Game is fun for awhile through normal and maybe even elite, but once you get to ultimate you are not able to really progress anywhere unless you download the tool to give you the gear you need because builds are so gear specific and 99.95% of the gear that drops will be 100% useless to you. Any of the endgame builds you'll find online will require that you either cheat or get the gear off someone else, that is if you're lucky to find any builds that are current. I really tried to want to like this, but after getting repeatedly stunlocked in Tomb of the Heretic even with stun resist well over 80%, I've decided that the game is just frustrating and no longer fun. Can't say how glad I am to have never paid for it either.
Grim Dawn is a cultist lifestyle, it's all about online community and 'build' stats.
But where is the game?
Like all decent Action-RPG's GD has some slick and addictive game-play, but as a 'single-player game' experience it's barely average in the muddy field.
Much of its map is a simple snaking-path of skull-bashing leading to a quickly-reachable 'final' boss that doesn't even trigger end-game dialogue if you reach it too soon!
I unwittingly 'finished' basic GD just by marching onwards for a few turns! ie before reading enough of the patchy-at-best dialogue, and doing too many of the particularly-mindless (yet often hard-to-locate) 'mini'- and sometimes buggy- side quests!
Then in confusion I spent around half of my total game-time looking for whatever I missed- much of which now earnt me zero 'experience' stats- before going online to find that I'd completed the last boss and should now buy expansion no1- both for more game, and also to achieve everything offered to me on the various stat screens!
I don't personally need online play, multiple playthroughs or to spend my days improving endlessly differing character builds. I do need a solid principle game.
And as for Support the poor devs? Like they hadn't even worked in this highly successful business/genre beforehand? C'mon. These people are not the poor victims of Diablo's evil! And GD isn't Sacred 2 either - Crate are milking here. It's still £45 the full set, with sales rare.
Even on sale the first two expansions are £9 to 12 each, though no.1 is built-into the game from the outset. Purchase from the Main Menu of course.
I played Diablo 3 directly after, and honestly it's far superior as an actual game. OK Blizzard had probably ironed-out quite a lot by the time I played it- but what is Crate's excuse in 2023?
Please guys, stop pleading poverty for your beloved devs and needlessly brown-nosing them too.
And NEVER believe you are 'needed' to help finance their next one. Crate can do that themselves.
(Personal Experience)
- Story is dragging. Repetetive mobs. Boring bosses with recycled mechanics, forgettable soundtrack.
+ Class combinations.
PS. I am not a huge h/s fan or expert.
I love everything about this game except the normal difficulty is WAY too easy. I've gotten to level 15 and haven't come close to dying even once. I can walk straight into hordes of monsters and attack casually and my health meter rarely gets below halfway. And I almost never have to use potions because my health recharges freakishly fast. I know it's because I found two rings with recharge powers but shouldn't something that powerful be way harder to find? And I can't increase the difficulty until I beat the game on normal which means I won't get to experience it at a difficulty more suitable to my tastes until I've had the whole game spoiled for me. I really love this game but not having any challenge kind of sucks.