The base game is $20 and was released a while ago. I think you, Raven, are getting confused with the beta of the expansion: Din's Curse: Demon War. They're doing some really interesting things with the expansion in order to make the town, dungeons and quests all seem more real and alive. Fascinating stuff, really. This game needs more exposure.

Please do, games like this deserve your money.

I've been following Soldak on Twitter and his expansion plans for Din's Curse sound awesome -- the world seems to be really coming alive.

Sadly, for me, the biggest barrier to the game is the graphics. Yes, that's shallow, but there it is. The same thing bites me with games from GOG and a lot of other indies. Essentially, I want Din's Curse but with Torchlight or Titan Quest visuals and interface.

You're right -- I started up the demo of Din's again and it is better than the screens make it look. What I like about Torchlight is how it shows when you're wearing new armor -- your avatar's look changes. Titan Quest can be pretty stunning, though. Little things like how the grass moves around your character or how your footprints show up in the sand really sell the isometric environments in that game.

Having said all that, I'm willing to buy a game like Din's simply to support Soldak's ambition. This dev is doing things other game companies haven't even tried and you have to get behind something like that.

I've enjoyed this game quite a bit. As others have said, it blows Torchlight out of the water in my book.

One major feature I love is the dual class scheme somewhat similar to Titan Quest's. The deal is that there are 6 base classes, each of which have 3 trees within them. So if you play as a regular warrior you get to use skills from all three of those trees. The cool part is that you can instead choose to combine any two trees and make your own custom class.

In my case I went with Weaponmaster (from the Warrior) + Fire Mage (from the Wizard). So I pretty much go around hacking with a big flaming sword while surrounded by a ring of protective fire. It's good stuff.

I've only played a little bit, so I don't know if enemies respawn or if they simply move from level to level. I think they do respawn, though, making it impossible to completely clear a level. That's how it feels anyway.

I bought this yesterday plus the expansion and it's a lot of fun. It's a bit frantic and you can clear out levels, though that's not really the point, as Gunner said.

Right now the town's biggest threat is itself -- people keep killing each other. I've already lost two quest-givers because of town infighting. Plus there's a plague, the water and food have been poisoned, and the town is cursed. Oy vey!

I like how you can solve quests you haven't taken (you can also fail quests you haven't taken).

The interface is a bit clumsy, but you get used to it.

Having said all that, there are also a ton of options to tweak the game to your own style which I haven't explored.

Inspired by Gunner, I'm playing a weapons master/fire mage. It's a pretty sweet combo.

I definitely recommend trying the demo.

One thing to note on the Mac: If you buy the full game and expansion, you have to patch the game to the latest beta in order for the game to run. Otherwise you get an error and the game won't start up.

Man, totally glossed that over. Still true about the beta for the expansion, though. Pay now and you can play it and give your feedback.

I never should have bought this -- what a time sink. You think you'll just sit down and play for a minute and -- lo and behold -- you've lost a couple hours.

Trying out a new character -- an Ice Mage/Necromancer hybrid. Good times.

This actually makes me wish I'd gotten Depths of Peril when it was on sale over the holidays. It's probably good I didn't, though.

Wow, this thread was nigh impossible to find even using Google.

RPS gives their thoughts on Din's Curse.

So it sounds like Hinterland, in terms of being able to update your town and trying to balance adventuring with defending. Any thoughts from folks on that one? I'm certainly interested...

Just to add to what garion said:

I didn't play Hinterland, but you don't really update the towns at all in DC. Rather, you can give townspeople better (cloth or leather) armour and money. You basically want to make sure people are happy; if they're unhappy, they may poison the food/water supplies, curse/trap the town, bring in the plague, or help monsters invade.

The townspeople remind me somewhat of The Sims lite: They go about their own business; some are married or happy or sad; some are starving; some have quests for you; some will do your quests if you take too long. All in all, it's pretty cool, but your main focus is completing quests to save each town in order to redeem yourself.

Edit: Two money quotes from RPS and the comments:

50% off at Impulse. Doooo it.