Legend of Grimrock 2 - Under the Radar

HardcoreGamer tells us why they think Legend of Grimrock 2 is an incredibly underrated title.

Just a little over a year ago, Almost Human Games released Legend of Grimrock 2,  a follow up to 2011’s Legend of Grimrock. In a sense riding that first wave of gaming nostalgia that produced so many throw-back platformers and roguelikes, Legend of Grimrock 2 and its predecessor instead attempted to re-create the look, feel, and playstyle of early RPGs like The Bard’s Tale, Wizardry or Dungeon Master, albeit with more contemporary graphics and a few concessions to more recent mechanics.

Legend of Grimrock 2 is a dungeon crawler in which the player controls a party of four characters, either pre-rolled or crafted by the player, and of course a big part of the fun is taking the time to build the ultimate, flexible party that can handle any situation. The tutorial introduces the basic and not especially compelling story set up:  you are washed up on a beach and must explore, eventually finding and defeating the elusive Island Master who has both trapped and guided you. The opening few hours introduce the player to the game’s basic movement controls and combat, previewing the kinds of environmental puzzles and secrets that will form the core of the game. Like the first Grimrock, Grimrock 2 uses a square-based system of movement, instead of a true free-roam mechanic. It takes some getting used to.

As in RPGs both old-school and recent, there are special armors, items and weapons to find, crafting and secret areas to discover. There are many enemies — humans and magical creatures and monstrosities — and it’s easy to wander into an area that is far too difficult. Those early RPGs were difficult and opaque, and while we’ve had several generations of games since, Grimrock 2 reminds us of the pre-Bethesda days when role-playing games were truly for the hardcore enthusiast. Character creation is deep and satisfying and so is combat when it’s dialed in and the party is functioning well, but going into enemy encounters without a strategy usually ends in disaster and a party wipe.

Graphically, Grimrock 2 is a huge step forward from the humble (i.e. ugly) looking Grimrock. It’s still a low-budget enterprise, so you shouldn’t expect anything approaching Skyrim or Witcher 3 level visuals. There are some very nice lighting effects and the dungeons are appropriately creepy and forbidding.

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