Grim Dawn 60-Hour Impressions — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:08] this time bringing you my thoughts on Grim Dawn after about 60 hours or so. And don't worry, this isn't like the finalized review or anything like that. Rather, I'm just sort of me documenting my own progress as I move through this

[00:20] game people have been asking me to cover for an extremely long time. And after the release of its DLC recently, Fangs of Asterkarn, I've been playing it a good bit. Uh I recently had my free week or so, which is when I have played most

[00:34] of this. But as I mentioned in the video or two I've made prior, it's going to be a significant period of time before I get around to the review because I'm for the time being now that I'm at a good stopping point. And I probably

[00:46] won't pick it up again like in full until probably like December or so outside of maybe playing it a little here and there along the way. But that big milestone is basically I'm done with the uh baseline normal version of the

[01:00] game. I've beaten that, I've cleared all the DLC on that level, and there's very I'll be moving on to the higher difficulties when I start playing it yet again. Now, on the bright side, this has given me a sort of a good bit of insight

[01:14] in terms of what that process is going to look like and what is going to again, just felt like a good place to stop and share my own thoughts. Now, in terms of that process, what I've got left is running through elite, ultimate,

[01:27] and ascendant difficulty with just a normal character, the one I'm playing character dies, you can just try things over, etc. And I can keep working at it until I've gotten all of that normal version completely done. And then

[01:40] following on from that, it's the Crucible DLC and then the hardcore mode definitely learned is going to be a very particular experience because one of the things I want to share about my thoughts with the first 60 hours here is that the

[01:56] DLC, the uh sort of in-game rogue-like dungeons, as well as presumably the higher difficulties, are extremely bursty in terms of the damage you start to take. And this is something I had heard a little bit about the game prior,

[02:10] that being that you had to really focus on your resistances and defense on the higher difficulties, and I can certainly see why. Now, this was not an issue throughout the entire main campaign. This really didn't become something I

[02:22] it's on normal, but when I got to the DLCs is when this became very apparent. Almost every boss you fight is going to have some gigantic uh elemental attack that if you don't have the resistances to deal with, it's just going to delete

[02:37] you. Often times in a single hit, which is something I was not expecting on figure that kind of thing would happen when you got into the higher tiers, but normal. Now, when this started happening, I did the obvious thing, you

[02:51] know, look into how you can mitigate all of this damage, and it basically just comes down to resistances. You need to build them up, and of course be aware of the type of damage the enemy is dealing to you because even on normal they hit

[03:03] that up, I got a little more insight about the difficulty in particular because as you move from normal to ultimate, I don't know about ascended yet, which is the recently added highest difficulty, but up to ultimate, the

[03:17] previous highest, the damage from enemies only increases about 30%. However, it also reduces your resistances. You start going into the negatives and taking extra damage. And so, resisting all that damage becomes

[03:30] even more and more important, and thus the last day or two I've been focused on, you know, being a bit more survivable and working on getting those resistances up and just adding a little defense to the mix. However, it again

[03:42] becomes very obvious then that hardcore mode in particular, that's going to be uh interesting thing to dance around. I'll worry about that when I actually get there, and this definitely won't be the build I will be using for it. I

[03:54] doubt I will go melee for that actually. But if anything this first 60 hours has taught me is that that hardcore build in particular is going to be quite the experience. Now, speaking of the build I was using, another thing um I was a

[04:06] little disappointed with how the new berserker mixed with Shaman in the way that I wanted to do it, which was the werewolf and then moving into the Shaman for things like summons and whatnot. And there just wasn't as much synergy there

[04:19] as I was hoping for as both of those things require so much of an investment that it really didn't leave me with any points to properly do both. And so while I'm having fun, I've mostly been playing as like pure werewolf for the most part

[04:32] because the points I needed to do stuff in Shaman have only very recently become properly available. And as I record this, I've just hit like level 85. So that specific combination just didn't really pan out the way I was uh wanting

[04:45] it to. But it's still been a fun time otherwise. I just didn't get to do as much Shaman and stuff up until very recently as I was expecting to be able to add to it. And because of that, my original character that I made just to

[04:57] sort of get my feet wet with the game who's still only like level 14 was a mix of Shaman and soldier and that actually felt better comparatively in terms of like synergy in the way I wanted it to work. But it has nonetheless been very

[05:10] fun running around just as a werewolf. Mostly because I've really been able to lean into stacking things like attack speed and movement speed and everything and just kind of going quickly. But on the flip side of that, I did

[05:22] inadvertently, as I mentioned, sort of build a bit of a glass cannon that I did not realize until I started hitting the DLC. Now, I have ran through all the DLC. Now, I have ran through all the DLC. Kind of an interesting mix of DLC

[05:34] anyway. I suppose I haven't played that one. But Ashes of Malmouth is actually an expansion to the campaign. Like it picks up after the campaign ends and continues it forward and introduces new factions, stuff like that. It's an

[05:48] interesting area. I did enjoy running around those zones like aesthetically more, but I did notice that in Ashes in particular, the size of individual zones got a little out of control. They are gigantic, and it's funny that that

[06:03] happened because the other two DLCs, Fangs and Forgotten Gods, seem to have reined that in a bit. The new one, Fangs, has a couple of really big areas right at the start of the DLC, and then it kind of mellows out with it, whereas

[06:16] than that though, it was a pretty straightforward expansion. I understand I probably would have felt more of it if I had played it when it released, but in feels like an extra chapter to the campaign. It doesn't add like a ton.

[06:32] favorite of the three thus far, just in terms of actual activities. You are invited to talk to these three witch cults, if you will, who all worship various deities, who of course need you to put a stomp to the rising menace, in

[06:46] particular a celestial that is trying to break free. But, I really enjoy the aesthetic of that place. Your typical sandy dunes, a lost oasis, that kind of thing. But, I enjoyed exploring those zones, and also the addition of the

[07:01] Shattered Realm a lot more than I thought. So, the Shattered Realm is in effect kind of an end game thing, where you can go through like sort of randomized bits of dungeon, and you get a ton of rewards. And I didn't find out

[07:14] until pretty recently that the experience you get from Shattered Realm runs is ridiculous. Like, I got so much more experience from the Shattered Realm than I have anything else, and it is not close. I assume that this is at least

[07:29] tangentially involved in how people are leveling up characters super quickly, because that was crazy. Now, the interesting one beyond just those was actually Fangs itself. Fangs in a lot of ways seems a little strangely

[07:42] disconnected compared to the other two, and that is because it pops up a little ways into the campaign like before you hit the last actor, so and that's when you can start Fangs, but it will actually through its main quest send you

[07:54] back to the other two DLCs which require a little more access. The first one to Gods. You get access to that like right after the first act, I believe, and then you have to wait until the end of the campaign for Ashes. But, where it feels

[08:07] a little disconnected story-wise what Fangs really did was add a lot of really interesting mechanics via things like its Ascension Altar which allows you to sacrifice materials basically to have a game session long effect on the monsters

[08:21] to things like just vastly increased experience, extra drops, etc. Usually at the cost of giving the enemy some bonus, often more health and damage, and that's on top of the difficulty modifiers, of course. It's just another way to get

[08:36] more loot and gear and kind of focus in on the things you want to go after. bit about, which is of course the loot. So, a big part of games like these naturally, but I did notice that the game is pretty good about letting you

[08:50] target specific things that you want to go after. And in fact, there's often like multiple tiered versions of those things. So, as I'm approaching level 100, something I've noticed is that a lot of things like the unique items you

[09:03] can find have multiple tiers to them. So, you'll find the base version, then the empowered version, then the mythical version. There's also items now that can be awakened with extra materials to boost them a little bit farther even.

[09:16] There are legendary drops as well, which seem relatively common, and there's like monster infrequents which give access to certain skills and the like. And through all of those things and the methods of their acquisition, you are able to, once

[09:31] you know what to look for, so you can sort of like pretty precisely target stuff that you're after. But, beyond even that, another thing that I found really interesting about items and how the game approaches stuff like that is

[09:43] actually the factions as well as some of the choices you get to make. So, throughout the story and the expansions and everything, there are occasionally different factions, and one thing I've noticed now that I'm moving up in

[09:57] difficulty is that the difficulty, as you would probably expect, resets all of the quests and stuff for that particular play through. So, my understanding is choices, but what I don't know is how that will affect the reputation

[10:10] specifically if you choose to do that or if you can then raise them both. That's way or another before the end, but the reputations themselves are pretty interesting because as they get higher, you actually get a quest line for that

[10:23] faction as well as their extra rewards from their vendor. Now, there are enemy factions as well, and maxing those out start spawning in nemesis enemies, which I'm close to hitting. I'm not quite there yet, but I'll be dealing with

[10:36] those guys soon enough, but the faction quest line thing was interesting to me rep, you get extra quests and stuff, and you can sort of finish a little narrative arc that is completely to the side and would be easily missable if you

[10:48] that combined with the choices about which factions to side with in particular also makes for a lot of consequence here, I would say. But all together, I would say that's kind of

[11:00] mostly where my head is at with this one at the moment. In terms of things I didn't enjoy, I would say there's just really a couple of minor things. I'm not wild about the like one-shot mechanics. I would appreciate like a little more

[11:12] feedback of like when I should like pull away from a boss or something. And while there are certainly moments or dungeons and things like that you'll be fighting You're locked into the room, and I get that. But the feedback of a fight that

[11:25] you probably shouldn't be in giving you no chance for escape even when you could theoretically run away because you're just completely doing fine and then you're instantly dead from a single attack doesn't feel great feedback-wise.

[11:38] I will also say that you lose experience when you die, which is common enough in these games, but that in addition to being one shot by bosses feels particularly bad and if I was to point to the thing I didn't like about this

[11:50] game right now, it would be those two things working in tandem. And obviously and of course you don't want to die, especially when I get around to hardcore, which will be its own beast, I'm sure. Right now though, 60 hours in,

[12:02] easily my least favorite part. Otherwise though, I've been having a lot of fun. I really enjoy running around as the Berserker. I'll obviously have to try quite a few of the other classes. Most of the DLC and the story's been really

[12:14] been interesting to mess around with mechanics that were only recently added like the Ascension altar or the potion crafting. But crazily enough, it feels great to play and I can tell that I've basically only scratched the surface. I

[12:28] still have a ton to do just on this character alone, getting through all the difficulties, then the Crucible, and then I'll have to start the long mode. Again, I am nowhere near done with

[12:40] of these thoughts as I have hit a sort of good milestone. Talk about the game a bit more, but that's where I'm at with it right now. Hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you did, by all means like, comment, subscribe, all that YouTube

[12:52] down in the comment section below. But regardless of any of that, truly, just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.