The Legend of Grimrock

This is a post I've been saving for a while, because I'm going to flat out gush about this game, holy shit is it good.

So, to give a little background on what Grimrock is exactly, first of all you have to understand the roots of this genre.  A long long time ago, on the old computer systems that most of today's gamers have probably never even heard of, there were games such as The Bards Tale and Wizardry.  Wizardry is the example I will focus on here because this is what's most similar to Grimrock.  Basically, in Wizardy you had a party of dudes, and you had to fight your way through a maze like dungeon to complete whatever the objective was for the scenario you were playing.

Like a well aged cask of wine

These games were really quite difficult and lacked an auto mapping feature, so you had to sit there with a stack of paper and draw the maps yourself, or be doomed to getting lost in the dungeon forever.  Then the genre just kind of died off for a long time, or at least for a significant portion of my life I didn't encounter any of these kind of games.

But now, in 2012, the old school maze dungeon crawl game is making a comeback!  I can't really explain why but Japan seems to have a huge love for this genre of game.  Huge numbers of Wizardry remakes have been released over the years as Japan exclusive games and on top of that we've had some really good ones come out for portable systems over the recent years, most notably Etrian Odyssey and The Dark Spire (which even had a setting to make it look like a Wizardry game)

Then in April of this year, we were given The Legend of Grimrock, and good lord Jesus Christ on a stick is it really fucking good.

Holy shit even the menu screen makes me wet my pants with excitement.  Where it says Dungeon, you can only select Grimrock right now, but in the future there is plans to release a map editor so people can create their own scenarios, which sounds fucking amazing, something I'm going to drop on ASAP.  The difficulty setting we'll come back to later.  Then there is the obvious option to make your own party, and then the really cool feature, to turn off the auto map!  That's right folks, if you're a die hard pen and paper dungeon crawl kinda guy, break out those old maths workbooks and get doodling because you're gonna have a crap ton of fun plotting the dungeon here.

So the game itself follows your party of 4 prisoners as they get thrown inside the mega jail known as Grimrock.  It is then up to you to guide your 4 characters to the bottom of the dungeon and escape from the damn place, a feat easier said than done.  The one thing I really love about this game is the atmosphere, the tower of Grimrock is actually a really intimidating place to be, and when you start out basically naked and with no knowledge of whats ahead, every step feels dangerous as fuck.

Of course, there isn't much plot aside from "get to the bottom" but it still manages to throw in a bit of mystery in the form of strange text based dream sequences that pop up occasionally when you sleep.

I still don't know who or what it is, I have an idea but I really won't know until I get to the bottom.  Is it a trap? is it salvation?! Holy shit it's so fucking exciting!

Despite what I'm going to say in a later paragraph, the games design is really good too.  Grimrock feels alive, it feels like it's swallowed countless people before you and the horrible creatures that lurk the corridors can't wait to get hold of their next meal.  The game is also filled with puzzles that really make you feel like whoever built Grimrock, really didn't want anyone to get out.  The whole journey feels futile, but you MUST press on, you MUST not be another namless victim who just rolled over and died and the prospect of an seemingly unescapable dungeon.  Basically what I'm trying to say is the game does a really good job of immersing the player, and everyone fucking loves immersion, it's all you ever fucking hear about nowadays.

Wall face demands you solve his easy puzzle!

That is not to say the game is flawless, there are some glaring issues here.  First of all the way the game looks can sometimes be a bit dull.  Sure the dungeon changes wall texture the further down you get, but it just copy-pastes the same wall textures over and over and over and over and it can get a bit tiring to look at sometimes.  Sure, I mean you're making a game in a genre where the graphics used to be wire frame, but c'mon, in this day an age you can do a little more. 

What most of the game has looked like so far for me

 The puzzles are also an issue with this game with none of them being really that challenging at all.  Sure, a room with a maze of teleporters may look daunting when you first come across it, but the solution ends up being a cakewalk.  Hopefully this will be remedied with people designing some really fiendish dungeons in the map editor.  My final issue with this game is the enemy design.  You will fight the same snails, skeletons and crabs so often that it begins to lose all meaning after a while, the same strategy will work every time so combat becomes just a little bit of a bore in prolonged play sessions.

Which leads me to say, if you are new to this genre and are interested in Grimrock, avoid talking to die hard dungeon crawlers like the plague.  The game is really, REALLY good, but you're hardcore player will scream "casual" at Grimrock and may do everything within his power to have to play other, more skin rippingly difficult games in the genre.  I agree that they've made it a lot easier and more accessible, but that isn't a bad thing really.  The more people playing this great genre the better, and the casuals of today will be designing your super fiendish dungeons tomorrow, so deal with it.

So with the steam sales in full force, pick it up and give it a go, it's well worth the $15 you pay for it, and even more so if you manage to get money off during the summer.  If you're looking for a modern take on an old school gaming experience, you can't go wrong with Grimrock.

Below is a load of screenshots I took that I didn't use in my gushing session.  Will post updates as I play more