Hope for a sale, I guess. TQ is in pretty good hands now. It's still getting updates. I'm hoping they can get enough demand for a sequel.

That's hilariously messed up that you can DPS everything to death with your pants. If you could tie your pants to a stick, you would be immortal. The story is awful. D2 was somewhat barebones, but they didn't have you getting voice messages from The Lord of Derpness every two minutes, either.

GD is far, far superior to D3.

I am a veteran who played even the first Diablo. I have played since then a lot of arpgs and while i enjoyed Torchlight, Victor Vran and others (for different reasons), GD is the only one in all this time that is giving to me the same feeling i had one day with D2.

There are differences, ofc, and i agree with the comment above that sometimes i feel the controls, or the animations or whatever a bit weird when i activate a skill, like if it was not working or entered a bit late, but that's all.

I am playing Grim Dawn like i was playing Diablo 2 a long, long time ago. A lot of hours that i should be sleeping to go to work the next day, and i don't even know what time is it when i play. I try to play 2 hours and end up playing 4 or 5 until i see the clock and i think: "damn, i made it again :S"

And it's all GD fault. Yup, exactly the same feeling i had with D2 that, even after playing also a lot of hours, never felt or happened with those other arpgs i played. And for that feeling, i have to thank the devs that made a gem, a masterpiece of a game able to get you back to those glorious days (when i had also more time to play lol)

D3...i can't play more than a few hours and i need to take a long rest before playing it again. Boring, "WOW" cartoon graphics, limited options and too much simplified. A shame, but it seems the actual times are making those kind of games while a few independent studios, mostly indies although with some veteran professionals, are making the best games actually. With less resources, with less money, with less marketing, with less promotion but with all that the big studios linked in most cases to big distributors have lost: that freedom, that passion, that honesty.

My 2 (or 3) cents. Tl;dr: GD all the way.

Then, it is pretty much settled, by now! GRIM DAWN FTW!!!

Grim Dawn has a gritty setting like the old diablo games.. However, it's not exactly the same like the old Diablo's. It doesn't have the extensive skill tree and looks regarding skills more towards Titan Quest. Path of Exile resembles more the skilltree of the old diablo games.

I haven't played D3 so far but i can confirm that GD is one of the rare games who sucks you so deep in the game that you can't stop playing.

ohhh juuuust five minutes moooore. Again and Again and Again :D

Without any doubt, Diablo 3 (D3).

Grim Dawn (GD) have some minor issues with controls and UI, that just bug me too much after playing D3, that have it designed almost perfectly. For example, you can't use skill if you aim outside of skill's range. In D3 you would just throw it at maximum range. Another example, item tooltips, just a mess listing everything without any clear distinguishing of effects. Lastly, let's mention the music, that is very good, but plays out of sync with what's happening in the game. So I just turned it off and played my own music, gives the same effect. Sadly, music fails to build the proper atmosphere.
Just three examples, there is much more stuff that bugged me.

I count this as personal issues, because overall, GD is very solid and feels like the second best, modern hack&slash, after D3. Mind you, that I dislike Path of Exile's (PoE) UI and controls.

The problem is, that it's incredibly dull and boring. You saw first few enemies, you saw them all. They either stand still and shoot or walk mindlessly toward you. In D3 you have varied enemies with different AI and almost all of them have their own gimmick that makes them interesting.
Boss battles are also very dull. I felt like all the bosses were the same, no matter if it's an act boss or some random "hero" (that's how it's called in GD). In D3 you have all these affixes that combined (up to 4 at end-game) make some interesting combos which force you to reposition constantly. There are also "big bosses", the ones that were entirely designed as different enemies, that have their own, individual scripting, abilities and patterns.

Skill variety... You have this illusion, that eventually turns into spamming one-two skills. As a dual wielding gunslinger I had one skill for auto attack and grenade to stun enemies... That's it. No need for anything else. One bullet, and it explodes with so many modifiers, that I stopped bothering to read them after some time. It's good that there are some passives triggered on other attacks, but there are way too many in GD.

But the biggest dealbreaker? Lack of full respec. I sincerely don't understand it. People claim it adds to the replayability, but... what? It just wastes time... If you mess up something, you need to make a new character, and that is incredibly stupid. There is no monthly subscription or microtransaction to boost leveling, so why? Just because, no real reason, as it seems, that devs don't mind you using trainers to repair broken characters... This is flawed design at it's finest.

I could elaborate on how GD is overly complicated just for the sake of being complicated, but whatever. Some people like that stuff, like skill three in PoE, that is just too much for me. You need to know what you are doing (especially without the full respec) and your first character is bound to be messed up. Just like in Diablo 2, and Blizzard deliberately got rid of it in D3.

If I were you, I would go for D3. I play from the premiere and NEVER uninstalled it, going back each new season. Kinda fed up with it after so much time, but seasons are fun and you can try stuff you normally wouldn't be interested with (free item set each season). Plus D3 is brilliantly designed in that it's very quick to play. You jump into the game and after few seconds you start doing the content that you wanted. No boring running around, looking for stuff. Just play, everything you do pushes you a little further.

If to ignore always-online feature, then Diablo pre-RoS was a great game. However, RoS introduced level-scaling, which defeated the whole point of playing the game and seeing your character becoming stronger. I am not fan of "the game starts at maximum level" idea.

But I'd like to see something like "Paragon Levels" in Grim Dawn and I wish there were no loot penalties for outleveling content.

D3 is excellent if you need to fall asleep, beware not waking up with the keyboard inlaid in your forehead like a Soul Stone.

First one then the other, starting with D3 I must admit.
But soon it will simply get on your nerves with the constant grind and cartoonish style, then GD will offer a fresh new world and play style.
Seriously no idea what Avidma´s problem is?
I´m using all 9 hotkey slots constantly, mapped to my keypad and even have to jump to the 2nd one when my pets get fried.

Oh and avoid Titan Quest unless you want the REAL old school feeling.
It´s GD 0.5 (obviously, same Devs after all) and feels very dated nowadays.
Bought it on the latest sale and boy did those nostalgia goggles shatter quick!
GD is so much superior in all aspects, just stay with it.

Just because the leveling process is longer, doesn't mean that there is no grinding... You will get plenty in GD.

And you triggered me on artstyle. In D3 it's ok, goes fine with the gameplay. GD have a good design in few places, but overall, it feels very stiff, both in animations and gameplay. You may not agree on gameplay, but the animation? It's subpar, even if not comparing with D3. Graphics in GD are unclear and clustered with unnecessary objects that lower the already unclear game even further. Pots that are clickable with loot, pots that are just destroyable without reason and indestructible pots, because why not? I constantly had problems with telling if something was an enemy, a dead body or part of the ground... that's until I started one shotting crowds of enemies of course, then it stopped mattering.

D3 have the upper hand in that it's currently designed to focus on end game alone. Leveling process is nearly eliminated. D3 doesn't waste your time with running around places, looking for things. You hop into the game and do whatever you want. Both at end game and while leveling. It's all about experimenting with builds and having fun with them, gathering gear, progressing Greater Rifts (end game dungeons)... No time spent in the game will be wasted, even if you just played for like half an hour, because you were really bored.
Even if there is something specific you need, like crafting materials or leveling special gems, you still can reach it very quickly without trouble and while actually playing the game, that is killing monsters and these monsters are never a waste, as EVERYTHING in D3 have chance of dropping end game gear and other goodies.

D3 is clean and straight forward. Even completely new players to the series won't be lost (saw my unexperienced friends start D3 as their first h&s and they quickly grasped the basics). You always use almost 100% of the build, not holding back on anything. That's very good idea IMO, I don't like situational things and it doesn't really make the game more strategic, especially not with monsters as boring as in GD.

And you are describing a build that uses pets. That's almost always the most complicated build in any game that did pets properly, like actual followers. I like pet builds, mind you :) The more, the merrier.
That's a huge disparity BTW... Having an option of running a pet build with micromanagement or just holding one button and proccing everything else. Of course you may be just "playing wrongly", and by that I mean, playing not optimally. Not meaning it's not fun, just not like you would if optimization was your goal.

I would discourage someone from buying D3 over GD only if they weren't interested in end game. I remember when I played Diablo 2 and never reached the end game, just leveled one character after another. I am no longer interested in this kind of gameplay.

I see where we differ.
You´re the typical "end game jokey" who derives his pleasure from "optimal play" and whatever the heck "endgame" offers.
I never understood that, as I´m actually happy with searching for stuff and not having eveything handed to me on a silver platter. Yes, trying lots of different builds is very much part of it too.

GD most definitely isn´t for you, but your gamestyle is far from common.

Sure GD isn´t nearly as polished as D3, but that´s hardly a surprise when you take the DEEP coffers of Blizzard into consideration. The team here did a great job and is still on the ball.
Something that is NOT AT ALL common in the gaming indurstry!
See FIRAXIS and their penchant for abandoning top tier games barely a couple of months after release.

To be honest, I really have loved what Blizzard has done with Diablo 3. I know a lot of people were not happy with the direction that D3 went, and felt it should've gone another way, but I've enjoyed what it is. Maybe not as dark and foreboding as it could've been, but hey... it's a great game. Early on when it first came out, I feel the usual complaints were valid, but they have improved upon the disaster it was, and it honestly feels like a completely new game compared to the way it was way back when, with the auction house, etc. So if you have never played it, then I think you will be very happy. It is a beautiful, fun game with great audio... and the action can get ridiculously chaotic, and it has almost always played flawlessly for me - it is very slick.

After needing a break - I did play Torchlight 2 for a while. It was really quite good, but for my tastes... it was a little too whimsical for me - which is okay sometimes, but it's no Diablo setting. It was Nintendo-esque for all the baddies and bosses. Great artstyle, but not what I was looking for, at least at the time.

Then someone recommended I try Grim Dawn. Damn I was absolutely shocked at the level of detail, and quality of everything in this game I had never thought of trying. You can rotate in 3D, the dark and grittiness of previous Diablo games was there. It was violent and horrific! I loved it. There's all kinds of references to C'thun and Lovecraftian stuff if you're into that. I was immediately glued to my screen. Then I looked at the skill tree. Wow! Just check around at just how much variation/control you have between two different classes. It was crazy how many options there were. Then there were the devotions (I believe they are called)... I was staring at a map of the sky with all the constellations. each star has an effect that can enhance your abilities, and you can complete an entire constellation to get a significant bonus. It's more complex than that... but you can only get so many of course, so you can go in many different directions with character development. Some won't work so well, some will be phenomenal. Some will work better for you than others. And the great part is you can change them quite easily and for a reasonable fee often. You are locked in to your initial two masteries if I recall correctly... it's been a while, but I plan on coming back. Which brings me to another point, Crate Entertainment is an amazing company - they are still updating things. Not bad for a little company compared to big ol' Blizzard.

If you're looking for a great single player experience, no question - Grim Dawn (I have never played multiplayer GD). Multiplayer, crazy fast run-throughs with others and running the same things over and over for marginally better gear (you know the drill - it still is fun) go for Diablo 3.

But... seriously, get Grim Dawn. I would buy Diablo 3 whenever Blizzard puts the whole package on sale, it is a great game too. But Grim Dawn was ridiculously fun :)

EDIT: I didn't realize that this thread was necro'd and would be of little use to the OP, sorry! Hopefully this might be somewhat useful to someone else wondering the same question.

Dito.
Also in these half-dead forums anything under a year is probably considered fresh. ;)

I don't know how much D3 has changed, but release-D3 had storytelling that was annoying as hell. If I wanted the Prime Evils to remotely trash talk me every time I completed a side quest, I'd subscribe to Donald Trump's Twitter feed. No thanks.

They have the slick cutscenes I guess, and their playable character designs were pretty good. The balance was a mess for the longest time and I didn't stick around to find out if they ever fixed it.