If you’re like me then you’ve probably played your fair share of dungeon crawling RPGs. And, if you’re like me, you would have immensely enjoyed the dungeon crawling, myth-based Titan Quest along with its expansion pack Immortal Throne. I’ve been a diehard Diablo fan for many years now, but when I discovered Titan Quest I remember feeling the same elation I got from Diablo on my first play through. The story was provocative, the game play was solid and comfortable, and above all else, the class customization was spot on. The game’s real shining feature was its class tree that offered, when the expansion was out, nine masteries. The player would be able to pick any two of these masteries with the potential of having 81 ways to build your character; believe it or not, it did matter if you chose the earth mastery first or second in picking masteries. But I digress as reviewing this sterling game is not my point here.
Something on the horizon…
The reason I want to bring this to light is because, after the Immortal Throne came out, the publisher (THQ) ceased the series and refused to create another game. Well that was a huge disappointment for anyone who played the game; it meant that the could-have-been epic series would not be completed and there really was no substitute for the amazing, mythology-steeped, dungeon crawler.
However, there is truly light on the horizon as a Kickstarter project titled Grim Dawn was recently funded and several of the old developers of Titan Quest decided to break away from Iron Lore Studios and create the unofficial successor to Titan Quest. The new development firm is called Crate Entertainment and it’s headed up by Arthur Bruno, the previous head designer at Iron Lore.
Now despite having been announced nearly three years ago, there isn’t a great deal known about Grim Dawn, even as it nears Alpha testing, but looking at the screenshots and listening to the videos available makes a fan like me think that Grim Dawn will be everything we hope it to be. The screens and videos seem to show a wonderfully similar art style with beefed up graphics despite Titan Quest (for its age) having very formidable graphics. Additionally, the creators have kept the true gem of the game that is the unique class customization that was so loved in Titan Quest. And, although the somewhat light and colorful mythological environment seems to be gone, it’s been replaced with a darker, more haunting environment that really adds to the game’s setting.
I don’t know how many people were more or less disappointed by Diablo 3, but I count myself in that crowd for reasons I won’t go into. It seemed that the dungeon crawler world I’d been such a fan of was in decline, but now, as Grim Dawn nears its completion, I can rest easy knowing that all is not lost, and perhaps the best is yet to come. Please go and check out their website. It may be a little bare-boned, but at the end of the day, the game is really what matters.
