Its like playing Eye Of The Beholder, Dungeon Master, Black Crypt, Ravenloft etc for the very first time.
Monster design and animations are amazing and terrifying. Its like actually being in the world of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS with familiar classics from the table top games gracing ones eye with their artistic beauty. Running into new enemies is a major adrenaline rush bringing back memories of playing EYE OF THE BEHOLDER etc where part of the reward of continuing was seeing the great looking monsters.
Combat is a strategic joy as giant bats lunge and fly at my party repeatedly as we try to time our acttacks for best effect and hopefully a critical or two. Animations really add to the immersion making one get lost in the excitement of the moment. Alot of times i'll find myself having to acttack from long range or retreat lest my entire party is slaughtered with no one left alive to bring them to huge blue crystals which can bring your fellow adventurers back from the dead.
Sound effects are subtle and all consuming adding to the realism of the experiance with plenty of retro inducing emotional thrills. Its nice for a change to actually hear my characters give a blood curdling scream as they die compared to other rpgs where they hardly give out a whimper. So far the only music i have heard is the intro theme which is fabulous alive with old school adventure as if from a 1980s Conan movie or b-movie. While traveling in dungeons of Grimrock my ears are sweetly embraced by spooky ambient sound effects.
Character creation and developement is handled very well with a comfortable amount of detail to make each adventurer in ones party feel unique. You can add points to strength, dexterity etc and also put points into certain character based skills only available to certain types of characters. So certain skills will only be available to a particular class such as a rogue and others to a mage etc.
If you loved old school hardcore rpgs back in the day such as Dungeon Master and Black Crypt you owe it to your happiness to get LEGEND OF GRIMROCK. There really isnt any excuse. Just pick up a STEAM card at your local game shop such as GAMESTOP or BEST BUY add some money and go buy the game online without worrying about the hassle of credit cards etc.
LEGEND OF GRIMROCK. Truly it is legend.