Brilliant game up til Level 9. I won't be finishing it.

[ZeggyZon]

Is it just me or do most of the posts complaining about backtracking or not having the correct item etc. come across as the player being younger of age?

Games of the 80's, 90's, and some in 2000 didn't hold your hand and tell you exactly where to go and what to do. (see Oblivion and fallout 3) It appears that when a game comes out that doesn't hold your hand suddenly its "broken" and "I'm not finishing it".

I mean even Dungeon Master has the same puzzles which this game is modeled after. I watched a stonekeep lets play and that's 10x as worse then Dungeon Master and LoG in this regard. I'd like to see these younger gamers play stonekeep without help.

Another example is from a lets play I watched of ultima underworld. At one point you have to turn out your torch and light incense and then you'll be greeted with a clue to your quest. On another part you have to play a flute in a specific part of the dungeon with specific notes you get to choose from between 0-9.
ZZ

[Danipenn]

Rule #1: Exploration is encouraged. Up until the ice lizards. Now exploration is punished, because these G-D snow raptors will spawn endlessly and surround you in a narrow hallway if you dare to backtrack for something you think you might have missed.

I must admit this part of the dungeon was a little too much a pain in the arse especially, as you mentioned, when you have to backtrack.

Rule #5: Build the kind of party you want! They all work. Focus on the kinds of weapons and items that suit your party. Oh, but if the party you wanted had no reason to be carrying four specific items through nine levels of dungeon, then you can't progress past this one puzzle. Sorry. Go back and look for crap on the floor of every previous dungeon for a couple of hours. (For the record, I had all the items with me when I encountered that puzzle, and solved it quickly - but still recognized it for how abusive it was, and the contrast with all the other thoughtfully crafted puzzles was shocking).

Yes I missed one single item myself and had to backtrack a bit...fortunately I knew where I had left it. Admittedly this one was a bit harsh.

I knowingly started a old-school game on Hard, I get that. And I loved it and built a pretty good party, and despite that ended up in an unwinnable state. I feel as though the game is saying, "Oh, you didn't make all the decisions we secretly wanted you to make, so sorry your hours of gameplay are for nothing. Better start over."

Honestly I don't get this obsession to play a game at the hardest difficulty- It's a damn game, it should entertain, not torture the player. Forget about Hard, Impossible, Insane etc. difficulties...just normal and enjoy the experience.

Anyway...with a bit of luck and speed you would be able to go back and forth from the ice lizards area (I had to do it few times myself).

Hang in there

[Kouros]

I though level 9 was brilliant! New monsters to fight (those giant mosquitoes made me laugh), puzzles that had me scratching my head for over an hour and cursing the fact that I didn’t keep that bone necklace on me (I should have known that useless item had a purpose! ).

Yes it was punishing at times, I didn’t take all the items from the three central rooms, so I was going around in circles for ages trying to find a way forward, then I picked up the scroll I’d left and the walls opened the way to the puzzle room. The feeling of finally working it out was euphoric, and that’s putting it mildly!

SpoilerShow

Make sure you close all the doors in the Ice raptor area afterwards or they'll be all over the place! LOL I had to fight my way back from the Chequered room when I went to find that darn necklace

[Jaelus]

SpoilerShow

Make sure you close all the doors in the Ice raptor area afterwards or they'll be all over the place! LOL I had to fight my way back from the Chequered room when I went to find that darn necklace

SpoilerShow

Yea I didn't even know they respawned continuously as I kept the door to that area (and all doors) closed to limit enemies spreading around. Whenever I go into a new sub area, I close the door behind me, and when I leave, I do the same. If you don't you can end up with hoards of enemies covering an entire level. This way if you have to go back in there they are bottlenecked at the door.

[Marak]

Honestly I thought the whole damn game was brilliant. Even the sometimes-maligned final 2 floors and final encounter(s), while a little contrived, still captured that Grimrock feel: they made you nervous and twitchy by running you around a huge, pit-and-monster infested level for an extended amount of time.

Anyway, it's your loss. Level 10 was solid, 11 was pretty good, and taking 12 and 13 together - maybe not as great as other levels, but they have their own unique flavor and I personally enjoyed them.

Protip: Start a new party. Set the difficulty back to Normal. Put a major cus on dealing damage: spell trees, weapon trees (Unarmed Headhunter Minotaru and Sword Guy are very good), and maybe dabble in the Armor skill to open up Heavy Armor for 1 character and Light Armor for 1 character.

Your new party will tear through the game like you wouldn't believe, making your old party look like a bunch of inept weaklings. As for the puzzles, if they're pissing you off that much, do what I did: go to http://www.gamebanshee.com/legendofgrim ... level1.php and look up the proper floor & puzzle solution when you feel the irritation setting in.

This game is worth playing through to the end. It's your loss if you're going to get butthurt over the lack of hand-holding when The Intarnets exist.

[EvoluZion3]

I remember the time when I realised that tentacle-faces could open doors. I was playing that bit in the inner sanctum where all the walls disappear and legged it into one of the side rooms to hide/recover. You could literally see my face drop as the door opened by itself and two of them came in to play toasted L-shaped party sandwich.

[PSY]

I remember the time when I realised that tentacle-faces could open doors. I was playing that bit in the inner sanctum where all the walls disappear and legged it into one of the side rooms to hide/recover. You could literally see my face drop as the door opened by itself and two of them came in to play toasted L-shaped party sandwich.

LOL.
Same thing happened to me. At some point, I turned tail and ran. After closing a door, hitting 'R' and feeling safe, I hear that sound of a door going up...well, that's pretty much about it

[Merethif]

Rule #5: Build the kind of party you want! They all work. Focus on the kinds of weapons and items that suit your party. Oh, but if the party you wanted had no reason to be carrying four specific items through nine levels of dungeon, then you can't progress past this one puzzle. Sorry. Go back and look for crap on the floor of every previous dungeon for a couple of hours. (For the record, I had all the items with me when I encountered that puzzle, and solved it quickly - but still recognized it for how abusive it was, and the contrast with all the other thoughtfully crafted puzzles was shocking).

It has been mentioned before, but because there's no "I'm sorry I was overreacting like a sissy" from OP, I guess he/she hasn't seen it. So I let myself repeat it once more: three items needed in this puzzle are to be found on the same level and forth item is in a level above! This part about "Go back and look for crap on the floor of EVERY previous dungeon for a COUPLE OF HOURS" sounds like melodramatic overreacting.

Just before final battle, one of my rogue, a treasure hunter known for her love for gold and gems, has decided that a party needs to go back and get all precious gems so she could carry them with her. For those two blue gems I got to go back to level 1 but at least they where still in the stone face I left them, but green one has been lost (I took it at first from Slime Dungeon, but then put away somewhere on the way). Eventually I have found this green gem in level 6 (in that alcove with Cutlass). Whole gem hunting took me like twenty minutes, maybe half an hour. And I refilled my hunger at Drive Thru Kentucky Fried Slimes at level 6 going both ways.

I didn't find level 9 too annoying personally. But I agree with hating on the "oh you decided not to keep carrying that useless item you found on level 2 for 8 more levels?" type of puzzles. I was fairly pissed when I got to a puzzle I'm certain the solution for was a bone necklace.

SpoilerShow

New generation of players would require a text on Bone Amulet: Keep this item, it will be needed here and here to get additional reward.
I can't imagine that there are players who don't bring this amulet all the way down with them. Not only it just looks like one of those "might be useful" items, but also there are only three necklaces with stat bonuses, so even if you would replace Bone Amulets with something more useful still one party member would be wearing Bone Amulet.

[1varangian]

I remember the time when I realised that tentacle-faces could open doors. I was playing that bit in the inner sanctum where all the walls disappear and legged it into one of the side rooms to hide/recover. You could literally see my face drop as the door opened by itself and two of them came in to play toasted L-shaped party sandwich.

LOL.
Same thing happened to me. At some point, I turned tail and ran. After closing a door, hitting 'R' and feeling safe, I hear that sound of a door going up...well, that's pretty much about it

I also went to the side room there the first time. I somehow expected them to open the doors though and we started a fun little open/close game yanking the chains on both sides. But kudos to them, I couldn't get out alive. Next time we fought elsewhere on my terms and did a little square dancing until they all died.

[Remit]

I have to agree with OP to some degree. There's nothing I hate more in games than endlessly respawning enemies, especially when it defies all logic It has ruined several games I've played in the past and makes me feel like the developers ran out of ideas for how to add challenge. Games that come to mind are Alpha Protocol (good luck with those boss fights with your stealh character), Baldur's Gate (where do all these xvart come from) and Call of Duty 4: MW (like a shooting range that never ends). I played through all these games (BG with a mod that limits spawning), but endless respawning significantly lowered my opinion on those games. Only Diablo II has done this in a manner I can accept; you can always kill/destroy the source of respawning.

In LoG there seemed to be no source of respawning and the monsters seemed to appear out of nowhere. Sure, there could be a summon ice dino spell, that someone is casting, we'll never know. The problem is the narrow halls where I got stuck between lizards and was chewed to death several times before finally making it through. I'm not sure if the final level had endless respawning too, it certainly felt like it, but at least there was plenty of room to avoid the monsters. Didn't like it much, though. The puzzle on the ninth level made me go through the lizard maze several times to find the components, which makes it even more annoying.

After this level I also lost the interest to look for secrets, since I couldn't stop thinking if this is another place with infinite enemies and should just get out of here as fast as possible. I generally liked the non-combat parts more.

As for the tentacle faces, one time I managed to lure one in a 2x2 room and closed the door, so that its friends couldn't come in and help it in the fight. After getting rid of the shield and bashing it with melee stuff for a while, I was surprised when it opened the door and fled to the connecting hallways I had to run after it before it got to a crystal