Have you ever thought about arming a badger with a gun? It’s an interesting thought, and one that the developers behind the RPG Grimshade, Talerock have not only thought about it but made happen. We got hold of this 90’s style Steampunk RPG, and ran it through its paces. There are some very impressive RPG’s that were released in the nineties, but how does Grimshade hold up?
Grimshade,
follows the great tradition of banding together a ragtag band of different
heroes to join forces and fight a common foe. In this case, the heroes are
caught up in a dark and dangerous series of events, in the land of Ree’fah. The
city of Brann, is surrounded by monster infested forests, with the cities high
walls failing to stop them getting in. The neighboring kingdoms armies have
landed at the edge of the city, wreaking havoc and devastation. With the city under
onslaught, the defense crumbling, and the Kings loyal champions vanished, who
is going to step up.
There are
two elements of the story to discuss here, the first is the story itself, and
you can’t really go wrong with a band imposing army, darkness creating monsters
and underdog heroes fighting valiantly against oppressive foes. So much so,
there’s very little else to say about it. The other element is the careful mix
of storyline and battle sequences. In Grimshade, it’s mostly inconsistent, some
times you’re almost mindlessly, clicking on combat text to get to the next battle
part, and then suddenly things are reversed and you just seem to be in battle
after battle with story progression. Neither of these things are absolutely awful,
but they’re not great either.
At its
heart, Grimshade is a turn-based isometric RPG. Over the course of the story,
your party is built from a variety of individuals each bringing their own
combat style, skills, and five slots worth of weapons and abilities into the
mix. So, prepare your party beforehand to ensure the best mix of skills and
abilities. And yes, one of them is a gun-wielding badger. Don’t worry there is
a fairly good tutorial that takes you through the beginning of the story as
well as introducing you to the seven unique cast members and how they can be
used.
When you’re
not fighting, you are exploring the rest of the world of Ree’fah, engaging in
side-missions and activities, acquiring better gear and if you’re really lucky
you may come across a few of the hidden Easter eggs.
The
gameplay doesn’t stand out for either good or bad reasons. Mind you, I have
fairly high expectations when it comes to RPG’s so this may be higher praise
than it seems. Grimshade does everything I would expect of an RPG. It doesn’t
have the depth of a Final Fantasy game, but this has been created by a team of
21 developers, so credit where credit’s due, it’s pretty good.
I also find
the combat just that little bit slow, especially when you only have one or two
skills, and characters. It would be nice if everything was just made 25% faster
or so.
I do like
how Grimshade looks. With Charlie the badger sniper, it has a great Wind in the
Willows meets Steampunk vibe to do. It’s cartoony, and at least in style it
takes you back a decade or so. It works. It’s not going to blow you away but it
suits the purposes. Being part of the
grammar police, there were a few jarring typos and spelling mistakes in the dialogue,
although the developers are Russian so maybe give them the benefit of the doubt
on this one as well.
During the
earlier parts of the tutorial, I found myself dying a few times. Though, this
was basically due to me not reading the tutorial text probably and healing some
enemies. Other than that, the curve is ok. It’s easy to stay on top of and as
long as you spend a bit of thought on your team makeup and health you shouldn’t
have any real issues.
There a
number of different decisions that can made throughout the game, and this in
itself does give it at least some level of replayability. However, depending on
oyur experience or possible frustration with the dialogue speed and amount,
whether you want to explore these other decisions is the key question.
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Jim Franklin
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
