I'm a Grimrock fan since the first game came out, saw Vaporum on sale and gave it a shot. Game was good and when I saw this prequel I was like "cool, more Vaporum". Boy was I wrong. This is the game you should play first as it is superior in every way - better narrative and new player experience, more engaging puzzles more balanced combat and as a thaumaturge I ran out of energy like 2 times in the entire game. The pacing is just better and you go from action to puzzle to action, having ample time to recharge between fights while looking for better gear and firmly masaging your brain with the nearest wall. Some puzzles and secrets are pretty hard but they are mostly optional, those give you some of the best gear in the game though and are well worth it. For any dungeon crawler fan, this is a must play.
This game is somewhere between the simplicity of Grimrock 1 and more modern take of Grimrock 2 in playability, but with many of the things that annoyed me about those games fixed. (input queueing I'm looking at you) It's set in a bioshock-esque world with breadcrumb narration (text and voice logs). Allows for many builds ranging from 2-handed hammers to daggers, pistols to heavy cannons, self-buffs to pure elemental thaumaturge and anything in between. The game scratched an itch I didn't even know I had and it did so perfectly. By the time I got to floor 2 I ran back to GOG and bought the prequel while it's on sale.
