Legend of Grimrock (PC, 2012) WIP
Graphics-7.5 Sound-7.5 Control-7 Challenge-7.5 Story-6?
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7? Originality-5.5
Overall Score-7?
+
Create and control a 4-man party
Control which skills to increase on level up/skill allocation on level up
Basic formation effects (flanking does more damage, two rows of characters and you need longer weapons to reach from the back row)
Satisfying sfx overall
Save anywhere? (there are also save crystals that restore health and energy)
Difficulty and control options
Tooltips on everything (doesn't explain for example how to use herbs though)
Some interesting races (minotaur, lizardman, insectoid - 4 in total)
Dual wielding
Pretty nice lighting effects
Well made laustrophobic and isolating atmosphere
Auto-mapper (optional)
Char traits (pick 2 to start with)
Pretty good length (13 level dungeon, 10-15 hours?)
Rest to replenish health (can be attacked, some dream sequences)
Boxes and sacks that increase inventory space
+/-
Tile-based movement with 90 degree turning (can look around with the mouse)
Can't move past medium sized enemies if you get surrounded
Hunger mechanic (drains fairly slowly)
Need to find and hold torches in a weapon slot to see in most areas and they slowly fizzle out
No party banter (no spoken words at all?)
Can't change formations (just the order)
No diagonal attacks
No blocking
Only 3 classes (fighter, mage, rogue)
No outdoor areas?
Enemies can follow you down pits
Some skill increasing bonuses have no relation to the skill itself (increase throwing weapon skill for better vitality and similar stuff)
-
Need to right click on characters' weapon icons below their portraits to attack (like in Eye of the Beholder etc.; makes you look at the icons instead of the action and you also can't attack with everyone at once, the icons are kinda small too so it's fairly easy to miss the right one in a stressful situation) - EotB 3 had a "party attack" button
Lacking tutorial
Some other control issues (no hotkeys for char sub menus, if you hold down forward after having moved a tile the party will automatically move two more tiles forward, can't move back while halfway between tiles, need to manually pick keys out of inventories and use them on locks, need to place the cursor near the ground to drop stuff, the tile-based movement can be annoying when trying to pick stuff up lying between two tiles, need to re-ready a spell after each casting, won't auto-pick up thrown weapon projectiles if the character throwing it changed to a different weapon, can't switch your torch for one on a wall by clicking on the other one with a torch in (the player's/the ninth) hand - need to switch at the weapon slot instead which is just as fast but feels inconsistent)
Ambient sfx from monsters make it sound like they're right next to you when they're really on the other side of a wall
Very samey environments
Generic character portraits overall
Empty flasks don't look empty when on the ground
Can't pause (fairly easy to forget rune combos at the worst of times)
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7? Originality-5.5
Overall Score-7?
+
Create and control a 4-man party
Control which skills to increase on level up/skill allocation on level up
Basic formation effects (flanking does more damage, two rows of characters and you need longer weapons to reach from the back row)
Satisfying sfx overall
Save anywhere? (there are also save crystals that restore health and energy)
Difficulty and control options
Tooltips on everything (doesn't explain for example how to use herbs though)
Some interesting races (minotaur, lizardman, insectoid - 4 in total)
Dual wielding
Pretty nice lighting effects
Well made laustrophobic and isolating atmosphere
Auto-mapper (optional)
Char traits (pick 2 to start with)
Pretty good length (13 level dungeon, 10-15 hours?)
Rest to replenish health (can be attacked, some dream sequences)
Boxes and sacks that increase inventory space
+/-
Tile-based movement with 90 degree turning (can look around with the mouse)
Can't move past medium sized enemies if you get surrounded
Hunger mechanic (drains fairly slowly)
Need to find and hold torches in a weapon slot to see in most areas and they slowly fizzle out
No party banter (no spoken words at all?)
Can't change formations (just the order)
No diagonal attacks
No blocking
Only 3 classes (fighter, mage, rogue)
No outdoor areas?
Enemies can follow you down pits
Some skill increasing bonuses have no relation to the skill itself (increase throwing weapon skill for better vitality and similar stuff)
-
Need to right click on characters' weapon icons below their portraits to attack (like in Eye of the Beholder etc.; makes you look at the icons instead of the action and you also can't attack with everyone at once, the icons are kinda small too so it's fairly easy to miss the right one in a stressful situation) - EotB 3 had a "party attack" button
Lacking tutorial
Some other control issues (no hotkeys for char sub menus, if you hold down forward after having moved a tile the party will automatically move two more tiles forward, can't move back while halfway between tiles, need to manually pick keys out of inventories and use them on locks, need to place the cursor near the ground to drop stuff, the tile-based movement can be annoying when trying to pick stuff up lying between two tiles, need to re-ready a spell after each casting, won't auto-pick up thrown weapon projectiles if the character throwing it changed to a different weapon, can't switch your torch for one on a wall by clicking on the other one with a torch in (the player's/the ninth) hand - need to switch at the weapon slot instead which is just as fast but feels inconsistent)
Ambient sfx from monsters make it sound like they're right next to you when they're really on the other side of a wall
Very samey environments
Generic character portraits overall
Empty flasks don't look empty when on the ground
Can't pause (fairly easy to forget rune combos at the worst of times)