Legend of Grimrock

[Stabwound]

Cool reviews. That last one had me interested at the "70+ floors" thing until you basically dissected it into the most awful game I've heard of in recent memory. That's a shame. Sounds like the Master Quest mod is the only one worth looking ati.

 

[Broseph]

Going to play that Mine of Malen Vael one sometime.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Stabwound: The Master Quest is clearly the best mod out at the moment, but the Mine of Malen Vael is also worth a playthrough. The guy behind the Chaos Key also did a smaller mod called The Master Key, I'm gonna have a look at that and then I think I'm done with Grimrock mods for a while.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Oh, wow... The Chaos Key wasn't very appealing to me, but The Master Key sure is. It has a little bit of everything in it, intense combat, clever puzzles (and not the ones that stump you for days) and clever usage of space. I'm on Level 6 now and I'm having an absolute blast with this one. Highly recommended.

There's one more mod I might check out, The Wine Merchant's Basement, but beyond that I think I've had a look at the highlights of current Grimrock mods.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

'The Wine Merchant's Basement' is a story-driven mod, which sounds like a nice change of pace... until you realize that the pace set is a snail's pace. You're a drunkard who stumbles into a wine cellar, only to find its hidden secrets.

The problems?

# You're being bossed around by somebody, and you must complete his 'tests' to be allowed to escape. Welcome people, to Portal: The Grimrock Mod. I'll refer to our tester as GLADos from now on.

# GLADos is even sneering and condescending towards you, just like in Portal. 0 points for originality here.

# You only have one character who's always the same, and has next to no gear. Therefore the encounters are scaled to that. Tediously. The first puzzles involving relieving myself of some of my precious gear to be allowed to proceed. Then I spent 10 minutes fighting fungi because GLADos thought it was amusing.

# My next encounter was with an Ogre. With a single Level 4 Fighter. Yay. Granted, he was part of a puzzle that I was supposed to solve, and not fight, but I got the general idea from there what this mod entails, and stopped playing there.

# While the writing of the mod isn't bad, it's not good enough to warrant a playthrough. This isn't a Valve product, this felt more like fanfiction. It's too slow a mod for veteran Grimrock players, and too dull a game for a mod of this type to grace for anyone else.

Conclusion? Pass.

So, at the time this is written, I recommend the mods in this order:

1: The Master Quest: The standard campaign on + difficulty. I recommend playing this for anyone who's completed the standard campaign. Some things will feel familiar, other things will have you scratching your head. It's also the most beautiful Grimrock mod I've seen so far.

2: The Master Key: Ten levels packed full of content. You must find the Master Key to open the door behind you and escape. Just the first floor has a couple of hours worth of content.

3: The Mine of Malan Vael: Only one setting and one task, but it's done masterfully. Good writing, clever puzzles, well worth playing.

4: The Chaos Key: The 'sequel' to The Master Key. It's tougher and has more content, but it's also badly paced and the puzzles early on will probably drive people away. Playing this one with a fresh party is only for the experts.

Other mods I've tried are, frankly, not worth mentioning.

 

[Jack Dandy]

For the next game, I'm hoping for more of the same when it comes to atmosphere and puzzles, but I REALLY hope they polish the combat \ RPG elements. It felt far too basic imo.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

What I'd really like to see them do for the sequel is fix the interface. Around 75% of all left-clicks I make on the character portrait to access the inventory end up being interpreted like I want to change the formation of my party. That shit MUST CHANGE. I'm also not very fond of the tiny size of the spell icons.

 

[Jack Dandy]

I always used the 1-2-3-4 buttons to access the inventory, much comfier that way.

 

[Malachi]

Hey all,

"Legend of Grimrock" on sale on Steam, only for the next 21 hours, for a little over 5 bucks. For an old school flavored CRPG experience, that's one hell of a bargain. Hope this helps those of you who may have been waiting for a sale.

 

[Kosmonaut]

"Legend of Grimrock" [...] an old school flavored CRPG experience [...]

 

[Jaesun]

It's an old school real time cRPG based off the Dungeon Master game made in 1987. Your point?

 

[Kosmonaut]

I though I was on your ignore list. By the way:

Joined: May 13, 2004

And you still post pure shit.

 

[Brayko]

It's a pretty bro game. Get's really tough. Only party-orgies in a dark dungeon gave me the courage to go on.

 

[Jaesun]

I though I was on your ignore list. By the way:

Joined: May 13, 2004

And you still post pure shit.

Do you have a point to bring up about this game or are you just going to continue to shitpost?

 

[Kosmonaut]

I though I was on your ignore list. By the way:

Joined: May 13, 2004

And you still post pure shit.

Do you have a point to bring up about this game or are you just going to continue to shitpost?

As the Codex favorite shitposter, you have the preference to continue with your stupid one liners.

 

[Malachi]

Kosmo,
I apologize, I certainly did not intend to spur an argument with the term "old school." The whole reason I termed it as such was that the party-based, tile movement reminded me of old "Might and Magic" games I played in the late 80s. That, plus the "descent into a dungeon" basic premise, a bit like Rogue or Nethack. Not saying that it is *exactly* like those, mind you. But the flavor is certainly there. I did not think "old school" would be controversial in this context. But hey, it's the Codex. Everything is controversial, everything is edgy. I forget that sometimes. Please return to your regularly-scheduled pointless posturing. Thanks!

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's an old school real time cRPG based off the Dungeon Master game made in 1987. Your point?

Well, technically, DM/DM2 were a lot more complex and had more features.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Kosmo,
I apologize, I certainly did not intend to spur an argument with the term "old school." The whole reason I termed it as such was that the party-based, tile movement reminded me of old "Might and Magic" games I played in the late 80s. That, plus the "descent into a dungeon" basic premise, a bit like Rogue or Nethack. Not saying that it is *exactly* like those, mind you. But the flavor is certainly there. I did not think "old school" would be controversial in this context. But hey, it's the Codex. Everything is controversial, everything is edgy. I forget that sometimes. Please return to your regularly-scheduled pointless posturing. Thanks!

I wish I could tell you that I liked your sarcasm. Sadly, it's incredible boring. Good day my good sir!

 

[Jaesun]

It's an old school real time cRPG based off the Dungeon Master game made in 1987. Your point?

Well, technically, DM/DM2 were a lot more complex and had more features.

Oh very true. And it is no where NEAR as complex as say Chaos Stikes Back was. That was FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[Volourn]

A little late to the party as I picked this up yesterday as I spam bought boguht a punch of GOG games ovetr the last few days.

I'm VERY early in the game but so far colour me unimpressed.

NEGATIVES
----------------

- how can you have multiple races in a dungeon crawl and not have fukkin' DWARVES? They are the ULTIMATE dungeon crawlers because they live in fukkin' dungeons FFS.

- the movement system is crap. It's not old skool. It's crap. Plain and simple. (this doesn't mean it is ahrd I've only fought their silly snails and haven't died). But, it's crap.

- EXPLORATION IS SHIT SHIT SHIT

- graphcis are subpar.. music is merely slightly below average and after AOD that is UNFUKKINACCEPTABLE!

SLIGHT POSITIVES
--------------------------

- the characetr system has potential but is way too abre bones... needs more races, classles, talents, and stuff

- combat is alright but has no depth (so far)

- puzzles are cool if unimaginative

So far... I'd rate it 3/10...


AOD > LOG

 

[Brayko]

She's quite funny, ain't she?

 

[Metro]

Movement system is just like it was in the older games of the genre. Exploration is fine as are the graphics and music. Stop being a dumbfuck... although for you I know that's quite the challenge.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

 

[Volourn]

Summary of above 3 posts: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Someone hates a game I like. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I know you're just being a pathetic troll, but I'll bite, if only to inform you that two of your points actually have some basis in reality.

# The character system is bare-bones and could be improved upon.

# Combat sometimes feels a little bland.