Legend of Grimrock II

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 382 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 285 out of 382
  2. Mixed: 51 out of 382
  3. Negative: 46 out of 382

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  1. Thombie
    Nov 4, 2014
    7
    More of the same, a pretty good old school RPG. New classes aren't enough to make it an all time classic in my opinion, but it's a solid game. I still prefer Eye of the Beholder, though.
  2. rodericrinehart
    Jun 14, 2015
    6
    SCORE: 6.4/10

    It looks like a pretty good game, and it is for the most part, but I think the puzzles are worse than the first one and too irrational/nonsensical and kind of reminded me of Broken Age. Maybe I just don't like RPGs like this anymore. I'm finding it more and more that I think I will like a game based on way-in-the-past preferences that just don't hold anymore. I used to    SCORE: 6.4/10

    It looks like a pretty good game, and it is for the most part, but I think the puzzles are worse than the first one and too irrational/nonsensical and kind of reminded me of Broken Age. Maybe I just don't like RPGs like this anymore. I'm finding it more and more that I think I will like a game based on way-in-the-past preferences that just don't hold anymore. I used to love Might and Magic but I don't like this. I used to love RTS like Warcraft and Age of Empires, but I don't like them anymore either. Hell, I think I used to like Grim Fandango, but when I replayed it, it was very poorly designed actual game around a quirky and interesting story.

    I think I want my RPGs to be far more Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Skyrim, Mass Effect, and Shadowrun. Not this. This was slow, boring, and tedious. I know others disagree, but such is an opinion. I'm avoiding games I thought I would like such as Legend of Grimrock and Pillars of Eternity.    … Expand
  3. truefreestyle
    Aug 13, 2015
    7
    For every step forward it really feels like this game should have instead fixed a problem with the original. Interface is still clunky. Bad design choices such as permanent debilitating status effects (unless you make it to a save point) and extremely difficult to find hidden wall buttons. Also the game is more punishing than enjoyable with traps that are aimed at killing you instead ofFor every step forward it really feels like this game should have instead fixed a problem with the original. Interface is still clunky. Bad design choices such as permanent debilitating status effects (unless you make it to a save point) and extremely difficult to find hidden wall buttons. Also the game is more punishing than enjoyable with traps that are aimed at killing you instead of creating an enjoyable experience. Problems stated, this is still a great game. Just not quite the advancement in the franchise I was hoping for.… Expand
  4. Tinsoul
    Oct 17, 2014
    7
    Old School fun, very straight forward dungeon crawler and puzzle game that you'll have some fun with.
    However wait for it to go on sale, it's not the Holy Grail of games, but it should keep you entertained for awhile.
  5. betelgeus
    Oct 19, 2014
    7
    unfortunatly this game suffers the same as all old school dungeon crawler follow ups,i.e lets make the map bigger.i would compare this almost exactly to dungeon master 2 in that the love has gone and instead of keeping it tight they add extra branches that a person cant possibly keep in his head.7/10
  6. defive
    Oct 27, 2014
    6
    A decent enough game especially for an indie developer with some interesting puzzles, however overall it feels rather bland and directionless with a pretty poorly designed realtime combat system that has none of the depth of a turn based equivalent. Also lacks the charm and personality of Might and Magic X - so if you're craving an old school RPG fix I'd recommend MMX over this.
  7. Lenzie
    Dec 1, 2014
    6
    I'll open by saying the first game, The Legend of Grimrock, was the surprise hit of 2012 for me. From that opening moment of taking my first steps in the dungeon that reminded me instantly of old school dungeon rpg's like 'Eye of the Beholder' and 'Lands of Lore', to working my way to 'discover' what was lurking at the bottom of the dungeon and thus unraveling the story, the game wasI'll open by saying the first game, The Legend of Grimrock, was the surprise hit of 2012 for me. From that opening moment of taking my first steps in the dungeon that reminded me instantly of old school dungeon rpg's like 'Eye of the Beholder' and 'Lands of Lore', to working my way to 'discover' what was lurking at the bottom of the dungeon and thus unraveling the story, the game was enjoyable from start to finish.

    Unfortunately I can't say the same for The Legend of Grimrock II. Yes it is certainly a polished and improved version of the 1st game, and I did like the outdoor environments and greater diversity of locations and areas to explore, but the game was a letdown in so many ways.

    The story was pretty much non-existent. You only clue up to what is going on right at the end, there is very little early or mid-game to keep you moving.

    While I did enjoy solving 'some' of the puzzles, there were just too many. For me it got to the point that by the late 3rd of the game I was simply using Google to figure out how to solve the puzzles or complete an area to move forward in the game versus enjoying exploring and figuring it out all bit by bit.

    The final kicker for me was the end boss fight, the 'real' end, not the alternate end fight. I couldn't beat the main dude as I got to the point in the game where I did not have enough healing resources to complete the battle. I attempted it time and time again and used different tactics, in the end, and I'm a bit ashamed to say this, I had to use the console cheat to generate some healing crystals, enough to survive the battle and win. So it was not a good game ending experience for me.

    That said, I'm glad I played the game and cudos to the indie development team for a doing a great job.

    If you are curious about the Legend of Grimrock games and you have not played either of them, I’d definitely recommend playing the 1st game versus this one.    … Expand
  8. Thraellic
    Jan 1, 2015
    6
    Avoid unless you suffer from 'old school dungeon crawler' nostalgia. Really wanted to like this. Spent 15 hours - including 3 restarts - before giving up.

    Time saving protip: the first plant boss fight is a good test. If that seems unreasonably difficult or frustrating, just give up. It doesn't get any better. If you love that and breeze through it, this is your type of game, go    Avoid unless you suffer from 'old school dungeon crawler' nostalgia. Really wanted to like this. Spent 15 hours - including 3 restarts - before giving up.

    Time saving protip: the first plant boss fight is a good test. If that seems unreasonably difficult or frustrating, just give up. It doesn't get any better. If you love that and breeze through it, this is your type of game, go forth and conquer!

    Movement: ancient, clunky, limiting. Tap-tap-tap for hours on end.

    Combat:
    Clunky, unintuitive DOS keyboard style, yet no keybinds for attacks (right-click for your life on little squares in the bottom corner of the screen), long cooldowns even on basic attacks, challenging enemies, some enemies are very fast, all in real time; no pause function. "2x2 step" block based combat seems silly and old after a while.

    Puzzles:
    Unreasonably time consuming, good chance of getting stuck for hours retracing your steps all over the map with no discernible way forward.

    Starvation mechanic: irritating nuisance factor.

    You can of course mitigate all this with console cheats and internet walkthroughs, as I started doing near the end. But then, what's the point? Where’s the fun?

    The high aggregate review rating seems to reflect 1) nostalgia and 2) special allowance since it's an indy game, small dedicated dev team etc. Beautifully made game and a respectable achievement, absolutely. But time is precious and I wish I'd listened to the few negative reviews as well as the warnings in some of the more objective positive reviews.    … Expand
  9. Maluko
    Nov 1, 2014
    6
    Legends of grimrock is much worse than the first one, but still fun.

    So theres more classes, weapons and skills? Who cares, if you wanna beat the game you'll only use Mages and blockers Ok, the map is bigger... but half of the time I spent in the game was wondering where to go next, there is no guidance whatsoever, at first it seems cool, but then it gets annoying and frustrating. I    Legends of grimrock is much worse than the first one, but still fun.

    So theres more classes, weapons and skills? Who cares, if you wanna beat the game you'll only use Mages and blockers
    Ok, the map is bigger... but half of the time I spent in the game was wondering where to go next, there is no guidance whatsoever, at first it seems cool, but then it gets annoying and frustrating. I doubt someone beat this game without the help of google at some moment (Different from the first game)

    I didn't enjoy the new "open world" environment. The fact that you could leave the dungeons and see the "calm blue sky" or watch the waves at the beach tells you that "Everything is alright, everything is Ok". While in the first game you felt like you were really locked in that place, surrounded by "menace" and the only choice was to go depper and more threatening, in the dungeon.

    Somehow the first game's boss was more charismatic than this one's. I don't have any argument to support this, but thats how it feels.

    The battle system - that, in the first game, was already a **** - is even worse. Since the monsters can attack faster than you, you are constantly moving and spining around like a retard to avoid being hit.

    Monster and food respawning (fishes) are a good improvement =)    … Expand
  10. GainesvilleGuy
    May 15, 2015
    5
    I'm an old school gamer, but even nostalgia cannot save this from mediocrity. This is essentially a first person puzzle game, with garbage combat mixed in. The puzzles are decent, but the combat is atrocious and focused primarily on abusing mechanics that have nothing to do with traditional role playing mechanics.

    I cannot repeat enough that the combat is trivial and a complete waste    I'm an old school gamer, but even nostalgia cannot save this from mediocrity. This is essentially a first person puzzle game, with garbage combat mixed in. The puzzles are decent, but the combat is atrocious and focused primarily on abusing mechanics that have nothing to do with traditional role playing mechanics.

    I cannot repeat enough that the combat is trivial and a complete waste of time. They should have just made this Myst-style and avoided combat altogether. It added nothing and in fact detracted from this. As a puzzle game it is more of an 8 and as an RPG it is a 1.    … Expand
  11. night4
    Jul 28, 2016
    6
    Good game overall, but too many annoyances to really recommend.

    Pros: -Music and sound (my cat thinks the birds are real) -Graphics -Nostalgia factor -Party creation -Combat, minus potions Cons: -It should be called "Legend of Pressure Plates" because almost EVERY "puzzle" involves pressure plates. It gets old. -Weird races and ugly portraits. -Some switches would be almost    Good game overall, but too many annoyances to really recommend.

    Pros:
    -Music and sound (my cat thinks the birds are real)
    -Graphics
    -Nostalgia factor
    -Party creation
    -Combat, minus potions

    Cons:
    -It should be called "Legend of Pressure Plates" because almost EVERY "puzzle" involves pressure plates. It gets old.
    -Weird races and ugly portraits.
    -Some switches would be almost impossible to see if you didn't know where to look.
    -Fumbling around to switch weapons or use potions in combat is extremely awkward and time-consuming.
    -Needing lockpicks and gold keys to open chests is silly and time-consuming when you have to backtrack to open chests you've already found. I can shoot meteor storms but a small lock stops me? *Rolls eyes*
    -Magic runes system of casting is awkward and time-consuming.
    -Dancing around enemies in combat feels silly. Why are there tanky characters if even they can barely take hits?    … Expand
  12. DeN_DarK
    Sep 9, 2023
    7
    Nice battle system, good puzzles, interesting world. If you like old-school RPG it is game for you. If you like challenge - try to do it in Insane Ironmode. It is worth it. )
  13. aditya1101
    Jan 26, 2018
    6
    Really awesome dungeon crawler - I've played a couple other similar games, and this game is far beyond any of them. It's easy to underestimate how much work is required to make this type of game fun and engaging, but the grimrock developers did a great job with it.
  14. ArglebargleIV
    Feb 13, 2019
    5
    Disappointing.

    As a fan of the original Dungeon Master (from 1987), this had some of what I had hoped for, especially visually, like real 3D graphics, animation, and lighting. But things like combat, spells, leveling, and story are weak. The big (ish) world makes for some running around doing nothing (except running low on food). Some of the puzzles are a pain the first time    Disappointing.

    As a fan of the original Dungeon Master (from 1987), this had some of what I had hoped for, especially visually, like real 3D graphics, animation, and lighting.

    But things like combat, spells, leveling, and story are weak.

    The big (ish) world makes for some running around doing nothing (except running low on food).

    Some of the puzzles are a pain the first time through but exactly the same when you play again, so replayability suffers.

    The official forum seems to be dead - I can't even make an account.

    I had hoped to be able to create my own dungeons. The tutorials and manual are not enough help - being able to ask questions on the forums would help, but as I said I can't get onto the forums.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

15
#15 Best PC Game of 2014
64
#64 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 38
  3. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. Riot Pixels
    Feb 26, 2015
    65
    If Almost Human had made a strict dungeon crawler like the first Legend of Grimrock, but with a properly fleshed-out world, better UI, redesigned combat and role-playing systems, I would have recommended such a sequel in an instant. Alas.
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  2. CD-Action
    Feb 7, 2015
    80
    A traditional, well-designed dungeon crawler that requires both quick fingers and a sharp mind. [01/2015, p.72]
  3. Destructoid
    Jan 15, 2015
    95
    Legend of Grimrock 2 will consume your mind in many ways. The puzzles will slowly tear away at your brain until they are solved, and the amount of focus needed for just about every combat encounter is through the roof.
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