Grim Dawn

I own the base game on Steam and decided it was worth buying the complete edition on GOG, just because it's so great. Unfortunately, after getting as far as level 24, I cannot load the game. I get stuck on an infinite loading screen after clicking start, followed by needing to force quit. After researching, I found turning on V-Sync might work, which it did once, but also included massive stuttering (and I have a 5800X and a 3080 so it wasn't my system). Whe I went back the next day, not even V Sync worked. It runs perfectly up to character select, but freezes on the loading screen until I force quit. There are tons of people with this problem, and it was never fixed.

I start with Arcanist, and after 4h on Veteran Difficulty I earn enough skill points to unlock this insanely powerful railgun attack that lasts forever and allows me decimate every single hord in 2 seconds. The dictionary definition of OP. Think "Disintegrate" from Diablo 3, but with no duration limit. I have literally no reason to use anything else. After 2 more hours of pulverizing here and there and winning everything hands down, I've decided it was time to put this down and never look back.

Some time especially before and even after release I actually recommended the game. It had potential, and still has to some extend. But it seems the devs lost track of their vision for the game. Back n Forth with all game aspects all the time, game feels like patchwork more n more. Looking at the aspects they work on and the ones they totally neglect doesn't give me hope sadly. (for example one aspect of their strategy to diversion is to have almost all attacks deal pretty much all kinds of damage, sadly that doesn't help it in the end, and actually works against it! That, and many other things.) So, really can't recommend this anymore, and fear I can't ever again.

Why would a dev go out of their way to make something as simple as turning in a quest, be so fucking frustrating? Why? What is the fucking point? Probably the same person who deisgned GOG's client and UI.

The gameplay of Grim Dawn is very similar to Titan Quest. Despite all layers on top, the grim atmosphere, disturbing NPCs, the numerous layers of customization (like the devotion system) cannot hide that this game is a re-skin of Titan Quest. What is new, and interesting, is the faction system. It comes at the cost of enemy variation, however. Being a re-skin is actually not a bad thing. I think Titan Quest and Grim Dawn are both very enjoyable games and I highly recommend both! Instead of telling you why it is enjoyable (which will no doubt be addressed by many other reviewers), I will try to explain why the game doesn't deserve the full 5 stars, in my opinion. 1) Fighting for and against factions means that you will be seeing the same monsters over and over again and again from the beginning of act 1 to the end game. Your first enemy is a zombie, your last enemy is a frozen zombie (okay almost last enemy ;) 2) You can respec your skills, but only at a price. That you cannot respec at any time means that you will be using the same skills from the end of act 1 till you change characters. Some people love this, like they loved it in Diablo 2, but I find characters with a limited set of skills less appealing in the long run 3) The AI is poor and has not improved since Titan Quest. Nearly all heroes (and bosses) have some unnatural speed skill to overcome range-style characters. Monster can also run back-and-forth between their spawn location and your position, like they cannot make up their mind. Basically monsters have two behaviors: "go straight for the player" or "just walk in random directions and shoot". These patterns are more prominent than in Titan Quest, because there are many interesting range skills in Grim Dawn 4) While characters have endless skill customization options, they all look alike. The grim settings is great, but not for customization of how you look in the game Still, two thumbs up for the (small) dev-team!!