Leaving this at shelved since I plan to play this with friends, but I think I've had enough of my solo run-through.
There's a few things I do genuinely enjoy about Grim Dawn, such as the solid atmosphere, choices having a tangible impact on events, and the (at its core) solid combat. However, it's marred by a lot of things that hurt the enjoyment too much for me to continue.
By far the worst offender is just how repetitive the game can feel. There were very few moments that genuinely surprised me (the Act 1 boss being a notable surprise thanks to a great track), meaning a lot of the game felt like the same thing with a new coat of paint. 16 hours into this playthrough with that feeling tends to erode the enjoyment a bit.
It isn't helped by combat that uses enemy levels to increase difficulty far more often than interesting attacks. Instead of having interesting attacks I need to adapt to, a lot of it comes down to simply not being hit or else I get quickly melted. All the while, enemies can take incredibly long to kill. There were a lot of times where I was forced to abuse an enemy's max distance it could travel from its spawn point just to down it.
And as much as this is ironic given my praise for the Act 1 boss, the lack of music variety ruins a lot of the atmosphere for me. After a few hours I put on my own music which, even when finding somewhat fitting music (sidenote, Ruined King's soundtrack fits pretty well and is a jammer in general), detracts from the experience I think the team was going for.
I think there's a good ARPG for the right people here thanks to some nice and in-depth number crunching, but I just don't think it's for me. Maybe my experience with friends will change my opinion (and if so, I'll gladly edit this review), but we'll see.
There's a few things I do genuinely enjoy about Grim Dawn, such as the solid atmosphere, choices having a tangible impact on events, and the (at its core) solid combat. However, it's marred by a lot of things that hurt the enjoyment too much for me to continue.
By far the worst offender is just how repetitive the game can feel. There were very few moments that genuinely surprised me (the Act 1 boss being a notable surprise thanks to a great track), meaning a lot of the game felt like the same thing with a new coat of paint. 16 hours into this playthrough with that feeling tends to erode the enjoyment a bit.
It isn't helped by combat that uses enemy levels to increase difficulty far more often than interesting attacks. Instead of having interesting attacks I need to adapt to, a lot of it comes down to simply not being hit or else I get quickly melted. All the while, enemies can take incredibly long to kill. There were a lot of times where I was forced to abuse an enemy's max distance it could travel from its spawn point just to down it.
And as much as this is ironic given my praise for the Act 1 boss, the lack of music variety ruins a lot of the atmosphere for me. After a few hours I put on my own music which, even when finding somewhat fitting music (sidenote, Ruined King's soundtrack fits pretty well and is a jammer in general), detracts from the experience I think the team was going for.
I think there's a good ARPG for the right people here thanks to some nice and in-depth number crunching, but I just don't think it's for me. Maybe my experience with friends will change my opinion (and if so, I'll gladly edit this review), but we'll see.