Koki on 15/4/2012 at 17:11
Quote Posted by Malf
Apparently you can. Don't ask me how, but the devs have strongly hinted it's possible on the official forums.
Ooooohhh yeeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhh
driver on 15/4/2012 at 17:44
The only way I can see to go solo is if you let your other three characters get killed off by the first monster. You can't start a new game until all four character slots are filled.
Perhaps it will be a feature added in an up coming patch, because quite a few people have brought it up on various forums.
Jason Moyer on 16/4/2012 at 15:39
I'm sure someone's tried it, but has anyone made a character with the name of the guy who solo'd the dungeon before your party got there? You find his notes scattered around, and there's a reference to him watermarked on the graph paper that came with the manual. It seems like there should be some sort of significance to that guy, and using that name to play solo would be what I would have done as the devteam.
Playing a really slick DM/EotB clone makes me wish someone would do the same thing for Dragon Wars. Wasteland 2 could be like that, but it sounds like they're just turning it into Fallout in the Wasteland setting.
Koki on 16/4/2012 at 16:59
I was under the impression that Fallout IS Wasteland setting, it just has different protagonists.
driver on 16/4/2012 at 17:11
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I'm sure someone's tried it, but has anyone made a character with the name of the guy who solo'd the dungeon before your party got there? You find his notes scattered around, and there's a reference to him watermarked on the graph paper that came with the manual. It seems like there should be some sort of significance to that guy, and using that name to play solo would be what I would have done as the devteam.
Regarding Toorum:
You find his corpse on one of the lower levels and there's an achievement for taking him to one of the crystals and releasing his soulJason Moyer on 16/4/2012 at 17:55
Quote Posted by Koki
I was under the impression that Fallout IS Wasteland setting, it just has different protagonists.
They're both post-apocalyptic settings, but they take a different approach to that setting. They're certainly not based in the same fictional universe or anything.
When I'm referring to "Fallout In The Wasteland Setting" I mean that they're basically taking the Fallout mechanics, adding the party aspect to that, and using the Wasteland universe.
Stitch on 16/4/2012 at 18:16
Just got to level five, which provides a welcome tileset change (not much of a spoiler to anyone who has fallen through a level four pit, or even much of a spoiler, but whatever).
I've had enough time now to really feel out the magic system, and the results aren't exactly great.
Dungeon Master's magic system worked because it was entirely focused on spell discovery. Learning a spell centered around arranging known runes to attempt desired results. Because any spell is available at any time with a little practice, if you stumbled across a spell via experimentation you could immediately see the result. (1) Combine runes, (2) cast, (3) watch results, and (4) refine accordingly if needed. The "work" associated with learning the spell was the discovery of it (as well as the possible practice it would take to cast it reliably).
Grimrock attempts to add a new dimension to all this by making unlocked spells the result of careful decisions made during the level up process, as there are now multiple specialization paths of which only a couple are realistically attainable for one spellcaster in one playthrough. In other words, most spells are not available at any given point in time, and may spells will never be available. Why spend time combining runes in different ways when you likely won't be able to successfully cast the result and see what it is? Why even waste time experimenting with runes when the results may never be available to your character, period?
The fact that Grimrock's spells have to be both unlocked (via skill point allotment) and discovered (via scrolls or fucking around) betrays a system that isn't quite sure what it wants to be. It shifts the "work" associated with learning spells onto the leveling up process, except that it is possible to sink hard-earned points into a spell rank only to find that the newly-unlocked spell has yet to be discovered. How can you even attempt to discover an unlocked spell via experimentation when you don't even know what the spell you just unlocked is supposed to be?
The developers clearly wanted something different from Dungeon Master that provided decision-based rewards when leveling up, but they didn't quite have the nerve to sever ties with their predecessor and develop a system that truly shines on its own. Better would have been to stick closer to Dungeon Master and perhaps make all spells available in a severely weakened state from the start, but then have skill point allotment unlock the ability to power up individual spells. Or, alternately, have spells fully discovered upon unlocking, perhaps with the rune system jettisoned entirely.
The good news is you can more or less "patch" the system into the latter by just hopping online and printing out a spoiler list of spells. I'm going to go out on a limb here, however, and posit that this isn't exactly what the developers had in mind.
Stitch on 16/4/2012 at 21:08
More thoughts on Grimrock that I intended to include in the above but then ran out of time while ripping the magic system a new one:
Conflicted magic system aside, what most surprises me about Grimrock is how well the old school 2.5D dungeon crawl gameplay updates to the modern age. While I disagreed with Sulphur's "2.5D WTF?!" take from earlier in this thread, I'll admit that I wasn't exactly sure how well Grimlock's throwback gameplay would sustain itself once you got over the initial nostalgia sugar rush of pressure plate puzzles and step-turn-strike combat dancing. Would anyone besides the DM hardcore even really give a shit in 2012, and would even we manage to stick with the game for more than a level or two?
As it turns out, yes. Once I got past the "holy shit, this business again" sensation of the first level, I stopped noticing the artificial constraints of the 2.5D gameplay system. You wouldn't think tile-gliding in a series of tunnels under a mountain would be absorbing when Skyrim gave you the entirety of the mountain in glorious snowy 3D, and yet I find myself every bit as addicted. Grimrock is simply fun, regardless of whether or not you possess nostalgia for its ancient predecessors.
Playing this spiritual sequel in my 30's to a game I played when I was twelve is also an interesting experience. In my five or so hours with Grimrock I've easily conquered more of its dungeon than I ever did in Dungeon Master, and yet I seem to remember playing the latter quite a bit. What the fuck was I doing? Starting and restarting, I seem to remember, and yet somehow never really getting comfortable enough with the game to make progress beyond the top few levels. Gameplay now is pretty linear for me--face a challenge and conquer it, move on to the next challenge--so it's weird to have this glimpse back into the young version of me that wasn't very good at breaking down and playing video games.
I sure did have some grand old times in that Hall of Champions, though.
Angel Dust on 16/4/2012 at 21:46
Quote Posted by Stitch
Grimrock is simply fun, regardless of whether or not you possess nostalgia for its ancient predecessors.
As someone who never played these kind of games when they came out, and didn't really bother with them later either, I can vouch for this. This game is fucking fantastic. There's something so satisfying about being trapped in a huge dungeon (and it's so great to have a real dungeon rather than the poxy little things you usually get these days), exploring it tile by tile, looking for secrets and keeping an ear our for nasty beasties.
june gloom on 16/4/2012 at 22:36
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
When I'm referring to "Fallout In The Wasteland Setting" I mean that they're basically taking the Fallout mechanics, adding the party aspect to that, and using the Wasteland universe.
... Which is fine, because the Wasteland mechanics are ancient and shitty.
