Simply keeping on top of the steady release of “AAA” games is challenging enough these days, with a larger market than ever before, and a massive number of devs and publishers trying to sate that demand. Unfortunately, that often means far too many good indie titles fly under the radar without the recognition they deserve. This weekly post aims to highlight some of those games we’ve got around to playing but never got around to reviewing.

Legend of Grimrock

One of my biggest surprises this year was the release of the excellent Operencia: The Stolen Sun, and not only because it was developed by Zen Studios, a small Hungarian studio who almost exclusively released pinball games. It reminded me of just how much I love the dungeon-crawler genre and the first thing I did after completing the game was install Legend of Grimrock, from Finnish developers Almost Human Games.

Inspired by classic first-person RPGs with real-time combat (Ultima Underworld the most recognisable), a party of four is abandoned on the top of Mount Grimrock, an imposing vertical dungeon that serves as a prison, but with chance of gaining their freedom if they can survive the decent. You can select your party members from an existing pool or customise your own (far more fun). Each party member will have their own strengths and weakness based on their species and class, and there's a robust attribute, skill, trait, and hunger system to manage, providing a great sense of character progression as you plunge deeper into the tower. The plot is threadbare, relying on dream sequences that push you onwards and hint all is not as it seems. You’ll infrequently find some lore books and notes from a prior survivor (which serve as tutorials), but don't go into this expecting a story-heavy RPG.

The real draw is mastering the mechanics and surviving the descent, alone and isolated, tackling a dozen complex floors that'll mercifully update on an auto-map (unless you sadistically choose to disable it and reach for the pen and graph-paper). You move grid by grid, able to swing your view in 90° in a blink; activating buttons, locks, and hidden switches using the mouse; and engaging in real-time combat by clicking on your party members weapon slot or tracing out runes to cast spells.

Trading blows in combat, even with tough frontline fighters, is unwise, so you’ll quickly learn the 2x2 box-dance - sliding around a foe, keeping on their flank, while raining down blows. It makes the early fights feel overlong and simplistic (especially with your rubbish hit chance at first), but the real challenge comes later, when you must manage your positioning when surrounded by multiple foes, fireballs, or pit traps. Regardless of your starting difficulty, it’s tough going at first, but you’ll quickly discover new weapons and armour, level up with experience earned from combat and exploration, and master the art of retreating to the glowing blue crystals that'll restore you fallen allies, health, and mana.



What starts off as a simple slog through winding corridors - pulling levers and hunting for keys - swiftly progresses to rooms filled multiple enemies, portals, crisscrossing fireballs, pressure plates, and pits. Your foes are common fantasy fare – from giant insects, to trolls, to winged demons, and Cthulhu-esque cultists – and recognising their movement and attacks patterns is vital to your survival, especially when you go up against the rare boss creatures. Puzzles are abundant, but you don’t need to solve all of them to progress. That said, you’ll want to if you plan on finding every secret area (which often grant high-level gear and more XP). This is a game that hides secrets within secrets, so examining every wall, lighting and extinguishing torches, or flinging yourself down pits is a solid strategy (as there’s always something below, rather than the usual insta-death traps). Although there’s considerable diversity in environment, puzzle, and enemy design as you progress, expect to see a lot of repeated textures; spotting out-of-place features and finding a hidden switch is all part of the fun - and will make your life a lot easier towards the final levels.

As far as presentation goes, Legend of Grimrock still looks great almost 8 years on, thanks to high-resolution textures that still hold up, detailed enemy models, and plenty of dynamic lighting. Ambient audio will keep you on your toes and turning a corner into a scuttling giant spider was enough to elicit a panicked "**** you!". The limited soundtrack - used only for the title screen, intro video, and the credits - is fantastic.

If you're up for a modern take on a classic genre, you can pick up Legend of Grimrock on PC or iOS. It’s highly-customisable, so the PC version can run on almost anything.

Legend of Grimrock 2

Almost Human Games took a simple approach with the Legend of Grimrock 2 - keep the core gameplay and control scheme intact but expand upon everything. More narrative, more party configurations, more skills and gear to play with, more environmental and enemy variation, more puzzles to solve, more secrets to discover, prettier graphics, and an incredible orchestral score (now sometimes used during in-game boss battles). While there's a secret ending that reveals the link to the first game, Legend of Grimrock 2 is the one to pick if you’re only going to play one.

Shipwrecked on the mysterious island of Nex, and repeatedly taunted by the Island Master, your new party must explore every corner of the island to find the elemental gems needed to enter a castle at the centre, and hopefully find a means of escape. Fighting your way off the tropical beach that serves as the starting zone, you’ll swiftly discover a forested interior, infested mines, a misty swamp, crystal caverns, dusty catacombs, and a northern desert – each with appropriately inspired architecture. No single area feels quite as complex as Mount Grimrock, but the diversity and non-linear progression more than make up for it.



On the gameplay front, the biggest change was making the gear and character upgrade systems less opaque, making it a lot easier to plan builds and see how skills interact with gear and vice versa. Combat is once again real-time and still dependant on your ability to keep mobile and observe your surroundings while striking your foes. Min-maxing your character builds is still important, though a party of generalists is viable. Amusingly, one of the new classes is the “farmer”, who gains experience entirely from eating food, allowing for some impressive power-levelling so long as you don’t mind everyone else starving.

Legend of Grimrock 2 released in 2014 but still looks amazing. Much like its predecessor, you’re going to see a lot of the same high-resolution textures pieced together to form ridiculously complex interiors, full on hidden switches and secrets, but the developers have done a great job of creating more natural outdoor scenes that somehow fit the grid-based movement scheme without feeling to constrained. Enemies are still well-designed and animated, the ambient audio brings the world to life, and I’d motivate you to buy the game simply for the title and credits theme.

Quick-saving like mad, box-dancing around tough foes hoping not to lose your under-levelled party in a single hit, discovering secret high-level gear early after staring at far too many walls, unlocking a powerful mage spell or warrior skill, or plunging into a pit trap only to be surrounded by a half-dozen giant spiders are all part of the experience. The perspective and control scheme may be unconventional by modern standards, but the Legend of Grimrock games are pure RPGs at heart and received far less attention than they deserved.

You can pick up Legend of Grimrock 2 on PC or iOS.



Let us know in the comments below what you think of our choices, or if you’ve been playing an indie game this week you’d like to promote to the community.

Follow the link to see more of our picks for Indies of the Week.