I was here before but that was 5, maybe 6 years ago, I don’t know if much has changed around here and within Grim Dawn.
If I had to say what other games that I played that can be similar to this are Diablo 3 and Path of Exile.
Since then most of my attention has been on playing a mmorpg but I believe that I’m missing a lot by not playing this game.
I have a few questions about this game.
In terms of the world, how big is it? Is it worth to explore it or go out of the way?
Is there any form of crafting?
I guess that world bosses are a thing here and also some form of dungeons or other hard content to do?
In terms of the exploration of the world, is there any verticality? By this I mean, the exploration is all of it at surface level or are there underground areas like catacombs, crypts and so on?
Here’s a comparison chart from some years ago. A bit different now since some new areas were added later. And the new expansion is about 75% the size of the base game.
Crafting at blacksmiths.
Celestial bosses and if you have the Forgotten Gods expansion then there’s the Shattered Realm endless dungeon.
Lots of undeground places, some with several levels.
Yes. You always craft relics. And other gear can be crafted too. Leveling gear, stepping stone gear and end-game gear. Each blacksmith provide certain bonuses to crafted gear.
Yes, there are. 5 skeleton key dungeons with a separate boss. Ravager, Callagadra, Lokarr and Crate and Mogdrogen are the “world” bosses. Also there is shattered realm. A sort of version of greater rifts from diablo 3.
Does it matter if it is vertically you will still not “see” it like that but yes there are many dungeons.
If you like it, the world, plot etc and going blind, then yes. Players do like it in general. You’ll find more treasures. The alternative is researching everything (in Grim Tools / Wiki), doing only what’s needed, “speedrunning”.
Basic crafting like in D3
(super) bosses, dungeons and “greater rifts”. Also Crucible where you fight in a small arena against waves of enemies.
Yes but it’s not seamless, there’s loading screen so you don’t feel it that much.
in some places yes, others not so much, that’s the beauty, you never know until you find everything (and sometimes there is even separate stuff to find on the Ultimate difficulty that wasn’t in the previous)
A full play through of just Ultimate takes me about 24 hours.
Crafting is basic. You can create items at the blacksmith, if you have the resources. It’s kinda like runewords in Diablo 2. It’s balanced in such a way that you can probably make a level 60 item around level 60, and a level 90 item around level 90.
There’s no verticality to the game world. There’s stairs, and sometimes you can shoot enemies from the high ground, but that’s about it.
If you want hard content, start your characters in Ultimate.
Very worth it. While the initial content will be somewhat linear, in what bosses you need to kill to progress the story, there are always secret and side areas to find. This game does hidden/secret areas and quest really well by comparison to other games which have none or very few. The build diversity in this game is second to none imo due to dual classes. The lore is pretty rich, especially if you read the notes you’ll pick up scattered about. GD is the best ARPG on the market in my eyes. It’s a similar genre to things like POE/Diablo/Last Epoch but it’s a different kind of game. Not being online, and not having seasons, makes this a slower paced game but a more persistent feeling one. I still play those other games, but have spent more time in GD than all of those other games combined.
One does not need 4k armor in ultimate on a melee char. How much armor is needed depends on how much health and absorption you have, and how much physical resistance you have, and how much damage reduction you can apply to the enemy.
Armor is good against “many small hits”. If you have 19k health and 3k armor and take a big hit for 22k physical damage you will die yes. But if you have 21k health and 2k armor you will not die from that hit…
Attributes can be spent, but one can save 10-15 of them for “fine tuning” and certain quests provide attribute respect potions.
Definitely don’t need 4k armor. I cleared Ultimate with a melee with less than 2100 armor and 19k hp. Now my resists were mostly maxed or over max, lifesteal helps bigtime as well. But its not as bad as you say if you build your character for it. Also there are stat respec potions that can be bought (faction/reputation required), and you receive skill and stat respec potions during the game you don’t have to buy as well. Don’t expect to be able to reset your stats every day or anything, but you will be able to correct them especially in ultimate.
