Legend of Grimrock

Legend of Grimrock is a tribute to old-school dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder, built by Finnish studio Almost Human Games around movement on a square grid, real-time combat, and a dense, claustrophobic atmosphere in the underground of Mount Grimrock, where prisoners have long been cast as punishment and from which practically no one has returned. The player leads a party of four such prisoners, whom they assemble at the start from several classes and races, and must fight their way with them through winding corridors full of traps, puzzles, and monsters all the way to the foot of the mountain.

The game emphasizes careful mapping, managing a limited inventory, and tactically arranging characters into formation, since first-person combat requires constantly dodging into neighboring grid squares and alternating attacks with retreats rather than standing toe-to-toe. Those who wanted an even greater challenge could enable permanent character death and disable the automatic map, turning it into an exceptionally uncompromising challenge in the style of the classics from the late 1980s and early 1990s - just with modern graphics, smooth mouse-and-keyboard controls, and a clearer interface.

Legend of Grimrock launched in April 2012 primarily for PC (Windows), and its quick success on Steam showed that demand for the dungeon crawler genre hadn't disappeared at all. It later arrived on Mac and Linux as well, but never got a console version and remained a purely computer-based affair, which fits its focus on old-school players who appreciate playing with keyboard, mouse, and a notepad at hand rather than a gamepad on the couch. The title's success went on to enable a direct sequel, which expanded the concept with outdoor environments and a more open world, without the series ever attempting a jump to consoles. It thus remained above all a game for genre fans who appreciated that someone had returned to its roots without simplifying it for a wider audience.

Why play: For the revival of the old-school dungeon crawler genre that Legend of Grimrock brought back as a purely computer-based game - ideal for players with pencil, paper, and a taste for drawing their own maze map.