Potion crafting has the same appeal as well, since you have to track down ingredients and vials, find note scrolls on how to use them, and then combine them properly on an inventory grid to create your elixir.Īs much as punchy combat keeps the pace flowing, Legend of Grimrock's elaborate puzzles offer an excellent reason to take a breather and stir up the old brain juice for a bit. Scoring new spells during your travels feel more rewarding than simply gaining them automatically. While experimenting with different combinations sometimes unlocks spells through accidental tinkering, most spells aren't uncovered until you find a scroll with their formula on it. From hurling fireballs and poisonous clouds to using invisibility and protective charms, there's a good mix for magic-minded folks to play around with. Once queued up, you can fire off the magic at any time with a quick click. Spells are cast by plugging a specific rune pattern into a 3x3 grid that fits neatly over your wizard character's portrait. The unique magic system throws a neat twist into combat that requires some concentration and quick reflexes in order pull off more elaborate spells in the heat of battle. Figuring out ways to use pit traps and other elements of the environment to dispatch foes makes victory all-the-more satisfying. It's a thrill to survive these frantic surprise attacks, narrowly skirting death by a hair. Sure, you might not feel the burn in one-off scuffles against a giant snail or two, but being locked in a room that suddenly springs to life with the clanking spears of numerous undead warriors marching out of hidden alcoves will inspire panic. The real-time element adds a refreshing urgency to these encounters that keeps you alert and thinking on the fly. Since each attack your party members deliver has a brief warm-up phase before you can use it again, battles become a fast-paced synchronized dance number punctuated by staggered blows and nimble maneuvers to skirt your opponent's attacks. Swinging swords and flinging spells in Legend of Grimrock is familiar, but it never feels stale. Besides, there are much more pressing matters to worry about, like roaming bands of undead knights, swarms of spiders with poison-tipped fangs, and hulking ogres capable of wiping out your group in a heartbeat. Moving around the underground grid-based network of corridors and rooms auto-maps your progress, and though you can turn this feature off to kick it way old-school, letting the complex dungeon levels chart themselves out as you roam is much easier than scrawling everything by hand. You also never know what you'll encounter when rounding the next corner or opening a locked door, and the eerie vibe plays well off the need to scour every nook and cranny for invaluable loot. There's something ominous afoot, and it feels like it could emerge at any second to destroy you. Other nuances, like mysterious earthquakes, strange voices that appear in your dreams, and the foreboding sound of scurrying creatures stalking you in the distance add to the tension that slowly builds as you explore. The dank moss-and-root entwined stone walls feel ancient and almost alive, particularly as the warm torchlight casts shadows across their crisp detailed surface. Only a few steps into the first dungeon level, it's easy to get swept away by the thick, potent atmosphere of Grimrock's underground realm. Since the real fun comes from diving into the dungeons to amass powers and gear as you go, I appreciate that it only takes a minute or two to lock and load your crew without sacrificing depth in the character customization department. Leveling-up characters earns you skill points to dump into a broad range of weapon, armor, spell, and ability specializations, unlocking new perks and boosting your combat prowess in the process. Insectoids, for example, make great back-line spellcasters due to their heightened intelligence and naturally hardened carapace, while burly minotaurs are solid front-row combatants that get an attack boost for every human skull they're holding in their inventory. While class selection is sadly limited to fighters, rogues, and mages, cool racial perks and selectable bonus traits add enough variety to the mix to keep things interesting. Legend of Grimrock Trailer Hand-picking your four-member party is preferable to diving in with the pre-made group, and there's a good balance between accessibility and depth in the character crafting menu.
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