Grim Dawn

Are you looking for an ARPG to try? This game should be at the top of your list. The gory details this game has to offer are found on Crate’s game guide [www.grimdawn.com]; However this is my experience in a nutshell. This game has combined characteristics of my favorite ARPGs: =>D2 - Loot Variety/Quality, Rune word system and a dark mature savage atmosphere =>TQ:IT - Dual-mastery system, Essence system and graphics =>PoE - Deep passive skill tree and item crafting The post-apocalyptic dark and gritty Victorian environment is splendid! The lighting and weather systems combined with the ambient sound stage an incredible world of immersion. The loot system is top notch incredibly addicting and gratifying. The 5 masteries and dual mastery system provide an option for almost anyone’s play style and offer extensive amounts of replayability. GDs component system is similar to TQ's essence system or D2's gem, jewel, rune system. Players collect components dropped by enemies and combine them to create powerful items to socket into gear. GD's item crafting is a more intuitive version of crafting than D2’s Horadric Cube or often times PoE’s confusing currency crafting system. GD’s crafting centers on a blacksmith, finding blueprints and various crafting materials to assemble into gear. An inventor is used to salvage items for crafting materials. This crafting system was engaging from a collecting standpoint. GD's devotion system is similar to PoE's passive tree. Notable difference I find more enjoyable is how passive tree points are acquired. The player must discover a devotion shrine and restore it by repairing or killing whats trapped within. This encourages players to explore this wonderfully crafted world. Crate has deliver a game boasting many challenges, depth in replayablitly, and scaling encounters based on their faction system. Feature Wishlist: => Devotion system depth of customization => Leagues => More crafting depth (quality, and flexibility)

I bought this game through one of its frequent sales on GOG. Got it for like $6.25. I have logged just over 350 hours of play time with it, so that calculates to less than two cents per hour. And I'm nowhere near being tired of it. There are so many more builds I want to explore. And let me say that action games aren't even my thing. At age 64, it's safe to say that I've lost a step. But this game is just so freaking amazing and forgiving that it works for me. It's engineered to encourage exploration of the game and your character build and have fun doing it, rather than punishing you for earlier mistakes. You can spend resources you find or earn in the game to back out of previous build decisions and just experiment to your heart's content. I've been focused almost entirely on board gaming for the past three years, but Grim Dawn is pulling me back to video games. Buy it. Experiment with it. Explore the richness of it. Love it.

I haven't played Titan's Quest which this team comes, but one of my fav games of the past was Neverwinter Nights w/Expansions. Multi-class, pick skills/abilities, get enchanted weapons, plan out my build to synergize, I had fun. I feel GD is a whole different level. The game allows multiclassing, at level 10 you can choose another class if you wish. You get 3 skill points/level which won't be near enough to max out everything of the two classes. Do you get a lot of skills to low level, or pick a few and get them to high, or somewhere in between? This means a Soldier/Arcanist (battlemage) made by 1 person is not likely to have the same skills/abilities and play the same of others. The equipment gives a ton of abilities and synergy, you can get eq that summons creatures, converts damage, gives you more exp, throws lightning at enemies, gives you a chance of a retaliation strike, poisons, stuns, the list goes on and on. You collect ingredients for crafting too, feel you're struggling against cold creatures? Create a cold resistance improvement and put it on your armor pieces (it remains perm). Or if your focus is fire, craft items that increases your fire damage. Often times, if you apply it 3 or 4 times to the same piece each application improves it and when maxed often gives an additional ability (like maximized shield blocking chance and grants a shield slam ability to slam your shield into up to 3 opponents, do damage, and stun). There's devotion, which are skills/abilities granted to any character but points are very few and far between. It's been a long time I had this much fun at a game. After hundreds of hours I still can't wait to keep playing it. You have to play it 3 times, each time is more difficult to maximize your character. I can't wait to replay it to try a new character, one of the best games I've played.

Out of all games in this genre I've played (Sacred series, Diablo series, PoE, Titan quest), this one is the best. Well, if you include DLCs. The gameplay is exactly what you might expect from similar games - kill things, level up, get items, kill more things. And Grim Dawn polished this concept into perfection. You can choose any playstyle you like (summoning minions, casting spells, using swords etc.) and the game will give you almost infinite options for it. Story is very Half-life ish. Nothing is in your face, you have to put together pieces of events from notes and conversations. Or you can just ignore it completely. Replayability is through the roof. The only downside is necessity of having DLCs. Not like the base game lacks content, but overall experience is far more polished with them.

I´m just at level 24 but it´s quite certain that this is the one and only for a long time. I loved Titan Quest and now I am back in the loot loop. The map looks really huge and partially empty. Hopefully they will fill it with further content.