Grim Dawn

What is really interesting to me is that this is one of those games where you think you found everything, and yet 2 years afterwards STILL find stuff you didn't notice before. You DO NEED THE DLC, there is a ton of stuff that really enhances the game! Hidden areas, unique items you may have overlooked (when killing the great undead leaders in the City of the Dead, one drops a green item that actually has an intrinsic secondary that lets you instantly teleport to enemies and do massive damage, for example!), and things that are mindblowing, like hidden campaigns and quests that encompass the entire game world (beat the game first) and provide additional hours and new loot! Finding the hidden Crate Boss or finding the totems of the Witch Gods are just TWO examples of hidden content. And I DO MEAN HIDDEN, I played for something like 700 hours and was looking up Youtube videos for builds when I found "How to find X hidden quest" videos. Mind was blown. Now, that being said, this game is VERY DARK AND GORY, even if it is isometric. I play co-op with my sisters on Diablo 3 (wish GOG had Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction), but that didn't phase them. This game, though... "Grim" indeed. Parents should also be aware that you can play as a cultist (reformed?) The cultists play a MAJOR role in the game and DLCs, and they... ain't nice folks, so to say. There are no heroes in this game, just varying levels of "bad choice, REALLY bad choice, totally evil choice". If you are someone who gets really affected by stories, you may want to look through the gameplay videos first. Otherwise, it's definitely one of the top 3 Iso action RPGs ever on my list! P.S. I love minions/pets. Necro for the win! P.P.S. Does anyone else imagine what life as an RPG necromancer in real life would be like? Snap your fingers and raise skeletons to do housework, make sure the zombie gardener doesn't rot on the driveway in summer or freeze in winter, etc.? XD

While Grim Dawn doesn't offer anything really unique it is a well tuned Diablo-Like ARPG with a long campaign and tons of class building options. I played the "complete" version and highly recommend getting it with the DLC for a more complete experience. The Good: Builds and Classes: Probably where Grim dawn shines the most. there's 9 classes (masteries) and you can choose 2 of them and mix and match skills between. There's tons of viable builds and the game is very forgiving about letting you undo skill points to either pivot your build or just try something different. There's also a "Devotion" mechanic which has points in constellations that unlock abilities and extra skills. Proper Devotion allocation can vastly change a build. Oh and you get 2-3 skill points per level so you can actually dig into your skills before level 50. QoL: good number of QoL features from town portals just being built in, to loot filters, good amount of storage, nice maps, fast health regen when out of battle, training dummies, GD feels more modern than most. Content Length: The game is long, With all the DLC I reached level 72 on normal before beating the game. it also uses level scaling, The Meh: Loot: The game is pretty forgiving about uniques and rares but there's so many combos that you'll just sell oceans of high tier eq that just doesn't help your build. nearing the end of Normal I was pretty tired of wading through the loot to try and find the right stuff. it can be fairly difficult to tell if a piece of eq actually is better. There's a good number of complex interactions with damage types and skills. The Bad: Story: it's convoluted and with the DLC can even happen out of order and overall pretty lackluster and unsatisfying. I beat DLC and wasn't even sure I finished the game, the fight was so0so and there was so little fanfare to the final boss' death I thought there was more main quests.

I've put almost 100 hours in to Grim dawn so far and I can't speak highly enough of this game. I'm no stranger to the genre either having played the Diablo series, Torchlight games, PoE and few other titles over the years. GD surpasses most of these games easily and in my opinion is as good as or even better in some cases than my two favorites (Diablo 2 and Path of Exile). The gameplay is excellent and combat is a hell of a lot of fun. The mechanics are easy to pick up and the skills for each class are unique with some awesome animations to boot for them. Loot system is great also with cool gearsets and a decent selection. The story & quests lines are engaging, enjoyable and always feel rewarding. Some quests although a rare occurence, have choice based outcomes which can slightly impact the in game world. The setting and world of Cairn itself though is what sets this game apart for me from the rest. The atmosphere, environment, locations, factions, people, enemies you encounter all feel incredibly unique and the world istelf almost feels alive with the slight changes that can occur throughout the story or side quests. You will want to explore and sometimes revisit older areas. The lore feels well crafted, interesting and adds to the overall bleak tone of the game. A few more lines of voice acting and dialogue for certain characters though is the only thing I feel this game is lacking in comparsion to Diablo 2 and PoE. Apart from that 4.5 out of 5. P.S There is so much content I'm just after reaching the point for the first DLC Ashes of Malmouth :)

Woooow.... just... let me breathe a little bit... (pausing Grim Dawn, after killing one the main bosses in the 2nd act). Been playing this game non-stop for 3 days in a row now, i finnished act 1 a couple of months ago, and now, that i have some spare time, got right back into it... and god... what have i been missing,,,, an amazing RPG game, that was originally released in 2016; the story, the soundtrack (amazing, very very melancholic music, that puts you right in that cool mood for the battles ahead), the graphics, the items, the interface... everything is amazing. And don´t let the "a bit more complicated than Diablo" interface, and grandiose variety and richeness of items fool you; it takes a bit of time to get used to so much options of customizing your character; there are thousands of items, and magic power options, so, take your time to get used to that. Also, the bar below has 10 customizable options to use magic and items, and of course, it takes some practice to get used to using that interface. The game itself transpires lots of H.P. Lovecraft influence, and that is just so amazing (i love Lovecraft´s books!! lol); at the beggining of the game, you are someone who have just been exorcised from some real demons, by some local people at Devil´s Crossing; but, as it seems, you came back from possession with some powers left, and you have to help the people of Cairn to re-establish order, among the chaos, that the dead brought to the world. Divided into 2 main acts, into one big map (huuge map), the game will definitly give you hours of fun, and inspiration. Better than Diablo 3? Good question. I really love D3, and have played it for tens of hours, but Grim Dawn really gets way closer to the experience of playing Diablo 2, which is a great thing to say. I hope that people at Blizzard have been playing this game, and that they can learn, and put some influence of this piece of gaming art, at the upcoming Diablo 4, to be released next year.

Very addictive. From my perspective, this is what Diablo 3 was supposed to be. The world is fascinating. The lore is deep, but not shoved in your face and can be easily ignored if you just want to destroy more baddies. Gameplay is up to you. And if you mess up, you can reskill your character to your liking.