Grimrock

----------( DESIGN )----------
(+) Plenty of excellent, rewarding, logically-solvable puzzles, ranging from easy to tricky difficulty.

(-) But some secrets were also too hard(illogical)... There were some secrets and things I missed along the way, which, once I was fairly far into level 9, required me to go all the way back to level 3-4, and use a guide to find things I wouldn't have otherwise(without taking TONS of time to carefully search every single wall).

(-) The traditional RPG aspect of the game was not required, and felt more like an afterthought feature than part of the core of Grimrock. The game would be at least as fun/good if it were a FPS without control limitations, and you basically sneak & snake your way through the dungeon, while still gaining skillpoints for kills, and finding better weapons lying around.

(+/-) The game was not very fun, but this is an intense, realistic dungeon crawl, not pokemon... so I can ignore that. If the RPG elements weren't such a drag, I'm sure the game would be decently fun.


---------( SOUND )----------
(+) Nice ambient music/audio. Not much to critique.

(-) Spiders...so annoying

(-) Very small variety of music and sounds, although temporarily ignorable.


----------( CONTROLS/GAMEPLAY )-----------
(+) This is my second favorite thing about the game, besides the game's theme/story itself. Movement felt great, exactly like I'd expect from any sort of true remake/reboot.

(-) Accessing and using inventory and equiped items via cursor is a bit of a hassle, but understandably hard to avoid. A mouse cursor speed setting would be helpful, and customized placement of the UI portraits , along with portait size, would be nice.


OVERALL GAME RATING: 5/10
-Backtracking due to illogical/poor secrets
-Dull RPG elements
-Lacking variety in several major areas(music, sound, environments, etc)

INDY GAME RATING: 8/10
+Great game made by 4 people, with minor design issues


Looking forward to more from Almost Human! Hopefully this game sparks a Retro Revolution, where more classics are reincarnated to modern graphics. Thanks for making this game! Time to buy copies for friends, and support you guys more, so you can get a bigger team and do better things (and thanks for offering a NON-STEAM version!!!)

Lol, you recommend it pretty highly after scoring it low and criticizing so much!

Which secrets did you find illogical? There were only one or two that I thought were a bit unfair, and if you're used to looking for secrets in games you can do a pretty comprehensive sweep of the possibilities... e.g. I wonder if I try *that* with the buttons after solving the puzzle, etc.

Sounds might be limited, but I can't agree with you, they did their job perfectly, and some were excellent... spiders, the wardens, 'morgs. At no point during my play through did they bother me or I wished they'd done them differently.

Also, it's a dungeon crawl, not exactly an RPG. Reading this, I got the feeling you were expecting something more along the lines of a Baldur's Gate kind of game, and thus were disappointed on some of the features.

Disasterrific wrote:Lol, you recommend it pretty highly after scoring it low and criticizing so much!

Well, what can I say... It's a rare, modern day retro breath of fresh air, and the graphics(100% dynamically lit?! ) look fantastic, plus it's fairly realistic and intense, and only $15, so that's plenty of reason to recommend it.

But, there is a lot missing, for this to be a truly complete, great game, so for the highest standard of rating, I can only say the game is "halfway there".

Disasterrific wrote:Sounds... spiders, the wardens, 'morgs. At no point during my play through did they bother me or I wished they'd done them differently.

When the spiders are standing there attacking you, making that same shrieking sound over and over and over and ov... doesn't annoy you, huh?

Disasterrific wrote:Which secrets did you find illogical?

Anything that requires a specific sequence of several buttons/switches/tiles/etc, where there are no clues, and you must bruteforce your way, until you finally discover the sequence. Being required to fall into pits is lame too. =p Thankfully, most of the puzzles were not like this. Floor-specific statistics would be mostly helpful, also.

Thels wrote:Also, it's a dungeon crawl, not exactly an RPG. Reading this, I got the feeling you were expecting something more along the lines of a Baldur's Gate kind of game, and thus were disappointed on some of the features.

Well, I was expecting to do a lot of level-grinding, to boost my stats and stuff... But I find out that I have to rest after each significant battle for ~15 seconds, then fight only a few more enemies, then rest again for several seconds... Not fun, takes forever, and I didn't need to level up to progress anywhere in the game, so it's a strange and mostly useless thing to have, as I see it. :\ I'm probably not going to replay the game, but I'll see how Toorum solo goes for a little while.

Brude wrote:Initially, I had the same shock of experience, having been taught by Blizzard over the last dozen years or so to brute force every encounter, tank and spank, and only move when there was persistent AoE damage.

Sounds like someone has been playing a lot of WoW, which is indeed mostly stat based (though there are some tricks to raids).

I've been playing a Demon Hunter on D3 on Hard Mode, and I can assure you, that's not tank and spank until it dies at all.

A lot of secrets were found through wall-scanning, which does not have to do with logics, especially when the opening walls are not next to the buttons since you could not even look out for holes in the map then. But I guess the game lacked the unique content and some additional features to be able to realize more beautiful puzzles. There were some riddles I needed help on but those were more likely unrelated to the current situation. When creating sequences of buttons, foot switches etc., which were scarce in LoG, one could apply maths or analyze the results.

Thels wrote:

Brude wrote: (though there are some tricks to raids).

Some? As a core raider for 25man heroics completely cleaning all WotLK Raids (Hug's Invincible) and Cataclysm before I quit (just before release of Firelands)
I can say there is more than just "Some" tricks to raiding (and yes, standing in fire, believe it or not, still burns!)

More on topic
This game is a throwback to the ol-skool DM clone/dungeon crawler,
It's button's and switch's are mearly tools to fill the ugly holes in the maps with secret niche's filled with goodies or simply just a piece of food
If I recall most of the DM clones I played had entire 21x21 levels with no gaps, if you didn't seal off most of these area's with a wall and a button, every level would be a rat maze.

I cant say much about the music because I always turn it off, but I must say with music turned off it made the whole ending cutscene really boring, just a slideshow of pics, no voice or sound effects at all, If I leave my system sitting here until my screen saver comes on ill get the very same thing, could've been better.
I think some more tailored ambient sounds custom to the level's tile-set would be nice touch.

Quote CT007
"Anything that requires a specific sequence of several buttons/switches/tiles/etc, where there are no clues"

I don't recall any of the combination button's that required a clue not having any.. al the 2 or 3 button puzzles without clue's clearly didn't need them,
eg, push 1 button and a series of pits close and reopen in a pattern forming a moving bridge, push the 2nd button and it reverses direction push 1st button to start the bridge now in the new direction.. clue needed?

Thels wrote:

Brude wrote:Initially, I had the same shock of experience, having been taught by Blizzard over the last dozen years or so to brute force every encounter, tank and spank, and only move when there was persistent AoE damage.

Sounds like someone has been playing a lot of WoW, which is indeed mostly stat based (though there are some tricks to raids).

I've been playing a Demon Hunter on D3 on Hard Mode, and I can assure you, that's not tank and spank until it dies at all.

Not that I care for WoW all that much, but I haven't seen a fight that was a Tank and Spank for a while. Even the 5 mans had some pretty complicated fights.