By Hugh Walker on April 11th, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Legend Of Grimrock is out today, and we enormously recommend you get it. In fact, John was so fondly reminded of playing Dungeon Master with his dad, 25 years ago, that he decided to get his dad to play it too.
Hugh Walker, dentist and life-long gamer, begins the diary of his experiences below.
I was invited to play Legend of Grimrock. “It is like Dungeon Master,” I was told. Hmmm? How many times had I heard that since FTL unleashed that ground-shattering gem on my Atari ST in 1987? Now that was a game! No! It was more than “a game”… it was a way of life. I remember being so scared fighting the dragon at the end… Oh, how my hands shook.
So, with some excitement, some curiosity and not a little trepidation I approached Legend of Grimrock. I fully expected to be disappointed by the latest offering to claim FTL’s mantle, yet again. Reaching the Legend of Grimrock Character Creation screen, I impatiently cried, “Yes! I’ll take your preloaded party!” I clicked my way through the opening sequences to JUST LET ME INTO THE GAME!
So, there we were, just four guys… well, two guys, some rather bullish fellah and one girlie. No equipment, no clothes just a screen full of brickwork and an empty keyboard. The time honoured method of random key-pressing revealed the finer points of navigation, and moving was a bit of a shock.
You must consider that I had left the Land of Skyrim to enter this dungeon. After gliding around stupendously breathtaking landscapes, here I was moving one square, surrounded by bricks! “Ah!” I thought, “this is like Dungeon Master.” But do I really want Dungeon Master having experienced Skyrim?
So, we found some clothes, and some rocks for my Roguish Popsy to chuck. I bumbled about a bit, opened a few doors, met a snail… and died.
At this point, hardened adventurers may cast scorn, for I – gasp – read the manual. Unforgivable! While it didn’t explicitly teach me how to aggress on whatever low-life denizens we (“we” – you can tell I was beginning to identify with this gang, rather than being just a somewhat perplexed spectator – I was being sucked in) might encounter, but it did give a clue and it did tell me how spells worked in the Mystic Realm of Grimrock.
But, I thought, is this how it feels to buy a vintage motor car? I like having synchromesh on first gear, and air conditioning, and a satnav. For years I was a whizz at mapping on squared paper. I still have pads of it on the shelf in my study, totally redundant until now – perhaps. I could turn off on-screen mapping. But once turned off it can never be turned on again! So, how much more sensible to leave it on but just not use it, or maybe only a little! Just a bit, now and again, when I’m stuck…
I loaded the saved position just before we became snail fodder and this time we trounced the bounder. Hack! Slash! Fireballs! Rocks! Triumphant, on we go. I found a loose brick in wall. Pressing it opened a secret panel. Off to find more. Suddenly, this was fun! Pulling levers, pressing bricks, aha! A trapdoor, a lever, a Snail… Oh? What if I wait until the snail is on the trapdoor and I pull the lever?
Now I’m stuck, no idea how to progress, but I don’t care! Checking walls, pulling chains, taking torches out of sconces, putting them in… I’m home.
A Dad In A Dungeon will continue as soon as John can get Hugh to stop complaining about pit puzzles.
11/04/2012 at 18:04 bfandreas says:
GOG just unlocked the download.
Set the phasors to “very download”.
11/04/2012 at 19:28 President Weasel says:
This is the best setting for phasors.
11/04/2012 at 21:37 daggerbite says:
‘Twas only a 435mb download from gog.com too, my bandwidth was simply unphazed by such a low amount.
12/04/2012 at 12:34 Heavenfall says:
435_mb_ you say? How quaint!
11/04/2012 at 18:07 Chmilz says:
Preordered on GOG, will be playing it tonight.
11/04/2012 at 21:38 daggerbite says:
Really loving this game, old school dungeoneering and difficulty. Also managed to drop several snails down a trap!
12/04/2012 at 02:58 swebjh44 says:
The revelation that John has a father has destroyed the imagery and fantasy I had, of all the Hivemind members being discovered, as new born infants, in various hedgerows and briar patches around England, during or shortly after a Solar Eclipse, on the same day in the mid to late ’70s. Shame. http://www.wp3.pl/321sd/Classic Wired Game Controller for Nintendo GameCube NGC and Wii
12/04/2012 at 10:02 Groove says:
I’d become a spambot too, if my worldview was so shattered.
12/04/2012 at 11:44 Aninhumer says:
Have we reached the era of intelligent, semi-constructive spambots already?
13/04/2012 at 00:54 MrDanke says:
This is how the robot uprising begins. The spambots reply one day, and the next, they’re all “CRUSH. KILL. DESTROY. SWAG.”
13/04/2012 at 17:22 Ragnar says:
Indeed. Mind = blown!
11/04/2012 at 18:08 Casimir's Blake says:
A welcome article, for a fantastic game, in a genre that has been dead far too damned long. Very pleased to see RPS cover Grimrock in such a way.
I truly hope this is the start of a dungeon crawler resurgence, it’s long, long overdue.
11/04/2012 at 18:29 Craig Stern says:
Rumors of the genre’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
18/04/2012 at 20:46 Nenad says:
I salute you sir! Do you, by any chance, have a similar link for rougelikes?
18/04/2012 at 23:07 shitflap says:
Nenad;
http://indierpgs.com/tag/roguelike/
Did you mean similar or from the same site?
12/04/2012 at 00:51 Phantoon says:
Just sunk over three hours into this in one sitting. Quite excellent.
Have a jump down a pit. I haven’t found one yet that kills you on impact with the floor, and they usually lead to some extra combat and loot.
11/04/2012 at 18:09 AmateurScience says:
For the first and probably last time I said: ‘oh snap’ when I read the author name. It’s downloading now. I am very excited.
11/04/2012 at 18:10 RvLeshrac says:
I’d like to have it downloaded so I can play when I get home, but Steam hasn’t unlocked the download and the site is down. WTF.
11/04/2012 at 18:13 TillEulenspiegel says:
The Steam thing is weird. Grimrock is on sale now, but the preorder is still just a preorder. Can’t download it. I’ve restarted the client a couple times, no effect.
Their site’s down because it’s swamped, obvs.
11/04/2012 at 18:18 FinBen says:
If you pre-ordered it through their site it went through the Humble Bundle payment thingy. The email from them has a link from which you can download the game, so even though Steam is playing silly buggers and the site has completely fallen over, you should be able to get it there. Currently at 50% for me, so I’m having to read about it whilst playing the theme to pass the time…
11/04/2012 at 18:25 TillEulenspiegel says:
Yeah, I found that. There’s even a torrent link, which is nifty and fast.
12/04/2012 at 00:52 Phantoon says:
This is A Good Thing. They want to get the game out, internets be damned!
11/04/2012 at 19:33 Lemming says:
Steam version is working now. You may have to restart Steam, but it’s all coming down nicely now
11/04/2012 at 18:15 pertusaria says:
Lovely – thanks, Hugh! I look forward to future instalments.
For now, off to buy the game!
11/04/2012 at 18:18 menderslan says:
Best dad ever. I can’t wait to play this tonight.
11/04/2012 at 18:19 trjp says:
Released on Steam – price caused me to double-check- will be waiting for others opinions I think.
It’s pre-order price on GoG was $11.99 – Steam want £10.79 (note that’s UKP not Dollars) and GOG are now asking $13.49 (and that’s with an alledged $1.50 discount which seems disingenuous to say the least!!)
I’ll wait, I think – plenty of other games to play whilst it takes it’s inevitable trip to the right side of £10…
11/04/2012 at 18:29 djbriandamage says:
Ignorant westerner question: is there a difference between UKP and GBP? Does UKP imply that Northern Ireland uses this currency?
11/04/2012 at 18:52 Primar says:
He just means not-dollars (GBP). UKP isn’t an actual currency abbreviation, but I guess some people might use it.
11/04/2012 at 18:54 BarneyL says:
They’re the same currency although Scotland\Northern Ireland have different notes that often look like toy money toi English shopkeepers andso you struggle to get accepted even if they are legal.
The Isle of Man also has seperate designs and technically is a different currency (pegged at the same value as the UK Pound).
12/04/2012 at 10:17 Prime says:
I’ll have you know that’s legal tender, pal!
/irate Scotsman
17/04/2012 at 20:20 Phydaux says:
Bank of Scotland notes are NOT legal tender. Not even in Scotland. Bank of England notes are only legal tender in England and Wales. But then legal tender doesn’t mean what people think it means anyway:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/about/faqs.aspx#16
Wow, are we off topic. :P
11/04/2012 at 18:58 LionsPhil says:
Quoth the Wikipedia (less some parentheticals):
11/04/2012 at 18:59 LionsPhil says:
I hate the spamfilter round these parts. Let’s try just the quote.
11/04/2012 at 19:00 LionsPhil says:
I’d quote the pertinent part of Wikipedia, but the spam system hates content. Last paragraph of this section.
11/04/2012 at 18:45 derbefrier says:
The full price of the game has always been 15 bucks. What your seeing were preordering discounts and sales. It clearly says so on the front page of the games website and has for at least a few weeks since I became interested.
11/04/2012 at 20:27 trjp says:
and it’s worth every cent to people I’m sure BUT the only price I’d seen was $11.99 which in my mind was £9.99 – maybe £8.99 with an intro discount.
When I see over £10 on Steam a little voice in my head says “remember those other games you’ve not played yet” and “remember 2 family birthdays this month” and “it will be cheaper by the time you have time to play the thing anyway”…
Not saying it’s overpriced – just that the price triggered my guilt complex with that extra digit :)
11/04/2012 at 18:59 John Walker says:
You’re aware that $13.50 is already on the “right” side of £10, right? £8.50, in fact. Which is a stellar bargain for a game this big.
11/04/2012 at 19:02 TsunamiWombat says:
especially when you consider other indie dungeon crawlers sometimes get prices at 20 USD or higher which makes me looool
11/04/2012 at 20:25 trjp says:
I’m assuming GoG will be adding VAT to their prices – given that they’re quoting dollars I assume it’s not already included!?
If that’s the case, it will be over £10 – if not then it’s a shoe-in for a GoG purchase over Steam for sure.
11/04/2012 at 20:32 trjp says:
Just checked and GoG don’t add VAT – no-one tell the authorities for god’s sake…
Does make it over £2 cheaper than Steam then – doesn’t resolve my birthday present and backlog guilt at all…
“Looks for things to sell on eBay*
11/04/2012 at 21:25 lhzr says:
No VAT?? But that’s fraud! Some country’s government isn’t getting all the money they’re supposed to get, which means they’ll have less money for schools and hospitals and.. stuff !
I’m gonna file a report on this scam, as soon as i figure out who I can report it to.
11/04/2012 at 23:35 PoulWrist says:
Gog has price parity, they include taxes if relevant and keep the price low and the same everywhere. I don’t get why anyone would buy anything on steam at full price or when it is available drm free at gog. Steam fanboys are so annoying.
12/04/2012 at 03:10 trjp says:
@poulwrist The concept of having all your games in a library which can be copied from PC to PC, downloaded on more than 1 PC, saves synced in the cloud etc. is pretty useful – that’s what Steam offers me and I like it.
I’m not going to pay much over the odds to get it tho – but fortunately there’s a get-out.
It’s $13.49 from the developer and they give you DRM free (ala GoG) and a Steam key too ;)
Best of both worlds eh? :)
12/04/2012 at 09:31 Jams O'Donnell says:
It might be worth pointing out that you can buy it direct from the devs and recieve a Steam key, which presumably nets the devs a bigger slice of the cash.
http://www.grimrock.net/buy/
12/04/2012 at 11:14 alsoran says:
$13.49 is £8.50
11/04/2012 at 18:21 lordcooper says:
Staring mouth?
Also, welcome, o great father of John.
12/04/2012 at 09:32 Jams O'Donnell says:
Staring eyestalks, perhaps?
11/04/2012 at 18:32 Vinraith says:
Once I’m off my purchasing hiatus, this is high on my priority list.
Also, props to John’s dad for being awesome. Gaming dads are the best. I should know because I’m fortunate to have one too.
11/04/2012 at 18:39 djbriandamage says:
Wish I could relate. I could be playing any game, from Civilization to Wing Commander, and my dad would ask me “Killing Nazis?” This is due to my childhood obsession with Wolfenstein 3D.
My wife’s dad similarly refers to any video game as “squishing peasants” since she was such an avid Age of Empires gamer. At least we were able to coerce him to try, and eventually complete, Half Life 2 and all its episodes.
11/04/2012 at 18:59 Simes says:
My dad keeps muttering things along the lines of “wasting your bloody time with those games”.
We don’t talk much.
11/04/2012 at 19:04 Tom Walker says:
I still can’t get over how well my dad took to Battlefield 3 when he semi-retired. At 64 he’s one of the top few thousand ranked medics. That is, the top few thousand *of all registered players*.
And yet he was always so bad at Super Mario Kart…
11/04/2012 at 21:48 apocraphyn says:
My father used to play these kinds of games all the time when I was a kid! If it wasn’t for him, I may well not have been posting here now. And having just got Grimrock myself from GOG, I gotta say – it’s pretty goddamn fun. Having ‘tested it’ for him now, I’ll be letting him know about this ASAP :)
11/04/2012 at 21:55 Drayk says:
My dad taught me videogames, sortof. He bought us an atari when I was 8…
When I was 11 I broke my arm tree climbing and the next morning he gave me a megadrive with Sonic the second I was out of the hospital.
I played it 9 weeks WITH A JOYSTICK !
I think that’s the moment I became a Gamer. But I guess it was in me since he gave me is old space invader game with LED.
He’s 53 now and still play occasionaly. I gave him CIV V for christmas.
11/04/2012 at 22:20 Dozer says:
My dad used to play one game an awful lot. It was either a text adventure or a sports management game, I can’t remember. It was called Quicken, I think.
12/04/2012 at 03:24 Grobmotoriker says:
I am a gaming Dad too and I´m always happy when my 8 year old boy tells me about his jealous schoolmates that them was never shown how to play PES or any game with LEGO in the beginning. Now thats his job and the other fathers want to know what the fuck is going on with this Star Wars thing or they just hate me ^^
12/04/2012 at 17:33 MrPyro says:
I got my dad hooked on Dune 2 back in the day; did make several birthdays and christmases easier as the various C&C and Red Alert games/expansions came out.
11/04/2012 at 18:32 TsunamiWombat says:
On behalf of the neanderthalic hive mind I bid greetings to the loins which have spawned the Walker of John and pay respects to our elders wot game.
11/04/2012 at 18:34 The V Man says:
Being responsible for addicting my own father dungeon crawlers by liberally applying Stonekeep many years ago, I’m certain he’ll get hooked on Grimrock and we can relive some of the days we had complaining to one another about tough puzzles and tricky encounters.
And secret buttons/levers? Oh yes please. Can’t wait to get home tonight and load it up.
11/04/2012 at 18:35 JackDandy says:
Steam is shitting itself. Goddamnit, Gaben! I want to crawl in some dungeons!
11/04/2012 at 18:36 Phantoon says:
Hugh Walker is a Dentist, but John is a terrible healer.
Hmm…
11/04/2012 at 18:44 rustybroomhandle says:
Dentists are there to cause fear and suffering. And to guilt-punish you for already having your own suffering by reminding you that you don’t floss enough.
11/04/2012 at 19:57 Drinking with Skeletons says:
Why do you turn my office into a house of lies?
11/04/2012 at 18:40 Unaco says:
The revelation that John has a father has destroyed the imagery and fantasy I had, of all the Hivemind members being discovered, as new born infants, in various hedgerows and briar patches around England, during or shortly after a Solar Eclipse, on the same day in the mid to late ’70s. Shame.
11/04/2012 at 19:01 TsunamiWombat says:
My mental image was them growing in sinewy pods, fed by UV lights and goats blood
11/04/2012 at 19:16 sinister agent says:
Bastards. I was all ready to say “Does this mean that RPS writers do not burst forth fully-formed from enormous pods?
Disappointing.”
12/04/2012 at 00:49 Phantoon says:
THEY’RE ALREADY HERE!!
11/04/2012 at 20:11 Jeremy says:
Shhh, Hugh hasn’t told him yet.
11/04/2012 at 18:51 FriendlyFire says:
This kind of post is why I subscribed.
11/04/2012 at 18:53 molluskgonebad says:
Beautiful post. That just sold me the game.
11/04/2012 at 21:21 pertusaria says:
Likewise. I think this may be my first Day 1 purchase. My birthday’s soon, so I may just claim the money off someone as a present. (Not that it’s expensive, but I hadn’t budgeted for it.)
11/04/2012 at 18:58 dr. fondles says:
I thought John grew in the ground like a potatoe.
11/04/2012 at 19:06 LionsPhil says:
Hugh was the gardener.
11/04/2012 at 19:55 Eddy9000 says:
Hunggggh….must…repress…pedantic….urges…..to correct…..spelling…
11/04/2012 at 22:22 Dozer says:
No, his name is Hugh. As in, “Hugh must repress pedantic urges to correct spelling”.
11/04/2012 at 22:22 Berzee says:
You mispelted “Huunrggh”
11/04/2012 at 19:11 Yosharian says:
The game is out, is it? Steam seems to disagree.
11/04/2012 at 19:25 rocketman71 says:
Dammit, Steam pre-orders still locked :(
11/04/2012 at 19:31 FunkyBadger3 says:
On a scale of Skyrim to Minecraft, just how terrifying are the spiders in this?
11/04/2012 at 20:01 John Walker says:
It’s the crabs that are terrifying!
11/04/2012 at 20:25 FunkyBadger3 says:
I’m serious, I can’t play Minecraft for fear of spiders…
11/04/2012 at 21:05 LionsPhil says:
But they just want to hug your face! ::::3
11/04/2012 at 21:27 HothMonster says:
I’d post pictures but that doesn’t seem like something I should do to you, but I just want to clarify: Minecraft spiders are a 10 and skyrim spiders are a 1 on a scary scale with 10 being the highest?
11/04/2012 at 22:25 pertusaria says:
There are spiders in the Steam trailer of the game. Maybe someone who knows you could have a look at it, or you could peek out from behind the sofa?
I can’t swear that it’s as scary as they get, not having played through the game yet. I think the ones in the trailer look as if people might be afraid of them.
12/04/2012 at 00:06 Mungrul says:
My first encounter with a spider in this made me scream like a girl. I didn’t hear the bastard, turned a corner and was presented with a facefull of angry leaping arachnid. I haven’t screamed like that playing a game in AGES. I honestly can’t remember the last time it happened.
12/04/2012 at 01:01 Askeladd says:
I wasn’t suprised. They kinda warned you with the eggs that laid there and the noises from behind the wall.
Anyway… there are a LOT of spiders in that one level I’m in now and they keep killing my rogue cuz he’s the same HP since the start of the game. Why? I don’t know.
With evade 30 he gets 2 hittet in …2 hits.
I should have went with the human support fighter.
12/04/2012 at 01:04 Jubaal says:
@Mungrul – Hah I did exactly the same thing. Mine was a shriek reminiscent of being rudely awakened from my sleep by an angry Mummy the first time I played Dungeon Master.
12/04/2012 at 04:05 Ethyls says:
On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d say 11.
Arachnophobics, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, for any reason whatsoever make your party sleep and roll a cigarette while on the 3rd level of Grimrock. Really, don’t.
“Nothing here, I just killed them all. Let’s heal my characters. I’m gonna roll a cig while it gets done.”
SPIDER HUGGING MY FACE WHILE SCREECHING SPIDER SOUND THINGS (by the way, who taught game developers that spider produce sounds ?)
I nearly died, both in and out of the game.
12/04/2012 at 06:02 Reefpirate says:
I think you can blame the movie Arachniphobia for the sound effects… Damn things were noisy that whole movie. Also, that movie was the first memory I ever had of having terrible arachniphobia. Scariest damn movie I’ve ever seen…
12/04/2012 at 06:53 psyk says:
Lol, ah yes so many reloads due to this, learnt to rest by a shut door so they could only attack from one direction at once.
12/04/2012 at 08:28 thebigJ_A says:
Hey, that would have been an awesome thing to experience for myself. :/
12/04/2012 at 10:58 Askeladd says:
Well, spiders do make sounds… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et–lFINQOM
I find them more frightening then the sounds that are in the game at the moment, lol.
12/04/2012 at 19:32 LionsPhil says:
Jumping spiders sound like old floppy drives. Or possibly line printers.
12/04/2012 at 05:59 Reefpirate says:
I just finished playing for the night near the end of level 3… I’m arachniphobic (spelling??) and I was hoping the spiders wouldn’t be too bad. Here’s my take on the spiders:
The nice thing about the game is that you don’t spend a lot of time looking at the middle of the screen or directly at the spiders because for combat you’re clicking in the lower right mostly. So most of the time I just tell myself: “no big deal, just another mob in my peripheral vision, kill the bastard with fire and swords.” And that seems to be working for me.
HOWEVER, every time you get killed by one of these damn things, the frame freezes with a giant spider wrapped around your face with a nice close-up which sends the tingles down my spine every goddamn time! So if you just don’t look at the screen when you die, you might be ok?
Oh, and a bonus is they aren’t hairy spiders, which are the absolute worst for me…
And there was one time I got surprise-flanked by a spider from behind while a spider was in front of me, and that freaking made me check my body to make sure there weren’t any on me! Arachniphobia sucks :(
12/04/2012 at 06:51 psyk says:
They poison you and you have hardly any resources to make anti venom, I would say 10.
12/04/2012 at 12:05 The Godzilla Hunter says:
The worst spiders in any game were the ones in Dark Messiah. Ugh.
12/04/2012 at 15:03 Jeremy says:
I’ll be honest, the first spider made me jump a little, and then it proceeded to slaughter my minotaur. It was a bit rough.
11/04/2012 at 19:32 Greggh says:
>>This kind of post is why I subscribed.
x2
This site is great =D
11/04/2012 at 20:06 Skabooga says:
Very true, it is posts like these which warm the cockles and mussels of my heart.
11/04/2012 at 21:46 Stellar Duck says:
Alive, alive-O?
11/04/2012 at 19:39 Firkragg says:
Harh, fun to see Skyrim finally get kicked off top sales on steam :)
I do wonder what Skyrims salesnumber must be by now? From what I’ve seen, it’s been in the top ten of top sellers on steam for quite a while now. Just something thats been circling my head for a while.
11/04/2012 at 19:46 AlwaysRight says:
Downloading my pre order as we speak! Getting Mr Walker Sr. to play was a genius idea, I will recommend this to my Dad too. Dungeon Master was THE game of my childhood that I played through with my dad on the Atari ST in the kitchen, I’d like to imagine at exactly the same time the Walker family was too… Cosmic.
11/04/2012 at 19:49 psychoconductor says:
This looks really good, but I need a demo first to see if I can make it past the training levels.
12/04/2012 at 08:30 thebigJ_A says:
“Training levels”
Ha! That’s a good one!
11/04/2012 at 20:19 lunarplasma says:
John has a cool dad.
11/04/2012 at 20:29 caddyB says:
I hope they do well, but considering that the game got high scores from the mainstream crowd such as IGN and all, I think they will.
11/04/2012 at 20:42 jwoozy says:
Petition to make John’s dad a regular contributor.
11/04/2012 at 21:12 lhzr says:
yes, please!
11/04/2012 at 21:58 Defiant Badger says:
You have my vote!
12/04/2012 at 11:13 caddyB says:
And my axe.
11/04/2012 at 22:23 Dozer says:
Seconded.
12/04/2012 at 00:24 Drayk says:
Agreed
11/04/2012 at 20:55 PearlChoco says:
I’m still not sure whether to buy this game on Steam or GoG..
Achievements vs no DRM … why can’t I have both?
11/04/2012 at 21:26 pertusaria says:
Steam seems not to have activated pre-orders for a couple hours after GoG and the developers’ site, so I’d say GoG or the devs from a customer service point of view. Also, depending on where you are, GoG / devs may be slightly cheaper than Steam.
That said, I don’t really like achievements, so the decision was a lot easier for me.
11/04/2012 at 21:46 somini says:
http://www.grimrock.net/store/
Directly from the developers through the Humble Payment System or whatever it’s called earns you both. So no excuses here.
12/04/2012 at 00:16 Lemming says:
This.
12/04/2012 at 14:32 phlebas says:
Online achievement tracking isn’t a form of DRM?
12/04/2012 at 14:35 Harlander says:
Suppose so, but it’s hardly the first thing that comes to mind, and it’s probably not what most people mean when they say DRM
11/04/2012 at 20:59 JD Ogre says:
Pity it kept the one thing I absolutely loathed about Dungeon Master (or was it Eye of the Beholder? I keep getting them mixed up, though after more than 20 years since I last played ‘em, what else do you expect? :P) – the real-time spell assembly system. :(
11/04/2012 at 21:14 Simes says:
MON FUL IR MON FUL IR MON FUL IR
…balls.
12/04/2012 at 00:16 Lemming says:
Preperation is key! Just have a fireball ready to go at all times!
13/04/2012 at 09:55 PodX140 says:
I find that in Grimrock it keeps you in check, and really keeps the tension up. It prevents you from being able to perform a spell, and 3 attacks in one go without very likely getting hit, so it’s almost a TU system of a sort. Just, in real life.
And, in those tense battles, when you’re frantically hitting the spell combos, when you miss one and still try to cast it and it fizzles, leading to a cool down, you know that wasn’t the game throwing a random proc at you and bad luck, it was YOU that scewed up trying to do too much. I really liked the system.
It also prevents quad mage builds from rolling through everything, unless you have some incredibly fast hands.
11/04/2012 at 21:19 Risingson says:
I have played for some minutes. It’s scary how easy was for me to play. You know, even right-clicking in the character hands makes them attack, just as in Eye of the Beholder! It’s just, or better, “just” that wise combination of nostalgia and modern mechanics that works so well. Like I was 15 again and playing EOB2 for the first time.
11/04/2012 at 21:25 badvibration says:
:)
11/04/2012 at 21:41 rockman29 says:
To gaming and healthcare professionals! :-)
11/04/2012 at 21:48 Stellar Duck says:
To both Mr. Walkers:
Dear sirs, I demand more! More I tell you!
I couldn’t wait for more. John Walkers dad just pushed me to buy a game.
11/04/2012 at 21:57 mckertis says:
Skyrim, huh ? There is one thing that is the same in both games – system requirements. Even though Grimrock is so much simpler in both construction and presentation.
11/04/2012 at 23:41 AmateurScience says:
Yes I was rather surprised to hear the GPU wind up to it’s ‘too many bells and whistles’ scream, whilst playing…
12/04/2012 at 13:03 daktaklakpak says:
This is apparently caused by the game not capping the frame rate in any way on the default settings. Turning on vsynch in the options should allow your video card to deal with it in a more leisurely fashion.
13/04/2012 at 09:57 PodX140 says:
Until you get down to the last floor. Then my (quite strong) graphics card decided that some stuttering was going to happen, and there was nothing I could do about it.
11/04/2012 at 23:20 alms says:
“The time honoured method of random key-pressing revealed the finer points of navigation”
LOL
11/04/2012 at 23:31 thYp says:
sooooo overdue. totally bought
11/04/2012 at 23:55 Sirico says:
I love that you can hurl anything at enemies in a fit of panic there’s so many Nope! moments in this game, turn a corner Nope, open a door Nope, look down a corridor see there’s nope torches
12/04/2012 at 00:22 Cinnamon says:
This is a lot better than Gillen’s review of Dungeon Master 2. And the game is pretty good as well.
12/04/2012 at 00:51 amishmonster says:
Well, John’s dad convinced me to buy Grimrock. Looking forward to more!
12/04/2012 at 01:03 Askeladd says:
At least 4,7k people bought it on Steam… not bad for a start?
12/04/2012 at 03:46 Shooop says:
For a genre the major publishers have forgotten about I’d definitely say so.
12/04/2012 at 04:50 PodX140 says:
Sunk FAAAAARRRR too many hours into this already, and it is completely and undoubtedly BRILLIANT.
I swear, the puzzles begin easy, then slowly ramp up to the point that it makes portal seem mundane (only on floor 5)
The monsters are terrifying, and each one requires a different tactic. And then they start coming out in parties of 2 and 4. Yeah… Hope you have an AOE mage.
The loot progression is great, but it drives my OCD mad that I have to just drop what I can’t use ATM and move on, the weight really gets you down. I love it TBH.
Secrets are just that, secret. There’s this one passageway down in level 4 that I’ve been examining for over 2 hours now to try and figure out how the heck to get in, even better/worse that I can see the loot that getting in would grant.
And the combat remarkably is much more involved then most modern RPGS to date. You have to take into account positioning, strafing, turning, and god forbid you battle in pitted regions or against ranged troops in hallways.
All in all, money VERY well spent.
12/04/2012 at 06:16 Reefpirate says:
I was more than a little worried about the real-time combat, but I ended up feeling a lot like you about the whole thing: Excellent! The combat is frantic, but not so frantic that you can’t figure out strategies and such. I’m having a blast!
12/04/2012 at 06:57 psyk says:
Lol, I think it;s the steel door on either floor 3 or 4 ARGHHHHHHHHH
13/04/2012 at 09:09 PodX140 says:
Just finished it, probably clocked in over 15 hours.
Honestly? It’s a perfect game. Brilliant. Just astounding. I haven’t had this much fun playing a game since… heck, probably since the first time I played minecraft or something (it was lego digitized. my dream :P)
The pacing is brilliant, the puzzles are just plain and simple DEVIOUS, and the unnecessary puzzles? the ones that lead to the good loot? GOOD GOD. I probably spent more time thinking then fighting. Then come the SECRET puzzles, and then just give up already. It’s not enough that you have to guess that there is a puzzle, but then figure it out? or find it first then guess that it’s not just a dead end then figure it out? I’m a completionist for secrets. Credentials? Found every secret in SS1 and the second encounter, without a walkthrough. I go insane for secrets. But this game? I’ve put 15 hours into the thing, and I STILL missed faaarrr too many. It’s just devious.
Though, shockingly, I found that by the end, I was more driven for the story then my characters loot or progression. It’s a hell of a mystery, and DAMMNIT I WANTED TO SOLVE IT BUT THIS IMPOSSIBLE PUZZLE IS BLOCKING ME! And when I did complete the game I discovered that all I wanted was another grimrock, exactly the same, new story and new dungeon, but if you told me they didn’t add any new creatures, any new mechanics, any new anything, I’d shrug and say let me buy it again then, because I’m sure they can make far more devious puzzles and even more hidden secrets. It’s just that good.
12/04/2012 at 06:47 psyk says:
Buy this game
12/04/2012 at 06:58 shopshop1 says:
http://goshoppingo.com so cool for business and earn money
12/04/2012 at 10:18 Nallen says:
I wonder if my Dad will end up getting it.
12/04/2012 at 11:41 MadTinkerer says:
“At this point, hardened adventurers may cast scorn, for I – gasp – read the manual. Unforgivable!”
On the contrary. If it’s a proper old-school dungeon crawler, it better require me to read the manual, or it ain’t a proper old-school dungeon crawler.
12/04/2012 at 12:41 Askeladd says:
beware of the blobb!!
13/04/2012 at 16:56 DrunkDog says:
Thanks to that review, I’ve got father into the game.