When comparing Thief Gold vs Grim Dawn, the Slant community recommends Grim Dawn for most people. In the question“What are the best Dark Fantasy games on Steam?” Grim Dawn is ranked 3rd while Thief Gold is ranked 16th. 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 Rich atmosphere
Thief is set in a fascinating world, rich with its own history and lore. An early conversation in the game features guards talking about betting on bear fights. The game's multiple factions each have their own unique histories and personality as well. A player can learn much about Thief's world just by exploring its streets and listening to the sounds of the city.
Pro Sound design enhance stealth gameplay
One of Thief's grandest achievements is its dedication to sound design as a means of stealth gameplay; other stealth games are often set in the third person perspective, allowing players to swing cameras around corners, cheating their way through a level. Thief instead emphasizes sound. Walk on a marble floor or metal grate, and you're likely to make some noise. Creep across a carpet, and you'll be quieter. This works for the guards as well, so you can listen for them pacing on the other side of a doorway, but watch out! If there's carpet on the other side, you might not hear them coming. Thief uses this mechanic in a wide variety of ways; you can use arrows that sprout beds of moss to avoid detection, for instance.
Pro Basically a "directors cut"
Updated to support full HD, Thief Gold is the classic game thief remastered to support modern hardware. It also features additional levels that were not in the original game.
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 A really messed up dark story that just makes you not want to play the game at all
Con Default controls are not great
Before beginning the game, the user will most likely want to to change the default controls, which predate the normal WASD control scheme, using some strange bindings that may not make sense to modern users.
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.