For a 30 minute first impressions video of Grim Dawn, check out this video!
I love dark games. I love it when its grimdark, chewing on the scenery with more ham and cheese than a sandwich factory (e.g. Warhammer 40k), and I love it when its straight-faced bleak, unwavering in its determination to show terrible things constantly happening to everyone (e.g. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men). I’ve even thrown my money at the screen as soon as I’ve seen how dark a game’s atmosphere seems (e.g. Darkest Dungeon‘s Kickstarter, where I spent $95+ due to the concept and aesthetic). So I had been looking forward to a dark action-RPG, one straight-faced or smirking through lost-teeth and bleeding swollen lips. After playing Grim Dawn, I now sympathize with the idea that games can promise you more grit than chewing on a road and yet be so, well, boring.
Grim Dawn is an action-RPG by Crate Entertainment, a 10-person indie development team who’s ranks include those of Iron Lore Entertainment (of Titan Quest fame). After an announcement in 2010, a successful Kickstarter back in early-2012 and release onto Steam Early Access late-2013, it finally was fully released recently after six years of development. You play as someone who becomes possessed with a spirit that is promising mankind will fall and is left to hang in the hopes to kill the spirit while trapped inside you. As the spirit escapes your twitching oxygen-deprived body, you are ordered shot-down and told to not be dead-weight for the few remaining humans by helping out around town.
Sadly, as far as I know, this is the height of the narrative in action. While you’ll see the story ooze out the works gently, there’s no real sign of anything more significant than “fight against an enemy who is slowly gaining ground.” The atmosphere sets itself up perfectly for something more, egging the last survivors to embrace their more evil side, but the game never seems to offer any indication of delivery.
The perfect display of this is the choice in enemies. First you’ll carve your way through zombies (because, lets be honest, its always zombies/skeletons), then tribal naga and then bandit/cultists, for the first five hours of the game. Rather than bouncing off an enemy type of old to do something interesting (e.g. the zombies are back, twisted by the evils done to them during their previous death), the enemies lack the lore or unique combat tactics required to add dimension. Instead, you just up the DPS while minimizing how much damage the enemy does while the game refuses to sate the curiosity of what the creatures are beyond servants of evil.
To help you put your foes into the ground is an interesting skill system. First you’ll pick one attribute between three to level up (Physique, Cunning and Spirit, aiding tanking, DPS and magic) and then you’ll tackle the skill tree. Here you get 3 points to play with, either leveling up your access to more powerful abilities or upgrading existing ones.
While this skill tree system sounds interesting, often you’ll burn a level and feel no progression for the hopes of future skill grabbing. Maybe this is intentional? Although I’m not sure why this is preferred to the traditional “X so much points in this tree to unlock next level,” this skill tree is opened up even further as later on you’ll be asked to pick a second tree to dip into (like stealing chips from your friend).
Except, well, it quickly creates this question of “you could, but why would you?”. You could use your mana to infuse your gunshots with fire, or for a similar cost just pummel the enemy with grenades and molotov cocktails. You could utilise the 11 slots with potions and abilities, or you can use one or two handy ones and have some health potions in the bizarre circumstance you get slapped once. This is made even more noticeable how the main trick the game has up its sleeve is to smother you with laughably weak enemies. Even on the veteran difficulty, once I had found a class’s AOE skill I’d just cover it with points to maximum and one-shot every encounter (except bosses, that sometimes took 10-15 seconds of slamming the same button rather than one). I had hoped for some tactics that utilize the fact its an action-RPG, but instead powered through enemies with frustrating ease.
Speaking of its genre, it definitely manages to ride it as hard as they can. Countless loot drops that you have to drag to the trader occasionally (although fortunately with some teleportation)? Check. One mouse button to move or attack an enemy, so if you forget about the shift button you can move instead of de-brain a ghoul? Check. Expectation to tap your left mouse button until you have to buy a new one? Check. The game demanding you to wander around a map to discover it, soaking up hour after hour as you explore new-found ground? Triple check. While not necessarily a bad thing for harden fans of action-RPGs of old (e.g. Diablo 2), those more familiar with newer action-RPGs (e.g. Torchlight, Diablo 3 and The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing) will likely feel frustrated with the quirks of old.
Despite my gripes, it is technically incredibly solid. Maybe it is because I managed to get the graphics cranked to the maximum settings with the greatest of ease (its minimum and maximum specifications are incredibly low); but I found walking around the bleak grounds of a village, who’s population has now been devoured like lambs, atmospheric. The animation, with the help of the aesthetic, is also well done as even when I was swarmed by 10+ enemies I could still understand what was happening. Although in the occasional place the animation show the age of the engine (e.g. spawning enemies from the ground).
While there are some bugs (including a persistent bizarre one where making a character involves closing the game and restarting for it to appear on the menu) and want for a more colourful eccentric aesthetic that makes the characters look more interesting (grim-dark doesn’t mean a loathing of colour or accessories), I still found it enjoyable and functional on a technical level.
The most troubling and common sensations that I had when playing the game was a mixture of boredom and being reminded of other more enjoyable action-RPGs. As I mowed down another wave of zombies, I began to be reminded of how much I enjoyed The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, or how maybe I should go cook or clean my room. I kept waiting for the moment for the shoe to drop, for a twist to occur that would re-contextualize everything and grip me by the sides of my head, which sadly never came.
While I could see those who are still dedicated to Diablo 2, and especially those who enjoyed the Titan Quest series, digging Grim Dawn, those who enjoy more streamlined RPGs are better off doing maybe anything else.