When comparing Grim Dawn vs Borderlands 2, the Slant community recommends Borderlands 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” Borderlands 2 is ranked 41st while Grim Dawn is ranked 97th. The most important reason people chose Borderlands 2 is:
Those playing on local split-screen can play online with others at the same time. This way even if playing locally with a friend, both can experience online play on the same machine and screen.
Specs
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Pros
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.
Pro Actual couch co-op that can also be played online
Those playing on local split-screen can play online with others at the same time. This way even if playing locally with a friend, both can experience online play on the same machine and screen.
Pro Complimentary classes that are great for teamwork based co-op
The varying classes and play styles are designed to work together and promote co-op play. One player may be a tank, with large guns and durable shields, while another may have medic abilities and a long-range sniper rifle. This makes for a scenario where each class compliments each other, which is a fun way to play together.
Pro Cl4p-trap for the win <3
Clap trap <3
Pro So much loot, that you will barely see any twice
Borderlands 2 makes it feel like Christmas every time you kill an enemy or open a chest. Whether it's ammo or health or a new and better weapon, whatever you find will reward your curiosity and pique your appetite for more. The potential to find the best loot in the most humble locations makes killing enemies and finding chests incredibly exciting and satisfying. While many loot-based games succeed due to this mechanic, Borderlands 2 surpasses the competition by delivering randomized goodies with unique appearances and stats.
The guns and items in Borderlands 2 have distinct visual features depending on their attributes. For example, a gun with a melee attack bonus might have a blade on it. The customization goes beyond pallet swapping (where the only difference is the color), which leads players to become much more attached to their guns than a bunch of polygons should make them.
You will also find tons and tons of different types of guns. Six different types of guns exist in the game. Each gun can be made by one of eight different manufacturers. Each gun is also made of five additional parts. All of which are generated randomly. With the many millions of combinations available, you never know what attributes the next gun you will find will have. This also gives a slightly different experience to each playthrough, because it’s entirely unpredictable what weapons you will find and when.
Pro Contains fun low-brow humor that can still be serious when it needs to be
Despite being an in-your-face action game with an ostensibly serious plot, Borderlands 2 features a fun-loving sense of humor. This is exaggerated in the sidequests, which feature some of the funniest and most creative writing. This helps the player dive into the main plot while also having the choice to go on sidequests that offer an expanded sense of humor.
The humor is often based on popular memes or lowbrow concepts, which should appeal to a wide range of players.
Pro Each playthrough is a different experience
Borderlands 2 is all about options. With near-infinite weapon options and six character classes, you can play the game multiple times and have a different experience each time. The classes have multiple skill trees that let you tweak your character’s moves and abilities to match how you want to play. This all adds up to a gaming experience that is difficult to beat for customizability.
Pro Stylish comic book like art style that breaks from the herd
The solid black outlines and bright colors make this game look great and stand out from other first-person shooters. The artistic style is similar to the art in comics, clean and bright and breaks with the trend of gray and brown in recent FPS video games.
Pro Runs well on low-spec hardware
It even runs well on a core2duo from 2007, and the comic look is timeless without looking outdated.
Cons
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.
Con Gameplay can become repetitive
The best strategy is often to run away, take cover, shoot, and repeat. The AI doesn't do much to pursue you, which gives the player a significant advantage and makes patience vital. It can also lead to long firefights with little actual danger – a recipe for boredom.
Con Boring bulletsponge enemies
A lot of the enemies, and especially bosses, are just bulletsponges that require no different tactics in place to beat them.
Con There is little actual cooperation between players
Most of the "cooperation" in Borderlands 2 is limited to shooting the same mob. There are almost no skills or perks that integrate with other characters in a meaningful way (there are a few stat bonuses, but that's pretty much it).
Con Tedious to check gun stats
Being forced to check the stats on each gun you find in order to be able to compare it to the items already in your inventory can become tedious.
Con Limited visual customization of characters
For a game that is full of choices, Borderlands 2 is somehow lacking in visual customization options for the player’s character. There is no way to customize the characters’ faces or body styles; for the most part all that can be changed is the color of their outfit. This can lead to online games full of identical characters, which is not only confusing but also makes it difficult to feel any sort of pride or ownership over your character.
Con Unbalanced enemies
Whether by bugs or by poor design, you may be fighting weak minions at one moment and an enemy that's stronger than the final boss at the other, Crystalisks are almost immune to DLCs characters due to bugs, Pyrotrashers can instakill players just by spawning, the second boss represents a huge difficulty spike right at the beginning, some mini-bosses like Saturn can easily down the player in half the time that the final boss while having roughly the same HP.
Con More tedious with each run
Each time you try to play again in a new difficulty the game becomes even more grindy, slow and brutal.
After the first playthrough a lot of strategies and builds become useless and after the second one only the most OP synergies and builds have a chance to survive, so get ready to search up in google and grind for the most OP stuff you can find.
Con Overrated
It gets old doing the same thing over and over.
Con NPC always talk in the background or HUD
You can't have a funny conversation or nice conversation with your friend, you need to listen to a NPC scream, cry, rant on your ears all along.
Con Tons of jokes just don't land
Yes there are some good jokes that could make you laugh, but you need to hear 150 unfunny forced jokes to get there.
Con Potential lost loot due to sharing
Loot isn't reserved for each individual player when playing co-op, meaning the first person to get to the loot can take as much of it as they want. This can lead to contention between co-op players, which defeats the purpose of cooperative play.