Grim Dawn

Grim Dawn is an action role-playing game that features fast-paced real-time combat and emphasizes collecting loot, such as armor, potions, weapons, and money (in the form of Iron Bits). The game's crafting system is similar to the one used in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos's popular mod Defense of the Ancients. Grim Dawn also builds upon systems from Titan Quest, including improved physics, location-specific damage effects, dynamic weather, a rotatable camera, dismemberment, the addition of factions, and a completely redesigned quest system.

There are ten distinct character classes in the game.

Grim Dawn takes place in Cairn, a setting in which humanity has been brought to near extinction by a trans-dimensional war.

The conflict begins when the humans in the setting begin to contact Aetherial entities from another dimension. Using what was learned from these entities, they open a portal to bring one into their own dimension and learn that the Aetherials could possess humans, and that these humans would retain enhanced abilities after the spirit was removed from the host. The people then released more Aetherials into the world, who themselves opened more portals and would intend to use humanity for their own purposes.

Following Iron Lore Entertainment's failure to secure funding for its next project, former members of Iron Lore announced they had created a new company on February 18, 2008. Nine days later, the company announced it would be working as a contractor for Demiurge Studios, providing art and design leadership on one of the company's projects.[which?]

On August 19, 2008, Crate announced the acquisition of the Black Legion intellectual property that has been in development at Iron Lore before the studio closed. Iron Lore had attracted significant interest from publishers while pitching Black Legion in late 2007 but had not been able to survive long enough to close a publishing deal. Crate had hoped to pick up on the momentum that Black Legion had gained but due to the U.S. economic recession publishers opted to pass on a large project from the studio.

Grim Dawn received generally favorable reviews from 29 critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Leif Johnson of PC Gamer wrote: "If anything, Grim Dawn is both empowered and chained down by its retro stylings, preventing, say, the randomized levels of Diablo III and thus its endless potential for replay. But on the upside, none of its recent competitors deliver that old-style hack-and-slash experience so purely and so satisfyingly, and its hybrid class system makes each new jaunt a little different. More than once it found me playing until dawn, and my appreciation for any game that manages to do that is anything but grim."