“Old-school dungeon crawling game inspired by Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Ultima Underworld.”
Apparently will be distributed via GoG. Mentioned it because I liked the first reference and I’ve seen the latter two get mentions here. Who knows? Maybe it’s the next Torchlight. http://www.grimrock.net/
I’ve heard of it, and based on the brief trailer it does some interesting things meshing the old school pattern with new technology. Hard to say hjow it will play ahead of time, as games like this aren’t going to get any professional reviews.
How professional does it have to be? If “writes for money” is enough, there’s quite a few places you can read professional reviews of games of this sort. This place, for example.
They kinda promised a review next week, and if it is promising enough I might preorder this. 12 USD isn’t much if it’s any good.
I was “Sounds interesting” until i saw this,
which has 25 minutes of gameplay, after which i immediately went and bought it.
OH MY GOD THAT IS SO FUCKING AWESOME!!! I LOVE LOVE** LOOOOOVE **these oldschool type dungeon crawlers! Dungeon Master is still one of my favorite old games, and I would totally play the HELL out of Lands of Lore if I can get it working again!!!
It got an 8.5 on IGN (PC Games, Wikis, Cheats, Walkthroughs, News, Reviews & Videos - IGN). If you pre-order (it has an April 11th release, so hurry) you can get it for $11.99, saving 20% off the $14.99 list price.
I was going to say…
I’ve read articles on it from Kotaku, Gamespot, IGN, Rock Paper Shotgun, PC Gamer, Giant Bomb, Game Informer and joystiq.
It doesn’t get more professional than that.
Mind you, I know not all of those outlets will review it, but some will.
I’m pre-ordering tonight.
I ended up pre-ordering it after seeing this youtube vid with gameplay. 19 hours 15 minutes to go! 
Preordered. Just set my background to one of the goodies wallpaper.
Definitely pre-order directly from them! It gets the devs more money, and you get both a downloadable exe and a steam key + some goodies you get right away.
Destructoid’s Review:
9.5
Interested to hear what people think of it. Today’s the release date, right? I held off purchasing for a couple reasons, the main one being the worry that surviving combat depends on kiting and pillar dancing, which looked tedious. The puzzles got a lot of praise in the reviews I read but I’m not all that keen on puzzles.
It’s true that combat against anything that’s not trivial involves kiting, but I felt that it works in this game. It wasn’t really that tedious, especially since there’s no respawns and no wandering monsters as such, so the battles you get all are meaningful and limited. What irked me a bit was the fact that with the fast pace of the combat I often had no time to use the two back-row guys, and used all my attention on movement and the two warriors in front row. It’s a minor thing though - in general, the game just works: sounds, animations, gear and so on. There’s a very good atmosphere to it, IMO. If you screw up your kiting and end up in a dead end, there’s that definite “oh SHIT!” feeling, which is helped by the vicious, in-your-face attack animations the enemies have.
As for puzzles, can’t help you there much. I tend to be ambivalent about them, but so far the main puzzles you need to do to proceed in the game don’t seem that hard and the optional ones are purely optional. If you truly loathe them but would like the other parts of the game, I’m sure there’ll be walkthroughs soon enough.
Is there any way to tie spells to the mage’s hand? It seems clunky to have to click on the hand, click on the spell rune, and finally click on the cast icon…
Loving the atmosphere so far. Genuinely spooky dungeons!
Don’t think so. The only thing I’ve realized that helps casting is that you can pre-select the runes and leave that menu open while you run around, and when combat does start you’ll just have to click on the cast button. But after that initial spell you’d better have a professional RTS player’s mouse-hand dexterity if you want to utilize your mage to the full while kiting spiders or other fast enemies.
I just got the game too. Just trying it out, but it’s definitely worth the 11 USD.
Does anyone know what are the runes for the spell you get at Ice Magic Level 3? I couldn’t figure it out myself.
One thing that’s been irking me is that I’m on dungeon level 5 and I still haven’t found a missile weapon. My rogue is forced to use a rusty spear and does barely any damage. I’ve read on other forums people finding bows and slings early on, so either loot is random or they are better at finding secrets than I am.
I played about an hour of the game this morning. I am in love! It is almost exactly like Dungeon Master, which I also enjoyed very much. They even have the torches work the same way!
If you like those old-school dungeon crawlers, definitely get that. So far, I’m only on level 2, but I can already see the similarities. Pushing loose stone, teleport walls, falling into pits, and strafe fighting all feel refreshingly familiar to me, even the useless backline guys. And food! Eating pieces of the enemy! God, I missed that!
One question I have: I pre-ordered it from the website, directly from them I think. There was a bonus for those of us who did that, like a cloth map, and stuff like that. How do I get it? Or did I accidentally order it from them but off Steam, since I run the game through Steam? That part was confusing. It didn’t really hit me until after I had made the purchase that how they were going to get my information to send me the bonus material.
It’s non-physical bonus goodies, and I believe you should have a link to it in the email they sent you when you purchased the game.
The goodies are: an mp3 of the main theme song, some printable graph paper to map out the dungeon if you want, some wallpapers.
In the room where you first encounter a skeleton archer, there’s a bow and some arrows. The skeleton (and one of those flying monsters) appears on the far side of a couple of pits that bisect a long, narrow room. The rightmost pit is in front of a portcullis, the left abuts a stone wall. On the far side of the pit is a button that opens up an alcove that contains some minor object. The back wall of this alcove is the same wall that’s next to the left pit in the narrow room. A button in the alcove moves the back wall, allowing you to face the portcullis directly. Throw a rock over the pits, and it will land on a pressure plate that closes the pits and opens the portcullis. Inside, you can find the bow.
This level three, maybe four. There’s also a sling earlier than that, but I forget where.
Thanks, found one shortbow at dungeon level 5 or 6 now though (by falling through a pit, of all things - didn’t think that would do me any good at the time). Just in time for the first ogre fight - those things are mean. A bit annoyed by the fiddly cycle of shooting enchanted arrows - picking up non-enchanted arrows - giving them to the mage to re-enchant - giving them back to the rogue, but at least my rogue does good damage now.
Shame all her dexterity is useless, on the other hand. Dex only helps with accuracy, and missile weapons auto-hit, so what she really should have is strength as counter-intuitive as that is.