Kick Ass Kickstarters: Grim Dawn
Grim Dawn is an action RPG by Crate Entertainment.
By Victor Sanchez
2/3/2016, 7:00 a.m.
Tweet to: @Slickster_Mag
In mid-2012, Crate entertainment launched the Kickstarter campaign for Grim Dawn. You may know Crate Entertainment from – well, nothing other than Grim Dawn – but the company was formed from members of the defunct developer Ironlore, creators of the cult classic action RPG Titan Quest and its expansion Immortal Throne. Advertised as a spiritual successor to Titan Quest, Grim Dawn not only met but doubled its Kickstarter goal. While Grim Dawn was “released” onto Steam’s Early Access, it is now content complete and seeing its full release next month.
While Grim Dawn acts as a spiritual successor and plays similarly to Titan Quest, I will focus on how it holds up as a game in its own right.
Grim Dawn controls like any ARPG similar to Diablo. You have your standard 10-skill quick bar as well as a right and left click for skills. This is pretty basic stuff for the genre, but Grim Dawn does its job by putting feeling into otherwise ordinary skills and attacks. Blows strike with audible force with stronger abilities, making smaller enemies fly backwards or just straight up explode. The game also rewards the skillful player with good skill synergies by utterly devastating waves of enemies.
The campaign of the game can take up to 10-20+ hours which is a solid length for the game’s $30 price tag (it also often goes on sale on Steam). The game sports a variety of locations but the meat of the game’s environments are pretty samey, inhabiting “destroyed/19th century/Lovecraftian” hills. A few places in the game really stand out but they appear very briefly. The enemy design slowly becomes more and more reminiscent of H.P Lovecraft-style monsters, lending some variability to the similar environments. It doesn’t hurt that the game is gorgeous, especially considering its small team.
But Grim Dawn’s biggest success is its incredible class system. While your typical ARPG has the player choose from a selection of classes, Grim Dawn does you one better – it lets you pick two classes. This gives character building a huge amount of customization as you can play as 15 possible combinations with weapons ranging range from the basic swords axes and great hammers to mystical tomes and effigies as well as even some primitive firearms, you have a variety of ways to play each class. A personal favorite of mine is a gunner who focuses on using grenades to wipe out enemies with devastating force, but you could easily use your firearm in conjunction with magic by staying behind summoned ally creatures while picking off enemies with arcane bullets.
Replayability is no issue with this game due to the huge number of classes you can play. In addition to the wide array of classes, you also get passive upgrades through the devotion system, so finding shrines throughout the world gives you points for small upgrades or even augments to your abilities. These can be built up to suit your individual play-style. And for all you min-maxers out there, all skill points spent on abilities and devotion can be respecced via a merchant in the game.
Grim Dawn not only acts as an excellent spiritual successor but steps out of the shadow of its older brother to be one of the best action RPG of the last 10 years. If you’re a fan of ARPGs, Grim Dawn is a must play.
