Grim Dawn - Reviews

I was an original backer and I played a lot of GD several years ago, but this weekend was my first crack at the release version. And I use "crack" advisedly.

The game has shaped up beautifully. Yeah, the quest narrative is (intentionally) clunky in that "original Diablo" way, but the longer lore entries are written better than anything in D3. World design is great, storyline develops slowly but compellingly, and the character systems are ace. If you've ever enjoyed an ARPG, there's probably some character archetype in here that'll work perfectly for you.

It's a screaming deal at $25.

My wife and I both love Grim Dawn. We're usually into different styles of games but we both like the Diablo 2 clones. Bonus points for the grim, old-west feel of everything.

I'd rate this game sixteen out of seventeen stars on that standard rating system that goes from 1-17 that everyone is familiar with.

Originally Posted by suibhne
I was an original backer and I played a lot of GD several years ago, but this weekend was my first crack at the release version. And I use "crack" advisedly.

The game has shaped up beautifully. Yeah, the quest narrative is (intentionally) clunky in that "original Diablo" way, but the longer lore entries are written better than anything in D3. World design is great, storyline develops slowly but compellingly, and the character systems are ace. If you've ever enjoyed an ARPG, there's probably some character archetype in here that'll work perfectly for you.

It's a screaming deal at $25.

Absolutely agree. I started playing at 7 last night. Blink. OMG it's 3AM! I only have 34 hours in so far but it has been worth every penny.

It's true that Titan Quest was more pleasant to play because of the ancient Greece setting.

Grim Dark tries too hard to be gritty, depressing and edgy.

Originally Posted by Humanity has risen!
It's true that Titan Quest was more pleasant to play because of the ancient Greece setting.

Grim Dark tries too hard to be gritty, depressing and edgy.

To each his own and all that jazz, but this game rules for me and sounds like it does for many others too.

Originally Posted by Humanity has risen!
It's true that Titan Quest was more pleasant to play because of the ancient Greece setting.

Yeah exactly, I don't normally even bother with Diablo-style games but I did enjoy Titan Quest, and I think a large part of it was the setting. Wondering if Grim Dawn is worth bothering with.

I've played about 10 hours now…and I'm remembering why I dislike these games. The endless regeneration of all creatures (with some level-scaling it seems?) each time you have to revisit an area. I used to enjoy this stuff - but then I moved on. This is the first Diablo-like "ARPG" I have played in years (I played Titan Quest, and liked the setting but not much else) - and it's become stale really quickly. I'm not obsessed with loot and levelling, so there is not that much to hold my attention. The story is OK, but doing anything story-related is painful because you have to re-kill everything every time you restart the game. Why don't personal portals persist across single player sessions? To me it is totally demoralising (as in "not fun") to have to go from A to B and have to redo everything I did before. Yes, I know that is the hallmark of these games, but I somehow thought this would be different and this just indicates to me that if I see anything labelled ARPG I should avoid it in future. So, as far as "ARPGs " go this is OK or even fun, but such games are not for me. Lesson learned.

Well the game does not have random levels so at least when you discovered something once you know it is there and you can ignore most enemies and just run towards that place.

Originally Posted by booboo
I've played about 10 hours now…and I'm remembering why I dislike these games. The endless regeneration of all creatures (with some level-scaling it seems?) each time you have to revisit an area. I used to enjoy this stuff - but then I moved on. This is the first Diablo-like "ARPG" I have played in years (I played Titan Quest, and liked the setting but not much else) - and it's become stale really quickly. I'm not obsessed with loot and levelling, so there is not that much to hold my attention. The story is OK, but doing anything story-related is painful because you have to re-kill everything every time you restart the game. Why don't personal portals persist across single player sessions? To me it is totally demoralising (as in "not fun") to have to go from A to B and have to redo everything I did before. Yes, I know that is the hallmark of these games, but I somehow thought this would be different and this just indicates to me that if I see anything labelled ARPG I should avoid it in future. So, as far as "ARPGs " go this is OK or even fun, but such games are not for me. Lesson learned.

Someone mentioned earlier that you can disable the re-spawning that occurs each time you start a game. It has been a problem for me personally, it actually makes me feel each play session has a little more value. And yes, there is a certain degree of level-scaling, which I normally abhor, but also recognize is pretty much necessary in a game like this (that is primarily focused of leveling and loot). I am not sure I understand your problem with the portal system though. There are many different area portals and you can set up one personal portal of your choosing wherever you want. I thought it was pretty straight forward and much easier to use than most other games' teleportation systems.

Originally Posted by rossrjensen
Someone mentioned earlier that you can disable the re-spawning that occurs each time you start a game. It has been a problem for me personally, it actually makes me feel each play session has a little more value. And yes, there is a certain degree of level-scaling, which I normally abhor, but also recognize is pretty much necessary in a game like this (that is primarily focused of leveling and loot). I am not sure I understand your problem with the portal system though. There are many different area portals and you can set up one personal portal of your choosing wherever you want. I thought it was pretty straight forward and much easier to use than most other games' teleportation systems.

There is no disable respawning option. When you quit game and come back later, all monsters always respawn (but also all chests).

Level scaling does exist but each area has minimum and maximum level of enemy so you can still fight higher level enemies if you rush ahead or lower level enemies if you come back later.

As for portals, he was talking about the personal rift you create. When you quit the game and start it up later all personal rifts are cleared and only static big Rifts you found are left active.

I love that they added veteran mode for normal difficulty.In most aRPGs like Path of exile,Diablo and Titan quest you have to endure one playthrough on easiest difficulty to unlock more higher ones.In Grim dawn you can just enable veteran mode and start having fun right away.Really nice touch.

While intrigued, it took a year for my hand to recover from Diablo 3, so not really sure if I can take another clickfest.

It's now out on GOG.

This is surely the apex of the genre. While not as deep as path of exile, it delivers much more satisfying combat

Based on the comments here and reviews think I am going to have to try this. Saw there are modder tools as well. Not a fan of the respawn stuff but I enjoyed Diablo 1 and 2 though so will probably enjoy it.

I only wish this kind of games stopped worrying about the "endgame". It's silly to play the game three times to see all the stuff. It's stupid that legendary items only stop dropping so late.

The game crashes for me after a few hours of play, often when I quit, but sometimes after portaling etc. very, very frustrating when you can't save…I lost an hour of fighting through trash mobs to get to some objective, then *crash* Now I have to do it again. If they saved your personal portal state then this would not have been an issue. I should also add that no other game I have played recently has crashed so reliably or spectacularly - froze whole system, reset required. It's a fun(ish) game, but this really sucks the enjoyment out of it for me - I grind reluctantly and hate having to revisit an area unnecessarily.

Originally Posted by booboo
The game crashes for me after a few hours of play, often when I quit, but sometimes after portaling etc. very, very frustrating when you can't save…I lost an hour of fighting through trash mobs to get to some objective, then *crash* Now I have to do it again. If they saved your personal portal state then this would not have been an issue. I should also add that no other game I have played recently has crashed so reliably or spectacularly - froze whole system, reset required. It's a fun(ish) game, but this really sucks the enjoyment out of it for me - I grind reluctantly and hate having to revisit an area unnecessarily.

Every ones system is different, like taste. I had crashes early in it's build state, but mine is rock solid now. I know how it feels when games crash spoiling ones enjoyment, but with over 500 hours invested in this ARPG i'd say keep persevering.

I have rock soild experience too. On a very medicore rig. AMD FX4100, GTX 560Ti and 8GB RAM. I had maybe two or three crashed in Early access (every time fighting a boss if i remember well), but now is super stable.
Overall most of my games and PC experience is super stable and not frustrating after i upgraded to 8GB of RAM. It works wonders (this + good, reliable power supply from respected producer - i have Corsair for example), especially for games.

I am not alone with the crashing issues - in fact, with the initial release I had no crashes at all. The point I was making that was simply saving your personal portal state would have made any crash more tolerable - but as it is, you have (potentially) a huge amount of work to get back to where you were. For single player campaigns (which I play) there is no good reason not to do this? I'm not 'competing' with anyone. If I could save the game I could at least set a manual 'checkpoint' but that is impossible since there is only ever one current save game and the world resets entirely every time you 'reload' it. I have limited game time, so this is really a waste of that.