Legend of Grimrock 2 sneaks into "strong alpha" status

There was a time, back when I was a young whippersnapper, that grid-based dungeon crawlers were a big part of the gaming ecosphere. Advances in technology rendered the style obsolete, as "better" games with complete freedom of motion asserted their dominance. Yet when Almost Human released the very old-school Legend of Grimrock in 2012, it found enough success beyond the nostalgic oldster demographic to ensure a sequel—and that sequel is now playable from the very beginning to the very end.

That, he continued, means the game is playable from start to finish, and all planned features have been implemented. It's not anywhere near complete, obviously, and "there are still features and content that lack polish and refinement, and balance and progression of the game is not complete." But it is, as Tiihonen put it, "whole."

Tiihonen said he and fellow Almost Human Petri Hakkinen have been applying polish to the game's many areas in advance of the move into beta testing. They pick one section of the game each day and focus on fixing the biggest issues that arise during gameplay, but also tackle game design issues, visual glitches and other problems that may crop up.

"One day for each area is not a lot of time but doing a pass like this over the whole game really improves the overall experience since this way we always tackle the weakest spots of the game without getting stuck into details for too long," he wrote. "This also helps us by breaking down the game into more digestible bits that we can focus on since trying to polish the whole game at once feels like an overwhelming task and it would always be difficult to decide what would be important to do next."

Legend of Grimrock 2 will offer the same core experience as the original game—which is good—but promises some big changes , too, including more monsters with improved AI, an overhauled interface, a new playable race and even outdoor environments. The game should be out later this year.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.