Legend of Grimrock (Upcoming Dungeon Crawler game)

[Fabricated]

Don't worry, the D3 beta is like 10 minutes of content.

Also fuck spiders. Found a +50 poison resist armlet and I guess resist doesn't prevent poisoning, it just lessens the damage it does.

[Ironwood]

On my second playthrough and holy fuck but backstab is awesome.

That troll that worried you the first time ?  3 hits.

[Ruvaldt]

Unarmed has definitely gotten better by level four, but he still doesn't deal as much damage as my sword-wielding minotaur, even taking the speed of his attacks into consideration.  I'd be more tempted to have an assassinating unarmed rogue than a warrior at this point, and I think that's the smarter way to play it.  You could do some pretty serious damage with as fast as unarmed fighting refreshes combined with the speed enhancements from assassination and damage increases of backstab.

The game is great fun too.  Puzzles are just challenging enough to make you feel smart when you complete them, but not so hard that you feel stuck for very long if you give things enough thought.  The fighting is much more fun than I thought it would be as well.

[Ironwood]

From everything I've read, unarmed is fairly shit, but it's clear that the straightforward warrior is kinda lame beyond the 'I can take a lot of hits' angle.

[Goumindong]

Unarmed has definitely gotten better by level four, but he still doesn't deal as much damage as my sword-wielding minotaur, even taking the speed of his attacks into consideration.  I'd be more tempted to have an assassinating unarmed rogue than a warrior at this point, and I think that's the smarter way to play it.  You could do some pretty serious damage with as fast as unarmed fighting refreshes combined with the speed enhancements from assassination and damage increases of backstab.

The game is great fun too.  Puzzles are just challenging enough to make you feel smart when you complete them, but not so hard that you feel stuck for very long if you give things enough thought.  The fighting is much more fun than I thought it would be as well.

Rogues take a while to get going but end up being better tanks than warriors since dodge >>> armor.

That being said your unarmed specialized will pick up if he has energy and you get the later attacks. Not as much as a sword user, but the best sword in the game that you don't have to solve a puzzle for is the machete and you get it on level 2. Daggers have the same thing except that the "good items" are a lot better than the base item.

Swords > Unarmed > Maces > Axes

*until you get a certain mace then probably equal to swords

Also going unarmed should mean that they don't have to invest as many points into dodge/armor since unarmed naturally gives much more dexterity and evasion than other offensive disciplines do. A full run of daggers gives 4 dexterity. A full run of unarmed gives 11 dexterity, 20 evasion, and 40 health. Which is 34 evasion more than daggers and about as much evasion as 25 points in dodge[including the bonus evasion from clothes]. So even if you start with a warrior unarmed is not bad(since it gives a lot of protection via evasion)

[koro]

My Unarmed Lizardman Rogue in the front line's been doing really nicely splitting his points between Unarmed and Dodge, with a bit of focus on Dodge. Until the most recent couple of floors, he outdamaged pretty much everyone except my Mage, though he's since been surpassed by my Warrior who has a couple of the uber swords you can get. He's also fairly durable, rocking my second highest HP along with almost all of the Chitin armor set, giving him 30-ish Protection to go with his 60-ish Evade.

[Xanthippe]

Very fun! Although I could not figure out how to attack the first mob I saw. I kept throwing things at it accidently.

I was trying to grab the weapon and then right click it on the mob, which doesn't work at all - rather than rightclicking the weapon in a hand.

[NiX]

Very fun! Although I could not figure out how to attack the first mob I saw. I kept throwing things at it accidently.

I was trying to grab the weapon and then right click it on the mob, which doesn't work at all - rather than rightclicking the weapon in a hand.

I want to buy this game, but I feel like my entire experience will be filled with stuff like Xanthippe's first fight experience.

[Bandit]

My first fight experience was similar - but in the end it is not very complicated.  Some of the puzzles are well thought out this far and had me stumped for a while (level 3 spinning teleporter).  Remember to make use of kiting a bit as I found going toe to toe with everyone did not work out the best.  I would recommend the purchase.

I see in the next patch they are adding the ability to ESC out of the inventory.  I fumble around enough as it is with the turning.

[Xuri]

The fact that it takes time for (some? all?) monsters to turn can be (ab)used. I kited a mob I had no chance to stand toe to toe with around and around a pillar of sorts, swinging everything I had at it when it walked into view, then backed up to the next corner before it managed to turn around and swing back at me.

[Tmon]

what is killing me is that I keep hitting a and d to turn and dieing because I keep shuffling sideways into walls and corners during fights.  I also catch hell trying to complete those puzzle that require triggering an effect and in one place and hauling ass to another before the timer expires.

[Sir Fodder]

I restarted my hard difficulty game on normal after realizing going toe to toe in combat is probably not intended, hard seemed doable, just a bit too nerve wracking though.

[Rokal]

what is killing me is that I keep hitting a and d to turn and dieing because I keep shuffling sideways into walls and corners during fights.  I also catch hell trying to complete those puzzle that require triggering an effect and in one place and hauling ass to another before the timer expires.

You can rebind the keys if you want.

[Ironwood]

How old are you people

[Goumindong]

How old are you people

28. Never played Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder before. Still loved this game. The puzzles were all logical and solvable so long as you thought just a moment.

[Job601]

The level design in this game is great.  I would like it better if it had different combat, but I'm still really enjoying it.

[Xilren's Twin]

The fact that it takes time for (some? all?) monsters to turn can be (ab)used. I kited a mob I had no chance to stand toe to toe with around and around a pillar of sorts, swinging everything I had at it when it walked into view, then backed up to the next corner before it managed to turn around and swing back at me.

Heh.  You make it sound like that is not the intent of this game.  "Kiting" as commonly known today is an outgrowth of MMORPG behavior to exploit poor AI.  This game is all about real time positioning to compensate for the fact that many mobs are much tougher than your gang of 4, and being attacked from multiple directions at once is "not good". :)

If they release a toolset for creating new "modules" for this game I will be very excited.  This $15 gem really puts some large dev house to shame.

[Ruvaldt]

I like the constant kiting and movement in combat.  If most fights were stand-up fights it would be nothing but button-mashing, hitting the attack buttons as soon as they refresh.  This is far, far more interesting and interactive, and you do need some spatial awareness for a lot of the more complex fights.

[koro]

For those of you who've beaten the game at least once, there's a fun little thing you can do.

[Goumindong]

Without the real time combat you could not achieve the glory of one hitting ogres.

[Xuri]

The fact that it takes time for (some? all?) monsters to turn can be (ab)used. I kited a mob I had no chance to stand toe to toe with around and around a pillar of sorts, swinging everything I had at it when it walked into view, then backed up to the next corner before it managed to turn around and swing back at me.

Heh.  You make it sound like that is not the intent of this game.  "Kiting" as commonly known today is an outgrowth of MMORPG behavior to exploit poor AI.  This game is all about real time positioning to compensate for the fact that many mobs are much tougher than your gang of 4, and being attacked from multiple directions at once is "not good". :)

If they release a toolset for creating new "modules" for this game I will be very excited.  This $15 gem really puts some large dev house to shame.

You can call it real time positioning if you want - but it still feels like I'm exploiting poor AI when I can be repeating the same "back up, turn, wait for NPC to walk into view, hit all attack-buttons - rince and repeat"- pattern for several minutes at a time without taking a single hit to my party :P

Edit: I'll still do it though. It's preferable to dying, for sure :P

[Zetor]

Well, that's a pretty standard Dungeon Master / EOB / etc tactic: swing, strafe, turn, swing, strafe, turn, etc. It's just like circlestrafing, only not really. 

Was pretty much required to kill some of the toughest enemies in the games as well.

[Tebonas]

The toughest enemies I killed with doors, though. I kinda miss that. 

Otherwise it feels perfectly like Dungeon Master.

[Ironwood]

For those of you who've beaten the game at least once, there's a fun little thing you can do.

Oh, Well Played Nerds, Well Played.

I am in a position to take advantage of this, except for the whole pesky 'being at work' thing.

[Ironwood]

The toughest enemies I killed with doors, though. I kinda miss that. 

Otherwise it feels perfectly like Dungeon Master.

Just to chime in on this bizarre 'This Game That Was Built To Replicate Dungeon Master Plays Like Dungeon Master' argument :

The addition of both speed and 'arcs' for the monsters elevates it.  The charging and the fact that some monsters can hit all 3 spaces around and some have a 360 hit makes it that little bit more tactical.

 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Also: Fuck spiders

[Tmon]

what is killing me is that I keep hitting a and d to turn and dieing because I keep shuffling sideways into walls and corners during fights.  I also catch hell trying to complete those puzzle that require triggering an effect and in one place and hauling ass to another before the timer expires.

You can rebind the keys if you want.

Thanks, I just assumed I couldn't so I didn't even look.

[Goumindong]

The toughest enemies I killed with doors, though. I kinda miss that. 

Otherwise it feels perfectly like Dungeon Master.

You can still do that... kinda

If you open a door there is a slight delay where your characters can attack before the enemy will. Attack, then close the door.

[Ironwood]

Not really the same.  The doors in the original DM hurt like fuck and the monsters were so slow you could beat brains out with a big bit of wood or iron before they moved.

Truly, it was a magical time.

[Lakov_Sanite]

You can however land on monsters in grimrock, I even got an achievement for my party falling and killing one.  Also all four prisoners are wearing metal belts which are chained to eachothers, so pants are workable.

[koro]

You can also telefrag mobs, but that's much harder to do. It's easiest to do on level 2 with the Enter Thy Grave room.

[ffc]

My highlight so far was methodically luring three enemies to fall down a trap one by one.  My lowlight was later falling down said trap and being cornered by two of those enemies.  This was made a bit brighter by squashing one of them when my party fell.

The minotaur gets an attack bonus for having human skulls in its inventory.  No explanation, just awesome.

[Ironwood]

Only if he picks that trait.

Which he totally fucking should, since it's quite the boost at the end.

[Xilren's Twin]

Just finished my first run through tonight.  My stats say it took about 13 hours but with reloads and breaks Steam says 20 hours.  Sure enough, having been through it once, I know I could do better the second run through.  Wasted a load of skill points in areas I really didn't use. For those that care, stats under the first spoiler, plus some potential spoiler stuff too under the second.



Overall, a very enjoyable throwback rpg.  Looks good, plays well and gives all the appearance that they could create many more "modules" for the base engine without too much trouble.  Heck, it seems you could almost do straight D&D old module conversions in this engine if you wanted.  Other modules could better support some of the skills that didn't get much love this time, be more or less combat heavy, or trap heavy, or riddles heavy.  You could really do a lot with it.  Considering there really were only about 4 main guys who did everything listed in the credits I'm very impressed.  Now hurry up with the next expansion!  While im waiting, i'll have to play again b/c i missed unlocking the secret play mode my first time through!

[Ironwood]

Yeah good writeup.  There's a lot there to chat about too.

For my part, I found the ending utterly retarded, but not enough that it spoiled the journey.

Also, Backstab.  Fucking Backstab.  It is so awesome.  If it wasn't for the lack of equipment and early damage, I'd have 3 Rogues in my party.