A few extra criticisms:Bigger isn't always better. But in Legend of Grimrock 2, it's better most of the time.
They've kept what made Legend of Grimrock great, rectified some of its failings and generally expanded much on variety and content. The latter bring a failing new to Grimrock. Some of the puzzles and their clues span the game world and can require quite a bit of backtracking if you missed some clue along the way, or didn't bother writing it down.
But these incidents are few and far between compared to all the goodness this game has to offer. New dangerous-looking enemies make it harder to dance around the less-than-up-to-it AI of the first game. I won't spoil it for you, but some enemies were just genious. The new environments, including outdoor ones, are varied and beautiful. New puzzle elements bring spice to the old formula, allowing you to feel different kinds of clever upon solving them. (Or different kinds of stupid!)
Class and skill systems have been revised, with additional classes and a new race - the ratlings.
In short, if you liked the first one, you're gonna love this one.
9/10
- There was way too little ammunition for my Firearms ratling. In most fights he was dead weight because I was conserving ammo. I've seen it suggested that alchemists can create pellets, but I think it would be best to just increase the available ammunition. After all, parties without alchemists need ammo, too.
- Some of the boss fights felt like they relied a little too much on luck, whereas others were too easy.
- I feel the spell learning system is flawed and had hoped it was changed from the first game. Perhaps make scrolls needed to cast a spell, or have it be a part of leveling up. It seems wrong that a character knows all spells because the player has played the game before or has looked it up.
- I preferred some things in the old skill system. Such as having more points to spend when leveling up and having deeper skill trees you could sink more points into. I think there's both a psychological factor in feeling more choice with more points, but also that in the new system, mastering a skill can be done very quickly, whereas I feel it should require more effort.
- Some of monster AIs were still a little too easy to manipulate.
- I felt falling through pits was overly punishing this time around due to the high injury chance.
Some things I really liked:
- The toad monster was just awesome. It reminded me of the giant lizard from Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos, but even more awesome.
- The mimic! Their AI isn't that great, but it looks so cool and the surprise the first one gave me will stay with me for a while.
- Some puzzles were just extremely satsifying to solve. Particularly the one leading up to the "good" ending. I will admit this even if this goes against a criticism I had. It was made better because the shrines with the clues were easy to find, and I was lucky to re-find the Kilhagan clue about the spell without much trouble. I would have made the player find a note or scroll written by Kilhagan instead to avoid a situation where the player has to backtrack to a possibly unknown location for the clue, if he even remembers it.
- The new casting option that saves you a click was very nice.
- Was really impressed by the water environments. Although I wish you hadn't stooped to placing hidden buttons down there.
- When those zombies started spawning at the top of the pyramid, I figured I'd jump into the teleporter and stop whatever was spawning them. I was not prepared for the sight that met me on the other side. Wow!
- I particularly liked the atmospheric music in the swamps.
In short, thank you so much for making this game. I eagerly await whatever game you'll make next. (After some well-deserved R&R, of course)
