Anyone play Avernum:Escape from the Pit or Legend of Grimrock?

[Spurmwhale]

i don't know which one to get and they seem pretty similar. I'm leaning towards Grimrock right now but not sure. they're both relatively inexpensive but i doubt i will buy both.

anyone try them?

[Spurmwhale]

well i ended up getting both...

I purchased Grimrock first. Played it for about 2~ hours, its pretty good but the movement is very primitive like you're a robot moving. I also don't like the combat mechanics very much where you click on character portrait weapons/magic to attack, so its sort of like a click fest, and even using spells is a pain, but i get why they did it. It makes the combat more frantic and adds some measure of skill clicking i guess. What was surprising was the puzzles are pretty difficult, and you really have to pay attention to the walls or floor. The UI doesn't make it easy with how stiff the movement is. There are a lot of hidden switches or things you have to find to progress, and again i've only played a few hours at most but its sort of turned me off. I was expecting more combat than puzzles. I'd say temper your expectations since there are a few glowing reviews, but its decent for a rpg throwback game. I sort of wish they had made it turn based, since it would feel more old school to me that way.

I bought Avernum after i got sort of bored with Grimrock. Its odd how these two games came out at the same time where they're both throw back rpg's. Avernum is a lot more different tho, where you're not in 1st person but moving around sort of like Diablo with a party of 4. First thing that bothered me was the camera looks so far away where you can't zoom in or turn the camera. Its not that easy making everything out from how far away the camera is. This game felt like it had more depth than Grimrock. One thing i noticed that i thought was cool is the narrator writing. It gave a feel of real old school D&D descriptions of what you're seeing, where they did a great job in describing what you're looking at to be more realistic than it actually was. It helps the overall atmosphere of the game in how well they worded and described certain areas you come upon. i can't complement the writing narration enough since it sort of makes up for the poor camera display.

Anyways i'll probably be playing more of Avernum for now at least. Certain aspects of Grimrock have turned me off, including the necessity for food, and how they sort of force you to not take your time exploring, and the difficulty can be rough with a clunky combat system. I had no idea i had to hit and run to survive some of the early encounters where moving like a robot takes a lot of the enjoyment out of that type of play. i'm looking forward to Avernum mainly due to the imaginative aspect it gives with the writing, i can't emphasize how well its done in relation to the environments you come across. hopefully there is more to the game...

[AndaleTheGreat]

It's not robotic movement, it's a grid-based game. I'm not sure exactly why they chose to do this with a 3d first person game, but I just felt like that needed pointing out.
If you haven't decided on a preference between Legend of Grimrock and Avernum: Escape From the Pit (which have WAY to similar a plot point to be ignored) then I suggest checking out some gameplay. I enjoyed this one done by BlueXephos of the YogsCast: youtube / watch?v=xALsxZv0pwg
I'm sure there is one for Avernum somewhere but I haven't seen it myself.

[Jon]

It's not robotic movement, it's a grid-based game. I'm not sure exactly why they chose to do this with a 3d first person game, but I just felt like that needed pointing out.

The game is paying homage to old-school dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master and EotB. That's why.

[Riathy]

I played Grimrock, I really enjoyed it, although I have never played a game like it before. The atmosphere was good sometimes I was even shitting bricks! :P

I can recommend it, as you said it yourself the game isn't that expensive as well!