{"title":"Old School","description":"\u003cp\u003eOld school is less a genre than a set of rules. It describes games that deliberately follow the design philosophy of an earlier era, when a title assumed you were paying attention and built itself accordingly. There are no waypoints leading you by the hand, no quest markers on the map, and no tutorial that stops to explain a system twice. You learn by trying, you find things by looking, and when you fail the reason is usually something you could have seen coming. The difficulty is real and it is fair, and the satisfaction of getting through comes from the fact that nothing was made easy for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe hallmarks are systems you are trusted to figure out rather than be walked through; discovery that rewards curiosity and note-taking, sometimes down to drawing your own map; challenge that punishes carelessness without ever cheating; and forms inherited from the 1980s and 1990s, from grid-based first-person dungeon crawlers and isometric role-playing games to arena shooters, point-and-click adventures and classic platformers. This is not the same thing as retro. Retro is a look, with pixel art, chiptune and 8-bit or 16-bit presentation. Old school is a way of playing. A game can have fully modern 3D graphics and still play by the old rules, and a game with a retro look can be as forgiving as anything released this year. The two overlap often, but they are not the same shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection gathers the titles in our catalog that carry the old school tag, in every genre it touches. If you would rather be handed a challenge than a checklist, and you think a game that respects you enough to let you get lost is worth the time, start here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","products":[{"product_id":"legend-of-grimrock-2-gog","title":"Legend of Grimrock 2","description":"\u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003eLegend of Grimrock 2 is a dungeon crawler with a modern execution and an old-school heart. Four prisoners wash ashore on the secluded Isle of Nex, a place of crumbled ruins, mysterious shrines and a vast network of dungeons and mines running beneath it all. Someone is watching them, and the only way off the island is through every trial its master has devised. Almost Human's sequel takes everything that made the original Grimrock a cult favorite and opens it up into a whole island of grid-based exploration, punishing puzzles and tactical combat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eShipwrecked on the Isle of Nex\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first Legend of Grimrock sent you down a single mountain, level by level. Nex is different. The island is the dungeon, and it is built for non-linear exploration: ancient forests dotted with strange magical statues, swamps that fume with poison, a Forgotten River you can dive into in search of sunken treasure, and hidden chambers deep below the surface. Regions connect to one another through gates, keys and secret passages, so you decide where to push next and which mysteries to leave for later. As day turns to night above ground, the mood shifts, and the ominous Island Master's challenges keep pulling you deeper toward the truth of why you are here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePerception Over Brute Force\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrimrock 2 rewards players who look closely. Thousands of grid squares hide switches, pressure plates, secret doors, riddles and deadly traps, and the game trusts you to notice the one wall that looks slightly wrong or the pattern of alcoves that only makes sense once you have mapped a room. Expect more than 20 hours of pure dungeon crawling where logic and observation open more doors than any weapon does. The game ships with its manual and printable graph paper, and plenty of players still map Nex by hand exactly the way the classics intended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eYour Four Champions\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou build the party from scratch, and the choices shape the whole run.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eFive races, eight classes\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eHumans, Minotaurs, Lizardmen, Insectoids and Ratlings each bring their own stats and quirks. Layer on classes like the Knight, Rogue, Wizard, Battle Mage, Alchemist and Barbarian, or the famously unusual Farmer, who levels up by eating rather than fighting. Skills and traits then hone each champion as experience accumulates.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eRunes, potions and bombs\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eSpells are cast by tracing rune combinations, so a Wizard who has learned a sequence can fire it off mid-fight. Alchemy turns the herbs you gather into healing draughts, resistance potions and throwable bombs, and the crafting system is generous enough that a dedicated Alchemist changes how the whole party approaches danger.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eReal-time combat on the grid\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eFights play out in real time, square by square. Positioning, sidestepping and backpedaling matter as much as damage, and the enhanced AI on Nex flanks, retreats and lures. Melee, ranged and thrown weapons all have a place, and the sequel adds firearms for champions who prefer to end an argument from a distance.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Creatures of Nex\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eForty-two kinds of monsters roam the island, thirty of them new to this sequel. Ancient artifacts recovered from buried treasure rooms and sealed chambers give you the edge you need against the nastier residents, and every new region tends to introduce a threat that forces a rethink of your formation and your spell loadout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eMake Your Own Dungeons\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe included Dungeon Editor is the same kind of toolset Almost Human used to build the game, and it comes with the purchase. Lay out maps, script puzzles and traps, and go far beyond the stock assets with entirely new items, monsters and environments using custom graphics and audio. Share your scenarios with other players, or download the adventures they have made and find out how devious the Grimrock community can be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you have ever mapped a dungeon on paper, argued with a friend about which lever to pull, or felt the particular thrill of a wall sliding open where you were sure there was nothing, the Isle of Nex is waiting. Assemble your four, step off the wreck and start looking for the first hidden switch.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Almost Human","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31427031793750,"sku":"PC_4409590054998_DL_GL","price":13.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0875\/3268\/files\/card-legend-of-grimrock-2-gog-pc-game.jpg?v=1789487784"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.pjsgames.com\/collections\/old-school.oembed","provider":"PJ's Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}