➤ Open-air dungeon 🎮

The first Legend of Grimrock from independent studio Almost Human was a bolt from the blue. When it came out, now more than two years ago, no one expected it to be so successful that it sold more than a million copies. Instead it was and we can well consider it one of the forerunners of the comeback of classic role-playing games, one of those titles that have demonstrated the existence of a market for genres considered dead like that of dungeon crawlers.

For this reason, the expectation born around the official sequel, announced more than a year ago, was really high, an expectation that has not been disregarded. Legend of Grimrock 2 is an intelligent sequel: on the one hand it doesn't touch the original formula one iota, while on the other it expands the whole expandable by fielding new elements. Let's say that if the model of the first chapter was Dungeon Master, this second follows the path of the Abandoned Place, trying to offer a greater variety of scenarios to players, including open spaces, while not touching the basic inspiration, well rooted in the original conception of western role-playing games, born as an attempt to virtually reproduce some mechanics and atmospheres of paper role-playing games , especially fantasy (but not only). The story begins with the sinking of a ship carrying four prisoners (party members). Awakening on the mysterious island of Nex is traumatic, surrounded as they are by creatures as monstrous as they are aggressive. They will soon discover that they have been lured to the island by an evil doc who will enjoy following them and watching them grapple with the traps he has scattered everywhere. It will take little to understand that the island is actually an immense maze full of dungeons to explore, monsters to fight and buildings to conquer. Will they be able to survive?

Find out, by reading our Legend of Grimrock 2 review, if the sword is worth dusting

Party time

As soon as the game starts, we are asked to select the difficulty level (there are three) and if we want to activate some options to make the game experience more difficult. We will thus be able to disable the automatic map, manual saves or make the crystals of life usable only once. We will also be able to choose whether to create our own group of heroes or to use those preset by the developers. Having opted for the manual generation of the party, we are faced with a screen full of numbers and values, in which we can define the characteristics of each individual hero, give them traits, decide their skills and so on. Compared to the first Grimrock, where there were four races, three classes and very few skills, here we have five races, eight classes and many more skills. The latter have been reorganized following a more classic scheme, instead of the tree one of the past. So now each skill can be assigned up to five points, accumulated by increasing experience, which unlock one or more additional skills. Having made your own assessments and distributed all the available points, all that remains is to enter the adventure.

Gameplay and surroundings

Legend of Grimrock 2 begins on a beach, with the party imprisoned inside a cage. Once you break through the bars, you can start exploring the area, where there are some really aggressive giant turtles, but not very dangerous, and some objects of little value, however useful to start filling the inventory.

The first thing you notice is that the control system is really very simple, with a few commands to move and fight, as well as to access the handy map that updates automatically as you explore the island. All extra game features are tied to items. For example, if you want to dig you must first find a shovel, while if you want to make potions you must find the classic alchemist's pestle. From this point of view the complications are really nil, probably in order not to deconcentrate the player from what he will have to face. The same magical system is immediate to use, with a complex of nine runes placed in a checkerboard pattern to be used to compose spells (similar to the one seen in the first chapter). After a more linear initial section, with a dungeon and boss to take down, Grimrock reveals its open nature allowing for freer exploration of the map. Mind you that some limits are always there, either for some enemies strategically placed to prevent the passage, or for linked puzzles. In any case there is a much greater sense of freedom than in the first chapter thanks above all to the alternation of open and closed environments, which also make exploration more varied. You soon realize that there is no shortage of things to do and that each area is full of secrets to discover and puzzles to solve.

Some are really challenging and, if at first you go fast enough in their resolution, in advanced dungeons you often get stuck fumbling over some seemingly insurmountable puzzle. In addition to the classic puzzles related to levers, spells and plates, there are also environmental ones, linked to the presence of elements such as water, one of the most insidious enemies of the first part of the adventure. Speaking of enemies, but in this case to be sliced, let's say that there are all kinds, all worthy of a good manual of modern fantasy. Undead of various dangers, wild beasts, flying predators, giant insects; nothing is really missing. Each has its own characteristics, both in attack and in defense. In total, more than forty can be counted. Staying on the cold numbers, it takes more than twenty hours to finish the game for the first time on a normal level and with no hardcore options activated. Obviously choosing a higher difficulty level will also lengthen the playing time. Note the presence of a rich editor, which allows the creation of custom levels. Whether you enjoy creating your own, whether you like to play others', it is certainly an excellent tool to extend the life of the installation files on the hard disk.

Considerations

Legend of Grimrock 2 is not only a good game, but it is one that has a high regard for its ideal target, if we want to use marketing terminology. Playing it is clear that the developers have chosen to address an audience that they consider more than intelligent, that is, capable of overcoming and appreciating even very difficult puzzles.

This is not a trivial consideration, because many design choices revolve around the conception of one's audience. Normally, games in which too many simplifications and too many aids are seen, have been conceived by considering the player as a kind of monkey, incapable of complex reasoning and easy to frustrate. Let's say that Almost Human has decided to turn to anyone who is able not to give up in the face of difficulties, disseminating the right clues to solve each puzzle, but never providing easy solutions. The greater openness of the game world, which allows you to choose the order in which to face some dungeons, also allows you to take breaks in case you are unable to overcome a particularly difficult situation. There is no claim that those who play necessarily come to the end, which then does not happen very often even in very easy titles, but there is a great deal of respect for those on the other side of the monitor, who are given big credit and who are rewarded for skills shown, not circus trainer techniques. We just have to point out some defects of the game, relative but present. The most obvious is the lack of originality, forgivable given that we are faced with an excellent title in what it does. The second problem is of a technical nature. As you can see from the screenshots, Grimrock is a beautiful title, also capable of producing suggestive landscapes, but certainly not exceptional from a graphic point of view. Not bad, given that it is not a multi-billion dollar production and that the price is not very high. Too bad, however, that every now and then there are inexplicable drops in the frame rate. Let's be clear that it is nothing compromising, since they do not affect the dynamics of the game in the least, but it is impossible not to notice them.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
Intel Core i7 2600 processor
8 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card
Windows 7 operating system

Minimum requirements

Operating system: Windows XP
Processore: Dual Core 2.33 GHz Intel o 3.0 GHz AMD
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: Geforce GTX 8800, AMD Radeon 4850 or Intel HD Graphics 5200 or better, with at least 1GB of VRAM and support for Shader Moderl 3.0. Minimum supported resolutions: 1280 × 720 and 1024 × 768.
Disk space: 2 GB
DirectX: 9.0c

Recommended Requirements

Operating system: Windows 7
Processore: Quad Core 2.66 Ghz Intel o 3.2 GHz AM
RAM: 4 GB
Video card: Geforce GTX 660 Ti or AMD Radeon 6850 or better, with at least 1GB of VRAM and support for Shader Moderl 3.0. Minimum supported resolutions: 1280 × 720 and 1024 × 768

Comment

Digital Delivery Steam, GoG, Humble Store, Official Site Price 21,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.0

Readers (26)

9.1

Your vote

If you are passionate about dungeon crawlers, or, more simply, you are curious gamers who want to try a genre they do not know, starting from the best it can offer, then The Legend of Grimrock is an essential purchase. All the charm of the first chapter has remained unchanged, plus the addition of a less linear world and a series of really bad puzzles, which will require a good dose of intelligence to be solved. Almost Human has completely beaten the competition with a masterful execution, which sins only in the inevitable lack of innovations and in some drop in the frame rate, hard to understand given the title.