Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth Reviews

Crate Entertainment’s Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth expansion pack has been out on the market for several weeks now, so it’s time to round up the fistful of critiques that have made their way to the ‘net since then.

Requnix gives it a 9.4/10:

Grim Dawn is a complex, beautiful and immersive game of great depth, challenge, fun, and replayability. Players can put thousands of hours into this masterpiece and enjoy every moment. That really says a lot about what the game has to offer. The key is in trying new builds and farming legendary gear to build new characters that can pursue and take on the most difficult end-game challenges and content.

If you haven’t done it already already, get this game. There are some people who have only played Grim Dawn for a few hours and just “didn’t get into it”. For some, it’s just too complex, and for others it’s just not their “style”. However, I have yet to meet a player that has really played Grim Dawn (40+ hours) represent any form of regret or dislike for the game. Everyone who gives this game a chance and really plays it absolutely loves it. But it’s so large, complex and in-depth that in order to really get a taste of what the game has to offer, the player needs to get their character(s) into Ultimate, which is the “real” game. Normal and Elite are only there to prepare a player for the end-game challenges that Grim Dawn has to offer.

Here’s to Crate continuing to evolve this fantastic game, which is truly a work of art.

Chalgyr’s Game Room gives it an 8/10:

The new areas that you’ll be moving through aren’t just more of the same. Ashes of Malmouth adds some interesting elements such as fog that closes in around you limiting visibility all while five steps further it’s bright sunshine because you’ve moved out of the cover of the forest. Malmouth itself is something to explore with its interesting architecture and designs. I really enjoyed that the expansion wasn’t just a new quickly passed through area and two new characters but a fair amount of quests, locations and factions that can be interacted with.

Overall, Ashes of Malmouth is a great addition to Grim Dawn and the care that Crate Entertainment have put in since the beginning of their Early Access is still there. They still listen to feedback, they still improve the core content all the while adding in new adventures to that map that still has some space that looks like it could be explored later down the line.

MMORPG.com gives it a 9.2/10:

There are a few other quality of life features that were introduced with the game but perhaps my favorite is the new Illusionist Merchants and allow you to change the look of your gear. As someone who loves customizing gear (I’ve spent more hours than I care to confess with Diablo 3’s Enchantress) this is a welcome addition to the game. Grim Dawn has some incredibly unique designs for armor and weapons and it’s great to be able to really spend some time getting just the right look for endless hours of the hack, slash, loot, repeat formula.

Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth is an excellent expansion to an already excellent ARPG. As I have spent time with the title’s expansion I cannot help but remember and compare it to how it felt to play through Diablo 2’s Lord of Destruction expansion. In many ways, Ashes offers the same types of refinement, story rich campaign and quality of life features that LOD did to D2. This is high praise for any expansion and if you are an owner of Grim Dawn I highly recommend picking up Ashes of Malmouth as it will be a great addition and continuation to an amazing Indie ARPG. For those who may be on the fence with Grim Dawn I cannot express enough how polished both the base game and its expansion are. If you’re looking for a solid story, lore rich world, excellent progression systems and endless piles of loot, you’ll find yourself at home with Grim Dawn and Ashes of Malmouth.

And GameStar gives it a “Recommended” rating:

My opinion of Ashes of Malmouth can be made clear in a comparison: the million dollar Studio Blizzard brought the necromancer for Diablo 3 as DLC on its 20th anniversary. For about 15 euros we get there … a necromancer. Not more. Crate Entertainment, on the other hand, delivers a complete new, approximately twenty-hour story campaign for just € 3 (!) Plus many hand-crafted cards that boast details, two completely new classes (including the necromancer) with all the trimmings, and hundreds new items and new factions. Any questions?

Although Ashes of Malmouth does not reinvent the wheel and presents some serious challenges to players, although we can discuss balancing issues, the bottom line is a great package for Hack & Slay fans, which is worthwhile even if only once wants to play solo. The game atmosphere is top, the gameplay fluid, the presentation consistent. Such a good game package we get players today only very rarely. A German fan translation is also integrated into the game, so there is no reason not to access.