After sinking nearly 40 hours into the game, I'm still having a blast... a Demolitionist blast, that is!

Grim Dawn gives me everything I want from old-school Diablo, Torchlight, Victor Vran, and most other ARPGs I like, with few of the pain points while adding a pretty cool class and skills system. World theme vaguely reminds me of Victor Vran, sort of a dark fantasy-laden pseudo Victorian era world in decline.

Start by picking a Mastery... basically a character class. I chose Demolitionist because FIRE, EXPLOSIONS, INFERNO, GUNS! And, since I ended up loving two handed rifles, I chose Shaman as my second Master when it was offered to me a few levels later as I could boost my 2H weapon damage (both melee and ranged). Turns out, Demolistionist + Shaman = Elementalist, so I'm out there blowing stuff up and napalming to my heart's content.

You can choose your skills from nicely branching skill trees, and there is a secondary system called Devotions. By using Aether crystals to complete constellations in the night sky you'll get some pretty cool bonuses.

Death penalty is more like Dark Age of Camelot than Everquest (to compare to some other RPGs). You'll lose a percentage of experience, but you don't lose all your gear and gold like in Diablo (I HATED THAT). Like DAoC, if you get back to your grave marker, you'll get most, but not all, of your experience back. Also, bosses will regenerate some if you die while fighting them.

I see there are pets in this game, but I haven't come across any yet. Whether that's because of my choice of masteries or I'm just not high enough yet, I don't know. I tend to progress pretty slowly vs time played because I am a completionist/explorer and have to find every secret and uncover the entire map.

Interface is clear and easy to learn so far. Story is engaging enough to keep me going. I'm planning on picking up the expansions when I can, since they add more masteries and I really want to try out the necromancer.

If you like ARPGs that are not the same old thing, I highly recommend Grim Dawn. Hell of a lot of fun.