They're what really make this series stand out, and they're also where the subtle yet powerful evolution of Grimrock 2 is most evident. It's about getting to places - getting past that gate, getting through that trap, getting your head around those puzzles.Īh, the puzzles. The XP earned for each victory is essential, of course, in developing the skill trees of your characters and opening up more possibilities, but the nutty, chewy heart of the game is spatial rather than martial in nature.
If you can't figure out how to escape, this probably isn't the game for you. This is the cage where you start your adventure. You'll encounter the expected menagerie of creatures as you go, and dust off those side-stepping, back-shuffling combat muscles in the process, but battling in Grimrock - as in any great role-player - is ultimately just a means to an end. Now, Grimrock spreads in multiple directions at once, and reckless players who charge ahead, filling in as much of the automap as they can, will easily find themselves overwhelmed.įar better to take things slowly, progress methodically, and take advantage of the map's note-taking functions to remind yourself of what each locked door and blocked passage might require to pass. The first game was great, though it was contained and largely linear. Partly this is an idea sold through the greater visual variety made possible by the outdoors locations, as you trek from beach to forest to swamps and beyond, but it's true at a structural level as well. You will, however, need help navigating the island itself, which is both larger and more complex than the Grimrock dungeons of old. Rare is the situation where you need to turn to the instructions for help navigating the game's systems. It's the same system you use to interact with files and programs on your PC, so virtually anything you want to do in the game is done how you'd expect. Drop them into the open hand slots of the character windows, or place them in their inventories. Click on objects in the world to pick them up. They move together, one square at a time, with melee fighters up front and the spell casting wizard and range-attacking, potion-crafting alchemist taking the rear.Ĭontrol is simple and intuitive. So, once again, you find yourself controlling a quartet of characters - either hand crafted by the player or assigned at random.
Scenes like this are pretty stunning when you're used to the cramped gloom of the previous game.
In 2012, Almost Human intimately understood the style of game it wanted to resurrect and it hasn't allowed success to bloat that vision. It's an environment at once expansive and focussed.Ī similar canny balancing act plays out in Grimrock 2 at every level, resulting in a sequel that improves its template across the board without falling foul of the easy design trap of cramming in new features. Often the game conspires to force you down narrow corridors, formed by trees or rocks as well as actual stone walls, but it also opens out when needed, into spacious clearings. You're still restricted to the same old school grid pattern as before, the world built around the same reliable graph paper boxes that drove stylistic predecessors such as Eye of the Beholder. Yet Almost Human has wisely resisted the lure of the sandbox. This is a place that invites exploration. As you begin your adventure, locked in a cage on a beach, the presence of a blue sky above you and the distant horizons have an invigorating effect. The most immediately obvious change is the switch from the gloomy interior of a mountain prison to a sun-kissed, but no less sinister island.įor anyone who played the original, the aesthetic difference is impossible to miss. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Almost Human's sequel to its 2012 indie RPG hit is how confidently it strikes a balance between freedom and constraint.