2019-03-01_PC_Gamer

Gridlockis a crawl that feels just

lovely to control, with a rewarding

sense of heft to the strictly grid-

locked movement. Combat, too, feels

impactful, even if it is fairly basic,

lacking any verbs other than ‘bash’,

an interacion you

achieve by rubbing up

against your enemies,

roguelike style.

It helps that this is a

particularly attractive

game, its pixel art

sprites and textures

enhanced with some

sophisticated lighting

effects. This is a world that looks

satisfyingly chunky and gritty, and

rather a lot likeSystem Shock’s, but

with added bursts of blinding neon

to cloud your retinas. I’d love to

explore more of this city, which is

why it’s so disappointing that the

game cuts out abruptly, with a simple

text message informing the player

that there is no more.

I

f you’re jonesing for a new System Shock, or a new grid-based

dungeon crawler in the vein of Legend of Grimrock, here’s a jam

game that will scratch both those itches – for a while at least.

Gridlock takes place in a cyberpunk city, after wrong-’uns have

dognapped your pet, leaving you to infiltrate their lair, batter

everyone and rescue your pooch. That doesn’t actually happen, I’m sorry

to reveal, as the developers only found time to include one level.

Okay, so that’s not strictly accurate

• there is more to Gridlock. Much
  more. An endless amount,
  theoretically. Once you’ve run
  through the level, you can hop into
  an editor to explore unfinished
  stages, and even create
  some of your own.
  I get the feeling that
  the developers spent
  most of their week-long
  development time on
  the level editor, and
  little on the actual
  game, and if so, I’m
  tempted to say it was
  the right decision. It’s a wonderfully
  robust tool that allows you to muck
  about with any of the included map
  files, and to build your own even as
  you’re wandering around.
  Not a fan of collecting keys, and
  then laboriously hoofing it back to a
  door to open it? Simply crack open
  the level editor and delete a couple of
  obstructing walls. Or even enemies,

should they be foolish enough to get

in your way. There’s no clear

delineation between the ‘game’ and

‘editor’ parts of Gridlock – that means

you can open it up at any time to

adjust the world.

HACK IT

The moment I did so was a moment

of minor revelation. Not only is the

editor extremely easy to use, but it’s

integrated in a refreshingly holistic

way. Are you editing the game, or

hacking it? Rename a few of the

windows, and rework the

environment, and suddenly the editor

is a cheat menu – or a central

mechanic that an entire hacking

game might be built around.

A few more authored levels would

have gone down a treat, as would

more complex battles that make use

of, say, ranged weapons or abilities.

It’s a bit placeholder but this is a

fascinating jam game, and a rock-

solid foundation for something better

to build upon.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A first-person dungeon

crawler with a

sophisticated level

editor. And only

one level.

EXPECT TO PAY

Nothing

DEVELOPER

David Rosen, Aubrey

Serr, Anton Riehl

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

AMD A4-6300, 6GB

RAM, GeForce GT 610

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

http://www.bit.ly/

GridlockJam

73

The end will sneak up on

you sooner than you

would like, but there’s the

basis for a great dungeon

crawler here.

VERDICT

STEP TO IT

Nutting cyberpunks and making cyber-worlds in dungeon crawler GRIDLOCK. By Tom Sykes

This is a world

that looks

satisfyingly

chunky and

gritty

Gridlock

FREE GAMES REVIEW

The sprites can be a little

difficult to decipher.

There are plenty of nice details

to the world.

Good luck surviving this

encounter.