Legend of Grimrock was something of an indie revelation when it was released on the PC back in 2012. As an attempt to modernise the classic dungeon crawler, it retained the nostalgic rush that had people glued to their screens back when Might & Magic, Wizardry, and SSI’s Dungeons & Dragons games were king. At the same time it offered a clean, modern interface and an art style that was gorgeous to look at.
It was also an unmitigated commercial success that saw the release of a much expanded sequel last year. And now it looks like the developer is looking beyond the PC, because Legend of Grimrock has been ported to the Apple iPad, and immediately it’s one of the best games available on the platform.
Aside from those rare moments that you’ll be hunting for a button to press, though, Legend of Grimrock has an unparalleled sense of atmosphere, which lends the gameplay an intensity that turns its otherwise sedate pace into a tense battle for survival. It’s a game best played on a high difficulty level, because the more difficult the enemy, the more you’ll tense up when you hear its screeching echoing down the halls. Rounding a corner can expose you to some nasty shocks with powerful monsters, but there’s often some kind of warning that those who are paying attention can use to prepare for future encounters.
Combat itself is essentially turn based, but based on timers – i.e when a character executes an attack, they need to wait a couple of seconds before being able to have another swing at the enemy. The range of character classes is not extensive, being simple archetypes (warrior, rogue, wizard), but each character has a wide range of different skills that they can learn by levelling up, and that ultimately gives players a lot of control over building a balanced and varied team.
But at first newcomers to the dungeon crawler genre might find everything too limited for its own good. Unlike the bigger budget RPGs or JRPGs, the combat of Legend of Grimrock is almost subtle, with limited animation and fireworks to give players the impression that they’re in command of powerful heroes. That fits in with the survival narrative, but the lack of flash makes for a cerebral experience that genre newcomers might interpret to be boring – especially when for the first couple of dungeons, each character won’t have much more at their disposal than one weak magic spell, or a rusted old weapon they found discarded in a corner.
Deeper into the dungeon characters will have better equipment and a greater range of magic, and the combat becomes a more strategic affair. It’s never quite as deep as a Japanese dungeon crawler like Persona Q or Etrian Odyssey, but there’s enough there to support a wide range of combat and trap scenarios.
I’m not sure just how much of my love of Legend of Grimrock is because of a sense of nostalgia, or a consequence of great level design. The game offers intricate maps and some classic crawler action, and it’s as good a second time through as it was the first. Having this game on my iPad for play on the go is this retro ‘crawler fan’s dream.
– Matt S.
Editor-in-Chief
Find me on Twitter: @digitallydownld
