I’ve been pinged about Almost Human’s Legend of Grimrock a few times, and for good reason. The game — a fantasy dungeon-crawling RPG — is heavily inspired by Ultima Underworld, among other titles. And its premise is, to say the least, very interesting:

A group of prisoners are sentenced to certain death by exile to the secluded Mount Grimrock for vile crimes they may or may not have committed. Unbeknownst to the captives, the mountain is riddled with ancient tunnels, dungeons and tombs built by crumbled civilizations of days long past. If they ever wish to see daylight again and reclaim their freedom, the ragtag group of prisoners must form a team and descend through the mountain, level by level.

The game brings back an oldschool challenge with highly tactical real-time combat and grid-based movement, devious hidden switches and secrets as well as deadly traps and horrible monsters. Legend of Grimrock puts an emphasis on puzzles and exploration, and the wits and perception of the player are more important tools than even the sharpest of swords would be.

And here is the trailer Almost Human put out for it:

You can pre-order the game at GOG.com, for the really quite reasonable price of $11.99 (which, I gather, is 20% less than what the post-release purchase price will be). So if you’re looking for a bit of a modern take on that Ultima Underworld flavour, consider dropping some coin for this one. I know I’ll be watching it rather closely, to see how it measures up against the various classics its developers cite as inspirations.

The First Age of Update: And if you’re the sort who reads such things, GameBanshee has collected excerpts from a few early reviews of the game.