Legend of Grimrock - Reviews @ Rampant Coyote, Edge Online

Here's a new pair of Legend of Grimrock reviews, starting with fellow indie developer Jay 'Rampant Coyote' Barnson:

The longer answer: If this was 1993, reviewers would be bitching about it. “It’s just a Dungeon Master Clone,” they’d complain. “Didn’t we just play this game last year? And the year before?” They’d further lament, “Legend of Grimrock offers little in the way innovation on a tired game mechanic. It’s a competent and entertaining entry but if offers few innovations to help it stand out from the crowd.”

Actually, if this was 1993, they’d take one look at the graphics, and their heads would explode. But in a good way. Even if the gameplay was total crap and they’d all have thrown their backs out heaping praise upon the game. But with solid gameplay behind it, there’d be little to stem the gush.

But regardless, this is not 1993. It’s nearly twenty years later.  The “Dungeon Master” subgenre is long gone.  Or it was, until this week. There’s no ‘crowd’ to stand out from. The graphics are still quite pretty, but unremarkable when compared to AAA games. Compared to other indie games, yes, the graphics are gush-worthy. And while you are limited to turning and moving only in the four cardinal directions, as usual with the game type, you can hold down the right mouse button to get something of a ‘freelook’ to admire the environment.

...and another at Edge Online, with a score of 7/10:

Discovering the exploits becomes the main pleasure of an otherwise rudimentary system. The first time you meet an ogre, you might be caught off guard by his ability to turn and strike at the same time. But there’s a simple process you can (ab)use to defeat it. Another cheeky path to victory, that worked in Dungeon Master, too, involves opening a portcullis, landing a cowardly couple of blows, then closing it again. Grimrock’s puzzles are fairer than those of its predecessors, and the pace between them and monster encounters is well-judged. Switches, pressure plates, and miscellaneous trickery conspire to fox you, but in the first half of the game the puzzles and their solutions are kept close. As you go deeper, the clues get more oblique and distant and the potential for satisfaction and frustration rises. Grimrock rarely helps you out: drop a key in the wrong place, and you’re going to have to find it on your own.