When comparing Wolfenstein: The New Order vs Grim Dawn, the Slant community recommends Wolfenstein: The New Order for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” Wolfenstein: The New Order is ranked 53rd while Grim Dawn is ranked 97th. The most important reason people chose Wolfenstein: The New Order is:
While the overarching storyline isn't anything noteworthy, the characters in it stand out due to great voice acting and surprisingly well-written lines. You'll actually enjoy listening to the characters talk, cracking jokes, and contemplating moral dilemmas, causing you to want to learn more about them. This is especially the case with the main character. You'll empathize with his situation and motivations, making you feel a deeper connection than with most modern FPS protagonists.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Well written and acted characters
While the overarching storyline isn't anything noteworthy, the characters in it stand out due to great voice acting and surprisingly well-written lines. You'll actually enjoy listening to the characters talk, cracking jokes, and contemplating moral dilemmas, causing you to want to learn more about them. This is especially the case with the main character. You'll empathize with his situation and motivations, making you feel a deeper connection than with most modern FPS protagonists.
Pro Solid gameplay
Even though the gameplay doesn't innovate, it's really solid. The controls are sharp, the guns feel great, and the stealth sections give it a refreshing amount of variation. All of this will keep you wanting to play a little more, providing your hours of entertainment.
Pro Rewarding exploration
In most modern shooters you just rush through very linear set pieces, shooting waves upon waves of enemies. Wolfenstein: The New Order rewards you for taking the time to explore. You can find many collectibles, secrets, and even hidden paths, giving you easier/safer methods of clearing a level.
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 Dual wield feels out of place
Using two guns at the same time, while a cool concept does not feel fully fleshed out in this title. It is often cumbersome and does not wield great results in firefights, which asks the question of why it was included.
Con Dynamic resolution might feel distracting
When there's a lot of on-screen action the resolution will get scaled down to keep the gameplay running at 60 frames per second. This doesn't happen too often, but it might feel a little distracting since it feels like your vision is going blurry.
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.