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[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

There's a mostly inactive Grim Dawn thread somewhere here, but I thought this was big enough news to warrant a new thread.

So for everyone who doesn't know, Grim Dawn is a Diablo-style Action/RPG made by ex-Titan Quest staff members. It's currently in Early Access, is already a lot of fun (and quite large) and they've said they plan on releasing the "final" version of the game later this year.

The basic LV-Up system of the game is very similar to Titan Quest. Each LV-Up, you gain an attribute point (to improve a stat of your choice) & 3 skill points. Skill points can be used to level up a mastery (there are 6 and you can have 2 at a time) or buy points in abilities and passives within those masteries. You can get a good idea of how it works by checking out the skill calculator here: http://grimcalc.com/

Today, they announced the specifics for an additional system for customizing your characters & increasing your power that will be included in the final version of the game: devotion. You can check out the details here.

Here's a quick summary of how it works:
Throughout the world, there are ancient shrines. Find one and complete the appropriate task and you gain devotion points.

Each devotion point can be used to activate a star in a constellation on the massive devotion screen. You can gain up to 50 devotion points in one game and there are 425 stars available.

Most stars give a passive bonus. Stars may also give affinity points in 5 different categories: Ascendant, Chaos, Eldritch, Order and Primordial. More advanced constellations & stars have affinity requirements in order to activate.

43 of the stars provide secondary effects. These are powerful effects that can be attached to your existing abilities and gain XP as you fight with them equipped. Here are some examples they shared:

Between the game's mastery system, a lot of equipment options, and this new devotion system, I think it's quite possible that Grim Dawn might even dwarf Path of Exile with build possibilities. Very exciting stuff.

 

[Thretau]

Grim Dawn is starting to sound more and more interesting. I have been playing Path of Exile a lot for years now and looking for something fresh. Grim Dawn just might be the game I have to try out next.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

I like the level of customization that this might add and look forward to getting my hands on it to really play around with it to see what it can do. Grim Dawn really is a great game in its current form and I've gotten more hours of enjoyment out of it than most full releases. And that includes similarly styled games such as Path of Exile, but mainly because Grim Dawn isn't always online, and I can better tweak builds.

Getting this out of an 'early access' title means I'm either crazy, or it's going to be a great game.

 

[Jeremy]

I bought Grim Dawn quite a while back but thought interest would ultimately fizzle out without the game ever being finished. Glad to see this.

 

[Durante]

I've been looking forward to Grim Dawn ever since the kickstarter. It finally seems like it might actually happen within the next 6 months.

 

[Unicorn]

Fuck yes. Sounds amazing.

 

[Nordicus]

I already liked that Grim Dawn's skill system was straight from Titan Quest, but this is fantastic

 

[NoblesseOblige]

It's in the link, but I think this image of what sort of effects we can expect is valuable enough to include in the thread:

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

It's in the link, but I think this image of what sort of effects we can expect is valuable enough to include in the thread:

Good suggestion! Added.

 

[Purkake4]

Sounds fucking crazy, I love it. Certainly not what I expected.

Hope the next beta comes out soonish.

 

[BashNasty]

How's the gameplay feel of Grim Dawn? I've pumped hundreds upon hundreds of hours into Diablo III, primarily because it feels so great to play.

Things like impactful attacks, just the right amount of screen shake, fun ragdolls ect... Does Grim Dawn do as good of a job with these elements as Diablo III? Really interested in trying this thing out, but if it doesn't feel amazing, I'll drop it quick.

 

[Draft]

One of the couple dozen games I kickstarted then played for about an hour. This sounds cool but IDK my old man brain is more entertained by the bright lights and flashy effects of Diablo 3!!!

 

[NoblesseOblige]

How's the gameplay feel of Grim Dawn? I've pumped hundreds upon hundreds of hours into Diablo III, primarily because it feels so great to play.

Things like impactful attacks, just the right amount of screen shake, fun ragdolls ect... Does Grim Dawn do as good of a job with these elements as Diablo III? Really interested in trying this thing out, but if it doesn't feel amazing, I'll drop it quick.

The gameplay feels fine to me, but I haven't played Diablo III so I can't really compare the two. You could probably watch some recent youtube videos to get an idea for things like ragdolls and screenshake. One thing I really like about Grim Dawn (and Titan Quest before it) is that you can actually see certain loot on the enemies that they will drop. Every so often I will see an enemy with an unfamiliar item and it immediately registers that that enemy is going to drop a unique weapon.

 

[Stevey]

Looks good.
Played it for like 15 minutes, found the performance pretty shitty, but to be fair that was 6 months ago, so I should give it another try really.

 

[Robert-One-Oh-seven]

Sounds fucking crazy, I love it. Certainly not what I expected.

Hope the next beta comes out soonish.

B28 should come out in november(speculation) so we could start testing the devotion system and legendaries.

 

[Purkake4]

B28 should come out in november(speculation) so we could start testing the devotion system and legendaries.

And Act 4 hopefully.

Really like the customization possibilities here. The two class thing always felt a bit straightjacket-y with the really limited amount of skill points and having to spend points to buy class levels first.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

How's the gameplay feel of Grim Dawn? I've pumped hundreds upon hundreds of hours into Diablo III, primarily because it feels so great to play.

Things like impactful attacks, just the right amount of screen shake, fun ragdolls ect... Does Grim Dawn do as good of a job with these elements as Diablo III? Really interested in trying this thing out, but if it doesn't feel amazing, I'll drop it quick.

I don't know of any game in the genre that has the moment-to-moment gameplay feel down as well as Diablo 3 does (those sound effects). With that said, I think Grim Dawn's feel is noticeably better than Titan Quest & Path of Exile.

 

[matmanx1]

Kickstarter'ed this WAY back when and have been following the updates but haven't played any of it yet. I'd rather go in fresh when the "final" version lands. It's good to see that they are this far along and that the game keeps getting better.

 

[Robert-One-Oh-seven]

And Act 4 hopefully.

Really like the customization possibilities here. The two class thing always felt a bit straightjacket-y with the really limited amount of skill points and having to spend points to buy class levels first.

Ow yes act IV. The last moments are finally there. The wait has been long but totally worth it.

About the skills. I have about 400hrs in the game but haven't gotten really deep in the skill system.
I really like the 2 class system and the components skills but still waiting for the legendaries, devotion and optimization of the skills.
That will break the many build out there soooo... come on december

 

[Sniffynose]

I backed this and totally forgot about it lol. Is there a set release date or anything yet? I remember playing the pre-alpha that backers had access to but since then it just vanished from my mind >_<

 

[Lizard with a ladder]

It might be time to jump back in. I quit playing before Act III was implemented. This new lvl up system is making me want to start a new character.

How's the co-op in Grim Dawn? Is there any sort of a lobby system or something like D3 and it's pub games?

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

I backed this and totally forgot about it lol. Is there a set release date or anything yet? I remember playing the pre-alpha that backers had access to but since then it just vanished from my mind >_<

They said this when they released the last major build of the game in August:

"There are still many exciting things left on the horizon for Grim Dawn as we push towards Content-Complete this year! Future updates will include the Act 4 Finale, a second Rogue-like Dungeon, Legendary items and the Devotion system!"

 

[Dark_castle]

Interesting. Look forward to the final release.

 

[One Foul Note]

Sounds promising, nice way to encourage you to do side quests in these games if they give you a unique star heaven level up point given that in most RPGs it can fall into a problem where side quests can actually becomes useless to do if you outlevel them and they just give out normal exp. I hope they don't hold back with how imaginary and outworldy the endgame powers come when you invest a lot of points in a particular affinity. I want to be summoning hordes of angels/demons, breathing fire, growing extra limbs or just throwing parts of the sun at my foes.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

How's the co-op in Grim Dawn? Is there any sort of a lobby system or something like D3 and it's pub games?

You create instances and I believe set the level range limit as well as the population limit. Then other people can join. You can also set a password so only those who know are given access. I've only done co-op with a friend, so we used the password option. There are a few awkward issues in regards to quests if one person has completed them and the other hasn't. It required my friend to log out of my instance and complete a couple on his own before rejoining my game. Hopefully they've ironed most those issues out in the next build.

 

[Vinland]

Titan quest was actually my first diablo-like game. I adored it. We uses to play over hamachi. Glad to see a spiritual successor from some of the creators.

Will pick it up when it launches.

 

[Lizard with a ladder]

You create instances and I believe set the level range limit as well as the population limit. Then other people can join. You can also set a password so only those who know are given access. I've only done co-op with a friend, so we used the password option. There are a few awkward issues in regards to quests if one person has completed them and the other hasn't. It required my friend to log out of my instance and complete a couple on his own before rejoining my game. Hopefully they've ironed most those issues out in the next build.

It sounds like co-op still needs some work. I'll stick to the solo experience then. Thanks.

 

[Redwing199]

Bought this during last years Winter sale. Put a few hours into it and really enjoyed everything at that point. Decided to put it down and wait for the final release knowing how much was still going to be put into the game. I look forward to starting fresh when it releases it's final version hopefully this year!

 

[Robert-One-Oh-seven]

It sounds like co-op still needs some work. I'll stick to the solo experience then. Thanks.

I think the devs said that the main game is definitely mean to play solo.

There is however gonna be a survival mode once the game is gonna be released and that's meant as end game so this will play extremely well for multiplayer.

 

[RK9039]

Oh shit, time to re-install it again.

 

[Purkake4]

The new tooltips for full skill DPS is the real MVP in the last build.

What turned me off D3 was that all the skill damage was directly based on weapon damage, made everything feel very samey, like all the corners had been cut off. GD is more about stacking modifiers and not putting all your eggs in one basket.

 

[Sniffynose]

They said this when they released the last major build of the game in August:

"There are still many exciting things left on the horizon for Grim Dawn as we push towards Content-Complete this year! Future updates will include the Act 4 Finale, a second Rogue-like Dungeon, Legendary items and the Devotion system!"

Ok cool so now is the time to jump back in then lol thanks!

 

[inky]

Man, I can't believe it's been almost 6 years since that first reveal when they started selling alpha access on their site. They would've benefited from Kickstarter and Early Access being a thing back then, lol.

This looks really interesting. Theorycrafting wasn't my favorite thing about Titan Quest, but the amount of build possibilities and combinations sure was, and this looks to have upped that by a wide margin.

 

[lenos16]

Ah so here is the new thread . Can't wait for B28!! The possiblities with the skeleton minions alone could really be staggering!

 

[Lain]

How's the gameplay feel of Grim Dawn? I've pumped hundreds upon hundreds of hours into Diablo III, primarily because it feels so great to play.

Things like impactful attacks, just the right amount of screen shake, fun ragdolls ect... Does Grim Dawn do as good of a job with these elements as Diablo III? Really interested in trying this thing out, but if it doesn't feel amazing, I'll drop it quick.

D3 has a better feel. Grim Dawn is a nice and fun game itself, with a lot of the customization potential people love but when it comes down to the feel and feedback of the ganeplay, D3 is still the king in my opinion.

 

[Purkake4]

Ah so here is the new thread . Can't wait for B28!! The possiblities with the skeleton minions alone could really be staggering!

In D2 all you needed was skeletons. Skelemancer was a really fun build.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

To be clear, when I say D3 has the best moment-to-moment feel in the genre, I'm talking about the offline PS4 version. Grim Dawn does have a major advantage over PC D3 and Path of Exile in that you can play it offline.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

To be clear, when I say D3 has the best moment-to-moment feel in the genre, I'm talking about the offline PS4 version. Grim Dawn does have a major advantage over PC D3 and Path of Exile in that you can play it offline.

Off-topic, but would you recommend D3 for the PS4 over PC?

On-topic, the biggest advantage GD has over PoE for me is the ability to respec more easily. My main turnoff for PoE was that I couldn't more easily try different builds without a huge investment or starting a new character.

 

[ElectricThunder]

Between the likes of this, Umbra , and Unbended---seems a solid lock to me that D3 and PoE will not retain eternal and unassailable thrones.

Granted, Grim Dawn has been at it far longer and will Get There far nearer in time than the few other compatriots, but still---this game has every indication of turning out to be fantastic outright and greatly towering over TQ of old.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Off-topic, but would you recommend D3 for the PS4 over PC?

Depends. I like the UI & controls better in the PC version (which isn't to say that the PS4 version is bad in these areas), but as someone who has no desire to ever play the game with other people, having an offline mode in the PS4 version and not having to worry about random lag trumps all else. So I'd say if you want to do online, grab the PC version; if you want to just do single-player and/or local co-op, grab the PS4 version.

On-topic, the biggest advantage GD has over PoE for me is the ability to respec more easily. My main turnoff for PoE was that I couldn't more easily try different builds without a huge investment or starting a new character.

Yeah, Path of Exile is a huge time sink. Which makes sense since it's a F2P game and the longer you play it, the more likely you are to pay them.

 

[lenos16]

In D2 all you needed was skeletons. Skelemancer was a really fun build.

True, I played the shit out of the necro in D2. It saddened me that D3 didn't have that system. Sadly the skeletons here do have a limited life span though. I will probably try to put the secondary on the bloody pox and see the wave of enemies become my on legion

 

[KKRT00]

Somehow i missed it, it sounds really.
Great that game is finally coming out of Early Access, what a pity that its happening in November.
Why all games are coming out like right now? There is so many good stuff releasing or just released is not even funny ;/

 

[Purkake4]

There's a bunch more info about this in the new update

Grim Misadventures continues! Last time, we had some really exciting news for you as we finally revealed the details of the upcoming Devotion System. Naturally, this huge reveal has inspired some questions, so today we would like to address just how exactly you will be unlocking, assigning and using the Celestial Powers.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Looks like we're getting the next build in November.

Devotion is coming in November with the release of Build 28, which is expected to go into internal testing in the near future.

 

[Purkake4]

There's a preview of B28 changes up now.

• The Opening of Act 4
• Level Cap Increased to 60
• Refined Item Stack Controls
• The Devotion System

 

[glaringradio]

I keep going back to this game every patch and get gripped for a while, but the horrible feel of the game in terms of movement and combat just turns me off quite quickly.

Even Path of Exile feels better because it plays at a much better pace. Nice to see that they're making changes, it would literally be right up there with the best if they could just make the movement instantaneous and also make the combat feel a bit meatier.

I'm glad I backed it because I've put quite a lot of time into it and I hope it improves by full release time, but it seems a lot of the changes being made to the game are in terms of game mechanics and new content, instead of focusing on what I feel are serious changes that need to be made to the overall feel of the game.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

They shared some legendary equipment stats in the latest update: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26726

 

[Purkake4]

They're really making the most of that November release date for B28 as well.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I've been looking forward to Grim Dawn ever since the kickstarter. It finally seems like it might actually happen within the next 6 months.

I own it, but I've been waiting to play the release version.

Man, I am like the biggest TQ fan in the world.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

They shared some legendary equipment stats in the latest update: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26726

Thanks for keeping this thread updated. I just came to check to make sure today's misadventures was shared. I'm really looking forward to getting at the next release. If you look closely in on one of the screenshots you can notice the PC is level 100. I wonder if that's going to be an actual level cap or if it was just for testing purposes.