"Ending #30
Legend of Grimrock
Steam/PC
Developer: Almost Human
Publisher: Almost Human
Release: 2012

I used to have a board game called Hero Quest when I was a kid. I loved it! It was a gateway game to harder dru...erm, games like D&D, Vampire, and other table top games and eventually back to board games (I'm a proud board game geek). Coincidentally, I also began to take a second look at dungeon crawlers. Before this time, my largest exposure to first person RPGs of the like was Bard's Tale and I hated that game. I bought "Eye of the Beholder" and "Shining in the Darkness" back then. I dabbled with them, but quickly moved onto other RPGs.
Fast forward twelve years later and I picked up and finally beat Shining, giving it more respect and reigniting an appreciation for that style of RPG. Two years after Shining, I beat Phantasy Star. Two years after Phantasy Star, I beat Shadowgate and now Legend of Grimrock.
I love top ten lists, cause I'm a sucker for order. Given the four dungeon crawls I beat, Grimrock would rank second after Shining. The game is great, but I'm not sure it was enough to pull me back for more. I enjoyed the opening music and the sound effects were atmospheric. Graphics are decent and are done well for being programmed in Lua, but the effects do make certain reflective surfaces appear artificially shiny. Gameplay is pretty straightforward. Find better gear and attack bad guys. The battle system is very simplistic as it really just comes down to right clicking. The joy in combat actually comes from side stepping and dodging enemies to smack them. It really is pleasing to be able to pull this off flawlessly after some practice. If done correctly, you can go floors before even getting hit.
I played on Hard and Old School mode and it hurt me emotionally. I ended up getting lost several times, despite best efforts at maps and some enemies made me swear bad things against their offspring.
The story is nearly nonexistent, but tidbits of flavor in the form of Toorum's notes and the ever detached presence pushing you forward is enough as the story takes back seat to the puzzles on each floor. "You're dumped into a dungeon, find your way out," is what is it comes down to. The final boss was unexpected until you got down to the 12th floor and the battle wasn't overly difficult, but was too long to record the whole battle as I would dish out a few hits, drop down to the lower floor, heal, save, repeat. The artwork for the ending is well done and I was surprised that a game this well made was done by four people. It's worth a play if you're into this type of thing."