Grim Dawn

[Sly Reflex]

I am really surprised there's not a thread for this game, since a few of you here have played it, some quite extensively by the looks of the hours put in. It's an old game, but one I've recently just dived into.

 

Grim Dawn is a loot game. It doesn't have Diablo's shiny graphics, nor does it have Torchlights whimsical charm. What it does have is depth. Complex depth. I'm 10 hours and change in and there's bits I still don't understand.

 

I am going to link you something so you can play along and understand as I explain.

 

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/

 

Splash screen is of a guy. Attributes are what you expect, physical is health, cunning is stamina based and cunning is mana based. Sort of. Because you only get 2 bars, as you can see, the health and the action points. As you level loot has requirements based on the item that cover the level you are and any combination of those stats. So something that is tanky might need physique, anything with crit might have high cunning and anything that is magic based is spirit. You can level these up when you level up, 1 point doesn't equal 1 stat, they come in bundles.

 

Now click the little book on the bottom left and lets pick a class. There's 9 to pick from if you have the DLC. One you pick one you have a bar at the bottom with a plus on the left hand side. I think you get a few points per level up, so you need to unlock a tear that has skills, then invest in the skills too. This investment uses the same pool of points, so be frugal.

 

Once you are 10 levels into the game, you can open a second class. This gives you the option to pick 72 classes in the game overall, each with multiple builds. Depending on what classes you pick, you're given a new title. You can either play with the calculator to see what you can make, or you can go HERE to see all the combinations possible.

 

It's up to you what you want to pick. You want to layer being tanky on top of being tanky? Go for it. Want to be a combination of tanky and offense? You can do this. You can even roll midway or go full squishy with glass cannon builds. In my time with the game I've played with a sword and shield Battlemage that can deflect a lot of damage, and even when I do get hit I regen health like crazy and I've gone 2 handed Ritualist where I have an army of skeletons that follow me and swap between a musket and a big sword depending on the situation. Out of the 4 classes I've picked, I can see connections that would work with each other. For instance mixing the Soldier with the Necro would really focus on me being able to wade right in there with a 2 hander or a sword and board without having to worry too much about getting sent to my own grave. A Shaman and a Arcanist could spend all day smashing the fuck out of mobs with AoE's and missiles that fragment when they hit the target. If you're the sort of person that likes to try things out when you're thinking about how builds synergise, the Grim Dawn has you covered there.

 

Gameplay is alright. It's not as fast as Diablo. I don't think it's as clean as Torchlight. It's more involved than something like Sacred 2. I've not played Victor Vran or Path of Exile so I don't know how it lines up with them, but it's alright. It's fixed levels with a story that sends people back to camp, there's a notoriety  thing that levels up the more time you play so that the game gradually becomes harder or offers certain quests once you curry favour with any of the factions. I think it'd have been nicer if there was a mode where the tileset mixed up ad you could run floors of a dungeon at random, but it is what it is. Maybe there is this further into the game. I don't know. I'll report back if there is.

 

The music is kind of guff. All I can think off when listening to it is that PS3 game Everyday Shooter. There's lots of isolated guitar and I don't like it. You might, but I don't In fact I think for the most it's fucking awful.

 

There's another bit I didn't mention while I was talking about classes because it's about the levels themselves. Dotted around the map there are totems. Some totems need an offering and some totems need cleansing. Accept the offer, and do the thing, either kill the bad guys for the cleansing or offer mats for the other ones. They drop loot, but they also give you devotion points which can be spent on the devotion skill tree. I think of it as a tweak to your gameplaying style. Do you need to plug a hole that's getting you killed? You can do it here. Do you want to fortify a stat that's killing the shit out of stuff even further? Then you can do that here. It's all another layer to contemplate over.

 

Multiplayer is fun, but the lobby system is awful. The front end of the game is a bit confusing overall. Once you're in the game it ceases to be an issue, but I've no idea why you can't just jump into the game from the steams friends list like every other game.

 

What is good is the loot. I'm constantly finding stuff that gives me ideas or is useful to the people I'm playing with. You can stash it away and throw it across to other characters you have if you like, but I've personally tried this yet. I will do though. The one thing I really do like is that certain pieces or sets overcharge abilities and you can mix and match around goals you're going for. It's sort of like each bit of kit as the same properties as a class mod in Borderlands where you can max a skill out to 5/5, but the mod can push it as high as 11/5 if you managed to find one.

 

It seems like a game that some might be all over if it was available elsewhere. Sadly it's on PC only, but if you can run it and the base game is on sale, there's worse ways to spend £5.

[radiofloyd]

I have it and started it once, but I’m not one of the people that’s played it in depth.

[Sly Reflex]

There's some things I missed off that I really like as well. Like you can find food rations that are like delayed overshield. If you stop getting hit the food bar drains and gives you health back, it just keeps the game flowing.

 

The loot filter in this game might be the best I've ever seen in a game as well. Because I'm doing a pet build in the MP sessions I'm having, I can turn everything off that isn't pet focused unless it happens to be over a certain loot quality. For instance there's no shield users in party so you can just remove shields from showing up. They'll still drop and you can hold Alt to override the filter settings, but still. It's easily the bar for filtering stuff out you don't need to see.

[DANGERMAN]

I've started it a couple of times over the years when it's been free to try in Steam sales. It seems alright but it's missing something the better games in the genre have but I couldn't tell you what 

[Sly Reflex]

So I've been playing bits and bats of this, started a new character because I made a balls of the previous ones, but this time I'm having a much nicer time of it.

 

Like Ben says, it feels like it's missing something, but once you get right into it it starts ramping stuff up with the amount of mobs on screen it feels a lot better.

 

I have mixed feelings about it still, but I'm becoming more enamoured with it as I play more and more. The way that the game favours physical for the most back for your buck is a bit silly, I'd like to see it be balanced across the 3 stats, but it is what it is. Some of the bosses are mad difficult as well, generally I don't have issues with champions or elites or whatever the hell they're called here, but there's a few here and there that seem insane, like harder that the bosses that are end of zone goals.

 

General flow of combat feels really nice though, at first I was thinking it was all a bit barren and it is, but it makes sense once you get your head around it. There's bit where you stop and have to do a lot of reading, or stat crunching, having points where you can take a breather are nice. I really like the options as well, there's a lot of things where you get a choice of how to handle something and it has a habit of making you regret your choices. For instance I didn't grass an ex con in, and then later on he joined the bad guys and I had to fight him as a mini boss. There's loads of stuff like this. Sometimes they can turn out being helpful, but sometimes they might just try and dick you again.

 

The thing about this game is you can't really just play it by winging it. I've tried twice and it doesn't work. It reminds me a lot of Sacred 2 in that if you're going in, have a build and have some idea of what you want from the game, otherwise you're going to end up having a bad time.

[Sly Reflex]

This is going full cosmic horror right now. It was always sort of leaning on it to some degree, but now all the chips have been pushed into the middle of the table as far as story and theme goes.

 

Some of the reading is particularly grim as well. It's one of the few games that when it gives me something to read I stop and read it, since it's done excellently and adds a bit more misery and wtf to what's happening in the game.