I played Grim 2 for days and realized slowly that I just wasn't having that much fun. That surprised me as this game was an instant buy due to my love of the first. I go thru my checklist and really cant put my finger on why I am not having as much fun: fantastic graphics: check ease of controls: check vast in depth levels: check updated AI fights: check complicated puzzles and hidden secrets: check check check but still what is left is a grind. Maybe the very low graphics of the 1st allowed for more thrills when you found loot and allowed more immersion due to imagination taking over the plain graphics. Maybe the 1st one had a better story with each page pored over and those threatening dreams... how intriguing that was. Grim 2 there is really none of that. It feels so darn sanitized. um, so basically what I felt was as each level opened it was a grind to map out, find the secrets, battle the new type of mobs, enjoy the new landscape but .. that was all. I really didnt care about my team mates, I didnt care or really get the storyline or why I was there. Even the thrill of seeing loot at the end of long pixelated hallways is gone as its now lost in the lush 3d graphics and is a chore to find. i dunno, it has just felt so ... darn... boring. and grindy. stopped playing when I realized I was using a guide to find all the secrets without caring about trying to find them myself first. so if you enjoy mindless clearing of all the mobs in each level, then spending the rest of your time solving its puzzles and finding the secrets then repeat that same process over and over then this game is for you. If you want the original games intriguing storyline, thrill of finding loot, and feel like you are part of the story then stick with the 1st installment. Grimlock 2 is devoid of the heart and fun of the 1st. Like a polished but vacuous 2nd trophy wife it lacks the history, scars and bedraggled charm of the first wife.
Can't say how much I love this game. 1st time play thru with no nostalgia rose colored lenses. It really is that good. Pros: excellent origianal soundtrack. It reminds me of old time silent movies where the organist sat at the front and played during the movie, changing tempos etc to the screen action. Only think much better fully realized music, sometimes just a throbbing synth bass to simulate tense scary situations to full blown synth orchestra. Love it. The graphic art is outstanding. Fully realized landscapes and figures, animals and actions. The best bit of the game is the dying animations (with no penalty, you just auto reload at the same scene to try again). The text tool tips can be hilarious as you look and explore or try different combos. You can tell the devs spent a ton of time on trying to cover any situation a player may try. The story is pure camp fun and the action is pure adventure. Cons: No quick travel makes exploration a tad tedious at times. The immense amount of actions and inventory combinations make it also tedious and confusing as to what you are supposed to do. No journal to track your actions and no hints of what you are supposed to be doing next. If you miss a text conversation thats too bad so sad. Resolution is pretty vague and items are hard to see on the landscape which means you spend an inordinate amount of time just clicking on things to see if they are items/actionable hotspots etc. that is pretty normal in adventure games but this game its more or less just trying to identify what that dark colored blob may be. Add in that some landscape items are clearly drawn and stand along and just begging to be clicked but end up being just nothing.. adds another layer of tedium gameplay. However many cons I list the charm and comedy of the game is pure adventure treasure. Its very easy to get immersed in this psuedo 1950s land of the 50 ft woman island of dr mourea space camp odyessy.
It's hard to say why the game is so 'unfun'. Nothing really stands out. The story is pleasant enough, the characters are ok, the animations pretty good. You sit there for hours playing and realize... hey...this isnt really fun is it, why am I continuing? I guess the downfall is the gameplay itself. At first each new level is intriguing; you get to explore, read all the hotspot text, snicker at the thin jokes, marvel at the art then its over pretty quickly. then follow hours of tiresome clicking all the myriad combinations of inventory items versus hotspots in order to get that vague progression text that moves the story along. Its not fun. Its just plain... not .... fun. No rage inducing annoying problems, no game ending glitches, no obnoxious characters (like the 1st installment) and the overt sexism is more toned down but still the game just ends up being hours of mindlessly combining inventory items with hot spots with a lackluster thin comedy plot. snooooooooooze
What little I saw of the game was clever, cute and fun. Too bad I could not continue playing as the 3d topsy turvy gameplay induced the most sickening nausea. Just a warning for others out there that suffer from this effect when playing 3d games like portal.
Not a bad game, its rather entertaining but most definitely need to play with a walkthrough handy due to linear gameplay that will not advance until you trigger some actionable hotspot. Overall I enjoyed this at times bizarre FMV game with nostalgic nod to the retro hairstyles and clunky PCs and actual landline phones. Too fun! oh and big shoulder pads and hair! Pros: Nice FMV sequences with decent acting. Intriguing plot which draws you into his deepening madness. Fun romp into the 80s style. or was it 90s.. who cares it still was fun. Goofy at times, mostly bizarre, gratuitous sex scenes and partial nudity, woot! I mean this plain dude was getting alot of serious action. Cons: hard to navigate with no maps to help. Hard to find hotspots, sometimes the game crashed as you clicked a spot. Plot really made no sense, especially the alien world bit with a most annoying puzzle. Had to play with a walkthru open so I could just progress without too much random clicking as game wouldnt progress until you activated some clip scene. at times the gratuitous sex scenes got on my nerves as being totally there for perv reasons and had nothing to do with plot. Ending to me was underwhelming and not satisfying. still.. .very enjoyable . loved the David Bowie-ish soundtrack
I think the lesser reviews come from people who expected a 'game', it's not, its an interactive story. You get the bits and pieces of the story via exploration, finding pages of journals, rummaging around drawers for clues. I found it very enjoyable. The ambiance was very immersive. It IS short, like others said, took me around 3 hrs with a break for supper in between. Thats ok as I got this on sale but I expect others buying at full price might feel a let down. Overall, it was an immersive exploration of a novella, though I kept expecting zombies, dead bodies or other heavily used game cliches to jump out at me it was rather a touching story which I wont spoil. I do feel that the devs could have gone into more detail on the other barely fleshed out sub plots with the other family members and the inheritance/haunted house issue. Maybe I missed a journal or clue but that was left hanging. will enjoy more offerings from this dev in the future
I haven't been this enraptured with exploring a game since Myst and Riven. The ambiance and lovely scenery is overlaid with a sense of dread and foreboding. Many a time I just didnt want to go any further but of course I kept on as I had to know what happened to little Ethan. Pros: extremely gorgeous graphics. I played at ultra high setting and it was worth the small stutters and bits of lag. Every leaf and petal is drawn and animated. I could tell at a glance certain species of trees, plants, lichen and moss. The sound of wind whistling thru leaves or rattling rusting bits of metal or creaking rotting wood was exceptional. I was totally lost in this game, and in a good way. Want to see whats at the top of that hill, go ahead, take a look at a stunning sunset, want to look over a creaking bridge to the rocky water below.. go ahead... peek, take your time. Its part of the game. The story was spectacular, at times totally confusing but in the end it all comes together...and my.. how it does. Movement was fluid and game mechanics pretty easy to use. Cons: as others have said the lack of saves unless you hit some story gateway is cumbersome and annoying. Having to replay hours of game because you had to step away from the game, or in my case came up with a game glitch lost all immersion which took time to get back and forgive. lack of any guide or clue as to what to do was hard, areas i had combed over had to be redone due to not understanding that I had to go back and trigger an event, even tho I had already clicked the areas many times was frustrating. so basically, a stunning immersive and innovative game whose only drawback was some of the intrusive 'game play' mechanics. Still a wonderful game with such a tale to weave, it is one of a kind and should be applauded
I've tried to stick with the game long enough to find the mesmerizing story everyone has blathered on about so much, but the horrible artwork and amatuer animations make it a hard one to like. Add in strange gameplay mechanics with side scrolling movement its just well... tiresome. Trying to find a use for items is a recipe in repetition and randomness. Add in tons of backtracking and searching for usable hotspots which is one of adventure games most irritable mechanic. I get that the art is supposed to convey the depth of her depression but frankly, its just ugly and lazy artwork and animation. The story line is so emo filled and pointless, if you like to wallow in self misery and think that is fun game play then this crap game is for you.
