My Changed Perspective; my review and experience so far, and some feedback.

My Changed Perspective.

With the recent influx of negative feedback, due to player experience in the latest patch/league: Dawn of The Hunt(0.2.0), I thought it time to update my review. I am changing my 'Do Not Recommend' steam review, to a positive(Recommended) review. So long as Jonathon and Mark at GGG are at the helm of this project, I have faith PoE2 will in time be the masterpiece that they envision. I know you are cringing right now, but hear me out.

At launch, I played over 200 hours of softcore trade and although I did enjoy myself, obviously, I wasn't too happy. I felt the game was far too punishing and not nearly rewarding enough. That was my experience. I wrote in my steam review that players should wait until the game is F2P before spending $30 on an unfinished product that might leave them in a dopamine deficit. I will also admit I was very upset by the delay of PoE1 3.26 and this fueled my motivation to leave a negative review. At the time, I had considered little that the makers of this game were also the makers of my favorite game of all time: Path of Exile 1. I believe PoE1 is the best ARPG of all time. Now, those same guys are trying to one up it. That is a tall order.

I didn't purchase a EA access key myself. I was gifted a key from a friend. I reluctantly purchased, with consolation that they would also be available in PoE1, a few quad tabs to store waystones and tablets. I was determined not to spend any more money with GGG, until they made right on their promise to deliver the PoE1 expansion.

I went back to PoE1 and didn't open PoE2 for months until Dawn of the Hunt.

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I have now played an additional 150-200 hours in the Dawn of the Hunt League. I have had my fair share of frustration. There is a ton, and I mean A TON, of work that needs doing. In particular the game is far from well-balanced. The end game is also still missing content, and the current mapping system feels like a thrown together beta(which to be fair, is kind of.. exactly, what it is?). We are talking about a lot of variables that need tuning. However, overall, I have had a really good time. The changes they made did exactly what I had hoped; they decreased punishment and increased reward(slightly).

I should note that a lot of stuff was nerfed this patch, and many felt the game unplayable. I'm not a game developer, but I know a thing or two about troubleshooting. Oftentimes when you fix things, other things break. You expect this, and you stand-by ready to fix it. GGG is doing just that from what I can tell. The game is already a ton better than it was at the launch of 0.2.0 due to their targeting of specific pain points.

If you are a new player and considering buying EA for PoE2, you must know the game is not perfect. You will die to BS sometimes, and it will hurt. You will struggle, you will learn, and you will find certain moments simply un-fun. You should also know that GGG has already fixed a ton of stuff since the release of the patch, and admitted to 'a few blatant ♥♥♥♥ ups'. They've made a lot of patches making the game better and have more planned. I'm also confident in saying that there will be times you are having so much damned fun you simply cannot get off the game. You may even find yourself so enthralled and hooked on this game that you will want to quit your job, ignore your family, neglect your chores, and give GGG all of your money. For $30, if you are patient, open-minded, and considerate you will absolutely get your money's worth from this game. If you cannot deal with playing an unfinished product, and dealing with issues, giving constructive criticism to the devs, reporting bugs, and remaining steadfast in the vision, lol, then you might want to wait for the full release.

So there you have it, my changed perspective. I decided to support this project and I went ahead and bought a supporter pack for PoE2. I want new players to know that GGG are good developers, and they have the game's best interest at heart as they've shown us for a while now.

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A couple of notes/feedback:

First, I do not like the mapping system/towers at all. I much prefer the PoE1 mapping system. I encourage those who do enjoy this system to provide legitimate constructive feedback.

- T16s are too difficult to get. I estimate a 1/10 chance upon corruption of a t15. It seems they almost always get the worst suffixes.

- T15s are simply boring once you have a very powerful character. They just aren't juicy enough, even on a 3 tower juiced area. They are just too easy/not enough monsters or pack size. Really, we need more juice or else there is no reason to even want to grind for gear and gain more power. There is no content in the game challenging and rewarding enough to make me want to min/max my build.

- The atlas skill tree(including those for league mechanics) is obviously unfinished, but it is not that much better than launch. This needs serious consideration to make mapping more fun.

- The player skill tree is not very interesting. There are a few obvious paths that leave little room for imagination and build diversity.

- I believe this will be addressed in a new patch, but the rewards from killing pinnacles are not so great.

- Crafting is still a major pain point. Fracturing orbs helped a bit. Omens are for mirror crafting. Some mid-level crafting would be great.

- On-death recap. I truly believe this is one of the most needed features in the game, especially with death so punishing at times. We want to know why/how we died in the game, and for newer players, even experienced ones – this is often not clear. This feature would ease player frustration and confusion, and incentivize and enable specific player feedback on frustrating or broken monster mechanics. It would also let players know what they need to improve, fix, or do differently. Dying w/o explanation is a horrible experience for new players. The lack of this feature is a very frustrating reality that has been carried over from PoE1 and I don't understand it. Maybe delegate users some level of access to 'asset view' that is accessible from the pause screen as well?

- I believe the campaign may have been made a bit too easy w/ the big life nerf a couple weeks ago. It feels like a cake walk and is significantly less engaging. More balancing to come here I'm sure.

- There are numerous issues regarding performance, and QoL I am confident will be resolved in time.

- Strong boxes, and breach don't really feel good a lot of the time. Strongboxes are almost just like, not PoE2 compatible or something. They were great in PoE1 – b/c they were fast. Breach is good on open maps. It is annoying on most maps. I think Blight would be a great mechanic to introduce to PoE2.

- API improvements to the likes of PoE1 sooner than later would go a long way.

- Ritual feels necessary, as omens are the only way to dramatically optimize map rolling. I would like a better way to roll maps. It feels bad throwing trash maps in my 1exalt tab, or vendoring for gold.

- Finally, and this is close to my heart – please do not stop, or again delay, development on PoE1. GGG has fostered good faith among PoE players for a decade. PoE players are referred, and they refer others to the game. People do business with those they like, know, and trust. Continuing development on PoE1, as promised, is pertinent to maintaining the idiosyncratic referral engine that has bolstered GGG's success over the last decade.

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EternalWarden#1382 a écrit :

Your conclusion is after playing for hundred of hours PoE2, is to develop more of PoE1, a dead game for already 2 years. Noted mate. =)

I knew I would get some hate, but I don't think that is a fair response at all. I thought I made it clear that I was also invested in PoE2. GGG has promised continued development on PoE1. I'm not sure you even read my whole post to be honest.

Good of you to change your review after giving it another shot. I think a lot of people out there probably haven't given it another go since the patches improved it...or they are p!ssed at a game still in EA.

I don't mind the towers but I'd like some way to pre-load and run them so they can be efficient like PoE1. Plot a path of 5 nodes and pre-load and run them.

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GuiltyParty32#9913 a écrit :

Good of you to change your review after giving it another shot. I think a lot of people out there probably haven't given it another go since the patches improved it...or they are p!ssed at a game still in EA.

I don't mind the towers but I'd like some way to pre-load and run them so they can be efficient like PoE1. Plot a path of 5 nodes and pre-load and run them.

You are able to provide feedback on towers/mapping that I cannot. I am blinded to whatever potential may exist, by my bias lol.