Is GD a Titan Quest/Diablo/Torchlight/Path Of Exile/Van Helsing killer? What could say you, old diableros and veterans?

I still haven't bought it and I'm still in doubt, 'cause the sale is over, and I have now many other needs to spend my gold...:)

Buy it ,You wont regret it. Its addicting as hell and there are SO MANY different classes you can play .

Short answer in my opinion having been a kickstarter backer from the start is a resounding 'NO'.

The biggest two failings by far is the multiplayer experience.
That LAN doesn't seem to be working for everyone and that 'should' of been easily fixed by allowing us to use direct IP:port instead of not having any real control than a generic host & join system.
Crossplay also goes in this one as it's still not supported making internet hosted games few and far between as we are a much smaller community than steam.
Secondly that the DEV has decided he didn't approve of the long held tactic of power levelling, meaning people of +/- 10 levels cannot gain experience effectively causing the fragile multiplayer scene to become 'locked down' to only a handful of private games.
With a hard limit of 4 player coop this means that there are also fewer places to drop in and drop out further limiting the community.


I could also go on with how the focus seems to be on ladder competition (a steam thing mainly) in that the game seems to take a hostile approach to simple character appreciation.
In laymens terms to increase capabilitiesviability of a build you have more often than not have to advance sideways instead of a straight beeline to dps.
The reliance on AOE & multiple damage types makes the whole game feel the same grey malange (go on try being a straight soldier, or a straight wizard, it'll never be as good as every class being a battlewizard).
The whole thing doesn't appear to be randomly generated, but the same mobs will crop up each play for you to grudgingly deal with on your way to the last side quest you we're doing before you went to bed.
It's more of an issue with a weaker DPS build you are trying to power level by trying to access higher enemy level areas (something you we're originally suppose to be allowed to do, but are effectively cut off from doing).
I couldn't even be bothered writing more on it actually, just blergh!

Don't get me wrong GOG NEEDED this title, it's a triple AAA ARPG, supposedly better than Diablo 3 (not that that's saying much).
We need more mainstream games and a vastly expanded catalogue of games gamers actually care about to create the snowballing of GOG's legitimacy as a distribution platform that will crowbar open the market and give us consumers some real choice and create the pressure the DRM revolution needs.
But this game is just so bland & hostile to people who just want to have a fun time gaming with other people.

Bought it just for kicks, never looked back.

Damn this game is awesome!

But I prefer this than the so usual reverse (almost all other games) where you need to be ultra specialized (tank or wizard).
So with what you write, it shows me that Diablo3 is not so bad with its white noise characters feeling all the same, for I was fed up with all these games needing to be a tank OR a wizard (hybrids not a good option).

The problem is one of balance & D2 had it right; so did starcraft.
Balance is not about making all things equivalent (such as with supreme commander with its starting resource equivalence, with it's units that all sides had equivalents of doing the exact same attack equivalents majoritively).
Balance is about making diversity present equal opportunity; where you go i could be a tank, or a wizard or even a combination and all these directions present unique gameplay challenges and benefits that make you really stand back and go I can't pick they are all good choices.

In Grim Dawn this is NOT the case, there is a very clear direction the game designers want you to play and deviating from it is only rewarding i would hazard a guess around level 40 and with mass loads of boring grinding.

Maybe this will change with a dedicated Necromancer and 2 handed ranged character that's been hinted at strongly in the forums; and surely it took a step back with combining 'gems' instead of having them diversified (taking up much more inventory space), but as the game currently stands it is not 'Balanced' and it isn't even "balanced" in respect to equivalency.

I cannot comment on DIablo 3 I boycott it for being always online, plus I have been anti steam refusing to use that service since it began.
If you say all the characters are bland in it i'd believe you from what I have heard it's focus is solely around items and therefore grinding and trade so it is probably not exactly fair to say that it's crap for not being focused on what it's not meant to be focused on by it's very design.
Just saying that you know what it's all about before you get into D3 and you make your consumer choice in regards of you having a similar focus with your ARPG's.

Grim dawn instead tries to be a catch all with it's user base, which is why there is so much power whining about casual gamers dumbing down gameplay for hardcore MMO types who love nothing more than running the exact same path 500 times a day for 5 weeks to get 1 item so that they can rinse and repeat for another item to prove a specific build works.
Well probably not terribly accurate, but that's what it boils down to.


Two things i will point out as major flaws in game design within Grim Dawn
That specific components will only turn up within a specific level range say between 20-30. It's utter crap because the games lack of detailed information and huge span of things you need to be keeping in check without having any ability to see if your moving forward in a build until after you apply changes means you unravel things as you go along only to find you need things you no longer have the requirements for and can't simply magically turn back time for unless you manually keeping character backups (which you should not have to do).
That the designers we're so afraid of power leveling they essentially f*cked matchmaking by capping experience gains with a similar level range +/-5 levels design. What it means is that people lock their matches so someone 15 levels higher doesn't drop in and stop them getting XP for their boss runs at a critical moment meaning less open game slots (which there are f*ck all of anyways with it limited to 4) and well here's a heads up on how much of an impact it has on multiplayer.... i can count on one hand the amount of multiplayer games I've had with a single extra player since this game came to GOG.com (one finger with 2+ players involved).
Multiplayer is dead and galaxy not allowing a drop in drop out server instance (go ahead if you have the game, try running it twice on the same pc) sure isn't helping.

Yes, D2 is among the best design of an action game. D3 is not Steam, it's BattleNet. I bought it (with expansion) only very late (in a 50% sale). For it is BattleNet dependant, it will be the only game I'll buy on BN (so if my account is canceled I lose only one game; I don't play SC2 or WoW). Yes, I made an exception to my anti-drm will. :)

Hey i'm not judging you I caved and bought SC2 when i heard it had an offline skirmish mode... then it was patched out and required you to be up to date when you install it.
Still have the unused serials laying around here somewhere; can't bring myself to use them it left that bad a taste in my mouth.