Legend of Grimrock - Designing a modern retro Dungeon Crawler

I enjoyed listening to this whilst relaxing today, cheers for posting Hiddenx! :)

Coincidentally, I started revisiting the game recently to have a little play with a Dungeon Master module remake ("Back into the Dungeon") that has been made using the toolset. This was a game that I never did complete back in the day despite several aborted restarts, so it remains still on my list as one I'd like to finish. :)
My twisted logic is kind of like "if I can figure out where I went wrong or got stuck in this more modern context, I can then theoretically apply that knowledge on the real thing without resorting to spoilers. (The Amiga version of Dungeon Master is my choice!)

So far, to my memory at least, it is quite faithful to the extent of even featuring the "Hall of Champions" and the portraits of all of the original characters for you to choose from. Spellcraft is seemingly quite important early for mages and there is no ice magic as in the original game. Curious to see how the balance goes as I progress with my fairly standard party where I'm trying a few different skills to my original LoG playthrough. (Fighter/Minotaur/Rogue/Mage)
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
1,974
Location
Australia
Pessimeister, I had played the original Dungeon Master back in the 80s and played the Back Into The Dungeon mod last year. The mod is very faithful to the original - I could even use my same graph paper maps and notes. The ending plays slightly different, but that was due to using the Grimrock engine.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
586
Location
Tennessee, United States
G'day Xian

Cool to hear someone else has also experienced this mod, which I'm really having quite the blast with in small doses here and there. I've made it to level 9, just saved past the second locked door to the Firestaff Tomb area. I'm around 2-3 levels deeper now that when I played it on the Amiga some years ago.

I'd probably argue that the user-friendliness of the LoG engine makes some of the puzzle elements somewhat more approachable. But this isn't a criticism, on the contrary, game-play "flow" is important and the chaps who have designed this have done a great job implementing it.

I do miss using doors to smash down on monsters and the particular creepy ambiance of them wandering around in Dungeon Master, but other than that, this is probably the next best thing. :) I wonder if anyone has tried recreating other classics? (Eye of the Beholder for instance…) I should look some more.

On a similar note: A friend has kindly loaned me a couple more ol' Amiga dungeon crawlers that come with his seal of approval: One is entitled "Crystal Dragon".
Anyone played this?
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
1,974
Location
Australia
I just finished up my "Back Into the Dungeon" play-through a few moments ago. The classic dungeon crawling never grows old and the game is constantly engaging.
The last two levels were quite challenging; with level 11's nasty respawning flying insect section probably giving me the most trouble overall. I was worried that I'd overlook some keys, so that made exploration nice and slow, to be sure I didn't miss too many secrets. Felt great to finish!

Some fantastic work indeed by the creator. (comscript) I see that he's also made a "Chaos Strikes Back" mod for Grimrock which can be found here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=182382075
Very tempting not to just jump straight in!

Browsing the workshop reveals lots more assorted remake mod goodies including:
- A Working demo of Stonekeep level 1 (interesting idea)
- Remake of Sorpigal from Might and Magic I
- Eye of the Beholder (Sewers of Waterdeep - in progress)
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
1,974
Location
Australia
Is there any way to port those mods into LoG2? I much prefer the character system and combat in that game.
 
Back
Top Bottom