Legend of Grimrock

[cf_nz]

I'm a little surprised to have not seen a thread about this soon to be released game from developer Almost Human. I first read about it some time ago on RPS and have been following it's development ever since. It's billed as being an old school dungeon crawler and brings back massive nostalgia from Eye of the Beholder (1991), which is listed as an inspiration along with Dungeon Master and Ultima Underworld. Further information and screen shots are available from the developers site, Legend of Grimrock.

The game isn't out yet so I can't make any comment as to how it plays, release date is April 11th. It will be available from Steam, GOG.com or the developers site Legend of Grimrock. Pre-order price is $11.99, which represents a 20% of full price ($14.99)

RPS has done a Wot I Think and Totalbiscuit a WTF is.... From all accounts the reviews are positive thus far, I've avoided them for the time being so as not to spoil my trip down memory lane.

Official trailer.

[Rotlung]

Ooh finally! I hope it has turn based combat and randomly generated dungeons.

(Then I read their FAQ and find out it's real-time combat and currently no randomly generated dungeons)

[Malachi]

Yeah, the real time combat using a different key for each character is a bit too old school for me and thus a deal breaker.

I would totally be buying this if it was turn based.

[Mokino]

This is basically a shameless complete remake of Dungeon Master from the 90s, though there's nothing wrong with that.

Also a note: if you buy directly from the developers they do give you a Steam key in addition to a DRM free download.

[Trizzdog]

Nnnnngh nostalgia overload. Fuckin' loved that shit in the early 90's. Carrying infinite rocks and junk was so novel back then.

[scoiatollo]

Okay I played it for a while now, loving it! If you are really oldschool (or just outright insane) there's even an option to disable the automap! But yeah nostalgia overload generally speaking. Not sure if anyone who hasn't played these games back in the days can and will enjoy it...

[Nalkor]

Is there an option to go turn-based to avoid real time clicking in the middle of combat?

[scoiatollo]

As far as I can tell no, but it's really not that complicated.

Anyway, stuck at lvl3.... how the fuck to open that door? I am certain it has something to do with torches but I can't figure it out... could bang my head on the table...

[Nalkor]

Making everyone do an action in one turn is far less clunky and bullshit than having to click the right window and button while being attacked in real time? It's like putting a slow clicker against someone using a Naga Razer Mouse in a pvp match in an MMO like TOR as a class heavily dependent on using abilities.

[scoiatollo]

You'll be shocked to hear than that you have to "cast" the spells yourself, clicking the runes and remembering the right combination.

Also Spiders are a fucking nightmare! Poison really is WAY too strong in this game =/

[Trizzdog]

Spiders are serious business. Hope you have enough cave... whatevers to brew up antivenoms. Generally when I see them I just throw things at them until they die, while running around like a headless chicken with yakety sax playing in the background. Always have a closeable door nearby just in case things get really serious.

Also, imo, this game wouldn't be nearly as intense and exciting if you had turned based combat. A lot of the fun comes from the panic when you walk into a trap or a boss beastie, then furiously clicking and moving around trying not to get cornered and raped.

Btw, I wish using environmental hazards would give xp for the kill. Oh well, still useful in some cases to kill those infinite baddies that aren't worth much but still kick your balls in (I'm looking at you legionaries).

[scoiatollo]

Yeah, enviromental kills should give you XP imo, lurking enemies into those trapdoors is hard enough...

Overall a frustrating, yet fun experience I have to say.

[Sohtaraz]

Enviroment kills giving XP for not actually killing your monsters (Trap doors drop them a floor down. If you want to the kill you have to go down there and finish the enemy...) kinda makes sense in my oppinion. I strongly recommend exploring in this game since theres Alot of secrets. Everywhere.

[cf_nz]

Cool. Put a couple of hours in so far, made it most of the way through level 3, good fun. Looking forward to putting more time into this.

[Trizzdog]

Protip for those on level 3 (pillar of lights iirc, IE infinite spider funtime). Kill all the spiders. Kill every single god damn one. One of them has a prize most scrumptious!

[Rincewind]

Made a party yesterday and fucked around for 30 minutes before sleep, looks absolutely amazing and awesome. However today I will be making a new party since I found out today that apparently Dex isn't needed for missile weapon rogues, they use strength as well. Source:

http://www.grimrock.net/forum/viewto...t=636&start=10

Also, how many skill & attribute points do we get per level?

[Cortlendt]

I plan to get this at weekend Is there a cheesy munchkin tactic?

[Rincewind]

Basically no, the mobs themselves are not that hard but most young modern gamers might have issues with the oldskool aspects like puzzles with no hints and merciless traps.

I would love to see a four Minotaur party though.

[DeafMute]

Someone mind taking a moment to just tell me if I grasp how combat works.
Youve 4 people in your group, 2 infront and 2 at back and depending on were you are facing, dictacts who gets hit in the group, correct?
I grasp magic, and even hear that you dont need the scrolls to cast the magic just know the combo for it, true?
But how does the melee combat work? do I have to time a melee swing as I move into the enemy whos on a tile infront of me? most of my melee swings seem to miss.

Ive only made it to level 2, went into an obvious trap room.
Walked in, stood on a tile. shield/spear skelly comes out, "no probs i got this"
fighting him off then shortly after another door opens. 2nd skelly pops out. then comes a 3rd. all the while im locked in a 3x3 tiled room. blah, trapped in the corner and I died.

[Goobers]

Grabbed this on a whim and gave it a whirl and bugger me I'm having trouble getting my head around using the Q and E keys to turn. The usual result is me turning to the side and letting the monster take a stab at my squishy backline. Like Rincewind I fell into the trap of contemporary RPG rules and assumed Dex increased ranged damage, so despite my party bumbling down to level 3, and even falling down to level 4, I remade them with my newfound grasp of the game mechanics.

Two burly warriors in the front careening wildly down the Armour line so they can wear heavy armour without penalties, a rogue skipping down the Assassin line until Reach Attack then sinking lots of points into daggers and the last slot naturally enough being filled by a wizard.

A high dex is a requirement on warriors I've decided. Attacks hit more often so you do damage more consistently and enemies miss more so you last a lot longer to boot. A pair of warriors in the front with at least 14 dex each is extremely tanky in the early levels, and your overall damage skyrockets because of it since you can take/dodge hits to hold an enemy in a poison cloud.



Looking forward to seeing what cool monsters show up in the latter levels, and seriously hoping my lack of ranged weapon skills isn't going to bite me in the arse.

[DeafMute]

So I restarted with 2 warrior types upfront and 2 mages in the back. fireball tanky goodness ftw.
Still wouldnt mind my above questions being answered if someone knows.

[Rincewind]

Your melee swings miss because your accuracy is low. You need to be in the next square to be able to hit him.

[scoiatollo]

I am not sure what's more frustrating, standing in front of a treasure door without any clue how to open it, or picking up an item triggering an event where atrilliion of monsters spawn...

[Malachi]

Crap, I thought there was a demo, but it's just a hardware check?? WTF?

[scoiatollo]

It's not that expensive and I can assure you for the frustration desperation joy alone you'll experience it's totally worth the few bucks

Having said that, time to kill that nasty Oger or whatever this beast is supposed to be that kills your men after 2 strikes the most...

[Malachi]

See, it's not the money, it's time. I still haven't touched ME3.

Damn, I wish for an oldschool RPG with turn based combat, like Betrayal at krondor and such. Why the hell did turn based games die anyway?

[Cortlendt]

Is there a way to set up quickspells? The amount of clicking makes it a total showstopper for me.

Anyone plays it on hard? I did a few small runs with various parties, but it seems that some parts can be quite challenging without the proper knowledge of the game.

[Sinogrim]

So, has anybody finished the game yet? How long is it?

[Rotlung]

After seeing TotalBiscuit's WTF is Legend of Grimrock, I have to admit that the real time combat doesn't seem that bad. Can you use the keyboard or some alternative to quickly turn though? I saw him dragging the screen around to turn and it seemed a little clunky to use the mouse like that.

That said, I'm really liking what this game has to offer. It reminds me of Mordor: Depths of Dejenol (if anyone has heard of that game). One thing that would be great is random map generator, but with the potential for adding user-created maps... this is going to be good.

[Mokino]

Yes, the game has a setup similar to WASD with Q+E for turning.

[Malachi]

So, finally bought this, and got totally sucked in. Screw ME3, I'm playing this until Diablo 3 comes out.

Any tips as to long-term consequences of character creation? I basically focused my front line fighters on Dex/Vit followed by what's left in Str, Rogue in Str/Dex and Mage in Wpr/Vit. All human except one minotaur fighter, because head hunter trait is just too cool not to have.

[Maktaka]

Poison resistance is pretty darn important. If you didn't put a bunch of points in Vit at the start (Vit boosts your poison resistance AND makes it wear off quicker), take this on your front-line fighters.

[Malachi]

My mage is focusing on Earth Magic, so I guess the poison protection circle spell can help there if I can find it? My front liners have 14 and 16 Vit respectively.

[Malachi]

Funny. After reading the (p)reviews and such, I was mostly excited about the magic system, and repeled by combat. Now that I've played it, it's the other way around. Combat is ok, there's not much frantic clicking the attack buttons, but the magic system seems extremely shallow. Or maybe it's just the spells, there are just too little of them. After first seeing how it all divides between the four elements and spellcraft, I thought there would be spells that require adequate levels in 2 or more elements, for example. You know, something along the lines of Magicka's system. No such luck though, 4 spells per element, and 2 for spellcraft? That's way too little.