Legend of Grimrock Review

Legend of Grimrock

The following review contains spoilers

LoG is a fast, tile based game. Its a lot like a turn based game without the turns. As strange as it sounds it actually works very well. Because its a tiled based game your units cant move very freely, they move rather like pieces on a chess board. All four of your characters move like this, all on the same tile. The reason for this is because at the front your supposed to have ‘tank’ characters. Usually a Minotaur or Human character. These characters use melee weapons and take the most damage. At the back its best to put rogues and mages. Rogues can learn an ability so they can also attack enemies in front and mages already have a ranged attack.

The combat system for each character is simple and effective. When attacking with a mage you have to choose runes to do certain spells and some spells can be very hard to cast and require a lot more energy (mana) than the simple fire blast spell. Rogues and warriors can use a variety of weapons from axes to swords and shields. These attack instantly when right clicked on. There’s also spears which instead of attacking one tile ahead attack two. The variety of weapons creates hundred of ways to play the game, making new games a very different experience each time.

The game isn’t just about fighting and tactics though, it also has a lot of puzzle aspects. I’m not talking about the first level of Portal. It’s more like that Tomb Raider game, the one where it takes you hours to figure out where your going. I really like this aspect of the game as it can make it much more challenging for the player. Thier not too mean though, fortunately for us, or maybe just me, they have a guide on thier website that gives you some tips on how to progress. In all seriousness I’d still be on Level 3 if it wasn’t for that guide.

Moving on to the graphics side of the game. To me personally I think its a very Amnesia stroke Half Life 2 look. If that makes any sense at all. Let me try to justify myself. The look of the dungeon itself just feels very scary, not just atmospherically but graphically as well. This reminds me of Amnesia when your in them horrible small corridors that never seem to end. As for Half Life 2, I think the way you can look around and interact is very Half Life. The graphics themselves also have that little bit of realism that Half Life gave us as well.

When playing LoG you truly feel in danger. The small bit of lore in the start of the game explains that your all prisoners. Or were at least. Your free to go, that’s if you can actually get out of this place. The atmosphere because of this is very tense, even thought Iv’e played a fair amount of the game I still fell like some giant demon is about to take away the walls and say something like “Okay I’ve had my fun, game over!”. For a game to feel like this to me is amazing. They’ve really hit the nail on the head creating this spectacular atmosphere.  Its not just the feeling either, its the small bits of detail here and there. The scurrying of, hopefully small critters hiding in the shadows. Each corner you turn makes you hold your breath and hope nothing is going to kill you. Even when you see loot you instantly think its a trap, so many past games make it look very guilty. One time I thought I had activated a trap because my screen started flickering I instantly panicked and slashed at the walls repeatably before being left in sheer darkness. Then I realised the torch had went out…

Overall LoG is a very fast paced and heart stopping game. Its easily re-playable and provides endless hours of fun, rage and damn right fright. If you have a spare ten or so pounds hiding in that dusty wallet of yours, I’d highly recommend buying this game.