And I didn't put much time in to come to this conclusion. The game looks great, controls well, and feels good over all...BUUUUUTTTTT The rate of enemy respawn that I experienced was WAAAAY too much, and felt more like a chore than fun for me. I like difficult games, but adding difficulty by spamming you with mobs isn't difficult, it's cheap.
Picked up on sale about 2 weeks ago (and knowing what I know now, I'd pay full price!) and I have to say... I'm thoroughly impressed! Admittedly, the last game of this style I've tried out was Sacred 2, and before that, the first Torchlight game, and, Sacred 2 didn't grab me, and while Torchlight was a TON of fun, I found myself getting bored after about a hour or two into a session, as everything kind of felt the same. Grim Dawn, however...the different areas all feel very unique, LOOT is plentiful, and the character development is fantastic. The lore is GREAT as well. Far more deep than I'd usually give this style a game credit for. I started my first game here on normal difficulty, and I did find it FAR too easy. Hit the veteran button and definitely added a level of challenge that I'm VERY pleased with. Positives Great visuals -EXCELLENT character development with the dual class system and devotion system -LOOT, LOOT and more LOOT. -The ability to re-spec your character for little cost. -Story and lore are GREAT -NO hand holding! Quests and bounties give you a general area to check out, other than that, you're completely on your own! Could take you 5 minutes to find your mark, could take you an hour! I love that! -Multiple factions and rewards from said factions! Negatives -Maybe it's my system (although I FAR exceed the minimum specs (AMD FX 8320, 8gb DDR3 ram, Radeon R7 260) but my FPS ranges from 60 fps (I have old monitors so I HAVE TO Vsync) all the way down to 20... (and this is with ALL settings on medium, no anti-aliasing or the like) and when I'm transferring things into my storage box (and this is the ONLY place this happens) it will take 4-5 seconds to register a mouse click to transfer it sometimes. I still give this a 5 star rating...why? because the technical issues could very well be the config of my system, won't blame that on the developers or game itself until I upgrade my system. Everything else is EXCELLENT!
I have to say, with all of these "retro-inspired" indie games as of late, it's VERY hard to pick and choose what you're going to spend your hard earned money on. Though I'm an avid supporter of GOG, I had to pick it up for my Wii U (it's on sale right now, couldn't pass it up) And I will say, I didn't expect to like Steamworld Dig as much as I do! I won't get into the specifics of the story line (as there isn't too much of that going on, though, it's just enough to make it worth while, and have likely been covered in the other reviews) What I will say is this: it's not a particularly long, or difficult game. but I don't mean that in a bad way. One could easily play through this game in about five hours (maybe quicker if you're really good) and while the game isn't overly difficult, that's not to say that it doesn't have it's moments of challenge. Finding all of this games secrets is really what makes this game fun. For example. You see a stone deposit seemingly out of your reach. You think to yourself.. "what route do I have to take to get to it?" or "what power-up or item would work best here?" That's why I loved this game. I give this game a 4/5 only because I want more from it. By that I mean, I wish this game were longer, and more to offer in terms of story. It's not a knock against the gameplay, it's mechanics, or anything like that. Just that... It left me just slightly unsatisfied when I finished it. In closing, I will say this: It's worth it. Buy it. It's a fun game!
I've discovered plenty of great games through GOG, but man, oh man, does La Mulana take the cake. I've yet to complete it, but what I can say is this.. CRAZY difficult, CRAZY fun. I don't think much more needs to be said, honestly, other than, BUY THIS GAME NOW!!! Castlevania SOTN and Metroid fans, dig in! you won't be disappointed!
