Legend of Grimrock

I was a bit preoccupied with Skyrim lately and somehow missed this game when it showed on the market.

At first I was a bit

“Doh! $16 for an RPG that can barely fill a whole CD”

I did some small research and found I was completely WRONG 😀

It is not the graphics or the music which makes this game good.

It has the spirit of the old games from DOS, when you were young (well…, some of you may have not been born yet).

In the same time, the graphics and sound are far from outdated. The game is demanding some hardware to play on best details.

So … if you missed any of the following:

• Eye of the Beholder
• Eye of the Beholder: The legend of Darkmoon
• Eye of the Beholder: Assault on Myth Drannor
• Lands of Lore: The throne of chaos
• Ultima Underworld: The Stygian abyss

… this game is EXACTLY for you! You will cry and screem and not sleep until 4 am. I promise!

Why you will love Legend of Grimrock?

1. It has the depth of Eye of the Beholder with all the puzzles but you don’t need to know ADnD rules to play It.
2. It has the good eye candy and all the secret rooms and “head scratching” from Lands of Lore.
3. (If you miss Bacatta – there is a minotaur with you in Grimrock – at least as strong  and big and sturdy and … sorry – not having 4 hands)
4. It has the huge abyss and you are thrown there, because you are “a criminal” and criminals are thrown in this vertical dungeon-with-supposedly-no-escape to be absolved from all crimes (if they can ever escape the dungeon).
5. 

   Legend of Grimrock, Level 1 map

   The MAP! It has squares 😀 … and if you are a hardliner dungeon crawler – the game authors provide a small PDF file with squares and notes, so you can DISABLE MAP feature in the game and draw your own map on paper. With notes ;).

6. The fight is taken 1:1 from EOB except the spells. You right click the weapon slot and you do slash, throw, cast, block, etc. – whatever is equipped in your hand. 2 weaker chars on the back don’t take hits (if not surrounded) but pump with arrows and spells while 2 tank characters in front take all the hits on their plate armors.
7. Fight is dynamic – if you are lazy and disorganized – you die. No pausing for checking inventory, so you better be prepared.
8. You can’t attack from the two chars in the back with weapons in the beginning, but later you find spears and pikes from skeleton fights and … if you insist – arm them and brute force everything regardless you have stronger spells 😀
9. Spells are made from 9 runes. You need to know the runes and have the skill level in either of the elements. Otherwise, they simply fizzle. The first spell scroll can be found on level 1 or guessed by randomly casting each rune.
10. Projectile weapons can be recollected and reused. Collection is automated when you walk over slain corpses.
11. Traps are not always *bad* and can often drop you on a secret room with items.
12. Plenty of secret rooms (above 70) on all the levels with so many ways to find and open them – you will love them.
13. You can rest everywhere. Even in behind a portcullis with strong monster on the other side 😉 (this is actually how the mushrooms on level 1 are beaten)
14. You need food to operate normally and can’t rest if you are hungry.
15. Everyone can wear everything, regardless if S/he is proficient or not. (with quite bad penalty though, but still – Mage with plate armor and pike is still quite sturdy)

So, is the game worth ~ $16?

If you miss the old dungeon crawler games – By all means, buy it.

If you have a hightech PC with lots of RAM, quad core or better, video card which can fry eggs while working… stick with Skyrim.

If you are in my shoes – buy both games 😉

Have a look at the paper doll below and the statistics. Have you seen such beauty and simplicity in other games lately?!

Get the game and try it. I already underslept for 2 evenings.

Paper doll.

Paper doll - stats.

Paper doll - linear skill tree.

Gameplay statistics

Convinced? Start the game and start exploring. Level 1 is very easy 😉