Legend of Grimrock (Upcoming Dungeon Crawler game)

[schild]

Definitely buy it from their website as they give you a Steam Key.

[Amarr HM]

Really reminds me of Black Crypt, graphically and the fact you can generate a Minotaur character.


Loved that game.

[Lucas]

Well written, positive full review by Gamebanshee:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/107559-legend-of-grimrock-review.html

[K9]

TB gave this game a lot of praise, might have to give it a try.

[jakonovski]

TB has a WTF is video with gameplay in it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIiXx-8BHc&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ&index=2&feature=plpp_video

[ffc]

Reading the bit of backstory in the manual along with an explanation why the group of four moves as one got me super excited to play.  Also noticed this in the corner of the included graph paper, can't make out the name:

[schild]

Totally forgot to order this, and glad I noticed today.

[Lucas]

According to the Steam product page, it unlocks in approx. 5 hours (european CET timezone) 

Good reviews keep comin' :

Destructoid (9.5) - http://www.destructoid.com/review-legend-of-grimrock-225514.phtml

IGN (8.5) - http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/122/1222602p1.html

Gamespy (4.5/5) - http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/legend-of-grimrock/1222252p1.html

Gaming Trend (88%) - http://gamingtrend.com/game_reviews/we-go-dungeon-crawling-with-legend-of-grimrock/

[tazelbain]

Anyone else sad that this thing was real-time?

[Tebonas]

If it wasn't, it wouldn't be true to its ancestry. Which is the whole charm of this particular project. Also, I guess the puzzles wouldn't work as well.

[Merusk]

I was surprised how many were complaining about real time until I realized it'd been 20 years since I'd first played Eye of the Beholder. A lot of people never got to play those games and don't understand how well it actually works.  Trust us old farts, it's not as bad as it sounds and easier to manage than the infinity engine games, imo.

[Tmon]

I played the Eye of the Beholder and a few others on my Amiga 500 back in the day and what I remember is that the puzzles were the hard part, combat was relatively easy.

[Zetor]

I'll probably give this one a look-see, the price seems right for some nostalgia.

That said... I used to play the heck out of DM, EOB, Lands of Lore, Ishar, etc - but the gameplay feels clunky nowadays. I think the turn-based games like Wizardry and even Gold Box stuff aged a lot better. The UI in such games is kind of clunky too; I didn't really like the 'click all over the screen to attack' part combined with a lack of hotkeys. The puzzles were/are the strong point, and I hope this game has them too!

Combat in DM clones / blobbers was easy, yeah. The main combat tactic in all of the games consisted of finding 2x2 tiles somewhere and circle strafing the baddies*; hitting them, then going back, turning right, going back, waiting a few seconds, hitting them again, etc. Sometimes there were multiple enemies and/or (in later games) enemies that tried to flank you, but that was it. Most enemies didn't get any attacks off at all (and against enemies like mindflayers you were dead if they did) if you did it right.


* If there wasn't a 2x2 room, you could use hallways and just keep backing up or drive the enemies around in a circle, etc.

[schild]

Steam key keeps telling me it's unavailable :(

[jth]

For some unknown reason, the preorder keys aren't unlocked yet in Steam (the game itself has been unlocked). People are flooding the Steam forums and the official site has died.

[Lucas]

Same issue here with the preorder key :(

[Ironwood]

They must be pissing their pants at such a success.

Good for them.

[K9]

Same, glad these guys are seeing some success.

[Ironwood]

All purchased and now I'm downloading.

I expect to be playing Saturday.

Fuck my Connection.  Truly. 

[Lucas]

They're working on it:

http://twitter.com/AlmostHumanLtd/status/190132574188871680

Working for me, now (downloading as we speak). I closed Steam, started it up again, and it changed from "LoG preorder" to just "Legend of Grimrock".

[jth]

It's fixed, needs a Steam restart though.

[Tebonas]

GoG worked like a charm. Played two hours straight now and loving it. Nostalgia and all that. A bit of warning for the min-maxers out there, a character only gets XP if he personally damages (maybe a miss counts as well) the enemy. No leeching off the frontliners here, folks!  

[Ingmar]

Ick, I always hated that feature in older RPGs. 

[Lucas]

Btw, have you guys checked the extras in the game folder?

Among other fluff, a nice, old school graph paper you can print that makes you feel like a teenager all over again, plus the world map (yep, but still a nice addition) 

[Sparky]

First brand new game I've bought for ages!  Got it from http://www.grimrock.net/store/ which hopefully gives them a bigger piece of the pie than directly through Steam and they give you a Steam key anyways in addition to a DRM free direct download.  Enjoying the hell out of the game so far, really captures that old Dungeon Master feeling with lovely updated graphics and suitably creepy sound.

Between Grimrock, Wasteland 2, Firaxis' X-Com remake and many more I'm loving the hell out of this old school gaming renaissance.

Ick, I always hated that feature in older RPGs. 

Wouldn't worry about it.  I didn't know about that feature and just checked my dudes - they are all within 100XP of each other at ~3K XP

[Maledict]

You only need one hit to gain full xp from a monster, and if you don't hit it you still get half xp. It's not like the old games where you got so for every hit.

[Ingmar]

Oh, OK, that's what I was imagining.

[Fabricated]

Well, this is cool. Unless the dungeon is supposed to be literally pitch black when you first enter none of the textures or models or anything are showing up for me on my steam version.

[Lucas]

Ok, finally started to play it. So delightfully old school  

Created a party from scratch: Rathir (Minotaur) , Lucas (Human), Issa (Lizardman) and Gothmog (Insectoid) are ready to kill slugs, put rocks on pressure plates and accidentally fall down bottomless pits  

(and btw, with the editor coming, we might see some *reallly* interesting stuff made by the community :D)

A couple quibbles:

- I would like a transparency/hide toggle (or at least a setting to resize them) for the portraits and the direction arrows (if used); they get a little in the way, IMO.
- You don't take damage when you walk into walls. That's INEXCUSABLE 

Finally, I've just started playing, but the difficulty options, coupled with objectives you can set for yourself (for example, only one save per level and so on) make for some interesting combination :).

[Ironwood]

Awesome stuff.

Bed.  And More Tomorrow.

[koro]

I was surprised how many were complaining about real time until I realized it'd been 20 years since I'd first played Eye of the Beholder. A lot of people never got to play those games and don't understand how well it actually works.  Trust us old farts, it's not as bad as it sounds and easier to manage than the infinity engine games, imo.

I used to play the hell out of Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic, and various other real-time first-person dungeon crawlers in that vein. The combat was always stressful for me for some reason I could never quite nail down. Elder Scrolls games and other real-time first-person stuff? Perfectly fine. But put me into a real-time dungeon crawler like Grimrock or Beholder and I just kinda freak out.

I spent most of my time in the SSI Gold Box games instead.

[Rendakor]

I've never played any of these old school games you guys mention, but this looks interesting. The closest I can think of that I've ever played is Etrian Odyssey; is this anything like that? Or, will I like this even though it doesn't have nostalgia going for it?

[Fabricated]

Ah, for some reason the AA settings for my card were set to override...turning it back fixed the graphic issues.

Fun and simple. Really makes you obsessively check all walls for buttons however.

[schild]

My party is:
BLUDGEON: Minotaur Warrior
Kite: Token Rogue
Tongs for Feet: Insect Mage
Sticks for Hands: Insect Mage

I like this.

[Soulflame]

It looks like an updated Dungeon Master more than anything.