[Just a few thoughts after coming back to this again a few years after my initial playthrough. This is less about the content of the game, and more on the co-op experience, which is what I played for.]
My original opinion of the game is that it was a solid, classic-style ARPG with some interesting experimental expansions on the formula the dev team originally established with Titan Quest. Unfortunately my experience at the time was marred by a fatal flaw in the multiplayer: loot level was set to the average of all players in the lobby, thereby making co-op between players at mismatched levels a practice in frustration as one half of the party gets stuff they can't use and the other half gets stuff they won't use.
This was a problem I felt acutely having recently graduated college at the time and having all of my friends on different schedules. One missed session for a player (me) meant all proceeding sessions would be fruitless, painful endeavors stuck behind the power curve. Sure, if I played solo maybe I could catch up, but there was a reason I was the one missing sessions.
So despite all of the elements of the game I liked, my memory of the game was only pain for years.
Recently I got the urge to give it another go. The game has been updating for years, got a few major expansions, and I made sure my co-op partner this time was disciplined to only play their character with me so we could keep exact pace through the whole base campaign.
And hey, would you look at that, when you're at the right point in the power curve, the game is a lot of fun. A little stiff feeling, but satisfying overall.
For kicks and giggles, we had a few friends join for the finale with overlevelled characters. While our builds were min-maxed well enough that it caused no issue with combat balance, I noticed something rather disappointing given that the game is still being maintained.
"Oh look, I can't use any of the gear drops now. Yaaaaayyyy...."
This is not a unique problem, historically, in the ARPG space. From Diablo II to Borderlands 2, party levelling had always been one of the most common pain points with trying to play co-op in those games. But while those titles we made it work beause that was the best we had, I can't excuse Grim Dawn as it came out in 2016 when the solutions to this problem had already been found and implemented. Destiny being the shining example for this particular area of design.
Yet even 7 years of active development later, Grim Dawn shows no sign of budging. They have instanced loot and other modernized elements, but co-op quest progression is still janked up and loot levelling is still an active detriment to the experience.
So if you plan to play singleplayer or have a very disciplined co-op group, this is a good hit of classic ARPG fun. But, I cannot recommend this game for casual sessions. The game will shoot itself in the foot then shoot you for asking.
My original opinion of the game is that it was a solid, classic-style ARPG with some interesting experimental expansions on the formula the dev team originally established with Titan Quest. Unfortunately my experience at the time was marred by a fatal flaw in the multiplayer: loot level was set to the average of all players in the lobby, thereby making co-op between players at mismatched levels a practice in frustration as one half of the party gets stuff they can't use and the other half gets stuff they won't use.
This was a problem I felt acutely having recently graduated college at the time and having all of my friends on different schedules. One missed session for a player (me) meant all proceeding sessions would be fruitless, painful endeavors stuck behind the power curve. Sure, if I played solo maybe I could catch up, but there was a reason I was the one missing sessions.
So despite all of the elements of the game I liked, my memory of the game was only pain for years.
Recently I got the urge to give it another go. The game has been updating for years, got a few major expansions, and I made sure my co-op partner this time was disciplined to only play their character with me so we could keep exact pace through the whole base campaign.
And hey, would you look at that, when you're at the right point in the power curve, the game is a lot of fun. A little stiff feeling, but satisfying overall.
For kicks and giggles, we had a few friends join for the finale with overlevelled characters. While our builds were min-maxed well enough that it caused no issue with combat balance, I noticed something rather disappointing given that the game is still being maintained.
"Oh look, I can't use any of the gear drops now. Yaaaaayyyy...."
This is not a unique problem, historically, in the ARPG space. From Diablo II to Borderlands 2, party levelling had always been one of the most common pain points with trying to play co-op in those games. But while those titles we made it work beause that was the best we had, I can't excuse Grim Dawn as it came out in 2016 when the solutions to this problem had already been found and implemented. Destiny being the shining example for this particular area of design.
Yet even 7 years of active development later, Grim Dawn shows no sign of budging. They have instanced loot and other modernized elements, but co-op quest progression is still janked up and loot levelling is still an active detriment to the experience.
So if you plan to play singleplayer or have a very disciplined co-op group, this is a good hit of classic ARPG fun. But, I cannot recommend this game for casual sessions. The game will shoot itself in the foot then shoot you for asking.