Grim Dawn

[Spider]

I have lots of love for Titan Quest (in my eyes the best hack & slash RPG out there) and the bankruptcy of Iron Lore made me a little sad, because there would be no sequels.

 

But I just found out that some of the people from Iron Lore (including Eric Campanella of BIS fame) has started a new company called Crate and are working on a spiritual successor to Titan Quest.

 

From their website:

Grim Dawn is an action role-playing game intended for digital distribution on the PC. It is being developed by veterans of Iron Lore entertainment, the makers of Titan Quest. Grim Dawn is being built with Crate's own improved version of the Iron Lore engine and toolset; the same technology used to create Titan Quest. As a spiritual successor, Grim Dawn will attempt to better perfect the magical formula of exploration, character advancement, and loot collection pioneered by Diablo.

 

Players will be thrust into the dark, war-torn world of Cairn where a once proud empire has been brought to ruin and the human race driven to the edge of extinction. Cairn has become ground zero of an eternal war between two otherworldly powers, one seeking to use human bodies as a resource, the other intent upon destroying the human race before that can happen. This cataclysmic war has not only decimated human civilization but is warping the very fabric of reality and, in its wake, giving life to new horrors.

 

For humankind it is the dawn of a grim new age where iron has replaced gold as currency and the importance of salt as a weapon makes it far too valuable to waste on food. Small enclaves of human survivors exist scattered throughout the world, holed up in hidden refuges. These humans have quietly watched the warring invaders destroy one another and have become wise to the strengths and vulnerabilities of their otherworldly foes. A few survivors have begun to exhibit strange new abilities after surviving possession or exposure to the warp. These unnatural powers are feared by some but give many new hope of launching a resistance to fight the "outsiders" and reclaim what's left of their world.

 

They have a few screens on their site and I think the look gorgeous. It's very apparent that it's the same engine that was used in TQ, but that's not a bad thing.

 

It will use a similar concept of character progression, with different masteries that you get to pick two from. Five masteries is expected to be in the game from the start, with more potentially being added through DLC.

 

The game is scheduled to release in 2011 and should cost about $20. But for those who want to support the game, it can be pre-ordered now. There are three options, ranging from $20 to $48. Any money they receive through these means will be used to add additional features to the game. So it's not something that's needed to complete the game, it will just make it more interesting/polished/bigger.

 

I'm really excited by this and it seems 2011 will be a great year for action RPGs. With this, DS III and Diablo III all coming out in the next year.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I've seen a couple of screenshots and I thought it looked good, and the setting sounds original, which isn't a bad thing at all.

I'm not a fan of ARPGs, though, so I need a bit more incentive to be interested in this.

[Amentep]

I loved Titan Quest, so if its as good as that, this is something to look forward to, IMO.

[kirottu]

Best company name ever!

[heathen]

I'll be sure to buy this, possibly the soon to get into the beta. I love ARPG's, my favourite kind of games and the setting sounds awesome. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Will the dungeons be randomized or static?

Edited July 1, 2010 by heathen

[GreasyDogMeat]

I made the mistake of wasting my time on Titan Quest, getting 80-90% through the game only to get to a boss fight where I would die, respawn a couple of miles away and have to make a ridiculously epic hike back to the boss only to die within 5 seconds. After about 20 times of this, spending I rage quit and was GLAD that Iron Lore shut down.

[Amentep]

That fight really annoyed me too, until I figured out how to deal with the boss without dying. Didn't have a problem with that same boss second time through.

 

Would have been nice if the save point had been closer to the fight though (a lesson that many developers could learn, along with not putting a save point/checkpoint before a long, unskippable video bit followed by a boss fight where if you die you have to watch the unskippable video again).

Edited July 1, 2010 by Amentep

[deganawida]

Never played Titan Quest, but the backstory and art direction of this have me intrigued. Going to be at least keeping a close eye on this one.

[entrerix]

i got intensely bored with titan quest after about 10-12 hours. this could still be good though

[LadyCrimson]

Excited, I am excited! Defintely going to be a great 2011 for my love of action-rpg's....tho I'm still not quite convinced D3 will be 2011. It's Blizzard after all.

 

I made the mistake of wasting my time on Titan Quest, getting 80-90% through the game only to get to a boss fight where I would die, respawn a couple of miles away and have to make a ridiculously epic hike back to the boss only to die within 5 seconds. After about 20 times of this, spending I rage quit and was GLAD that Iron Lore shut down.

That 3rd act boss definitely seemed made more for the summoner spellcasters...at least when you're unfamiliar/first try to kill him.

[HoonDing]

Players will be thrust into the dark, war-torn world of Cairn where a once proud empire has been brought to ruin and the human race driven to the edge of extinction. Cairn has become ground zero of an eternal war between two otherworldly powers, one seeking to use human bodies as a resource, the other intent upon destroying the human race before that can happen. This cataclysmic war has not only decimated human civilization but is warping the very fabric of reality and, in its wake, giving life to new horrors.

Star Spawn of Cthulhu vs Yithians?

[Spider]

I'll be sure to buy this, possibly the soon to get into the beta. I love ARPG's, my favourite kind of games and the setting sounds awesome. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Will the dungeons be randomized or static?

 

I haven't seen any information in regards to this. I'm guessing static, since that's how TQ did it, but they are making changes to the engine, so possible this could be one of them.

 

But after digging around for a few minutes in their forum, I found this:

 

I've tried to hold off talking about randomized content until I could make a more definitive statement on what we'll include. However, I see this is a hot topic that won't die down.

 

I can't tell you that we'll have randomized dungeons but... we are working on it. Whether or not that makes it into the initial release, we are also designing the above ground world in such a way that there will be much more variety in content between each play-through than there was in TQ. We actually built tools that would allow us to randomize certain above ground elements in TQ but they came about too late in the project for us to really utilize them. The types of things you can expect to see are more variation in the appearance of enemy camps, heroes, loot, and quests.

 

Other things are in the works. Whether we will ship with them or not, I just don't know yet but they will make their way in eventually.

 

So it's a possibility at least, if they can get the technology to work.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I totally want to play another game where you mindlessly click your way through hordes of uninteresting critters in generic fantasy setting. I only wish they would do that borderlands thing so every sword is really just the same old sword, but the text in your inventory changes color.

 

[Nightshape]

I totally want to play another game where you mindlessly click your way through hordes of uninteresting critters in generic fantasy setting. I only wish they would do that borderlands thing so every sword is really just the same old sword, but the text in your inventory changes color.

 

 

Oh yes! Indeed, one more please!

[heathen]

I totally want to play another game where you mindlessly click your way through hordes of uninteresting critters in generic fantasy setting. I only wish they would do that borderlands thing so every sword is really just the same old sword, but the text in your inventory changes color.

 

 

Add lots of gore and slaughtering massive hordes of enemies (where Borderlands and Torchlight failed) and you've got a killer! Generic fantasy setting not required though. Grim Dawn's looks interesting enough, even tho it is fantasy.

[Darque]

Looks interesting, though "spiritual successor" is definitely an overused term these days

[Oner]

Looks interesting, though "spiritual successor" is definitely an overused term these days

Yeah, but at least this time it applies, unlike the AP-to- VtM:Bloodlines idea.

[Humodour]

Sounds fun!

 

Diablo 3, Dungeon Siege 3, Grim Dawn, Fallout: New Vegas, weeee!

[funcroc]

[Monte Carlo]

Coolio, but FFS sort out the tiny inventory that plagued TQ.