Game News Grim Dawn Released on Steam Early Access

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Crate Entertainment; Grim Dawn

Action RPG Grim Dawn has been released on Steam Early Access (and you can currently buy it at 10% off the regular price).

Classic action role-playing from the lead gameplay designer of Titan Quest! Grim Dawn features satisfying combat, strategic character development, frenzied loot collection and quests with choice and consequence.

Grim Dawn is developed by a small indie team of experienced developers, led by the lead gameplay designer of Titan Quest, using an enhanced version of the Titan Quest engine and tools. Please note that this game is still in development.

Development Roadmap

You can currently play about the first 1/3 of Grim Dawn and up to character level 25, with some additional higher level secret areas to be found beyond the main story content. While content is still in development, the core gameplay is already fairly robust and a lot of fun. There is quite a lot of replay value between trying different classes / builds and collecting items. We're still refining gameplay based on player feedback, adding requested features and working to deliver the remaining content and additional slated features. Most players report that the current build is fairly stable with mostly mild bugs and we're always working to fix bugs as they come up. Here is some of the stuff we plan to roll out in the coming months:

• Act II content will be released in the next few months
• More quests with choice and consequence in Act II
• Continued optimization and bug fixing
• Item crafting will roll out, probably before the end of the year
• Additional difficulty modes and multiplayer should become available early to middle of 2014
• More questing and NPC interaction involving factions
• 5th player class, the Arcanist, should be ready early to middle of 2014
• Additional big content releases in mid to late 2014

We expect the final game will provide about 20-40 hours for a first-time play-through on normal difficulty, depending on level of exploration / clearing. This is our first game as a studio and we intend for Grim Dawn to be a continuing franchise, not just a one-off game. So it is important that we put in the time and effort to create something we're proud of, that will help us to earn a loyal fanbase for the future. We hope you'll come be part of this experience and help us to forge a strong new addition to the ARPG genre.​

You might also want to check our the Grim Dawn alpha preview which we did back in July.

 

[hydd]

I like their random homage to Dragon Lance

 

[Haba]

Fucking Grim Dawn, where is MY BETA ACCESS? HUH?

Cunts.

 

[Lady_Error]

"We expect the final game will provide about 20-40 hours"

So just like the Grimoire superdemo. :D

 

[dibens]

There was no front page topic on Path Of Exile's Steam release.

Nonetheless, looking forward to this. I only hope they improve on Titan Quest in several critical departments. The god awful moon physics, for starters, which they seem to have in this one as well to some degree.

 

[cvv]

Eh, I just got into PoE and I'm kindda neck deep. Shit, I seriously didn't expect it to be THAT good.

I'll just have to give this one a pass for now but I can't imagine it to be even better than PoE. Looks pretty though.

 

[Zewp]

"We expect the final game will provide about 20-40 hours"

So just like the Grimoire superdemo. :D

Two entirely different games populating entirely different genres. 20-40 hours is perfectly acceptable for a hack 'n slash ARPG.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Fast-paced tactical combat with enemy blood spatters, ragdoll physics and satisfying enemy death effects. Smash in doors and fight house to house, leaving a path of demolished furniture in your wake.

This sounds so fucking corny .

 

[Minttunator]

This is good news! I'm still planning to give this a shot once I get tired of PoE - although I have to say that competing with PoE is going to be an uphill battle for Grim Dawn.

 

[Outmind]

Is it just me, or is this whole pre-release business hurting development progression and overall player satisfaction? I mean, they put the game out before it is finished and charge a price for it. People pay for it and play what is essentially a super demo for god knows how long while the guys making the game get an incentive to procrastinate since some money already started to flow in.

They blatantly state that some of the game's core content won't be ready for another NINE MONTHS. Why should someone who bought the game now wait so long just to get an essential part of the finished product, and how can someone who has been a backer so long objectively evaluate the game after being fed scraps for so long?

 

[MicoSelva]

PoE has a distinct price advantage over this, even though I like Grim Dawn's world much more. Still, definitely too expensive for me to go for Early Access, going to wait for release.

 

[Metro]

Would really need to play a demo of this before I committed money to it. Didn't care for Titan Quest at all.

 

[Mastermind]

I liked Titan Quest but didn't care much for this, the main issue being that the classes are pretty boring.

 

[YourDaddy]

Fucking Grim Dawn, where is MY BETA ACCESS? HUH?

Cunts.

If you have a beta access, you have access to this steam pre-release. Go figure it out.
Cunt.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Fast-paced tactical combat with enemy blood spatters, ragdoll physics and satisfying enemy death effects. Smash in doors and fight house to house, leaving a path of demolished furniture in your wake.

This sounds so fucking corny .

From the description sounds more like a family abuse simulator.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Waiting for final release, having backed the KS. Meanwhile also playing PoE.

 

[Haba]

Finally gave Grim Dawn to their KS backers who didn't spend too many $$$. Have been giving this a whirl.

Visually and atmosphere wise this is Diablo, which is a good thing. Ridiculously imbalanced though. On Soldier, the game is absurdly easy. Even the basic shield bash hits enemies like an atomic bomb. The fact is further enforced by the ragdolll physics being all over the place - a hit with a sword sends enemies flying across the screen. Not too excited by the skill trees either yet.

 

[Metro]

I asked on the Steam forums and it seems they improved kinesthetics so that when you hit something… it feels like you hit something (unlike Titan Quest). It'll be good for 50-75% off Russian pricing with fake Gabe monies. Personally I hope the skill trees are relatively modest compared to Titan Quest. The billion and one class combinations was overdone and unnecessary. No need for such extreme metagaming in a hack-n-slash like this.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

But the character building and double classing was the best (and the only good) thing about TQ

 

[Zewp]

Aw man. I thought that was a planned feature for Grim Dawn.

 

[Baron Dupek]

From screenshots (and contamination of Aether stuff) remind me other h'n's called Chosen: Well of Souls (from same people who made Grom: Terror in Tibet), sadly that was their last game

So my comeback to h'n's genre after years and Grim Dawn is most promising, mostly because actual chopping mobs is fun compared to other tested subjects like Torchlight2 and PoE where race to the beast feature in those games was stopped by boredom.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Any impressions?