I helped Grim Dawn back when I was at university, that was a few years ago, then I gave some more money to their kickstarter, because why not. I know the version I'm playing right now isn't final, but there are still a few issues I would like to address in what's playable. These things might be fixed by the time the game goes gold and I still plan to take another look at it when that'll happen, but right now, GD bores me, playing Grim Dawn made me install Titan Quest and play that instead.
My biggest issue so far with the game is the way quests are arranged. The map is quite huge and isn't as linear as it could be and you have a ton of quests without precises markers of where to go. Having a bunch of quest isn't a bad thing, but one of the first quests you get (killing 10 of something) can't be achieved right away, you need to get three maps further and then that kind of enemy will start spawning. Why not have quests progressively unlock for the maps you're in and make them possible to complete as you go along? Ignoring them seems like a bad plan, but that's what it made me do.
The skill trees are fine although I wish there were more passive skills to mix and match around, the way I usually play action RPGS is with one or two active skills and a bunch of passives stacked on that. I'm not going to use much of the skills you get from enchanting your gear with materials, for instance, but then again, I like the idea of materials granting you new skills. The materials are way more involved than they were in Titan Quest, now they are quite powerful items that you will want to use sooner than later. That being said, you find a bunch of random stuff - scrap metal, crystals, etc. - that aren't crafting materials but could be used for some quest or some crafting recipe, I wish that was explained a bit better.
Otherwise, the game is a bit like Titan Quest with a different setting and different stats, skills, items and monsters. Some polish could be applied here and there - I'm thinking about the mortar gun that is literally a tube standing upright with spheres going out of it - and some of the combat feels a bit lifeless, like you're attacking the air and numbers/monsters are flying around for some reason. But there's an interesting core of ARPG ideas in the middle of that game, I haven't touched the faction stuff and I barely had time to craft. Grim Dawn is a solid 3/5 right now and with some more development time I'm sure it could get a 4 easily in my book.
