I recently started playing Grim Dawn a week ago. I have finally finished normal mode on veteran, and I thought I would leave some feedback for the game. I played a melee witch blade using bleed/vitality damage.
Story
I liked the main story and side quests a lot. The lore pieces were fun to read as well. It was an unexpected pleasure to unlock new quests after progressing through different faction reputations. I think I like the faction quests the most so far. The ending was a bit anti-climactic. Maybe this is because further content is planned, but the “big bad” at the end felt pretty forgettable.
Gameplay
The overall gameplay was very fun. There are a lot of classes to choose from and ways to customize my characters. The skills are also fun to use and varied. Gamepad controls are responsive and everything makes sense. Skills have a lot of available synergy and come together well. With all that said I have three main gripes.
First of all I would like to address various stat potions. While these potions can be helpful they aren’t made very visible throughout the game. I never felt pressed to use them and they felt more like an afterthought. These potions are also a pain to use while using the game pad. Using the 30 second potions can be a pain because I have to stop moving, access my inventory, click the potion and then close all the menus while fighting. There doesn’t seem to be a way to assign the potion to my skill bar either. The awkwardness has me avoid them altogether.
Secondly all gear feels like a stat stick. Nothing I have found so far up to level 57 has felt game changing or build defining. They are either more damage or more resistances with an occasional novelty skill. Even the epics and empowered epics I have gathered ( 3 and a half pages now) have all lacked any real wonder or desire. I feel like I feel like am only chasing damage and defense . I would like to see more gear that changes how I play and not just boosts my stats for the next gear check.
Lastly Normal Veteran felt like a tutorial that spanned 50+ levels. The game is easy. Easier than a lot of games I have played over the years. After starting Elite today it doesn’t look like that formula has changed. Everything I touch just falls over with little effort exerted on my part. Monsters in general are also very dumb. Ranged monster for instance will be more than satisfied shooting into a wall rather than trying to hit me. I am more afraid of environmental damage than any monster the game could throw at me. From what I’ve read ultimate gets somewhat challenging, but that’s another 20 or so levels away for me I’d wager. Asking me to slog through 2 full campaigns and 70+ levels of content while sleep walking is a lot to ask.
I think places like steps of madness got it right. Instead of areas with static levels trash needs a 3-5 + level advantage, and heroes + bosses need an 8 level advantage throughout the game. That’s about the range where mobs and bosses could still hurt me but it didn’t feel unfair. Right now most content can be done extremely under geared and under leveled. A constant level advantage could also make bounties feel more relevant instead of tedious.
It would also be nice to see more environmental dangers and a reduction on constitution. Areas like the conflagration felt good because I was constantly being threatened by the environment. Battles weren’t completely on my terms and my HP bar finally started moving. More things like damaging ground or traps like the ones that follow you in SOT would be nice. Constitution should also be harder to keep up and manage. As it stands we might as well not have constitution because it is always full anyway.
Suggestions
A few suggestions to increase overall enjoyment in my opinion include:
Change epics+ gear mods to be more build defining instead of better stat sticks. For example a chest piece could unlock a unique modifier that doubles all attack conversions. This could then be used to make skills like cadence easily reach 100% elemental damage. Something like that could offer a big change without just bumping stats.
Make stat potions more relevant and easier to use in the game. Right now they feel out of place and a hassle to use. The only niche they seem to fill now is for closing up a resistance gap during boss fights.
Create more skill mutations that give trade-offs. I liked how some skills could gain a cooldown but bigger effects or lose cooldowns and gain new effects.
More tradeoffs for skill customization would be nice. Right now everything just feels like all reward for no risk.
Put more challenge into the game. Make areas scale with the player so mobs can remain challenging throughout. Add more environmental hazards and mob tactics that force painful decisions. Make ranged mobs realized they are shooting into walls. Make rations/vital essence an actual scarce resource instead of something that always up.