Grim Dawn - From the makers of Titan Quest

Not sure how many of you played and enjoyed Titan Quest, but if you did the developers (of the now defunct) Iron Lore have reemerged as Crate Entertainment and are in development making an ARPG called Grim Dawn.

Official website:

http://www.grimdawn.com/index.php

Kickstarter Page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crateentertainment/grim-dawn

Nice interview:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/03/titanic-quest-crate-speak-about-grim-dawn/

Some interesting stuff about it's expected features:

*Combine any of five distinct skill cl@sses each with multiple skill trees in which to specialize.

*Advance your cl@ss mastery up to 75 levels to unlock dozens of powerful skills and synergistic modifiers.

*New cl@sses will be periodically released through downloadable content.

*Destructible environments give evidence of your massive battles while collapsing stonework and flying shards of furniture can be used tactically to cause further injury to your foes.

*Dynamic Weather brings the world to life with region-specific climates and a variety of weather effects. A sunny day can cloud over with mild rainshowers that builds into a booming thunderstorm. Variable wind gusts blow grass and affect objects like windmills and window shutters.

*Gameplay systems designed to expand for 200 levels of character progression, equipment, and enemies to fight makes for ridiculous amounts of replay value.

*Connect with old friends or make new allies in glorious multiplayer. Specially balanced multiplayer encounters will put your teamwork to the ultimate challenge.

*Collect blueprints that allow you to combine salvaged components into unique crafted items and then, later, use those basic crafted items with higher-tiered recipes to complete items of unprecedented badassness.

*Camera rotation enhances the three-dimensionality of the world and gameplay while levels are still designed so that players are not forced to rotate the camera.

*Refined loot system drops less junk items and ensures more consistent rewards from hero and boss monsters.

*Satisfying enemy damage and death effects with an option to enable blood and gore.

*New quest and conversation system will allow players to choose quest paths and rewards, interact with NPCs in more interesting ways, and an intuitive quest creation wizard will make life a lot easier for modders.

*An NPC faction system lets the player improve their relations with different NPC groups to earn rewards as their favor increases such as merchant discounts, new items, and additional quest lines. However, aiding one faction could turn a rival faction into your enemy. Choose which side you will support!

*The ability to spend money to reclaim skill and attribute points alleviates the fear and frustration of having to make early, uninformed decisions that could permanently nerf a character.

*More features are in the works and will be announced as Grim Dawn nears release.

Features

Also worth noting is they are trying a donation model to offset development costs so they can stick to their own design philosophy and not sell out to a publisher. You can actually buy the game now via paypal and the donated/pre-order money will go into the game's development. There's a few different options/prices as well, some giving additional benefits such as access to beta/alpha.

Anyways, it's still early but worth checking out :D

----

First images from the game were posted a while ago...mind you the game is VERY early in development (like pre-alpha) but gives a good idea of a few things. Firstly the game looks grittier and darker, and the blood/gibbing is pretty kick arse :D

Alpha combat video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYI2DMPWpWg&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Environment/weather system first look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uWDK2rnJA

*updated with new images*

I welcome it, havent gotten around to playing titan quest yet... way too many games too play.

Hellgate London tried it...decent attempt though died under it's own weight.

I still enjoy diablo clones, though I would like to see the genre take the next step in game evolution.

Titan quest was terrible. It was about as fun as picking your nose... scratch that, picking your nose was more fun. That's not a very good track record.

Hopefully they learned a valuable lesson with Titan Quest (TQ) and will optimize Grim Dawn a little better. TQ was herky jerky even on the top of the line machines when it was released.

Titan quest was terrible. It was about as fun as picking your nose... scratch that, picking your nose was more fun. That's not a very good track record.

i_saw_a_mudcrab

Well, it was fun for the kind of people who don't pick their nose. Sorry you and the other drooling nose pickers didn't like it.

Hopefully they learned a valuable lesson with Titan Quest (TQ) and will optimize Grim Dawn a little better. TQ was herky jerky even on the top of the line machines when it was released.

TrickyNicky

They are addressing this, and while the game will have better graphics/effects, they are making some improvements to the engine. They are also doing some common sense stuff...like reducing the amount of "trash item" that monsters drop. That alone (according to them) improves performance greatly. Apparently generating random items from such a huge pool in such quantity is a drain on system resources. Plus, I think it's a good change I thought overall the game did drop way too much junk.

[QUOTE="i_saw_a_mudcrab"]

Titan quest was terrible. It was about as fun as picking your nose... scratch that, picking your nose was more fun. That's not a very good track record.

Renevent42

Put down the crackpipe, TQ was awesome. Way better than picking your nose.

Really, really happy to see the TQ dev team at it again! Thanks for sharing.

EM

*sigh*

why does every isometric action-rpg need to be refered to a Diablo clone?

Call it a clickfest...an action-rpg...hack and slash...but just because its the same genre as diablo, does not make it a diablo clone.

Titan Quest had about as much in common with Diablo as an apple has in common with an orange; sure, theyre both fruit, both round...but the similiarities end there.

Titan Quest is arguably the best game in the genre since Diablo 2, and even does a few things better, so give credit where credit is due

I say "diablo clone" in a loving way...seriously. I love this genre. But let's face the facts, TQ *is* a diablo clone through and through. That's not to say TQ doesn't bring it's own tricks and improvements to the party of course :P

* Camera rotation enhances the three-dimensionality of the world and gameplay while levels are still designed so that players are not forced to rotate the camera.

Are you serious? If this is one of the features worth listing, this game can't be too good.

* Camera rotation enhances the three-dimensionality of the world and gameplay while levels are still designed so that players are not forced to rotate the camera.

Are you serious? If this is one of the features worth listing, this game can't be too good.

F1_2004

Presumably they're listing the 10 most notable features of their game. One of those features is that you can rotate the camera to "enhance the 3-dimensionality".F1_2004

Context. Let me break it down for people like you:

The game is a spiritual successor to TQ...many of the features listed are either improvements from the original or new additions suggested by the community. Plus, all the new features have not been released yet, and on the forum they said they have some really cool things to announce but it's too early. The game is in pre-alpha.

Anyways, don't want to waste anymore time on someone who judges a game as not good based on something so silly.

*yawn*

I dunno, you could judge it on the other great features...not just pick one out that doesn't strike you as impressive? You could actually find out a little about the game first before making such a knee-jerk reaction? Or you could just do what you did and just pick one feature out that doesn't even define the game and go from there.

Did you play Titan Quest? Did you like it? Yes? Chances are you'll like this game too. No? Chances are you won't.

Whatever, doesn't really matter to me, or the other people looking forward to the game.

*edit*

One of those features is that you can rotate the camera to "enhance the 3-dimensionality.F1_2004

Also, you completely missed the point of the feature...here...let me help you:

Camera rotation enhances the three-dimensionality of the world and gameplay while levels are still designed so that players are not forced to rotate the camera. Grim Dawn

See the bold part? That's the important bit. See, in a lot of these types of games there's really two schools...static isometric camera and rotatable camera (like Sacred 2). A big point of contention between players is some prefer static as they can focus on the action (and find rotatable cameras in these games cumbersome) and some like the rotatable camera as they like the control. What the devs are trying to do here is give players not only the choice, but design the game world and the system in a manner that is still condusive to static camera which a lot of people really want.

Diablo 3, for instance, has a static camera...these guys are trying to do something a bit different. My preference is static but I am glad they are finding a way to please both crowds.

Well wtf else should I judge it on? F1_2004

Not judging it at all is the most viable option, you know? The project isn't even in alpha.

EM

Wow, I played Titan Quest, but this seems even more like a Diablo 3 clone; trying to steal it's thunder before Diablo 3 is unleashed to the world and rapes it. Cash in! /yawnBigsteve3570

Wow this game looks awesome!

ah good old Ironlore :P I do have the titan quest games... But Ivenever gotten around to playing them (sits nicely on my steamlist). I was quite impressed with thier try at a DOW expansion, a shame they went under just before it got released...

Guess I will have a look at this, when it pops out.

You know it looks a little too grim to me.

I hear ya, but please remember the game is in pre-pre-pre-alpha so things like lighting, textures, models, effect, ect will all improve greatly as the game progresses.

But I do get what you are saying and actually mentioned that on their forums. Basically what I said is that it would be nice to see some images that show contrast between the characters, environments, and other things. They said that the game is certainly heading that way and they are actively working on new areas and textures. So I guess "more to come" is the only thing I can say to that.

Though I will say this...the game is from the same guys who designed TQ and the same people who worked on the art. So looking at TQ's environments I think it's pretty safe to say these guys know how to make appealing looking environments and art. Regardless of what people may think of TQ as a game, I don't think many can argue that it had very nice graphics especially for it's time. Heck, 4 years later it's still a very nice looking game.

[QUOTE="Bigsteve3570"]Wow, I played Titan Quest, but this seems even more like a Diablo 3 clone; trying to steal it's thunder before Diablo 3 is unleashed to the world and rapes it. Cash in! /yawnRenevent42

I agree.

People should be less childish about games "stealing" features from others. It's annoying.

Especially when it makes no sense. The guys from Iron Lore were good devs, maybe they took a lot of TQ from D2, but not on Blizzard's level, and to say they want to steal anything from Diablo 3 is simply wrong. Diablo 2 is one of the biggest titans in the gaming industry, and I expect Diablo 3 to sell more in its first week than Grim Dawn will ever manage to.

Steal Diablo 3's thunder? Yeah, right...

[QUOTE="Renevent42"][QUOTE="i_saw_a_mudcrab"]

Titan quest was terrible. It was about as fun as picking your nose... scratch that, picking your nose was more fun. That's not a very good track record.

haberman13

Put down the crackpipe, TQ was awesome. Way better than picking your nose.

Sorry bros, you have horrible taste.

No we don't, we simply like something you don't. Imagine that! And you know TQ is still played very actively online and has a pretty strong community to this day. It sold pretty well and reviewed pretty well too. So really what you say has little merit at all.

If it makes you feel better about yourself to tell others they have "horrible taste", that's your personal problem not mine.

[QUOTE="haberman13"]

[QUOTE="Renevent42"] Well, it was fun for the kind of people who don't pick their nose. Sorry you and the other drooling nose pickers didn't like it.i_saw_a_mudcrab

Put down the crackpipe, TQ was awesome. Way better than picking your nose.

Sorry bros, you have horrible taste.

But hey some actually find it fun, no problem with that.

[QUOTE="i_saw_a_mudcrab"]

[QUOTE="haberman13"]

Put down the crackpipe, TQ was awesome. Way better than picking your nose.

DanielDust

Sorry bros, you have horrible taste.

Though I will say this...the game is from the same guys who designed TQRenevent42

There is nothing amazing about these type of games, they're either extremely interesting (which could be considered as amazing) or horrible and horrible for such games means boring, because nobody expects a superb story, or some amazing gameplay feature.DanielDust

I disagree with "there's nothing amazing about these types of games"...it's my favorite genre (as well as many others). And the main draw for these games is the leveling/loot mechanics which TQ comes across in spades. I will say one of the reasons D2 was so successful was it's ability to marry both aspects (gameplay and story). But for me and many others, story is not an important aspect of a game. I'm more concerned with deep gameplay mechanics.

But as I said, you and many others like it, no problem, I personally love sacred and consider it the best after D2 and recently Torchlight, but many hate it.DanielDust

Sacred has a terrible nonsensical story and Torchlight the story is utterly barebones...I am surprised you knock TQ on story then give Sacred as an example. Regardless, I did enjoy the first Sacred and Torchlight as well and definitely consider them a contender. In reality the actual gameplay between all of them is strikingly similar...same basic controls and everything. Out of the 3, though, Titan Quest is worlds better in terms of skill and item systems. Far deeper and more diverse.

Well you just said it ;) there is nothing amazing about the games themselves, all that matters is leveling, looting and killing. It's one of my favorite genres and Diablo had an interesting story, but as you said at first, these are not the type of games you play for the story, if Diablo had a decent story that was good enough to make you remember most of it that doesn't mean that others will do the same.

I love games like Sacred, Dungeon Siege 2 and I also like Sacred 2, but they all had problems, Sacred 2 had a stupid story but at least it didn't make you want to exit the game because of it and it also had lots of bugs that got fixed with time, but the gameplay imo was superb, combat, skills, it was extremely fun to kill monsters, they were also quite diverse, and it had lots of items, Dungeon Siege 2 didn't have a great story, didn't have lots of unique items and there weren't huge amounts of different monsters but it had a fun gameplay, and even though it didn't have lots of spells they were enough to create a fun experience as for Sacred 2, the camera is terrible and it's broken, it barely works and what I hate about it is the new "feature" that lets the mobs lvl up according to your level, sure they are way weaker but it's annoying, but it had a great art style, the world was huge and diverse and once you got used to the camera it was actually pretty fun and it also had a great multiplayer.

Now TQ, for me had a story with as much substance as Oblivion, maybe I didn't get to the good parts after those 3 hours, but I just didn't feel anything, it was just meaningless text that told me to rescue XYZ, the gameplay is solid, but that's my main problem, for me at least it was boring, even if the story was interesting (from what you say) and it has lots of skills and I never got the feeling of wanting to get further to kill more monsters and get better loot, I just didn't feel anything from it, not a single moment of enjoyment and I never said anything about Torchlight having a superb story :P in fact it's so simple it can be summarised in 4 or 5 sentences, but I loved the gameplay it was extremely enjoyable and I actually had fun collecting new items in it.

Well you just said it there is nothing amazing about the games themselves, all that matters is leveling, looting and killing.

I didn't say that at all. This is what I said:

I disagree with "there's nothing amazing about these types of games"...it's my favorite genre (as well as many others). And the main draw for these games is the leveling/loot mechanics which TQ comes across in spades.

The looting/leveling is the amazing part for me...I don't care about the story. You won't find many RPG's with the same depth of classes and items that you can find in TQ. That's for me is whats amazing. And because of this, I have spent over 200 hours playing TQ and it's mods, all because it's an amazing deep experience for me.

Even when I play games like Gothic/Risen/Morrowind I don't play a whole lot of attention to the story...I just don't care much about it...and these are your more tradtional and typical epic RPGs. Those games impress me because of the character progression, huge world with lots to explore, and interesting mechanics.

So there won't be any further misunderstandings, I'll do a quick rundown of what I find awesome about TQ...

-Beautiful graphics

-Awesome use of physics in combat

-Best UI/controls in genre so far (hotbar, hotkeys for potions and other actions, ect)

-First rate class/skill system

-Huge item system with great depth

-Great boss encounters (especially Typhon)

-Well made levels that are at times awe-inspiring

-Fast pace combat

And to be fair about everything, here's what I dislike about TQ...

-No blood or gibbing (although smashing skeletons is cool)

-No closed server support (an unfortunate but fatal flaw...it's too bad IL didn't have the funding for this)

-No cutscenes between acts (I still watch D2 CGI to this day even though I've seen them a million times)

-Not as good atmosphere as D2

I might have liked it more if it had a few tons of blood, because I manly didn't really care about what I was killing, all I knew was that if I find a group of mobs "rag dolls will fly everywhere" without me caring about anything other than my life and mana and the spells were just too powerful (the end effect, where they send "dolls" into space), I always rushed through them without caring much, but I don't know, it might have actually been quite fun if it had some blood and gibbing, because now that I think about it, that's one of the fun aspects of Torchlight :P.

It sounds like they're some of the stuff I disliked about TQ, specifically all the crappy drops, even from bosses. Hopefully they differentiate the classes more this time around. In TQ a lot of the classes were too similar.

I might have liked it more if it had a few tons of blood, because I manly didn't really care about what I was killing, all I knew was that if I find a group of mobs "rag dolls will fly everywhere" without me caring about anything other than my life and mana and the spells were just too powerful (the end effect, where they send "dolls" into space), I always rushed through them without caring much, but I don't know, it might have actually been quite fun if it had some blood and gibbing, because now that I think about it, that's one of the fun aspects of Torchlight :P.

DanielDust

Yeah I hear that as a complaint often, and I think there's a lot of merit there. Personally it doesn't bother me much, but like I said there's merit there. And luckily for everyone, they aren't making the same mistake twice :P

It sounds like they're some of the stuff I disliked about TQ, specifically all the crappy drops, even from bosses. Hopefully they differentiate the classes more this time around. In TQ a lot of the classes were too similar.

myke2010

Personally I thought this was actually a strong point for TQ...monsters actually dropped what they were wearing and I always thought that was cool. But again, another complaint I have heard often so there must be some merit there. I think the solution is good though, monsters will still drop what they wear but they are reducing that amount greatly. But your point about the classes I can't really agree with...I thought the skill/class system in TQ was absolutely first rate. The amount and combination of classes and class types was fantastic in my opinion.