Grimrock vs. Stonekeep

[Dirge Inferno]

My two favourite dungeon crawlers, which one would you say is better?

[Asteroth]

They are so similar, even in appearance (Discounting Grimrocks much more modern graphics).

I can't really say... Of course there are many dungeon crawls that I like so I can't pick any really.

[Dirge Inferno]

Yeah, that's why I chose the two to compare - they're so similar and I wanted to see what people would say regarding it, and see what game they choose over the other.

Personally I favour Stonekeep just, because of it's more deeper and compelling storyline which Grimrock lacks. The storyline also feels much more integrated into the game, e.g. talking characters, full cinematic cutscenes and gaining more party members as you progress throughout the ruins and mines.

21 views and only 1 reply XD.

[Dr.Disaster]

My two favourite dungeon crawlers, which one would you say is better?

Didn't play Stonekeep, all i got is my opinion about it so take it accordingly.

When it came out Ultima Underworld 1+2 had set the bar for dungeon crawlers really high so it did not interest me back then and it was forgotten fast. When the game's name came up again a while back i went for some Let's Play's and it seems i was right to not play it. It would not have satisfied in terms of representation, combat or char/inventory system even back then. Alone the storyline seemed ok but that's not enough to carry a dungeon crawler since the story is something you catch up on the way as world background.

[Dirge Inferno]

It would not have satisfied in terms of representation, combat or char/inventory system even back then.

Yeah, there's not many fans of it - I've only met a hand full Stonekeep fans on these forums and like 2 others. I think for a while it was just a bandwagon thing to hate the game, if not then I must have a pretty bad taste in video games.

I thought the representation (whatever you mean by that?) was decent, and I actually like how the inventory system works although it could've had more polishing done to to the way the items bar worked. I agree with you on the combat though, the AI for the enemies was riddled with errors - of course if you didn't know how to screw up the AI I'd be hard, but it just ends up being a piece of cake once you realise you can not be hurt by enemies by standing on the opposite side of a doorway where an enemy's standing. That however stops working once you get to the tougher enemies like the Throgs, it only hits their armour but deals no damage to them. You can always avoid some attacks by continuously turning around them, but for the most part that doesn't work very well.

My only other criticism is the lack of sidestepping, why didn't that even come across their minds while developing this after what... 3 years? It certainly was no engine limitation, by that time a lot of dungeon crawlers had sidestepping.

Alone the storyline seemed ok but that's not enough to carry a dungeon crawler since the story is something you catch up on the way as world background

Really? And all this time I thought dungeon crawlers were meant to have a rich storyline, which is one of the main reasons Stonekeep was negatively received - the lack of storyline, people saying it was "a medieval dungeon crawler version of DOOM." I honestly disagree with that, the storyline was comfortably embedded into the games, DOOM was just all over the place with a short little back-story written up in a text file.

One thing that people criticised the game for having bad graphics, which I completely disagree on - I think the game has aged well and was ahead of its time. Of course you already had 3D engines for the PC in the making by the time Stonekeep was released, but most of those games never came to be (like Into The Shadows) and some didn't end up getting released until after 1995 (like Quake, Unreal and Prey).

[Dr.Disaster]

I thought the representation (whatever you mean by that?) was decent ...

By that i refere to it's presentation of the game world. To be frank: it's a mash of stuff gathered during the game's way too long five year developement process divided over two different teams. You will find everything from simple bitmap animations to 3d animations. There is even real-life acting but those shots are of rather low quality compared to the standard of the mid 90's; here titles like 7th Guest and Wing Commander III already had set the standard.

[Dirge Inferno]

Wait what? I don't remember any 3D animations, when I played it everything was done in sprites.

[Asteroth]

You are right. Hating it was something of a fad because of one particular game designer who loved to mock it. That's not to say it hadn't already failed on it's own merit, however.

I actually liked it. But it is very flawed. At least it filled enough basic things to be fun for me. For instance you at least got to choose between different weapon skills. That may be basic, but is still more choice than some rather questionable old games had.

[Dirge Inferno]

I found the flaws were mostly related to how the combat worked and the AI of the enemies, that was the real problem for me. Some of the sprites of the players hands also looked absolutely ludicrous. But for the most part it's a very fun game with a good storyline.

[Panda]

I thought Stonekeep was fairly mediocre myself when I played it a couple of years back.