Tales From an Alpha Tester Part 2

Chris invited me to test the alpha after the 0.8.0 update. With a week of playing and a level 30 Duelist under my belt, I figured it was about time to return and preach to the forum faithful. I know how rough it can be to sit and wait for new information while the game is so agonizingly close and while this post won't mention anything new hopefully it can tide you over for a bit.

Let's cut right to the chase. For those of you looking for a spiritual successor to Diablo2 and the other old school arpgs (and I imagine that's most of you), this is the game you've been looking for. That's a big statement and it's certainly something to get very excited about. All of the fundamental mechanics are in place and working surprisingly well considering the game is still in alpha. The fighting is fun, the tactics are interesting, and the loot is tantalizing.

That all being said, the game is still very much a work in progress. Act 2 is implemented but is still in an unfinished state (quests are not even implemented yet). Act 1 is much more complete but still needs work and polish. Make no mistake, PoE is still in alpha and it's imperative that you keep this in mind when/if GGG invite you to join. I 'played' through a dungeon the other night for example that was in the early stages of implementation with few unique art assets and only a handful of scattered temporary enemies. On the other hand, playing through some of the well known Act 1 areas like The Prison is a complete and well polished experience. GGG has a good working relationship with the alpha testers and a fairly active alpha forum where we discuss bugs and balance issues.

Probably one of the things that first struck me as I played through was just how good everything looks. All the art and modelling work is absolutely top notch. Experiencing new areas was always a treat and I usually spent the first few minutes admiring the art design. I find myself playing without the overlay map as much as possible so that I can admire the world without obstruction (and I'm a person that firmly believes in functionality before visuals). PoE is no Crysis (obviously) but for those of you content with the mediocre state of visuals on display in other arpgs over the years you will be blown away. I certainly was as I pulled my character through the stormy, zombie-infested Twilight Strand for the first time and it only continued to get better.

The combat is very satisfying. This can be a very tricky thing to get right regardless of the genre. Hits have good impacts with thuds and slices and blood splatters. Clearing out a room leaves the floor littered with corpses and blood and body parts (and, best of all, loot). PoE certainly doesn't shy away from a bit of gore. You'll fight through torture chambers with mangled and dismembered bodies. One boss room in particular that hasn't been revealed yet (though if you watched carefully in the most recent video you caught a brief glimpse of it) was quite a shocking treat. One of the more common corpse-chests is a person with an axe embedded in their face.

We all know gold is not in PoE. For those of you still unsure about that decision, you can put your worries to rest. At no point while I played did I find myself wishing for gold to return for any reason. On the contrary, it's so nice not to have to spend half my clicks picking up gold. Vendors have yet to be implemented so it remains to be seen just how well they'll work without gold. The consumable currency items are are a lot of fun, though. I've only seen some of the rarer ones and I don't think anyone playing has seen some of the rarest. In most games, I tend to hoard consumables jealously (I can't tell you how many games I've finished with my inventory full of consumable items that I carry around to never use) and I assumed I would do the same with PoE. That is not the case. I use my consumables constantly. The ability to take a normal worthless item and instantly turn it into a powerful rare item is just awesome. Practically all of my current gear has been augmented with consumables. I'm always on the lookout not just for new magic and rare gear but also for normal gear that may have a high quality rating and a good socket layout which I can later easily turn into a magic or rare item.

PoE is still far from finished and GGG certainly have a lot more work to do. All the fundamentals and core mechanics are right where they need to be, though, and many of my earlier reservations about the game have been assuaged. If GGG can keep up this level of quality through to release and after then PoE will undoubtedly be a great game. I'm looking forward to playing with many of you hopefully soon. Feel free to ask questions though obviously I can't guarantee answers.

Just as a teaser (because I can), there's actually quite a substantial amount of content that GGG have not revealed publicly yet. Mostly it's because these things are still unfinished. Still, don't think just because GGG have been so good about releasing new information that there isn't anything left behind the curtain. Even in Act 1 . . .

I wonder if I'm the only one who feels that reading these alpha tester experiences makes the wait harder, rather than easier.

Good read though, thanks for sharing tpapp.

I am glad you got it Tpapp you defiantly deserve it for all the work you've put into the forums and wiki.

So Tpapp as far as the options go is there a good amount of them or are they still working on those?

Also how does the duelist play i plan on starting with him?

"

How's the camera zooming 'issue'? Also, are you playing on max graphics settings? And with what kind of spec did you come to this conclusion regarding graphics?

To tell the truth, zooming out the camera a little bit could be beneficial. Maybe something around 5-10%. I don't find this to be a big deal and it certainly doesn't bother me while playing.

My computer is on the higher end. I have an ATI Radeon HD 5850 and an Intel Corei7-720 playing on a 1920x1080 21" screen. I can easily play the game on maximum quality with plenty of anti-aliasing, etc. My suspicion though is that the game would still look very good on a much less powerful system. I'll try to test it out on a laptop and get back to you.

Again, the game obviously does not look anywhere near as good as your average shooter these days but it simply blows away other arpgs like Torchlight 2. There's one wooded area that hasn't been revealed yet that has a whole bunch of little streams and pools going through it and it never fails to impress me every time I go there. Even stone dungeons like The Prison which tend to be rather drab and bland in these sorts of games have a really great atmosphere and feel to them in PoE. The Prison may actually be my favorite area.

"

And since, imo you are the biggest critic of the game, it's a pleasure to read such good things from the game.

Make no mistake, Chris has gotten quite a few lengthy emails from me over the past week :). The point of this post was not to dwell on all the little issues and problems that the game currently has (there are plenty) but to emphasize the fact that the core gameplay is sound. PoE has a very solid base and GGG are in the process of building upon that.

"

Zidjian wrote:

So Tpapp as far as the options go is there a good amount of them or are they still working on those?

If you mean graphical options, currently the game has the basic ones but I assume those will be expanded. I don't really know what GGG has planned for this.

"

Zidjian wrote:

Also how does the duelist play i plan on starting with him?

I had a tough time choosing which character to start as (if I could have somehow started as them all at once I would have). I chose the Duelist on a whim. There are several different ways you can play the Duelist but I chose dual-wielding because that appealed to me most. He's a lot of fun to play as evidenced by the fact that I still haven't gotten around to playing any of the other characters yet :). My understanding is that the Duelist is the least polished of the characters (it is the newest after all) but the animations and everything look good. The fighting is fluid and fast (I've been focusing on increasing my attack speeds) and the skill gems provide a wide variety of options when approaching a given combat situation. Don't let that discourage you from starting with any of the characters though.




I forgot to mention in the original post but my favorite skill is easily Leap Slam. You can jump over small objects like tables. You can jump up and down ledges to ambush groups of enemies. You can even jump over impassable rivers. So cool.

.

Thanks for sharing, I liked the teaser part btw ^^

"

tpapp157 wrote:

I forgot to mention in the original post but my favorite skill is easily Leap Slam. You can jump over small objects like tables. You can jump up and down ledges to ambush groups of enemies. You can even jump over impassable rivers. So cool.

Jackpot!

This was a great read tpapp. It's really good to hear from the perspective of someone who was really anticipating the game and has the opportunity to get into the alpha, and then hear about how it's exactly the game we're looking for (as a D2 successor).

Even though it's still in the alpha stage, is there much trading going on or do players tend to look for currency items to upgrade their own gear?

I'm also wondering, do the refillable flasks play out as a gameplay mechanic as well as it sounds on paper?

One other thing I just thought of, what is your response to the skill tree? I know we haven't heard much about it, but is it really as massive as it sounds (i.e. more builds than you can shake a fist at)? Can you tell us anything about it?

Dang it, I am really looking forward to this game.

"

Chris wrote:

"

kungfooe wrote:

Even though it's still in the alpha stage, is there much trading going on or do players tend to look for currency items to upgrade their own gear?

We're doing a server wipe in about two days, so I see people giving items away for free at the moment.

Interesting. Does that mean that 0.8.1 is about to hit? And just from curiosity, while you've been in the alpha, how frequently do server resets/wipes occur?

Thanks for the response Chris!