When comparing Battle Chasers: Nightwar vs Grim Dawn, the Slant community recommends Grim Dawn for most people. In the question“What are the best dungeon crawler games on Steam?” Grim Dawn is ranked 5th while Battle Chasers: Nightwar is ranked 32nd. The most important reason people chose Grim Dawn is:
Basically you choose 1 class and select skills as you level up. At level 10 you can select a second class, which already gives you 5x5=25 character type possibilities. Each character has dozens of skills, plus you have this additional passive skill tree that you unlock through cleansing shrines. Then there is item customization with crafted "modifiers", adding additional unique stats and skills that you can use, all this adds literally to thousands / millions of character possibilities. Do you want to use a double weapon shooting lightning bolts? You can do that. Do you want to summon your creatures and support them with fireballs? You can do that as well, you can push it wherever you want.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fun battles thanks to overcharge
Using your basic attacks builds up a special charge that allows you unleash devastating attacks, oftentimes being awarded bonus damage based on the charge spent. This charge disappears when combat ends, which encourages you to use it or lose it. This means you can constantly use the most fun and flashy attacks without having to worry about conserving resources for a boss fight or tough enemy. Building up and unleashing brutal attacks in every single fight, no matter how minor, really makes the battles shine.
Pro Satisfying battle animations
While in battle, all your attacks and special abilities are accompanied by fancy and colorful animations, such as the wizard Knolan waving loops of fire around shortly before tossing at the enemy, or Calibretto the giant golem making a huge spectacle of charging up his big guns before firing them. Watching these attacks play out is satisfying due to all this showmanship, and there's an exciting anticipation that comes with watching a big, powerful spell wind up.
Pro Engaging side content helps the world feel alive
Outside of progressing the main story, there are a lot of interesting side activities to take part in that help you feel like you're part of a real world.
Fighting wave after wave of increasingly difficulty enemies in the arena is a great way to put your skills to the test. Seeing how far you can advance in the arena is pretty fun. Certain NPCs also give you the opportunity to go on hunts, where you can track down and kill rare monsters for rewards. These hunts are a great way to get out exploring and find things you normally wouldn't encounter.
If you ever want to take a break from the fighting, there's also crafting and a fishing minigame to partake in.
Pro Exploration is rewarding
There is a large and detailed overworld filled with dungeons, towns, secret bosses, and plenty of hidden treasures. Just exploring and finding all the tucked away secrets in each of the eight regions can be quite enjoyable and extra rewarding when you find a special monster or treasure chest.
Pro Robust and interesting crafting
Almost everything you pick up can be used to craft something. There are recipes, but you are free to experiment and add new reagents to known formulas to create interesting items. Even if you are missing a certain ingredient, you can often substitute a larger quantity of a different one to make up for it. It's a fun side activity for those who like to experiment and get creative with crafting without being locked into strict recipes.
Pro Complex leveling system with thousands of possible builds
Basically you choose 1 class and select skills as you level up. At level 10 you can select a second class, which already gives you 5x5=25 character type possibilities.
Each character has dozens of skills, plus you have this additional passive skill tree that you unlock through cleansing shrines. Then there is item customization with crafted "modifiers", adding additional unique stats and skills that you can use, all this adds literally to thousands / millions of character possibilities.
Do you want to use a double weapon shooting lightning bolts? You can do that. Do you want to summon your creatures and support them with fireballs? You can do that as well, you can push it wherever you want.
Pro Great homage to old school ARPGs
This game is very dark, and grim. It harkens back to games like Diablo 2 or Titans Quest. While other ARPGs have come out since then, none have hit all the marks of what fans of the genre have been asking for. For those that wish for an updated version of Diablo 2, Grim Dawn is the game for them.
Pro Exploration
Pro Highly modifiable
Relevant in modern gaming because the community can keep products like this fresh and varied, even if the developers eventually decide to slow down their updates (which they have not!). The possibilities are great with modding, while the experiences in Diablo 3 and Path of exile are a lot more static.
Pro Drop-in co-op (online and local)
Co-op is pretty convenient as players can drop in and out of your gaming session at any time. This way there is no wasted time jumping out of ones game in order to find players to play with.
Cons
Con Characters feel plain and static
While all the party members are mostly likable, it's hard to become attached to any of them. None of them change in any meaningful way or learn anything over the course of the story. There's not much banter among them as you travel, and they don't ever really seem to form any kind of real bond. Their backstories are never explored in any depth, and none of them have any major problems that need to be resolved. During the entire adventure, they seem to be just "going through the motions" and don't have much enthusiasm or reaction to the world around them.
Con Party system has some glaring issues
Although you can recruit additional characters to your party, you can only have three active at any one time. Only active characters get loot and experience, which makes it clunky and hard to level all your characters equally.
This essentially creates an imbalance in your roster where it feels like you're pigeonholed into using the same three characters for the duration of the game. New characters you pick up along the way never feel like they quite fit into the groove you've built up with the original three.
Con Latter portion of the game starts to flail
Due to the crafting system and easy-to-acquire dungeon loot, it's very easy to steamroll everything in the latter portion of the game. This takes away some excitement from the battles as combat poses no challenge, and it makes the final portion of the game way too easy when it should be harder.
Con Story ends on a cliffhanger
There is no story resolution at the end of your adventure. This can be a major turn off for some, especially people who enjoy a story with closure.
Con Story is generic
The story fails to break out of RPG stereotypes and ends up feeling very plain. You are playing as nine year old Gully and her ragtag crew of misfits when your airship is shot down over a strange land. You soon come to find out this land is under the threat of an evil sorceress who intends to steal all the mana for herself. Your characters never get deeply involved in the story, don't have any struggles of their own that get resolved, and simply seem to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They then set out to stop her because it's the generic "hero" thing to do. The story never really goes any deeper than that, characters are never fully developed to their full potential, and there are very few side stories.
Con Only some builds are fun
There is a definite meta, with superefficient vs non-viable builds.
It's easy to mess up a build, and attribute and spec-bar points are non-respeccable (you can use a cheat editor, but devs want you to reroll a new char).
Con Difficult to move when fighting, especially when you are ranged
Con Static pre-rendered levels
This may cut down on replayability a bit as all the levels in the game are pre-rendered, meaning that each playthrough will have the exact same layout, making for something that can get tiring and too familiar. Similar games have gone with randomized levels, which can keep the game fresh. While Grim Dawn is meant to be a throwback to earlier games in the genre, some newer features found in more recent released would have been welcome.
Con Lots of trips to town
The majority of loot in the game can be useless, with odd stat restrictions or repeats of vendor items. This means the user will need to make many trips into town to sell it all off in order to have room for even more loot they will not necessarily need.