![]() ![]() Kenti: I didn’t spend too much time thwacking things, but that was very meaty and fun, and shooting them is also appropriately explosive. Attacks feel appropriately powerful, and there’s always a lot of enemies on screen and a lot of explosions and fire as you blast them into chunky kibbles. I think the combat isn’t actually too bad. Hentzau: Well, before we talk about loot (because that is going to be a long conversation), let’s talk about the basic gameplay: the combat, and the skills you use to mess up the hordes of bad guys who are just minding their own business until you come along. Kenti: The loot piñata is not satisfying. Unfortunately there’s some bad news there too. It’s an ARPG, so I’m not going to hold a weak setting against it too much as long as it gets the hitting of monsters and the loot right. Anyway, enough about the setting – it’s generic, and it’s a step back, but we didn’t exactly mind it that much when we enjoyed Victor Vran – it merely compounds other issues with the game. Apparently that is THE theme for smaller indie ARPGs these days. Kenti: We’ve all played your Van Helsings and Victor Vrans – so of course there are guns and science and whatnot as well. That guy on all the promo art with the witch hunter hat and the pistols? That’s about as far as Grim Dawn is willing to step outside of typical fantasy tropes of warriors and mages and shamans – and even then it’s just stealing one from somewhere else. Both mechanically and thematically it comes across as a standard fantasy land overrun with monsters. Hentzau: I’m not even sure what is going on with the setting! It’s supposed to be post-apocalypse (the titular Grim Dawn) but you never really get an impression of that in game. Kenti: Yes, but without any of its charm – and with a generic fantasy (maybe with a touch of generic steampunk) setting to replace the slightly-less-common mythology one. Hentzau: Even with my limited experience of it I can see that Grim Dawn isn’t really a spiritual successor to Diablo 2, it’s a direct successor to Titan Quest. In a large part because it is indeed Greek Mythology-themed (and Roman, and Egyptian and Chinese… but not really Norse I guess… or was that in the expansion?) I believe you spent a bit more time in it Kenti? This was a mythical Greek-themed ARPG that I dabbled in for a few hours but which largely passed me by – I didn’t even get to it until a good 3-4 years after it came out. Hentzau: Let’s talk a little bit about Titan Quest first. The bad news is, unfortunately, everything else. The good news is that we had absolutely no problems with the netcode after a year in Early Access Grim Dawn’s co-op is solid as a rock. As usual with ARPGs I roped in my usual co-op partner Kenti to play through the campaign with me. I had… well, I’m not exactly going to call them high hopes, but at least a reasonable expectation that Grim Dawn wouldn’t suck, as developers Crate Entertainment were formed from the remnants of Titan Quest developer Iron Lore 1, and Titan Quest is pretty well regarded as far as ARPGs go. Grim Dawn is an indie ARPG that’s fresh off the Early Access train. ![]()
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