Imagine buying a game and actually getting the whole game. No microtransactions, No DLC that should have been in the base game. No bugs. Yes, it does exist. This is it.
For a long time I was looking for a good addictive RPG. The last game that gave me that feeling was Skyrim. Now it’s Grim Dawn. I did some research about the company and found out that the first few years there were only 2 full-time developers working on this game. A lot of work and passion went into this. You can clearly see it. So what’s it all about?
Grim Dawn is a classic action RPG with a dark setting. The world has been overrun with evil. Evil that needs to be dealt with. The setting and gameplay often reminds you of another epic old school RPG. Diablo 2. The fans (me including) often describe this game as the real successor of Diablo 2. But it’s more than that.
You can choose out of 6 masteries. All of them with unique skills, strengths and weaknesses. Sounds very much like any other RPG right? Yes, but here’s the fun part. When you reach level 10, you’ll have the opportunity to choose a second mastery. This gives the game a whole new dimension and endless replayability. When I first played Grim Dawn, I started out with a Shaman/Occultist. I really like to have a party of pets supporting me and this is a build that makes that possible. Unfortunately, I made some wrong choices during the game and wasted the potential of my build. After that I decided to create an arcanist as my main mastery. Very mage like. Much more powerful. If you buy the expansions you get additional masteries like a Necromancer which is my favorite. You can build a whole army of pets with this one!
But enough about the builds.
The gameplay is good and very addictive. There are hundreds of items, including unique ones, to gather. Finishing the game will let you play it again but with a higher difficulty which will give you a real challenge but also better items. The story itself is not something I paid much attention to because I was addicted to building up my character.
When you level up you can spend points on things like physical strength or more mana, upgrading your skills and one other thing. You can spend devotion points. At first I did not understand it what it was. But you spend devotion points to unlock certain constellations. These will give you extra bonuses or even new skills.
The graphics are decent. They are not impressive but they don’t have to be with a game like this.
There are some minor things that annoy me like using health potions. When you use one, you’ll have to wait a few seconds until you can use the next one. This will get you killed numerous times which will get you frustrated.
When you first start out, you’ll also probably get overwhelmed by all of the masteries, skills and constellations. So it has a bit of a learning curve. Once you chosen the wrong mastery, you can’t undo it.
Do I recommend this game? Definitely! I’ve spend more than 100 hours in the Grim Dawn world. It was that good and I haven’t even played multiplayer. Right now you can buy the game at Steam for 24,99 euro. Totally worth it. Can you imagine I bought the game on sale for 6 euro? Only 6 euro!
The expansions are a nice addon but not necessary to enjoy the game. Unless you want to play as one of the extra masteries of course.
Score: 9/10
In the video above I played the Crucible DLC. Here you will have to face hundreds of creatures in an arena to please the master of the Crucible. The more waves you survive, the better the rewards!
Cheers!
▶️ 3Speak
