Grim Dawn

Let's start off with the key phrase you'll hear any fan of this game tell you:

"If you love the Diablo games, you'll love Grim Dawn"

And, they aren't wrong. Diablo 1 was ahead of it's time when it was first released. Diablo 2 was good, and with the expansion it became a lot better. (We will not talk about the terrible diablo 1 expansion here...) Bots and cheaters have brought both games down in regards to online play. But for myself I enjoyed both for a good few years.

And then there was Diablo 3. The initial reception was lukewarm, but it was a decent game even so. The real money auction house was a horror that (while profitable) was eventually removed by Blizzard due to excessive exploits and encouraging bots once again. The expansion brought the game to new highs in regards to gameplay. But it still lacked some of the darkness and atmosphere that Diablo 2 had.

Moving beyond diablo

Path of Exile is often mentioned when people look for alternatives to the latest in the Diablo series. And while certainly a good game it feels "gritty" and the trading and skill tree are more daunting than comfortable.

This is where Grim Dawn enters the discussion.

Grim dawn does a lot of things right where Diablo failed to meet expectations of the fans. Of course it isn't perfect, because what game ever is? But some highlights that really stand out:
- Full 3D (rotate camera etc)
- Flexible multiclass system.
- Dark and grim. As the name implies.
- Adjustable loot filter.

The usual suspects

Aside those it features much the same things you'll know from the genre, hack n slash, dungeons, boss fights and the like. Multiplayer, crafting, various dungeons, increasing difficulty settings and loot piñata galore with tons of items and varying stats.

Grim Dawn features a few expansions already, but you're encouraged to start with the base game. It's often found at about 5$ during the various steam sales and for that price you can't really go wrong. If you finish that though, there's:
- Ashes of Malmouth
- Forgotten Gods
- Crucible

End-game progression, is gear, always gear. Grim dawn brings you roguelike dungeons where some of the better items can be found, and some items are exclusive to specific monsters or monster types. Crafting epic and legendary items will greatly help you, but keep in mind the material cost of those can quickly rise. Great power comes at a price, and in this case that price is killing many monsters.

Growing power

The class system is quite versatile. With the expansions added you have access to 8 classes, and as you reach a certain level you can go dual class into their skill tree as deep or shallow as you like. This provides you with pets, magic, healing and plenty of other toys to experiment with.

Aside the class system there's the devotion system. Initially you have access to some 49 shrines in the world which upon activating will award you a devotion point to be spent into,. this. Which will vaguely remind you of Path of Exile as mentioned before, but with a lot more flexibility.

Curious yet? Can't wait for the next sale? Or, already own Grim Dawn perhaps? Let us know below.

Release date: 25 Feb, 2016

Minimum system requirements: Windows XP and up, X86 processor of 2.3 GHz or faster pentium, 2 GB ram, 512 MB Nvidia or AMD equivalent, DirectX 9.0c or up, 5 GB disk space.