Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn is the kind of expansion that makes you wonder why more developers don’t take this approach. Ten years after the original Grim Dawn arrived, Crate Entertainment has returned with what is officially the game’s final expansion, and rather than quietly adding a few new areas and calling it a day, the studio has gone absolutely bloody nuts.
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn is huge. It adds a massive new region, a new mastery, new enemies, new equipment, new progression systems, a completely new endgame-style difficulty and a ridiculous amount of additional build experimentation. More importantly, it still feels unmistakably like Grim Dawn.
That last part is important.
Crate hasn’t tried to turn Grim Dawn into something it isn’t. There are no seasonal gimmicks, no battle passes and no attempt to chase whatever the latest trend in the ARPG genre happens to be. Instead, Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn takes everything that made Grim Dawn so bloody addictive in the first place and gives veterans another enormous reason to dive back into Cairn.
A Decade Later and Grim Dawn Still Has It
Grim Dawn has always occupied an interesting position in the ARPG world. It never had the enormous marketing machine behind it that Diablo enjoys, nor has it chased the incredibly complicated seasonal ecosystem of Path of Exile.
Instead, it has quietly built a reputation for being one of the best traditional action RPGs around.
And after spending time with Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn, it is surprisingly easy to understand why.
The basic Grim Dawn formula remains wonderfully satisfying. Kill monsters, collect ridiculous quantities of equipment, experiment with skills, find something that makes your build considerably more powerful and then immediately start wondering whether you can squeeze even more damage out of it.
It is the sort of game where you can tell yourself you’ll play for half an hour and suddenly realise you’ve been playing for three hours.
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn doesn’t mess with that formula. It simply gives you considerably more of it.
Welcome to Asterkarn
The biggest addition is, naturally, the new region of Asterkarn.
And this isn’t a token collection of snowy maps thrown together to give the expansion a new coat of paint. Asterkarn is enormous, with Crate describing it as the largest expansion area the game has ever received. The region stretches across snowy peaks, frozen caverns, ancient forests and surprisingly beautiful hot springs.
It is a wonderfully atmospheric part of Cairn.
The contrast between the freezing wilderness and warmer environments gives Asterkarn considerably more personality than simply making everything white and throwing a few wolves at you.
There is a genuine feeling of exploration here. You aren’t simply following a corridor from one quest marker to the next. There are secrets to uncover, strange locations to stumble across and plenty of reasons to investigate areas that initially appear to be nothing more than another piece of wilderness.
That sense of discovery is something Grim Dawn has always done particularly well, and Asterkarn continues it.
Some players have criticised parts of the new region for feeling a little empty, and that is a fair criticism. There are stretches where you’ll spend more time travelling than slaughtering hordes of monsters. However, I actually found that helped Asterkarn feel like a wilderness rather than another theme-park dungeon.
It isn’t perfect, but the atmosphere is bloody fantastic.
The Berserker Is One Hell of a New Mastery
Then there is the Berserker.
Adding another mastery to Grim Dawn is a big deal because the game’s entire build system revolves around combining two masteries. Adding a tenth mastery doesn’t simply give you one new class. It creates a whole new collection of combinations and possibilities.
Suddenly, veterans have another reason to start theorycrafting.
The Berserker is particularly interesting because it isn’t simply another melee class swinging increasingly large weapons at increasingly angry monsters.
The mastery embraces shapeshifting.
You can transform into monstrous forms, including the brutal werewolf and the wonderfully strange wereraven. The latter is particularly entertaining because it gives the Berserker a very different identity from the traditional fantasy barbarian.
And yes, becoming a giant murderous raven in Grim Dawn is every bit as entertaining as it sounds.
The Berserker also brings its own combination of brutal weapon attacks, cold-based abilities, bleeding effects and abilities that allow it to lean heavily into the beast within.
What I particularly like is that Crate hasn’t made the Berserker feel like a gimmick. It genuinely slots into Grim Dawn’s existing build philosophy.
You can build around the new mastery in multiple ways, combine it with existing masteries and start experimenting with completely different approaches to combat.
For a game that already has an absurd number of possible builds, that’s quite an achievement.
Ascendant Mode Is Where Things Get Serious
If you’ve already spent hundreds of hours playing Grim Dawn, Crate has another rather unpleasant surprise waiting for you.
Ascendant Mode.
This is arguably one of the most important additions in Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn because it gives the existing campaign a completely new purpose for high-level characters.
Once you’re playing at the required level on Ultimate difficulty, Ascendant Mode can turn the campaign into a much nastier endgame challenge.
And when I say nastier, I mean it.
Enemies hit harder. Encounters become more dangerous. New threats can appear, and the game gives experienced players additional ways to customise just how much pain they are willing to inflict upon themselves.
But this isn’t simply a case of Crate changing a few enemy numbers and calling it a new difficulty.
The Ascension Altar introduces additional ways to modify your experience and influence the rewards you receive. There are also new mechanics surrounding loot and encounters, giving players genuine reasons to keep pushing.
One particularly nasty addition is The Dread, an enemy that can appear as you rack up enough kills. It’s the sort of mechanic that makes you question whether you really want to keep pushing through an area when your character is already struggling.
And that’s exactly what good endgame content should do.
It should make you feel powerful while constantly reminding you that something considerably more powerful might be waiting around the next corner.
Loot, Loot and Even More Loot
Of course, no Grim Dawn expansion would be complete without an enormous pile of new equipment.
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn adds hundreds of new items, along with additional ways to improve and customise your gear.
One of the more welcome additions is Affix Transmutation.
If you’ve played Grim Dawn for any serious amount of time, you’ll know the frustration of finding an item that is almost perfect apart from one utterly useless modifier.
You stare at it.
You think about how good it could have been.
Then you reluctantly throw it away.
Affix Transmutation gives players more control over this process, allowing unwanted modifiers to be rerolled rather than simply accepting that the random number generator has decided to ruin your day.
It doesn’t remove the loot chase, which is important. Instead, it makes the process of refining your equipment considerably more rewarding.
There are also additional systems for improving equipment and more opportunities to chase powerful gear, giving veteran characters plenty of reasons to continue grinding.
Grim Dawn Gets Some Much-Needed Quality-of-Life Improvements
One of the things that surprised me most about Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn isn’t actually something exclusive to the expansion.
The accompanying update brings a substantial collection of quality-of-life improvements to Grim Dawn itself.
One of the biggest additions is WASD movement.
That might sound like a small thing, but it makes a remarkable difference.
For players coming from newer action RPGs, being able to move directly with WASD makes Grim Dawn immediately feel more modern. It doesn’t fundamentally change the game, but it removes one of those little barriers that can make returning to an older ARPG feel strange.
There are also improvements to the interface, stash management, tooltips and various other systems.
These changes matter because Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn isn’t just an expansion bolted onto an ageing game. The underlying Grim Dawn experience has been given a considerable polish as well.
It Still Looks Like Grim Dawn
There is no getting away from the fact that Grim Dawn is now a ten-year-old game.
Character models, animations and some environmental details aren’t going to compete technically with the latest AAA releases.
But honestly?
I don’t care.
Grim Dawn has always relied heavily on atmosphere and art direction rather than raw graphical technology, and Asterkarn proves that approach still works.
The snowy mountains look fantastic. The frozen caves are suitably miserable. The forests have plenty of character and the hot springs provide some much-needed contrast.
Then you throw dozens of enemies, explosions, spells, blood and particle effects onto the screen and the whole thing becomes gloriously chaotic.
That is Grim Dawn.
It doesn’t need to look like a brand-new Unreal Engine showcase. It needs to make me want to explore another dungeon because there might be something incredible waiting inside.
It succeeds.
The Soundtrack Deserves More Attention
Something that has received plenty of praise from players is the audio design.
And having spent time in Asterkarn, it’s easy to understand why.
The new environments have a fantastic sense of atmosphere, while the soundtrack does a great job of making the region feel cold, isolated and dangerous.
It sounds like a small detail compared with a new mastery or a new endgame mode, but good audio makes a massive difference in an ARPG where you’re going to spend dozens of hours in the same environments.
The voice acting and environmental sounds also help sell the new story and the Kurn tribes without trying to turn Grim Dawn into something overly cinematic.
Not Everything Is Perfect
It would be dishonest to pretend Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn is flawless.
Some areas can feel surprisingly sparse, particularly when compared with the more densely packed sections of Grim Dawn’s older expansions. There is also some backtracking, and certain secrets and progression elements aren’t always obvious.
Ascendant Mode can also be absolutely brutal.
For players who have spent years building powerful characters, that will probably be part of the attraction. For everyone else, the difficulty spike can feel like being hit in the face with a frozen mountain.
There have also been some balance and tuning complaints from players since launch, although Crate has already been actively adjusting the experience through updates.
None of these issues ruin the expansion, but they are worth knowing about before jumping in.
Crate Entertainment Has Gone Out With a Roar
There is something rather fitting about Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn being the final expansion.
Grim Dawn has never been about chasing trends. It has survived for a decade because its foundations are bloody good.
The dual mastery system remains one of the most enjoyable build systems in the genre. The loot is addictive. The world is packed with secrets. The atmosphere is fantastic and the game gives players an enormous amount of freedom in how they build their characters.
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn doesn’t attempt to reinvent any of that.
It celebrates it.
It takes a game that was already enormous and somehow makes it considerably bigger. It gives veterans a new mastery to experiment with, a massive new region to explore and an endgame system designed to punish anyone who thinks their build is already perfect.
And perhaps most importantly, it feels like a genuine farewell rather than a cynical final cash grab.
Verdict
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn is bloody brilliant.
Yes, there are some rough edges. Yes, the engine is showing its age. Yes, some parts of Asterkarn could probably have used a few more enemies and points of interest.
But when an expansion can make me want to start another character in a game I’ve already spent an unhealthy amount of time playing, it has done something right.
The Berserker is a fantastic addition. Asterkarn is atmospheric and enormous. Ascendant Mode gives veteran players a reason to keep pushing their builds. The new loot and crafting systems add meaningful depth, while the accompanying quality-of-life improvements make the whole experience feel better to play.
Most importantly, Crate Entertainment has remembered what makes Grim Dawn special.
There is no need for gimmicks.
Just give us monsters, loot, ridiculous character builds, dark fantasy, an enormous world to explore and enough reasons to say “I’ll just do one more dungeon.”
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn delivers all of that in spades.
After ten years, Grim Dawn isn’t going quietly.
It’s going out swinging.
Grim Dawn Fangs of Asterkarn Trailer
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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
Written by myself then edited and formed by my partner.
Reviewed and played on PC.
Grim Dawn: Fangs of Asterkarn is available now on PC, with the expansion requiring the previous Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods expansions.
Review Summary
What is Grim Dawn: Fangs of Asterkarn?
Grim Dawn: Fangs of Asterkarn is the final expansion for Crate Entertainment’s action RPG, adding a huge new region, the Berserker mastery, new enemies, equipment, progression systems and a new endgame challenge.
What does Fangs of Asterkarn add?
The expansion introduces Asterkarn, a large new region featuring snowy mountains, frozen caves, forests and hot springs. It also adds hundreds of new items, Affix Transmutation, new progression systems and more opportunities for build experimentation.
What is the Berserker mastery?
The Berserker is Grim Dawn’s tenth mastery and introduces shapeshifting, including werewolf and wereraven forms, alongside new combat abilities and build combinations.
What is Ascendant Mode?
Ascendant Mode is a challenging new endgame system for experienced players, introducing tougher encounters, additional modifiers, new rewards and threats such as The Dread.
Is Fangs of Asterkarn worth playing?
Despite some sparse areas, backtracking, brutal difficulty spikes and ageing visuals, Fangs of Asterkarn successfully expands Grim Dawn without abandoning what made the original so enjoyable. The Berserker, new region, loot systems and endgame content provide substantial reasons to return.
IGC Score: 9/10
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