all things in mind, I can safely and accurately give it a 4. It hasn't wowed me in any way, but it 'did' feel like the visit of an old friend. Then again, it make me miss "Beholder" all the more -- and I hope GOG will eventually offer that series as well. Nice job with LOG, in any case. It's cool to know that developers know what the genre has missed all these years. Just pure, simple, fun gameplay.
