Legend of Grimrock came out today, long-awaited nerd holy grail, a throwback to “old-school” rpg days of making maps with graph paper, the days of Wizardry and Ultima Underworld, etc, running around in first person through mazes getting loot and surviving the horrible monsters that live underground. And like anything with intense games culture focus, I wanted to see if the gameplay actually held up under the hype.
I like that the non-human races (minotaur, insectoid, lizardperson) are suitably inhuman. Monstrosity is good–fuck games with elves and dwarves. Also no anthropomorphic boobs, a nice lack of fanservice.
Much has been said of skyrim’s complex ecosystem, the emergent gameplay. I recorded this earlier to demonstrate the full force of Radiant AI.
Like most people, i am enjoying skyrim because it lets you break the game. Restrictive, on-rails games often manifest their limitations in the most boring of ways. A game like skyrim thrives on these limitations, on these intersecting, shattering borders. One of the most famous examples so far is the ability to put cauldrons and buckets on people’s heads and commit the most grievous of crimes. From someone else’s account:
I lead a giant to a tower with a door too small to go inside and shot him with arrows.
I trekked up an icy mountain, blinded by howling wind, high above the clouds, and met an ice troll that could tear me apart in a single swing. I died the first time. The second time, i turned into my werewolf form, and a ferocious battle between two beasts began, one black, the other white, a dualistic duel in the screaming blizzard. He had incredible amounts of health but I beat him by PUNCHING HIM OFF THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. Did he still live? It doesn’t matter, he was out of my way, and i could lope up the rest of the mountain towards my destiny. This is a game where when you see a hairy monster coming to kill you through the pouring snow, you can respond by turning into a hairy monster of your own, and do beastly battle.
I got into an epic chase on horseback. Not every game will permit the following level of high thrills and narrow escapes:
I saw a pretty tree in a viking town. The priestess who worshipped this tree said it was sick and needed sap from the mother tree from whence it came. Seems like a good cause so i agreed. A pilgrim asked to come with. I bought a horse outside of town. So there were three of us, all setting out for the glorious expedition to the mother tree. On the way there we had to cross a treacherous fort-bridge across a river canyon, guarded by bandits. i ran screaming across the bridge, punching people off into the waterfall below with my greatsword. i looked up from my bloodlust and my companions were gone. i searched and i searched and finally i found them far below, at the foot of the cliff:
At least they died…happy.
I got to the mother tree and used a special knife that i took from an insanely powerful hag witch to cut the roots so i could get close enough to get some sap. then TREE ELEMENTALS emerged and killed all the peaceful worshippers at this beautiful tree shrine. it was so pretty, it was an indoor cave forest with sunlight pouring through cracks and bridges over cave creeks and flowers everywhere but i bathed it in blood through my foolish actions.
By the time i got back to civilization with the tree sap, my seemingly benevolent errand of piety had netted me the deaths of the pilgrim, my horse, and an entire congregation of worshippers. Not even counting the countless bandits i hacked to death on the way.
This particular purchase seems somewhat…insubstantial. another victim of over-aggressive salesmanship.
Hotsprings. The game does a lot of good things with mist, steam, clouds, and the water from which those arise. I found a creepy ice marsh and i fully expected to be assaulted by various witches, skeletons, and swamp spiders, but instead i found a hot spring in which hunters were bathing, their clothes laid out on a rock nearby. That was good.
Waterfalls are the best. Is there anything like a waterfall for hinting at limitless freedom and adventure?
is this the skyrim?!? it has to be here somewhere. regardless, this area was willing to be a steep, sheer approach and i’m down with that. games need more steep, sheer approaches.
