seebs wrote:And I saw one review panning the game because, after a few levels, you can't stand toe-to-toe with mobs. Well, no, you can't.
It helps people to figure out combat in this game if I describe it as a grid-based FPS. It's not, of course, but it gets the mindset away from the RPG trope of being locked into an encounter once it happens. Even Dungeon Master was designed so that you could use these so-called "exploits" to survive against the tougher creatures. The designers weren't stupid, they knew how their combat worked.
seebs wrote:I think DM's dungeon design was a little more polished in a few spots. I have run into a couple of cases in Grimrock where I felt like I was not given adequate opportunities to avoid damage. For instance, in the Time and Tide area on Level 4, the flying thing that blocks you from moving over pits? Not really controllable by the player.
In most cases this is because you haven't figured out the right mechanic. That flying thing you describe? It's 100% controllable if you think about how the AI works.
Throw a rock at it, or shoot it with an arrow, and it will immediately approach you to engage combat, so you can fight it on solid ground.
seebs wrote:I was also a little annoyed with a spider room which I had to enter and search for a button to get away from the spiders before they killed me;
I'd have said you've chosen the hardest possible way of trying to solve that! Far easier to deal with the spiders first.
seebs wrote:I am sort of torn on the XP system -- I don't really like the thing where my characters can easily get out of sync, and I don't have the kind of control that I did in DM, with the four-class-at-once system.
See, I'm not sure why this is a problem. In Dungeon Master characters gained levels specific to certain skills, so fighter levels and wizard levels. All four characters were at different levels throughout the game (except at the start) because they specialised in different styles. Grimrock isn't quite the same obviously, but they do gain levels faster or slower as you progress. My mage was way behind for ages until he learned a couple of nice spells and now he's overtaken the rest. But I've just equipped my tanks with much more powerful weapons so it may swing back again. I don't feel the need to see them all on the same level, that just seems like OCD.