Grim Dawn announced

I’m way late on this one, but better late than never, right? The creators of Titan Quest have gone indie and are hard at work on a spiritual successor to the initial, decidedly non-indie Diablo-alike that made them famous. The name of that successor is Grim Dawn, and its plot is…well, pretty grim:

Players will be thrust into the dark, war-torn world of Cairn where a once proud empire has been brought to ruin and the human race driven to the edge of extinction. Cairn has become ground zero of an eternal war between two otherworldly powers, one seeking to use human bodies as a resource, the other intent upon destroying the human race before that can happen. This cataclysmic war has not only decimated human civilization but is warping the very fabric of reality and, in its wake, giving life to new horrors.

For humankind it is the dawn of a grim new age where iron has replaced gold as currency and the importance of salt as a weapon makes it far too valuable to waste on food. Small enclaves of human survivors exist scattered throughout the world, holed up in hidden refuges. These humans have quietly watched the warring invaders destroy one another and have become wise to the strengths and vulnerabilities of their otherworldly foes. A few survivors have begun to exhibit strange new abilities after surviving possession or exposure to the warp. These unnatural powers are feared by some but give many new hope of launching a resistance to fight the “outsiders” and reclaim what’s left of their world.

RockPaperShotgun did a really good interview with one of the lead developers from Crate this past August, so if you’re curious about the game, I’d suggest reading it.

The devs note on their website that “Grim Dawn is still pre-pre-pre-alpha and I might have even missed a pre,” but they’ve been posting images and video since 2010, so I have to imagine that some of these are at least a little representative of how the finished game will look. One of their videos shows off the combat system (which, I gather, is going to constitute the vast, vast majority of your time interacting with the game):

I haven’t been able to find a release date for Grim Dawn, but you can get access to the current version by pre-ordering on their website for $19.85 (or more, if you have extra cash to burn and want to be extra supportive).