There isn't much I can say about Grim Dawn which hasn't been said already. It's arguably the best ARPG around at the moment, which is impressive considering the age of the engine (The Titan Quest engine from ~2006). Whilst I doubt Grim Dawn will be winning any awards for outstanding technical achievement, what it does well - what it does very well, is provide a hugely replayable single-player ARPG experience with a superb loot system, excellent mechanics and a deeply satisfying class system.

This is a game with plenty of depth. 9 basic Masteries (Classes), 36 multi-class combinations, over 2000 monsters, over 6700 items, 169 item sets (offering bonuses depending on the number of pieces which are worn together) and over 1600 monster infrequent items (moster-specific loot). The sheer amount of things to do, farm and see is impressive.

BASIC PLOT
You start off the game in Normal difficulty at character level 1, progressing through several linear chapters until you unlock the next difficulty: Elite. You start playing the same chapters again, now on Elite difficulty and around level 50, until you eventually unlock the final difficulty: Ultimate. By the time you start the final playthrough in Ultimate, you will be around character level 80, which finally caps at level 100. The end game item sets usually have a level requirement of 94. Also, when you hit Elite, you suffer a -25% penalty to your resistances and in Ultimate difficulty this becomes a -50% penalty. Naturally, there are items, skills, augments, components, celestial bodies and potions which increase resistances.

LOOT
As is typical for ARPGs, dropped loot can roll with a variety of Prefixes and Suffixes, thus modifying the item further. But rather than loot being an explosion of RNG items, the loot in Grim Dawn is weighted to make the item drops appear relevant to the mob from which has dropped. For instance, if you defeat a fire-heavy monster, you're more likely to see fire-relevant items being dropped rather than nonsensical vendor trash (although this can also happen as well, it's an ARPG after all). So you're more likely to see something along the lines of "Devastating leather chaps of Scorching" drop from a fire mob rather than "Bacon grease leather jacket of Sleaze" or "Slime-covered moccasins of the Sewer". You get the idea...

CLASS SYSTEM
In terms of the Mastery (class) system, Crate have nailed this. You can have between 0 and 2 base masteries, with a base mastery combination forming a sub-class. So Necromancer and Soldier will give a Death Knight, a Shaman and an Arcanist will give a Druid and so on. Each mastery or sub-class will be capable of clearing the base game & DLC content. Of course some mastery combinations will be more effective (faster clear speed, less squishy, etc) than others, but I don't believe there is a truly useless class in the game. This means you can let your imagination run wild and just try things out.

CHARACTER RESPEC
I have over 3000 hours in Grim Dawn over 4 years and I've never felt like I've hit a brick wall with my character creation. If I'm clearly fighting a losing battle (usually because I'm lacking items or am playing badly) I can cheaply respec my characters to focus on other skills which I might have better gear support for. Respecs in Grim Dawn are accessible from the start and cheap to carry out.

FACTIONS AND THE NEMESIS SYSTEM
There are several factions in Grim Dawn and most are key to the plot and can't be turned hostile. Likewise, there are evil factions which you can't align yourself with because, again, they are key to the design and lore of the game. However, there are some factions where you can choose to ally yourself with them or turn them hostile. Once a faction is 100% hostile it spawns a faction-specific Nemesis, which is a super boss with a few predetermined spawn locations and will be a challenge to defeat. In addition, gaining favour with an allied faction grants access to their non-tradeable faction-specific items, which can fill in blanks in a character build or sometimes define the build itself.

CELESTIAL SYSTEM
Devotion points are unlocked as you adventure - usually from cleansing shrines with an item offering or by fighting mobs. One devotion point can be traded in for one part of a star constellation (a node) - of which there are many. Each node of a constellation infers some form of permanent buff and several constellations provide additional skills once their final node has been illuminated. This further enhances the character-building process.

To conclude, then, Grim Dawn is more than worthy of your time - even if you only have a passing interest in the genre. There is so much scope for character building, which is 70% of the fun for me: Finding a new item and wondering if I can base a build on it.

There isn't much I can say about Grim Dawn which hasn't been said already. It's arguably the best ARPG around at the moment, which is impressive considering the age of the engine (The Titan Quest engine from ~2006). Whilst I doubt Grim Dawn will be winning any awards for outstanding technical achievement, what it does well - what it does very well, is provide a hugely replayable single-player ARPG experience with a superb loot system, excellent mechanics and a deeply satisfying class system. This is a game with plenty of depth. 9 basic Masteries (Classes), 36 multi-class combinations, over 2000 monsters, over 6700 items, 169 item sets (offering bonuses depending on the number of pieces which are worn together) and over 1600 monster infrequent items (moster-specific loot). The sheer amount of things to do, farm and see is impressive. BASIC PLOT You start off the game in Normal difficulty at character level 1, progressing through several linear chapters until you unlock the next difficulty: Elite. You start playing the same chapters again, now on Elite difficulty and around level 50, until you eventually unlock the final difficulty: Ultimate. By the time you start the final playthrough in Ultimate, you will be around character level 80, which finally caps at level 100. The end game item sets usually have a level requirement of 94. Also, when you hit Elite, you suffer a -25% penalty to your resistances and in Ultimate difficulty this becomes a -50% penalty. Naturally, there are items, skills, augments, components, celestial bodies and potions which increase resistances. LOOT As is typical for ARPGs, dropped loot can roll with a variety of Prefixes and Suffixes, thus modifying the item further. But rather than loot being an explosion of RNG items, the loot in Grim Dawn is weighted to make the item drops appear relevant to the mob from which has dropped. For instance, if you defeat a fire-heavy monster, you're more likely to see fire-relevant items being dropped rather than nonsensical vendor trash (although this can also happen as well, it's an ARPG after all). So you're more likely to see something along the lines of "Devastating leather chaps of Scorching" drop from a fire mob rather than "Bacon grease leather jacket of Sleaze" or "Slime-covered moccasins of the Sewer". You get the idea... CLASS SYSTEM In terms of the Mastery (class) system, Crate have nailed this. You can have between 0 and 2 base masteries, with a base mastery combination forming a sub-class. So Necromancer and Soldier will give a Death Knight, a Shaman and an Arcanist will give a Druid and so on. Each mastery or sub-class will be capable of clearing the base game & DLC content. Of course some mastery combinations will be more effective (faster clear speed, less squishy, etc) than others, but I don't believe there is a truly useless class in the game. This means you can let your imagination run wild and just try things out. CHARACTER RESPEC I have over 3000 hours in Grim Dawn over 4 years and I've never felt like I've hit a brick wall with my character creation. If I'm clearly fighting a losing battle (usually because I'm lacking items or am playing badly) I can cheaply respec my characters to focus on other skills which I might have better gear support for. Respecs in Grim Dawn are accessible from the start and cheap to carry out. FACTIONS AND THE NEMESIS SYSTEM There are several factions in Grim Dawn and most are key to the plot and can't be turned hostile. Likewise, there are evil factions which you can't align yourself with because, again, they are key to the design and lore of the game. However, there are some factions where you can choose to ally yourself with them or turn them hostile. Once a faction is 100% hostile it spawns a faction-specific Nemesis, which is a super boss with a few predetermined spawn locations and will be a challenge to defeat. In addition, gaining favour with an allied faction grants access to their non-tradeable faction-specific items, which can fill in blanks in a character build or sometimes define the build itself. CELESTIAL SYSTEM Devotion points are unlocked as you adventure - usually from cleansing shrines with an item offering or by fighting mobs. One devotion point can be traded in for one part of a star constellation (a node) - of which there are many. Each node of a constellation infers some form of permanent buff and several constellations provide additional skills once their final node has been illuminated. This further enhances the character-building process. To conclude, then, Grim Dawn is more than worthy of your time - even if you only have a passing interest in the genre. There is so much scope for character building, which is 70% of the fun for me: Finding a new item and wondering if I can base a build on it.