The Single Button Joystick

This is a game that I have dreamed of since I was a small boy. Sure there have been plenty of Transformers games, but this is the first to let you take control of everyone’s favorite challenge loving, mechanical T-Rex: Grimlock!

The star of the show!

Far from the most cerebral of the Autobots, Grimlock offered little in way of sage counsel or strategic depth. His strength lies in… his strength! One of the strongest transformers, Grimlock’s raw power is matched only by his fearlessness. He gladly took the command from Optimus Prime to “Destroy Devastator”. It was a mission that Grimlock and his dinobot crew were only partially successful. I will be very happy tearing through crappy un-named decepticons for hours with this game. I’d imagine it’s in the style of God of War and…

After being brought to my senses by several sharp blows, I realised my error. The game I was so excited about isn’t called Legend of Grimlock, but Legend of GrimROCK. Ughhhh how contrived and time-wasting could my mistake get! Good Lord.

Looks dank!

The Legend of Grimrock is being made by Almost Human, a small Finnish developer. I am guessing that they’re being Finnish means the game will be hewn from frozen rocks, deep under some glacier. Not much else to do there except prepare for the next Soviet invasion.

From the first few glimpses at it, I’m very excited. It is a first person grid movement based RPG, set in a dungeon. You control four characters. Oh It is sounding very familiar. It has been many years since I’ve noticed a real dungeon crawler that wasn’t a mod for something else.

We've come a long way since 1993.

Very similar to Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master, it uses block movement so you’re moving in 2 meter increments. What sets it apart from these older games (at least in the small part I have seen) is being able to look up and down in a limited sense. No doubt this will make some of the puzzles a little more engaging for the 2011 audience, EOB and Dungeon Master were definitely limited by their perspective, since the secret door buttons were always in one of two places.

Not sure if there is any character generation as yet, but you do pick from a pool of pre-made dudes so this should give those min-maxers of you out there some leeway to make a power party.

I’ll keep track of this game’s development, for those of you interested in hearing what I have to say. Remember use the numpad to move, not the mouse. Mouse use results in getting lost very quickly.

Also, did you know Grimlock could breathe fire? Fascinating.