{"title":"Almost Human","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlmost Human is a small Finnish studio that proved a four-person team could revive one of PC gaming's oldest genres and find a large audience for it. Founded in February 2011 in Matinkylä, Espoo, by Juho Salila and Olli Pelz from Futuremark and Antti Tiihonen and Petri Häkkinen from Remedy Entertainment, four developers with more than thirty years of combined experience who left established studios to build something of their own, the company set out to make a modern successor to the grid-based, first-person dungeon crawlers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder lineage that had gone almost untouched for two decades. Legend of Grimrock arrived on Windows on April 11, 2012, casting the player as a party of four prisoners exiled to Mount Grimrock and left to descend through the mountain one level at a time, solving pressure-plate puzzles, rationing food and torchlight, and fighting in real time on a tile grid where a single step back can be the difference between a clean kill and a dead party. Mac and Linux versions followed on December 19, 2012 through Humble Indie Bundle 7, and the game passed 600,000 copies by January 2013 and 900,000 by October 2014, remarkable numbers for a self-published debut. A Dungeon Editor gave players the tools to build and share their own dungeons, and the custom-dungeon community it created is still active today. Later ports brought the game to iOS in May 2015 and Nintendo Switch in January 2024.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLegend of Grimrock II started life as downloadable content for the first game, but by the beginning of 2013 the plans had outgrown that scope and the studio committed to a full sequel, adding graphics artist Jyri Ullakko as a fifth member and trading its first office next to a horse stable for a business center in Keilaniemi, Espoo. Released on Windows on October 15, 2014, with an OS X version on March 18, 2015, it moved the series out of the mountain and onto the Isle of Nex, an open, nonlinear island of forests, swamps and rivers above ground with dungeons, mines and crypts beneath, where four shipwrecked prisoners wash ashore with no idea who has trapped them there or why. The sequel expanded the character system to eight classes and five races, kept the rune-based spellcasting and real-time grid combat that defined the original, shipped with its own Dungeon Editor, and earned a Metacritic score of 85. Almost Human has developed and published both games itself, selling them directly from grimrock.net alongside Steam, GOG.com and the App Store. For players who want dungeon crawling with real teeth, careful resource management and puzzles that expect you to pay attention to the walls, there is very little else like Legend of Grimrock II, and it is here to browse.\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\/en-ie\/collections\/almost-human.oembed","provider":"PJ's Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}