So this is one of those games I got cause I saw it on sale super cheap. I got this for 50 cents, and that's the price range where it's really easy to get me to make an impulse purchase.
Now let's be up front about this, this game is a mobile port. But, this game is an acceptable mobile port. Standard price is $5 and there are no micro-transactions in the game, so I'm okay with this port.
There's no story to speak of so if you like a deep engaging narrative you might not grab this. The gameplay involves controlling, literally, a conga line of heroes. It's snake, albeit with a good does of added flair.. That's what it is and the game does fully acknowledge this. They ask you if you remember snake in the tutorial. You run around a small area dodging enemies and walls because if the lead hero should collide with either your game is over. If anyone who is not at the end of the line is collided with, either by an enemy or in fact by the lead hero, that person will die instantly regardless of health. Colliding with your own guys does not result in a game over, but is still very very bad, cause you'll lose a bunch of guys and seriously hurt your combat potential.
So, if you're not allowed to touch the enemies, how is it that you're meant to kill them? Good question. Each of the heroes has a particular attack. Some swing various melee weapons, there's an archer, a guy with a gun, a couple mages, and others. All of these attacks have a range and an area of effect. When any of the bunch of heroes is in a position that their attack might be capable of hurting an enemy, they will attack automatically. So combat mainly involves of running past enemies and doing a sort of drive by style hit on them, or running at them headlong then turning the fuck around and running away before you actually hit them, trying to get as close as possible to T-boning them, so all your guys have a chance of hitting, without actually doing so, because that would kill you.
It's very simple, but it's very much so not easy. At any point you are capable of dying instantly. If anything should collide with you leader, the game is over. In addition to this, you do have to worry about being whittled done and bled out. And even if you aren't, you still have to kill the enemies as that is how you progress. Kill enough guys on a stage and you move to the next stage.
There are a few power-ups that will drop randomly from guys you kill. There's a temporary attack speed increase, a healing potion, a magnet (draws in money), a bomb (explodes and kills nearby guys), a shield, and a magic spell that will temporarily freeze all enemies. Unlocked heroes will also sometimes be dropped and passing over them will add them to your conga line. Your conga line always has the capacity limit of all the heroes you have unlocked allowing you to have one of each at any given moment. There are 16 playable heroes.
Heroes do gain experience as you get kills whit them. Each hero can level up three times each time gaining a passive buff to their combat prowess. I believe these buffs are still in effect even if the hero is not the leader of the conga line, but I'm not 100% sure of that. Though Gizmo's 3rd buff would be really useless if it only worked with him being the leader. His third buff is explode on death. This would highly suggest that buffs work for the characters even if you aren't playing them, seeings as that buff would be totally fucking useless if you were playing Gizmo.
There is a neat little arena
mode, where in you can play once daily and get to enter in a clan name
when you do. So you and all your friends can fight to have the best clan of the day.
I'm having a lot of fun with this. Is deceptively simple, but it's not fuckin easy. I look forward to fighting my way through the levels and unlocking the rest of the heroes so I can play as all of them. My current favorite is Gizmo with his bomb attack. Decent range and damage, and lovely area of effect on the explosion. I'm interested to see if anyone will claim that spot.
Gameplay: 9 out of 10
Story: N/A
Visuals: 8 out of 10
Audio: 7 out of 10
Overall: 8.5 tiny hidden buttons out of 10
This game is so damn old school it was your grandpa's junior high principle.
Really though, that is the easiest way to describe this, it is fuckin old school. There is even an option to draw your on map with pen and paper in real life. That is however an *option* and it is defaulted to give you the in game map. So don't freak out if that's not a thing you wanna do. Old school really is the theme here though. Tile based map, moving one tile at a time, 90 degree turns, cryptic hints for puzzles.
This style is actually really refreshing and different and really hits the nail on the head of the "dungeon crawler". It really does give you a sense of crawling through hte dungeon tile by tile, room by room, floor by floor, fighting and dying just to get the hell out.
That is the story, what little of it there is. Your group of four people are accused of a non-descript crime against some non-descript empire. You're punishment is to be pushed down a pit into the dungeon of Grimrock, with the caveat that as you are plunged into the depth of the dungeon, you are pardoned, in a non-descript manner, such that should you survive and manage to escape from the dungeon you will be a free of the crimes. And that's pretty much it for story. And really, the story is not the draw here. The draw is in the gameplay, and it's very good gameplay.
I would thoroughly recommend this game if it sounds like your cup of tea. I would, if one particular thing had not happened. Grimrock 2 came out. I've watched some videos. I've read some comments people have to say about it. And it seems to be that Grimrock 2 is the epitome of what a sequel should be. Bigger and better the the original without losing the style or feel. One thing that's particularly cool about the seond one is that you get to go outside. The entirety of the first game is in a dungeon. The second features several dungeons with a large outside area connecting them. There is even an implemented day night cycle. So as much as I would reccomend Grimrock, I'm not gonna. I thoroughly recommend Grimrock 2. Seriously I wish I had the sequel it looks cool as hell.
Oh and speaking of looks, the game is very pretty. And I'm sure some of you are going to comment that spending the whole game starting at stone walls would get boring, and you aren't wrong. That is one of the (very few) criticisms I have about Grimrock. The environments, while very well rendered, are a bit lacking in quantity. This is another thing the sequel fixes. But if you do look at the picture above, it's quite clear the artists did a very good job at what they were doing. There's vines and moss growing over the old bricks. you can see the scratches in the bricks and the beasts armor. The art is seriously impressive.
The sound is slightly less impressive, though still absolutely fine. Sound is more important gameplay wise than artistically though. If you are in an apparently cleared out area, but can hear an enemy shuffling around this could very well mean there is a secret area you have yet to find, and that said secret area will contain an enemy. Or of course, perhaps the area isn't as clear as you thought. And the audio is well done enough that it never fails in this task.
One thing I do really like is that there are no random encounters, or respawning enemies. Once you clear an area, that area is clear. This can be quite important if you have to retreat and lick your wounds before trying something again.
One gripe some people have is that the combat is easy to sort of.... gimmick. Due to the grid based nature of the game, it can be easy to avoid most attacks of the enemies by simply side stepping left or right. And if you have a 2x2 area to fight in you can pretty well safely engage most enemies in the game. The combat can get a lot more dangerous real quick if you're backed into a corner or facing multiple enemies, but single enemies in even remotely open areas are almost more of a chore than a danger. And you can stand there and just try to tank your way through the fight, and not dance cutely around the enemy, but it just feels kinda foolish. I could stand here and get hit, or move over and not get hit. Why would I not move?
All in all though, very cool game, I'm very happy to see the guys behind it did well enough to make a sequel, and I'm thrilled to see how fucking awesome the sequel looks.Gameplay: 9 out of 10
Story: N/A
Visuals: 8 out of 10
Audio: 7 out of 10
Overall: 8.5 tiny hidden buttons out of 10
