There was a time when I found ARPGs exciting, my buttocks glued to the tiny swivel-stool before the one-armed bandits of Diablo II and Titan Quest, hoping that they would spew shiny loot into my lap. In recent years I’ve managed to shake the habit. I poked at Diablo III for a while but kept my distance and even though I enjoyed Path of Exile in its early days, I haven’t felt compelled to revisit its blighted shore. Grim Dawn tempts me though. My memories of Titan Quest have become rosier than dawn’s fingers and Alec’s impressions of the team’s long-awaited follow-up were pleasing. Act II of the Early Access release is now available, and it introduces choice and consequence.

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Lots of grim, not too much dawn so far. Which is a shame. Dawn’s so pretty. Might lift the spirits after all that zombie-twatting in the gloom. Still, that is what we’ve signed up for: Grim Dawn, an action RPG created by much of the team (and the tech) behind Titan Quest, is here to be our alt-universe Diablo III. No fancy business models (other than Steam Early Access), no unorthodox DRM (other than Steam), no drowning in lore and cinematics, no slickness at the expense of all else: just getting on with the zombie-twatting. Spiders too, naturally. (more…)