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Game vs game · side by side

Darksiders III vs Grim Dawn

Darksiders III is an action-adventure open-world game from Gunfire Games (2018) while Grim Dawn is an action-RPG RPG game from Crate Entertainment (2016).

Darksiders III

2018 · Gunfire Games

6.8GamingPickz Score

$39.99

Steam: Mostly Positive

Grim Dawn

2016 · Crate Entertainment

8.3GamingPickz Score

$24.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Steam files Darksiders III under Action-Adventure and Open-World. In contrast, it files Grim Dawn under Action-RPG and RPG.

Darksiders III

Return to an apocalyptic Earth in Darksiders III, a hack-n-slash Action Adventure where players assume the role of FURY in her quest to hunt down and dispose of the Seven Deadly Sins. The most enigmatic of the Four Horsemen, FURY must bring balance to the forces that now ravage Earth.

Description from its Steam store page

Grim Dawn

Enter an apocalyptic fantasy world where humanity is on the brink of extinction, iron is valued above gold and trust is hard earned. This ARPG features complex character development, hundreds of unique items, crafting and quests with choice & consequence.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Darksiders IIIGrim Dawn
GamingPickz Score6.8/108.3/10
Steam ratingMostly Positive (76%, 17,431)Very Positive (93%, 109,295)
Critic aggregate70/10083/100
Price$39.99$24.99
Install size25 GB5 GB
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released20182016
DeveloperGunfire GamesCrate Entertainment

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Darksiders III vs Grim Dawn, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Darksiders IIIAction-adventure open-world game
    Grim DawnAction-RPG RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Darksiders IIIHack and Slash, Action, Female Protagonist
    Grim DawnAction RPG, Hack and Slash, Loot

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Darksiders IIIScore 6.8 · 76% on Steam · 70 critic
    Grim DawnScore 8.3 · 93% on Steam · 83 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Darksiders III17,431 reviews · 3 add-ons · 25 GB
    Grim Dawn109,295 reviews · 8 add-ons · 5 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Darksiders III$39.99
    Grim Dawn$24.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Darksiders IIIPlayable
    Grim DawnPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Grim Dawn takes 2 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Darksiders III and Grim Dawn on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Grim Dawn (GamingPickz Score 8.3)
  • The cheaper right now: Grim Dawn ($24.99)
  • Lighter on storage: Grim Dawn (5 GB)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Grim Dawn (109,295 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

Hack and SlashActionSingleplayerAdventureRPGDark FantasyAtmosphericPost-apocalyptic

Where they differ

Darksiders III is also

Female ProtagonistSouls-likeAction-AdventureOpen WorldViolentThird Person

Grim Dawn is also

Action RPGLootIsometricDungeon CrawlerCo-opCharacter Customization

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Darksiders III is demanding, for players who want a challenge. Grim Dawn is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

System requirements, side by side

Darksiders IIIGrim Dawn
Minimum GPUGeForce GTX 660 / Radeon R7 370 with 2 GB512MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
Minimum CPUAMD FX-8320 (3,5 GHz) / Intel i5-4690K (3,5 GHz)x86 compatible 2.3GHz
Minimum RAM8 GB2 GB
Install size25 GB5 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Darksiders III · Grim Dawn.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Darksiders III and 1 for Grim Dawn. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Darksiders III and Grim Dawn in scope?

Darksiders III has drawn 17,431 Steam reviews, ships 3 add-ons and installs in 25 GB. Grim Dawn has drawn 109,295 Steam reviews, ships 8 add-ons and installs in 5 GB.

Is Darksiders III or Grim Dawn better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Grim Dawn rates higher (8.3 to 6.8). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Darksiders III or Grim Dawn?

Grim Dawn is cheaper right now at $24.99, against $39.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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