14 DAY TRIAL // I was smiling all the way through my first couple of hours of Legend of Grimrock, even though they involved repeatedly bumping into walls, missing a ton of attacks against slugs and being unceremoniously killed by a mushroom that was half my size.
This game does not excel when it comes to graphics, the story is mostly suggested rather than being fully explained and the gameplay mechanics are obscure at times, but it has managed to capture my imagination in a way that has escaped better-funded projects like Yakuza or even, to some degree, Mass Effect 3.
The concept is pretty simple: a party of four creatures (choose between man, lizard, minotaur and insect) are seeking to exit the dungeon built into Grimrock mountain after being condemned for unspecified crimes.
The control scheme requires some getting-used-to-it time (I still need to sometimes remember that Q and E turn me around), and it also took me a few seconds standing before my first slug enemy to understand how attacking works and that characters in the second line can only attack with spells and ranged weapons.
So far the game has not been very challenging, with enemies conveniently easy to detect before they can launch a surprise attack and with puzzles that are pretty straight forward.
But the one battle where I was killed quickly and without being able to react in any meaningful way suggests that things can quickly get harder as legend of Grimrok progresses, and given the layout of the dungeons, I also suspect that the challenge level for the puzzles will also go up.
Also be sure to save often via the Main Menu because there’s no Quick Save option yet (apparently, a patch will introduce it soon).
Take a look at the attached video to see how I created my party and my first few tentative steps through the dungeon, which involves some bumping into walls but no death.