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
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