This is quite a good game. It's really very much unlike modern games, because the movement is very, well, antiquated. It's also not a game you can pound through level after level, it's much slower paced than that and has taken some adjusting after being used to modern RPGs.
I can envision getting stuck at some point and wondering where the heck I'm supposed to find some gem I didn't get, but hopefully that won't happen.
Well, I've uncovered as much as I can at the moment. Ran into a couple puzzles I just can't figure out. One in particular is with the block in the cemetery. Will work on it more tomorrow.
In the runes of desarune, but it isn't as if the hint is particularly overt.
I have all but two power gems now and will complete the game in a few hours at the most. I have 19 into it.
The game is very good. It is also at times quite stupid, or I am. Some of the puzzles are really silly to be honest. Some make me proud be be done them and are life affirming and others are kind of wtf was that. The cemetary is one such example, but a couple of others are very off the wall. I will admit to increasingly using YouTube vids to crank through it.
If you are intent on getting through this game entirely by yourself I strongly urge you to take notes and carefully read every note you come across, plus probably write them on a piece of paper. Also mark notations in your map liberally.
I didn't make a firearms person but my party have enough spare points in most characters now that I tried it out and I must say firearms are trash. Don't bother with them at all. Even the hand cannon with its exceptionally limited ammunition does woefully little damage--way less than the 40-120 it claims.
My battle Mage throughout the game has been by far the most important. Fire and air are CRUCIAL. Get fire to five and air to three so that you can do meteor storm, it is boss.
I also wouldn't bother with light weapons on a human again. Dual wielding sucks because the weapons do so much less damage and you lose a shield. My Minotaur with heavy kills it but only since I have upgraded his accuracy a bit.
I don't think anything I wrote there is really a spoiler.
They can still miss, though I think missile weapons are probably better, particularly because at level 4 or 5 you ignore 20 of enemy's armor and you never run out of ammo, since it can be picked up 100% of the time. The repeater gun might be okay (I came upon it and just left it there), but would chew through ammo.
Alright, beat the game yesterday. I didn't like it as much as the first one for two reasons:
- Greater focus on combat, and the combat is harder to boot. I dislike the combat in Grimrock, as it's very shallow, so having to do more of it AND having each battle take longer bored me. I beat the game on normal, but I would recommend playing it on easy.
- Not enough puzzles, and the ones that were included aren't as good as the first game's. The first Grimrock impressed me by how much they were able to accomplish with simple mechanics (pressure plates, teleporters, gates, and trapdoors mainly). The variety in puzzles/riddles from these few mechanics was immense. Grimrock 2 adds a few mechanics yet doesn't provide puzzles as interesting as the first one. I would say the puzzles in this one are less involved and shorter. You either get the solution, and carry it out in a few seconds, or you don't and you're stuck. I felt the first game had more puzzles where you first had to figure out the "trick", and then had to figure out how to implement that knowledge.
As for the positives: I really like the exploration aspect of this game, and the contiguous nature of the world. In particular seeing the the Sleet Island area for the first time was awesome. I was also blown away by their inclusion of
the desert
.
I'd say the two games are different enough to warrant playing both of them, even if I liked the first one better.
27 hours in and still only have 13 gems, one of which I came about in an area that you could only find by accident. I don't know how some folks finished the game in 10 hours. I'm not even sure where the fourth orb temple is at.
As far as secrets, I know I've missed or can't figure out at least a dozen.
I finally beat it. Overall I give it a solid 8/10.
Possible spoilers below.
I found combat to be quite good. Even on normal, some fights were hard enough to make me reload once or twice. I didn't put a ton of effort into crowd control (force field / frost bombs / etc.) and really only used them when all other options were exhausted. Making sure you get into a good area where you're not going to get surrounded is absolutely necessary.
I really thought most puzzles were very well done. I only had gripes with a few
(Cemetery entrance)
, and it was mostly due to the clues not being intuitive at all. I did have to look up solutions for a few things, but mostly because I wanted to move on rather than beating my head against a wall for an extra hour. I do think that they used hidden buttons for a few too many secret areas (virtually all of them). I would have preferred to see different mechanics used, such as keeping a seemly useless item from the beginning, or having the right combo of food items, or solving a REALLY difficult puzzle for at least a few more. Even though the secrets certainly aren't required, you'd have a much less powerful party without some of them. As it stands, I felt like I needed to stare at every single wall I came upon to make sure I didn't miss something, and that gets tedious.
Speaking of buttons,
I would prefer to see several different types, even on the same wall. Generally, you'll either find a relatively large round button in the upper right/center, or a small rectangular button near the lower left. Some types of walls have different buttons, but once you see the one or two variations, you know exactly what to look for. Instead, I'd like to see 4-5 different combos for each type of wall, and some of them leading to minor caches that don't even count as secrets - some extra food, extra ammo, notes with an extra clue to a nearby puzzle, etc.
I do like the open aspect of the world, though I found that it was a bit less open than I had hoped. I got stuck for a while after clearing the Ruins of Desarune, and found one door that I couldn't open. It turns out that I needed to
go back and finish the bog / get the earth essence
first. I did like that after clearing the bog, you could presumably either
go to the pyramid -> desert, or go to the Ruins of Desarune -> sewers -> hamlet, with the cemetery thrown in somewhere
, whichever path you prefer.
Overall, I really enjoyed the game and will recommend it. It's not perfect, but it's one of the few that has held my attention from beginning to end lately.
The thing is, I am just so impressed with the puzzles they come up with, it's hard for me to say much when the sequel isn't as strong. I'm amazed at the first ones.
It's not like it's easy to come up with them.
Some things are easier to add more of - new monsters, new plot lines, new classes, new combat mechanics. But I'm just impressed with the good puzzle games.
27 hours in and still only have 13 gems, one of which I came about in an area that you could only find by accident. I don't know how some folks finished the game in 10 hours. I'm not even sure where the fourth orb temple is at.
As far as secrets, I know I've missed or can't figure out at least a dozen.
You're doing well. I had it done by now but only because I was watching a crap ton of youtube vids. I got tired of some of the puzzles and just cranked through them.
My biggest complaint about the game was in fact its open-worldness. I hated witcher 3 because it was a game on rails, but a puzzle based game I almost wish was. I was constantly fearful throughout my entire play that I had lost some item or missed a clue that was going to screw me up.
As far as combat is concerned, dancing around between four squares worked for most hard guys and made them easy. On the other hand, even near the end of the game if I got cornered by a single bad guy it was basically game over and I didn't care for that.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.