First Time Completion Thoughts

[Hotform]

I really enjoyed this game! The four player party dynamic adds a very good pace to combat without the burden of moving multiple units, this was fantastic.

The length was great, I was obviously sad when it ended but it was well worth the journey and nothing felt drawn out.

The item variety and style of loot was fun, it lacked a bit in replay value because items are static; but there are more secrets than I could ever hope to find without a guide.

The detail of the land was really great, although my eyes felt stretched sometimes when checking walls repeatedly up close, if the camera perspective was a bit farther back it would be easier to see it all.

It would be nice if you could get hints from killing enemies, so if you were stuck you could pay a price to move on.

Great game lots of fun, will certainly play the next one.

[Sir Tawmis]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[diceman]

Just some short notes (trying to be costructive here, since I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY loved the heck out of this game ):

WHAT I LIKED
- The dense atmosphere. This is what claustrophobia must feel like, also hated the spiders, but wouldn't want to miss them ever again!
- The puzzles. They were actually a challenge, nothing like "Follow that big blinking arrow and click on the flashing message in the end" like most nowaday games. Most of the time there was also some cryptically written scroll nearby to help you getting on the right track.
- Exploration: I probably missed 75% of all the optional puzzles and treasures, getting off the right track can sometimes feel very rewarding.
- The graphics. Just Awesome.
- The music. Especially in the menu, talk about EPIC. Even More Awesome.
- The Level-Up-System. Did some mistakes here and there, and I know, some guys didn't like it, but in the end I actually dug it quite a lot. It was intuitive, yet something different than the usual fair.
- The Boss-Fight in the End. Now, talk about a surprise! It felt really hard, although when you know what you're supposed to be doing, it's just frustatingly difficult. This is the only part I referenced a Walkthrough, though, I'm regretting that now a bit, because sooner or later I'm confident that I would have finally hit the right notes. Will not do that again in the second part.
- The Oldschool-Mode. Yes, I did it! And it felt awesome. My sense of direction is quite good, only once had to resort to drawing my own map on squared paper.
- The combat: every encounter felt like a little challenge on to itself. Never did I feel like grinding. Okay, once, when I stocked up on Snail-Food, it did a little. But that's the usual RPG-Loopholes, I can deal.
- Game felt really polished. Never once did I experience a crash, bug or glitch. Major Studios could take some notes here.
- The Character-Creation. Lots of options here, but not overwhelming for first-timers. Also aesthetics like importing your own portraits are available, good one!
- Fixed Character-Creation, every click counts! No Respec-Fluff, thank you!
- Functional Story. Just providing you with the basic knowledge of the where and why. After that, it's all Gameplay, and no annoying reading of generic Fantasy-Bla by some annoying NPC, forcing some background story on you, that I don't care about. Seriously, I don't care, if there's a war raging between Orcs and Elves, or some random Throne-Heir is dying of some mysterious sickness. Just hand me some weapons, and tell me where I have to click to hurt the bad monsters, will ya?

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED UPON
- The Health/Saving-Crystals felt too powerful. I abused the heck out of them, and I didn't feel too great about it, sadly. In the end I didn't use sleep anymore, just ran back to them, and waited till they refreshed. Maybe let them only refresh once or twice in an hour?
- The Potion-Mixing felt clunky and complicated, actually had to google how to use them. Clicks could be reduced.
- While I liked the Magic-System, always having to remember the right Glyphs for each spell, that is, I would have liked, that you could only use a spell after having found the respective scroll. It just doesn't feel right, that on a subsequent play-session with a Lvl-1-Mage I already know the whole book. Or at least give a Bonus upon reading them, or providing you with one Quick-Cast-Slot for the respective slot, which only refreshes after a good nights sleep (this way, you'd still have to remember the Glyphs for the most part).
- Maybe some method of implementing random equipment placement? Not all of them, but perhaps some of them, preferrably in secret areas - I know the place, but I don't know, what I'll be finding there next time I'm gonna play the game. Maybe an Axe? Or some Chaos-Boots with a (slim) chance for a really awesome Attribute-Boost? They should be generated on starting a new game, though, or the system could be exploited too easily.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD IN THE NEXT PART
- Overworld, naturally.
- More graphical variety.
- Bigger Maps, bigger Dungeons, just more of the good stuff?
- Various polished aspects, improving on the solid foundation the first part already provided in abundance.
- Even more viable options in Character-Creation.
- More intuitive, user-friendly editor. Although I don't have the time anymore to crank out something big here (used to map for a couple of 1st-Person-Shooter in my younger years), I'm still eager to see, what the community comes up with.

I think that's it, for the most part. Keep up the good work, I've already have a strong feeling, that my personal GOTY will be called GRIMROCK 2.

[Sir Tawmis]

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED UPON
- The Health/Saving-Crystals felt too powerful. I abused the heck out of them, and I didn't feel too great about it, sadly. In the end I didn't use sleep anymore, just ran back to them, and waited till they refreshed. Maybe let them only refresh once or twice in an hour?

Funny, how different gaming styles work. I never went back to those crystals once I passed them (unless someone perished).

- The Potion-Mixing felt clunky and complicated, actually had to google how to use them. Clicks could be reduced.

I thought it was pretty simple. You take the plant(s), put them in the thing, have an empty bottle in the bottle slot - go!