Hi there, bought the game a few months ago, really liked the game, and have now eventually decided to offer some feedback. I have played a lot of PoE, D3, D2, among others in the past, and it seems that I will be adding Grim Dawn to that list now.
When I first started playing the game (1.0.0.6 I believe, was the version before 1.0.0.7), the game really felt to me like PoE did in its early days; full of potential, yet with numerous kinks that will hopefully get ironed out over time.
In this post I will list some of the issues I have with the game currently, as well as some of the things I particularly like about the game. There is plenty more to be said than what I cover here, but this isnt really the occasion to cover every single aspect of the game. These are just the issues I come across often enough that they stay consistently fresh in my mind.
Starting with the negative, in no particular order:
Long stuns/roots too dangerous:
So playing the crucible on challenger with a friend, we usually have zero issues before wave 149 and 150, where things get a little hairy. That is, except when those big rock dudes who throw boulders spawn; you have to be very careful at that point, because if you get hit by one boulder, you may die before you can act again. I dont think there is an intrinsic problem with this, however I do find it unreasonable that there is very little recourse for dealing with this. Yes you can get stun reduction from various sources, but that can be a big investment for something that is not relevant very often. In my opinion there should be a consumable that reduces stun and entrapment duration by 20-30%~; it seems odd that there are resist potions for things like elemental resistance, which you will have maxed anyway, yet they dont exist for stun, which is only an occasional hazard, much more fitting of a temporary solution. This isnt a huge problem given you can just play carefully, and it doesnt happen often, but still feels ridiculous how careful you have to be with those rock guys.
Ranged attack range:
Shift-firing skills in this game can be very tedious, because projectiles will simply vanish when reaching the spot you fired at, instead of continuing on. Ranged attacks and abilities should always fire to their max range, imo. The way it is currently, stutter stepping away from enemies that are still far away from you is more tedious than it needs to be.
Offensive ability is too universally good:
In short, the fact that OA increases both hit chance as well as crit chance, devalues critical hits. Every build with good damage is more or less a “crit build”, which is to say such a thing as a “crit build” does not exist. You can of course sacrifice varying amounts of OA to cover other areas, but where im getting with this is that you cant leverage crits in any interesting way, because everyone already crits enough to saturate the cooldowns on crit procs. Additionally, you crit too often for a 0cd x% on crit proc to exist in the game, because it would simply proc too often. I dont want to talk much about other games, but path of exile does crits really well imo; a crit in that game can generate various powerful effects based on the damage type dealt, this leads to builds based entirely around that, and in general makes “crit builds” exist (as well as non crit builds). However, building a high critical hit chance in that game comes at a high opportunity cost, and at the same time you need to build a seperate hit chance, which also has an opportunity cost. In grim dawn there is zero opportunity cost to getting a high crit chance, and (almost, barring %crit damage) no way to leverage crits in any interesting way. By conventional wisdom, critical hit chance is a luxury stat that you can ignore in favor of a more consistent performance. In GD it is as widespread a stat as something as essential as HP, and by rolling it together with hit chance, it becomes a stat that both increases high end damage as well as consistent damage, at the same time. Now, if this is just the direction Crate wants to go with OA, thats fine, its not particularly detrimental to the game, its just a boring stat that could have been much more.
Difficulty of bosses compared to the area they are in:
I have seen others complain about this, and experienced it myself; you are questing, clear an area and reach the boss, and the boss destroys you repeatedly. I dont think its a problem that a boss is just too hard for you, nor that it can be virtually impossible at your current power level (thats just a part of the game), but sometimes it is completely unpredictable, because the area the boss is in WAS doable without much trouble. If a boss is too hard for you to beat, the enemies leading up to it should clue you in on that fact, so you dont waste your time on an impossible task. If a boss deals a high amount of a certain damage type (commander lucius, herald), I would suggest putting a bigger emphasis on giving the enemies leading up to the boss much more of that damage type, to give the players a bigger scare before just getting repeatedly destroyed by the boss. When people complain about this happening, it seems a common theme that they just dont understand why its happening or if they are doing something wrong.
Shotgunning:
Some enemies in the game uses shotgun skills that usually kill you instantly if you take a direct hit. While I dont appreciate the traditional spread shots very much, I can live with them. However I really despise the meteor clusters that usually cover a somewhat spread area, but occasionally clump up and do astronomical damage instantly in a small area. Most of the meteor clusters can be dodged quite easily, except Anasterias, because it falls directly down (you cant tell where it will fall, like you can with Lucius’), and it falls too fast to react most of the time (only real way to dodge it is to use an instant mobility skill like shadow strike). Its not a huge problem or anything, but its a little to high damage variance for my tastes, and there isnt much to do about it other than have enough hp and resist to survive.
Now for the positives:
The armor system:
Took me awhile to realize how it worked, but I really like the armor system. Its a great way to reward players who keep their gear up to date and dont let lowlevel gear sit too long, and at the same time it offers an occasion to keep an ongoing eye on your resistances.
Enemies that stack AOE’s:
Often I will be tempted to just stand still and dish out the damage, however the enemies that stack area dots under you force you to move repeatedly, and keep an eye on the actual action. Its a method that keeps you attentive and on your toes, and it works very well.
The visuals/art direction:
I’ll be honest, the artsyle in itself doesnt blow me away (though it is quite nice and certainly has a certain character Ive come to associate with grim dawn), but its consistency is something I appreciate a lot. When you find an item with a cool picture, the 3d model once equipped lives up to that, and the practical application of the item suits the visuals and theme of that item (Blue Ultos’ for lightning dealers, spiny Dreeg’s for evil poison casters). A game like Path of Exile largely fails at making items’ 3d models appealing (non mtx items, that is), and exceptions are just that, exceptions, in grim dawn that isnt the case.
The reputation/blueprint/mandates system:
I really like how you can improve the leveling experience of alts by reaching certain breakpoints (finding blueprints, reaching revered for mandates, collecting rare mats for a rainy day); it gives a good feeling of progressing in the game as a whole on your “account”, rather than just on one char. Though I do think some things are too slow to achieve on your initial playthrough, in particular crafting things that require specific rare mats, that you simply dont have and it isnt feasible to farm.
The devotion system:
While I think the devotion system should be expanded in scope, it is a great system in itself. It is practically very similar to path of exiles passive tree, yet different enough that you can tell effort was put into it, and make it appealing. It has a good balance of semi-mutual-exclusivity, you CAN get certain constellations at the same time, but it severely restricts your options, making it less optimal; the bigger a compromise you make, the more options you get. I think it should absolutely be increased in scope (more constellations basically), because currently, when you pick a certain damage type, you will be somewhat shoehorned into a few 3-4 constellations, with choice only being real after you have those.
Thats all for now, I am having a great time in Grim Dawn, and after 343 hours put into it, I still see myself playing plenty more, and am eagerly looking forward to future patches 