Legend of Grimrock

There's one thing very particular with the Elder Scrolls series and that's its perspective.  The series is, to my knowledge, the only RPG that is specifically designed to be played in first-person.  Yes, I know other games can also do first-person like Aralon: Sword and Shadow for the iPad, the Two Worlds and Gothic series but it's obvious that the developers had first-person more as an afterthought just like 3rd-person is for the Elder Scrolls series.

It CAN work, but is it ideal?  I just saw gameplay footage of Two Worlds II and it has a very odd camera for first-person view.  So much so that it feels like a 3rd-person camera with an invisible character.

When Oblivion came out, I immediately connected to the game.  Let me back up a little: At the time, my experience with RPGs was with the Bioware formula such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, games with Fallout, as well as the seemingly indefinite yet painful collection of Final Fantasy games.  None of which I've EVER come close to completing with the exception of the first Neverwinter Nights game.  Why?  Well, quite simply, there were two problems:

1) I know it's all based off table-top D20 games like Dungeons & Dragons and I can't really blame the games either for this because RPGs were known to be very limited in their presentation but I had a VERY hard time playing these games because they were all in third person view.  I just can't connect.

Oddly enough, I never had a problem with Diablo...  I haven't really figured out why but I guess it was the geometry-wars aspect of it that made it more like an arcade game.  Although, I do distinctively remember thinking how cool it would be to play Diablo in first-person back then.

2) They all had characters I didn't care about.  Party of six, managing inventories, etc.  I don't like playing nanny.  I know that's what a lot of folks care for, to min-max each character to be miniature gods but that isn't my cup of tea.

RPGs weren't my thing but Oblivion caught my attention.  There's a lot of things that the Elder Scrolls series did right in my book and the first-person perspective is one of them.  They're the closest thing to what I believe are true RPGs.   I mention Oblivion specifically because that's the game that made me fall in love with the series.

When I first started doing my Lets Play of Morrowind, I noticed a problem: combat didn't feel right.  Oblivion (and even Skyrim) have a feel that most people would associate with the shooter genre.  Now, I'm not here to debate whenever or not it made them less of an RPG because of it but I will agree that the combat is more akin to a first-person shooter.  It's not so much the camera but the responsiveness of the actions.  Skyrim feels very close to Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, essentially a FPS with swords and sorcery.  I'm fine with that.

So what was "wrong" with Morrowind's combat?  Well, to put it bluntly, it's archaic.  I didn't see it at first because the presentation was misleading; it looked too much like Oblivion.  I realized something, though: "I've played games like this before...  I just didn't have mouse-look then".  It was then that I made the connection to dungeon-crawler games like Wizardry and Ultima: Underworld.

The Elder Scrolls is an evolution of those games; it just has more RPG elements thrown in.  The resemblance is even more blatant with Daggerfall.  With games like Legend of Grimrock, it's funny how we've gone full circle.

If you didn't know already, I love dungeon crawlers.  Legend of Grimrock was on my radar pretty fast. I never really played much of Wizardry and I never saw a copy of Ultima: Undeworld in my life but I know that Legend of Grimrock is the same kind of beast.  My dungeon crawlers were games like Rogue, Nethack and Diablo which share similar concepts but are executed completely differently.  When I saw Grimrock's trailer, I knew I had to get it despite having some concerns.

"Wait," you might ask "having party members in RPGs isn't okay but it's okay in dungeon crawlers?"  Well no, that was my main concern.  To my pleasure, this game keeps the management to a minimum.  You have dudes, they need weapons, you feed them, that's it!  I would've preferred to be a single character but I found that there wasn't anything in the game that made it a chore... like most RPGs do (hell, I spent HOURS setting up the AI in Dragon Age: Origins so that I wouldn't have to be bothered controlling them in combat).

I am truly loving this game because it brings back the dread of encountering monsters.  I've always considered Diablo II a lesser game than the original Diablo due to it's focus on killing rather than survival.  Hell (get it?  it's a pun!), even the original Diablo is weak in this regard compared to other dungeon crawlers.  I'm kinda over it now and I'm still insanely excited for Diablo III because the monsters so far in the beta are really fun to kill... some are genuinely challenging.  It's got cool characters with unique abilities from one another and an awesome story to boot.  Basically, I play Diablo for different reasons now.

Nonetheless, as much as I'll most likely forget about this game once Diablo III finally comes out, it's REALLY good to see a modern game with old-school ideals.

No.  Dark Souls doesn't count.  The controls are horrible and the invisible barriers once you start fighting bosses is really cheap.  I want to fight monsters, not control schemes.  I know there's a PC version on the way so I might try it again then.  I believe that's where it belongs; not that there's anything wrong with people who enjoy the console version.

Legend of Grimrock even has a mode that forces you to draw your own map!  I'm not crazy, I play with the automated map but it's a cool option to have.  I think my biggest disappointment with the game is the lack of randomization.  I love randomized content, especially in my dungeon crawlers.  Oh sure, the puzzles are intricate and you couldn't do that with randomized content, but I would've loved to have a second dungeon to select at the start of the game that was entirely random even if it was void of puzzles.

That would've been perfect!

There's a few things I don't like in Legend of Grimrock, though. mainly the timing puzzles where you're required to flip a switch and manoeuvre quickly to get by a door; it just doesn't work in a grid-based game.... oh!  and those god-damned spiders!

I'm playing with a bear-handed minotaur up front with a duel-wielding assassin that is practically untouchable.  Behind, I got a earth/fire insectoid mage next to a deadly marksman woman.  I'm pretty happy with my crew.

Oh, and if you were wondering how I can manage to not loot everything when my play the Elder Scrolls.  Play Legend of Grimrock for a while and you'll know exactly how the games I used to play got me into the habit of only looting what I needed.