Legend Of Grimrock is a very special game to me. Hell, it's a very special game, full stop. It's splendidly well made, brilliantly designed, and absolutely captivating with a minimal number of tools. Look at the unsightly joy it inspired in me. But personally, it's also a game that feels like a direct line to my late father. Not least because he wrote about the game for this very website.
So forgive me as I fluctuate between reasoned discourse on why this is such a great game, and sentimental waffle about how I miss my dad.
]]>It has happened. The day spoken of in legend. After two years, I am finally to be set free of the Curse Of Steam Charts. All its taken is entirely leaving my job in four days time to end this purgatory. The only decision left is to whom I shall pass this vexation. That, and how to avoid mentioning the actual games for one more week. And this time I've come up with a self-indulgent doozy.
]]>The last thing I was expecting Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest to remind me of was a deck-builder. Not least because it doesn't feature any decks. And yet, there's something about this deeply tactical isometric RPG, from Legend Of Grimrock's creators, that contains the same spirit of gradually gaining a deeper and more refined understanding of a limited set of tools, through repeated failure, and incremental improvement.
This is at first glance a very traditional turned-based RPG - much as Grimrock recalled the glory days of the first-person dungeon crawler, this visually suggested memories of late-90s BioWare-ish battling. But playing it, it quickly becomes apparent this isn't going to be a game that lets you spam your most powerful attacks at repeated mobs, but rather something that's going to demand a lot more planning, a lot more forethought. This is going to be tough.
]]>We're coming to the end of the Summer Steam Sale so chances are you've picked up the things you'd already got your eye on, but there are always games that sneak under the radar or come from genres you might usually ignore. That's why we've put together our final recommendation list. Here's a whole list of things we love and why we think they're worth your time! (Don't forget to check out our earlier picks and the comments, though - I picked up a bunch of games that had escaped my own notice through reader enthusiasm...)
]]>Inspired by recent experiences with The Witness' [official site] puzzles, Robert Zak has been reminiscing about the art of note-taking while playing games. From graph paper for dungeon crawlers to suspicions and clues for Her Story [official site], many genres are represented, with only the noble pen and paper to hold them together.
]]>I rearranged all of my furniture yesterday so that I could play a game and it's not even a game with a stonking great dancemat or waving and waggling control scheme. I've been dungeon crawling.
This weekend, the stars aligned and I finally sank around fifteen hours into one of the big games waiting in my backlog. If I'm being honest, I shouldn't look to the stars - I spent fifteen hours or thereabouts with Legend of Grimrock 2 because of the flurries of sleet that kept me huddled beneath a duvet, grimacing at the outside world.
]]>Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder were like mother's milk to me, and Legend of Grimrock is like a perfectly muddled gin and tonic. Grimrock's sequel now has a release date, October 15th, and a new trailer to coincide with the announcement. It shows a variety of enemies and areas, including what appears to be a cannon-wielding pirat(e), as can be seen above. There are also spikes and tile-based puzzles, as the dungeon gods demand.
]]>Last week we wrote about the Humble Jumbo Bundle 2, because it was the best haul of games we'd seen in a Humble Bundle in a little while. Now that bundle has expanded as planned, and the three new games added are all good too. Pay more than the average of $6.62/£4 and you'll now receive Legend of Grimrock, PixelJunk Eden and Orcs Must Die! 2.
This on top of a bundle which already included Galactic Civilizations 2, Terraria, Crusader Kings 2 and more.
]]>Look at that! It's the first screenshot from Legend of Grimrock 2 and it's one of the worst pictures of a dungeon I've ever seen, right up there with the Mona Lisa and Magritte's not-a-pipe-nor-a-dungeon. After creating some top notch dank dungeons for their first RPG, Almost Human appear to have slipped up and the dungeons in Grimrock 2 will apparently contain some trees and blue skies, and crenellated turrets peering from on high, just around the next bend in the path. Of course, it's entirely possible that the picture isn't a dungeon at all and that the game is undergoing a design overhaul. Let's consult the development blog.
]]>For those of you that haven't tried out Almost Human's dungeoneering masterpiece Legend of Grimrock, shame on you, and a pox on both your houses, and oh fie is me, and please try it, it is nice. But for those hungry for more of the wonderful dank atmosphere, creepy monsters and surprisingly sexy stone walls, you can grab this new mod reworking the original maps whilst we await the second installment.
]]>You know what's finally real? No, no, not high-speed space travel, a panacea for the collective shattered heart of humanity, or lights that turn themselves off when you've gotten way too comfortable in bed. Something better! Odds are, Legend of Grimrock II will basically be all of those things - symbolically, anyway. And it's an actual, factual Thing now, as per word from the wonderful dungeon master race of snail people over at Almost Human. There is one downside, though: that Grimrock expansion they were working on? Sadly, it won't be seeing the light of day.
]]>Two things:
1) Latter-day Dungeon Masterlike Legend of Grimrock has sold quite well. 600,000 copies or thereabouts, in fact. 2) This is well enough that IT LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE MAKING ANOTHER ONE AND IT HAS PLAYABLE RATMEN IN IT
]]>The holidays are a time of indecision. Who should you visit? What ugly, uncomfortable seasonal sweater should you wear? Which deity(s) should you dedicate your hedonistic blood celebrations to (aside from Horace, of courace)? And, most importantly, what will you buy before/after your relatives shower you with socks or rocks or whatever it is that passes for a universal gift these days? But it doesn't end there. Oh no. There are, after all, 927.45 trillion videogames to choose between, so you may as well just start sobbing and curl up in a fetal futility ball right now. Unless... no, no. That's crazy. But maybe... no. It'll never work. Ah, what the hell: bundles! Both Indie Royale and Humble Bundle have new offerings up, and they're quite tempting, if I do say so myself.
]]>Here it is: the moment you've been waiting for - well, if you're the sort who loves hurling your friends into devious deathtrap gauntlets filled with beasties of all shapes, sizes, and snail-nesses. And if you're not, I think it's safe to say that you're no friend of mine. At any rate, the - to briefly shift into press release parlance, except with actual sincerity - hotly anticipated more-than-350-item dungeon editor for Legend of Grimrock is finally right around the corner. If you've got the tough-as-nails dungeon crawler on Steam, though, you can give it a go right now.
]]>I've only just found time to start playing Legend of Grimrock, despite awaiting it eagerly for months. Maybe I'll manage to finish it before the release of the dungeon editor, although the latest post from Almost Human suggests not.
...we’ve reached internal beta! All the features and functionality is done, now all it needs is just a little bit of polishing and bug fixing and then we can unleash it into the wild. We’re getting close to the finish line, folks!
But will it be possible to create a step sequencer using the editor, turning dungeons into giant drum machines? If only a video could answer that question. If only that video was just below these words.
]]>Wow. I always thought Legend of Grimrock would be a natural fit for a map editor, but - given that it's a smaller project in a fairly cutthroat genre - I worried that it'd turn out to be prohibitively complicated for everyone except rocket scientists and RPS readers. Almost Human's released a video of the almost-complete Dungeon Editor in action, though, and it actually seems tantalizingly intuitive. I mean, it's no Perpetual Testing Initiative, but you can script some fairly complex stuff in a few clicks and try it out with a single button press. Throughout history, the existence of a cow level has been debatable, but soon, I will craft the snail level. Glistening bodies and chunky tendrils of mucus as far as the eye can see. Oh yes.
]]>In our never-ending quest to be a one-stop shop for dads of John Walker the world over, we are utterly dedicated to fetching whatever news-flavored scraps may fall from Almost Human's table. Sometimes, it gets a bit weird - like when I was pretty sure mashed potatoes were news. Well, sure enough to take them, anyway. This time, though, I think I've come across a bit more of a sure bet. See, Legend of Grimrock will be getting some things in the future. New things, even!
]]>Dentist by day, dungeoneer by night, John's dad Hugh has reached the very bottom of Legend Of Grimrock's mountain prison. In the final part of this series, he meets dinosaurs, floaty wizards, checks out walkthroughs, and stumbles upon a rather big baddie. Obviously this edition contains slight spoilers for the end of the game.
]]>As my dad nears the bottom third of Legend Of Grimrock, he seems to be becoming more determined, less likely to tell me he's quitting, and more likely to turn to YouTube for help than his horrible, grumbling son. To catch up with his previous adventures head here. And then onward!
]]>After once again having stripped another missive of seven thousand ill-placed ellipses, John's dad's latest diary in the dungeons of Grimrock is here. And now, after a freedom of information request has made private emails available, you can learn John's pain.
]]>Oh, the terrible weight of expectation. How can I possibly live up to or surpass the gimmick in my last Legend of Grimrock post? Well, unless I somehow created an HTML maze that you had to solve in order to find the details about the new Grimrock patch now being out and containing some unexpected bonus goodies, I just can't. So I'm just going to end this post right here instead. See you!
]]>In the second part of my dad's adventures in Legend Of Grimrock (you can read part one here) we learn why my dad never goes anywhere in games and takes three million years to finish them. We also learn that he's putting off writing about the bit where he got stuck and had to have me do it for him. To the dungeons!
]]>Happiness is a cold, dank dungeon filled with traps, giant poisonous spiders and not enough food. Legend of Grimrock has proved to be a welcome and surprisingly modern-feeling bearhug from dungeoneering's past, and as well as being such a source of joy for old men like me it's also proven profitable for devs Almost Human. "The development costs of the game have now been covered many times over so the future of the company seems pretty secure," they claim happily in a new bloggington, which hopefully also bodes well for the future of the game. It's the sort of thing that could potentially make the very best of a big fat synringe full of extra content. First things first though, a new patch for some of the issues in the launch version is incoming. Hidden somewhere in this post is a switch you must find and activate in order to continue reading.
]]>Legend Of Grimrock is out today, and we enormously recommend you get it. In fact, John was so fondly reminded of playing Dungeon Master with his dad, 25 years ago, that he decided to get his dad to play it too.
Hugh Walker, dentist and life-long gamer, begins the diary of his experiences below.
]]>Almost Human's Legend Of Grimrock comes out a week today. I've finished it, and am here to tell you why it's bloody brilliant. Sometimes that's just what a review is for. Don't worry - we'll remind you next Wednesday that it's released, as we have more coverage planned. But now, here's Wot I Think.
]]>With Legend Of Grimrock coming up soon, my thoughts turned back to the original Dungeon Master. Released in 1987, a year I mostly spent aged 9, it was for me one of the most defining games of my childhood. Smart, enormous, and terrifying, it was such a stride forward for gaming. But I was pretty certain getting it working on a Windows 7 box was going to be something of a fiddly nightmare. Not so!
]]>Legend Of Grimrock is out in a couple of weeks, via Steam and GOG.com, and anticipation is building. A game that harks back to the glory days of FTL's Dungeon Master is something many would like to get their hands on. Get my hands on it I have, and after spending a little time with some pre-release code, I'm excited to confirm it really does seem to be capturing that era, with tile-based movement, a quartet of characters, and the terrifying moments when you're trying to mix a potion in the middle of a fight. Below you can read the top 11 things that I think make it a game worth taking an interest in. (I have a sneaking suspicion that anyone who didn't play Dungeon Master is going to find this post a touch confusing.)
]]>Good Old Games is gone. But GOG.com continues on. In light of their starting to take orders for more recent games, the words are gone from their name and only the acronym remains. This comes alongside their new frontpage, the news that they'll be aiming to add three games a week instead of two, an improved downloader, and the addition of The Whispered World, Trine, and the soon-to-be-added Machinarium, Darwinia and Spacechem. Oh, and they're taking pre-orders for the Dungeon Master inspired Legend Of Grimrock. So where does this leave their identity?
]]>"Everybody at the office is totally jazzed up and we really can’t keep in our pants much longer." Almost Human, you sicken me. Surely there's a less sexy way of declaring that much-anticipated indie first-person dungeoneering RPG Legend of Grimrock has gone gold? Gold as in 'finished.' I do share their excitement, however, even if it's evidenced by my brain rather than my under-trouser parts. Almost everything we've seen of this Dungeon Master-like looks exceptionally promising, and it's all been done without Almost Human having to kick any starts whatsoever.
We'll find out full launch details later this week, but all being well we can expect it in April. Someone else on RPS already has Grimrock review code, and they're not sharing. I'm going to go and burn their house down to teach them an important lesson.
]]>It could be that grid-based dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock actually takes place entirely in dungeons, what with being at least somewhat related to Dungeon Master, but maybe there will be a tower. Maybe. Whatever the case, the game which has caused me to nostalgically divide my house's floorspace into equally sized squares finally has a release date. Early April. That's not actually a date, is it? Not specifically. But it's better than the previous timeframe, which was simply 'the future'. No new features now, just bug fixing, completing animations and adding a bit of polish. Then it will be mine and possibly yours as well. A peek at a UI redesign lurks below.
]]>When he first laid eyes on it, grid-based RPG Legend of Grimrock caused John to claw at the screen in a futile attempt to get his hands on it. I'm not sure if he always plays games by plucking them out of his monitor and laying them out on a coffee table but it may be the case. Along with the announcement of a delay until early next year, developers Almost Human send word that the project has reached beta. There's a new video as well, which manages to excite me by showing inventory management the likes of which it's all too easy to desire romantic liaisons with. Then there are the puzzles, the pressure plates, the man casually falling into a pit...I AM CLAWING AT THE SCREEN
]]>Oh my goodness, I'm having Dungeon Master flashbacks of purest/purist happiness. Thank you to reader Mikko-Pentti for pointing us toward Finnish indie project, Legend Of Grimrock. Developers Almost Human Ltd. have just released their first in-game video (below), and it has me clawing at the screen. Tile-based, first-person Dungeon Master-style gaming, but with gorgeous shiny graphics. I want it. I want it now.
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