m0rd0r

Apr 172012
 
Legend of Grimrock, level 2 map.

Legend of Grimrock, level 2 map.

You made it from level 1?

Good. There is a chance you are an old style dungeon crawler then πŸ˜‰

Immediately to your left is the secret room you’ve fallen from level 1 if you followed my advice.

If not, now is the moment to loot it.

There is new minor monster fight while you go south to find the key for the door.

Not so minor, because the poison cloud hurts a lot.

The key is laying on the floor beside the column in the southwestern-most room on the map. Just have a look on the floor, luckily there is a torch nearby to help you.

Also beside the key, you will find a compas. Useful item if you draw your own map, can put it in your hand if you want, and it will always point north with the red arrow.

Go back now, open the door and go ahead.

The inscription says “Shelter left, cells right”.

The shelter is actually a secret room which can be opened by placing a torch on the empty torch stand (see picture). Good helmet inside but with penalty until you learn heavy armors:

Put the torch in the empty torch stand.

Put the torch in the empty torch stand.

Loot and go south.

Now. There is one small trick the next corridor.

Find the cell which holds 3 arrows and a brown rag.

The key to exit this corridor is hidden under the rag.

Get the rag and you will see the key.

Next room has 2 floor plates for your excess items which you don’t need anymore. Drop something on both plates to open the door.

And there is a small brick on the eastern part of the room, that will open the cell with the arrows, so you can collect them.

Very useful arrows, but they only work the first time – after they are used once as poisonous arrows, when you collect them – they become ordinary.

(you still don’t have a bow, so don’t worry about them now).

The corridor after this, has 3 rooms. All of them – bad and puzzly. (Oh … and a small flying monster which you need to kill before this)

The room with the snails is opened by leaving a weapon in the alcove (collect it when done with the room). Any weapon will do.

The first iron key is there.

The door with the teleport leads you to the holding cells (northwest part of the map)

There are 2 buttons, one of them rotates the contents of the cells, the other resets.

Probably there is ideal case in which you pull only the bag, but I suggest you take the skeleton out too. Cheap XP.

The bag has a helmet, food and the second iron key.

Go back through the teleport and use the iron keys on the 2 doors.

Have in mind the other room … the one with the inscription “Enter thy grave”.

In case you feel ready to kill 3 skeletons – enter it.

The fight sucks. All 3 of them start to get out 1-by-1 when you press the plate. But the door closes and you can’t use the coward trick (take them 1-by-1 by closing the door and resting after each kill).

My tactics was to lure the first skeleton out and to take his place in the small alcove where he stood.

But I reloaded 3 times and died until I took all 3 of them.

Either skip this fight for later or abandon it. The rewards are a cloack, unenchanted bone amulet and a scroll explaining Ice shards (see the picture):

Ice shards runes for the mage in Legend of Grimrock

Ice shards runes

If you manage to kill them – Pull all levers to open the gate again.

Next room with the blue auto-save-healing-stone needs 2 keys to pass.

East and west corridors has them.

West has two flyers which can be taken down with coward tactics.

Then press the button inside one of the rooms, another place with another button opens, press it, third place with a button and another flier, kill it and press it.

In the room with the first button a secret room opens with a copper key and throwing knife.


One down.

East has a teleport and a secret button.

Teleport takes you back to the button always, so you can’t pass it normally.

By pressing the button the teleport disappears for 1-2 seconds.

Not enough to turn back and pass.

So you need to make 3 steps backwards immediately after pressing the button.

Immediately.

3 steps.

Fall into the trap door – if you want a tasty mushroom. (you will return on the other side of the teleport though).

Otherwise, throw a stone in front of you and the door will shut.

In the next room there is another short fight and alcove with the second key.

Get back to the blue stone and open.

The teleport leads you to the north part of the level.

The room that follows after the teleport is opened by another “loose brick”

3 mushroom herders. But you can use cowardice and divide them, killing them one by one again. Just use the portcullis.

The next part of the level is quite straight forward, only the fight before the next level sucks.

4 skeletons will come thrusting spears at you. The good part is – they are grouped. The bad part is – there are four of them and they hit hard.

You can’t fight them by ordinary means, they do too much damage.

The best tactics is to run around them and cast fireburst with your mage. Then side step and run until your mage recharges.

The good in fireburst is – they will all take damage from each burst.

Try it and you will be amazed how quickly and easy they fall.

There are also 3 hidden rooms. All of them have buttons or levers, only the demon head needs you to … stare at him for 10 seconds.

Then the door opens and there is a treasure behind.

So … the whole level has 6 secrets, 2 iron doors, 1 treasure and above 30 monsters. I hope you took them all.

Descend to “Level 3: Pillars of light”.

 Posted by at 12:32 am
Apr 162012
 
Legend of Grimrock level 1 map

Legend of Grimrock level 1 map

Not too hard time in the first level of the game.

In the first room you need to get the torch and the door will open. (it is written on the wall, just click the inscription for translation.)

Also in this room, immediately after you start the game – behind your back is the first secret room with a projectile weapon and a pair of boots. (Thanks to ErPanfi for pointing this out) You will find a loose brick on the south-east wall of the room.

Then you will get some basic things known by reading the walls like pulling levers and chains.

In one of the corridors you will need to leave a stone on a floor plate to open a door. Then few squares further you will see another inscription saying “Loose rock” which means – check the nearby wall for a bit different broken brick and press it.

There is a side corridor with an opened trap door. The inscription says you need to throw a stone to the floor plate behind it so it closes for you to pass over.

I suggest you first FALL in the trap door and loot the secret room on level 2 below (there is a teleport back to level 1). And when you get back – throw a stone to close the trap door and get the items in the alcove there.

Go around (use the right hand rule to make sure you found all stuff). Collect everything you like. There are some rags laying around to equip your characters.

If you feel lost anyway – press Tab (map) or if you are hardliner dungeon crawler – draw your own map. (There is a PDF file in the game install folder for you to print and draw the map with notes).

If you choose to use map (options menu) – Notes are taken by clicking on the map and writing a note.

Notes are deleted by right clicking them. Useful if you put all your heavy useless junk in one room and want to remember where you left it.

Fireburst spell

Fireburst, your first spell

Spells are cast by right-clicking, choosing runes and then right-clicking the blue button beside the runes.

First spell you can cast is fireburst. You will find a scroll explaining what rune do you need. (only top-left one that looks like a triangle pointing up). Just don’t cast it against a wall or you will burn badly.

But enough of this… back to exploring.

Few snails will try to bite you. Fighting is done by right-clicking your heroes hands. But you better not go bare handed – equip the knives you found laying around.

Find the key in one of the alcoves and get to the room with the head.

The inscription says you need to return his sight.

Which actually means you need to find 2 sapphires to put instead of eye-balls in this statue.

There are 2 rooms with monsters, one north and one south.

Only the north one is tricky, so you take south one first.

South room has 2 plates, one trap door and 3 snails for killing.

FALL in the trap door and loot the room below. The teleport will return you back. You can unlock this room from level 2, so there is nothing more to do here.

Close the trap door and kill the snails.

Loot the side rooms.

Open the portcullis and get the sapphire.

North room is bad if you try to be hero.

Use the coward tactic instead:

  • Stay in front of the portcullis.
  • Open.
  • Kill mushroom.
  • Close portcullis.
  • Rest. (R key)
  • Rinse and repeat.

(you will probably get your first collective dream while sleeping. Read it all by clicking with the mouse… if you played Ultima Underworld – you will get some memories)

When all mushrooms are down – go get the herbs (you will find mortar and pestle later on level 2) and take the sapphire.

Button for a secret room in Legend of Grimrock

Button for a secret room in Legend of Grimrock

North wall where the sapphire alcove lays has a button opening secret room north from there. Press it and collect the stuff.

Now back to the head.

SAVE the game!

Push the “eyes” in and fight the skeleton.

The shield is good and the pike is … well – let’s say useful for your back heroes to thrust in the battle instead of slacking.

Unlock the hidden room with the small hidden bricks, get the healing from the big blue auto-save stone and go to level 2.

You are done here.

3 secret rooms, 13 monsters (check your stats if you found all of them)

Descend to level 2.


 Posted by at 12:23 pm
Apr 152012
 
Legend of Grimrock, Snail fight

Legend of Grimrock, Snail fight

I was a bit preoccupied with Skyrim lately and somehow missed this game when it showed on the market.

At first I was a bit

“Doh! $16 for an RPG that can barely fill a whole CD”

I did some small research and found I was completely WRONG πŸ˜€

It is not the graphics or the music which makes this game good.

It has the spirit of the old games from DOS, when you were young (well…, some of you may have not been born yet).

In the same time, the graphics and sound are far from outdated. The game is demanding some hardware to play on best details.

So … if you missed any of the following:

Legend of Grimrock, Runes inscriptions are read with a click

Legend of Grimrock, Runes inscriptions are read with a click

  • Eye of the Beholder
  • Eye of the Beholder: The legend of Darkmoon
  • Eye of the Beholder: Assault on Myth Drannor
  • Lands of Lore: The throne of chaos
  • Ultima Underworld: The Stygian abyss

… this game is EXACTLY for you! You will cry and screem and not sleep until 4 am. I promise!

Why you will love Legend of Grimrock?

  1. It has the depth of Eye of the Beholder with all the puzzles but you don’t need to know ADnD rules to play It.
  2. It has the good eye candy and all the secret rooms and “head scratching” from Lands of Lore.
  3. (If you miss Bacatta – there is a minotaur with you in Grimrock – at least as strongΒ  and big and sturdy and … sorry – not having 4 hands)
  4. It has the huge abyss and you are thrown there, because you are “a criminal” and criminals are thrown in this vertical dungeon-with-supposedly-no-escape to be absolved from all crimes (if they can ever escape the dungeon).
  5. Legend of Grimrock, Level 1 map

    Legend of Grimrock, Level 1 map

    The MAP! It has squares πŸ˜€ … and if you are a hardliner dungeon crawler – the game authors provide a small PDF file with squares and notes, so you can DISABLE MAP feature in the game and draw your own map on paper. With notes ;).

  6. The fight is taken 1:1 from EOB except the spells. You right click the weapon slot and you do slash, throw, cast, block, etc. – whatever is equipped in your hand. 2 weaker chars on the back don’t take hits (if not surrounded) but pump with arrows and spells while 2 tank characters in front take all the hits on their plate armors.
  7. Fight is dynamic – if you are lazy and disorganized – you die. No pausing for checking inventory, so you better be prepared.
  8. You can’t attack from the two chars in the back with weapons in the beginning, but later you find spears and pikes from skeleton fights and … if you insist – arm them and brute force everything regardless you have stronger spells πŸ˜€
  9. Spells are made from 9 runes. You need to know the runes and have the skill level in either of the elements. Otherwise, they simply fizzle. The first spell scroll can be found on level 1 or guessed by randomly casting each rune.
  10. Projectile weapons can be recollected and reused. Collection is automated when you walk over slain corpses.
  11. Traps are not always *bad* and can often drop you on a secret room with items.
  12. Plenty of secret rooms (above 70) on all the levels with so many ways to find and open them – you will love them.
  13. You can rest everywhere. Even in behind a portcullis with strong monster on the other side πŸ˜‰ (this is actually how the mushrooms on level 1 are beaten)
  14. You need food to operate normally and can’t rest if you are hungry.
  15. Everyone can wear everything, regardless if S/he is proficient or not. (with quite bad penalty though, but still – Mage with plate armor and pike is still quite sturdy)
Legend of Grimrock, puzzle. Need 2 stones to pass.

Legend of Grimrock, puzzle. Need 2 stones to pass.


So, is the game worth ~ $16?

If you miss the old dungeon crawler games – By all means, buy it.

If you have a hightech PC with lots of RAM, quad core or better, video card which can fry eggs while working… stick with Skyrim.

If you are in my shoes – buy both games πŸ˜‰

Have a look at the paper doll below and the statistics. Have you seen such beauty and simplicity in other games lately?!

Get the game and try it. I already underslept for 2 evenings.

Legend of Grimrock, Paper doll.

Paper doll.

Legend of Grimrock, Paper doll - stats.

Paper doll - stats.

Legend of Grimrock, Paper doll - linear skill tree.

Paper doll - linear skill tree.

Legend of Grimrock, gameplay statistics

Gameplay statistics

Convinced? Start the game and start exploring. Level 1 is very easy πŸ˜‰

 Posted by at 1:03 pm