Legend of Grimrock II - Rated

A few weeks ago I completed Legend of Grimrock II. It held to the very end and is one of the best games in its genre. It is even better than the first installment because of its variety.

It is not a roleplaying game but rather a realtime-action roleplaying game which derive from Dungeon Master in the 80s. You will never meet any NPC and there is no shop or economy. But what it offers is a truly amazing immersion and experience.

I won´t give it a full review here since there are already so many high quality ones out there but what I like is the excellent difficulty balance regarding puzzles and combat. You really feel the progression after completing puzzles or obstacles and if you get stuck you could usually try to enter other areas and then return. There are probably hundreds of minor and major problems to overcome that is not combat oriented. 90% of them I managed to solve of my own. I have left some unsolved but the one I have got totally stuck one that are mandatory in completing the game I had to check out. Despite this I feel very comfortable knowing that I solved almost all of them on my own. A far better ratio than was the case with the first game to me which I found was harder (or I have got used to the type of problems).

I thought it was a little easier to get hold of food in this sequel than in the first. There is a huge river where you could find a lot of food and there are a few places where enemies are spawned that generates food. Despite this, there where seldom ample amounts of food so I had to be careful.

Combat is quite varied and while the traditional run-around-your-foe works for the most part here the enemies have their own attack speeds and abilities. Fire elementals was quite a nuiscance since they are fast and could only be killed by a distance with spells. The Air elementals was very tough until I discovered they could be killed with dispel spell and so on. There are a few major boss encounters. Most of them was not too hard but not too easy either. A perfect balance.

The graphics are suberb in the game and the environments beautiful. Most monsters are very well done as well. Music and sound effects are top notch. I have already included the main theme on my youtube playlist (including the excellen credits/ending theme). It reminds me much of the main theme of Game of Thrones.

If you are used to easy progress games with instant rewards, look somewhere else. This game rewards patience and problem solving, preservation of limited supplies and persistence. 

I am already looking forward to a sequel. Meanwhile I suppose there are self-made scenarios out there. 

Since I lack a quadcore processor I have had to skip Dragon Age Inquisition for now and instead bought Risen 3 which I am currently occupied with.

My minireview - without going into details - is as follows.

Section	Rating
Gameworld & Story	1.5
Economy	1
NPC & Interactions	1
Monsters, tactics & combat system	3
Magic system	3
Character generation & development	2.5
Map design	4.5
Manual	3
Graphics, Sound and Interface	4
Summary CRPG value	23.5
Gameplay	5