Grim Dawn does not get as much love as it deserves. This game is fantastic. It has easily become my favorite ARPG, and is the first game to dethrone Diablo 2 as my favorite isometric RPG in the last 20 years. I just need to share with people why I love this game.
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It’s the perfect blend of old school and new gaming. The game options are phenomenal, just like the old games used to give us. LAN play? Hell yea. Open mod support? Don’t mind if I do! Instanced loot is an optional toggle?! When do you ever see that?! Optional auto-loot and optional auto-sort? Thank you very much. Crucible mode, veteran mode, and 2 extra campaign difficulties. It’s like the developers actually care if the game has replay value, which unfortunately is not so common these days.
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It presents a wide array of quality-of-life elements WITHOUT turning the game into brainless clicking. This is huge for me, especially after playing Diablo 3. I fell asleep almost every time I played that game. But Grim Dawn gets it right. Builds can be complex if you want them to be. I get to plan, compare, test, re-assess, and experiment. My gear setup is MY gear setup, and I’m completely involved. And then when it’s time to fight, line up that hotbar, watch your cooldowns, and click like mad. It takes effort to play. QoL elements like loot filter, UI customization, item comparison, auto-stacking, DPS comparison, 2 skill bars, skill reassignments, training dummies, etc. all just help smooth out the bumps, without sucking the fun out of it. When I go to play some other RPG’s I can’t help but compare them to Grim Dawn and wish they were as well thought-out.
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It hits the sweet spot for the amount of content available to explore. Not too much, and not too little. Some games have so much content that it’s too overwhelming to care enough to even try. But in Grim dawn, loot has the right amount of surprises, crafting is extensive but simple to do, questing keeps you busy, but never makes you feel like you’ll never finish, and skills are versatile but well organized. Devotion points are a little overwhelming at first, but starts to feel like an unexplored map when you begin to understand it. The game is so well-balanced for enjoyment.
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Input and controls are super smooth and responsive. Inputs actually do what I intended them to do 99% of the time (with the exception of going up and down those damned stairs). You never realize how important this is until you don’t have it. In many games, so many times you will mean to do one action and end up doing something else. Grim Dawn has almost perfected the input response for an isometric ARPG. I make fewer mistakes, and that takes so much of the stress out of playing.
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The story had me completely captivated! I felt fully invested in the plight of Cairn. I kept thinking to myself over and over how I would act in those situations. Coming from a largely text-driven story, that is a big deal for me, because I never read for fun. Like ever. The story made me feel devastated, creeped out, superstitious, heroic, righteous, and triumphant all in the right ways. And the notes. I had to read all of them, or I felt like I was missing out. The lore is fantastic.
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I have to make a special note about how much I love the UI scale slider in this game because I play PC games on my TV. Many times when I play games I have to lower the pixel resolution just so the words on the screen will be big enough for me to read them. The UI scaling on Grim Dawn is the best I’ve ever seen.
After contemplating ALL these little details (plus more I’m sure I’m leaving out), every nuance that makes the game so much fun to play, I can’t help but give a standing ovation to the developers. They obviously care about this game. Devs, you guys probably don’t get told this enough: Your game rocks. Thank you so much for pouring your hearts into it.
PS: Please make more. Please. Expansion packs, a sequel, I don’t care. Just take my money.
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