Got 160 Hours Out of it, Think Im Done Though

All in all I think I'll say what GGG has created is pretty commendable. It's definitely the foundation of a great feeling ARPG.

Without having to detail all of them individually, ill say I really enjoyed the games challenge, it felt absolutely fair without being frustratingly difficult or gear checky. The games areas, questlines + side objectives, monster variety, loot, dialogue/story and the skill system/passive tree plus likely more im forgetting are all high points imo.

The boss fights I have to comment on, I played with a SSF Warrior initially, and they were without question the most fun boss encounters ive ever experienced in any ARPG. Aside from maybe like 1..or 2, they nailed ALL of them (cant comment on pinnacles).

Though, I really found all that fell off pretty hard with the endgame. I duno, maybe its just me but I didnt enjoy the jarring shift in gameplay style from the campaign to mapping. Coupled with the constant lag spike issues I seem to get every odd day while playing, the game just kinda got frustrating. But not only frustrating, it did get a little boring as well. I found myself just choosing not to engage with most of the loot or crafting currency because it really doesnt feel very flushed out once you learn its just complete RNG. Seeing a unique drop last going off I pretty much prepared myself for disappointment rather then excitement. I found likely 20-30, maybe more maybe less, and never found a use for even one of them. Some were repeats obviously.

I also really couldnt get behind how you get ascendancy points in the game. I got 4 points with both my warrior and Sorc, and while I proooobably could have got my 3rd with the sorc, I just chose to stop engaging with either of the trials. Once I realized there are 4 floors in A2 trial and each of them are like 10 rooms long with that honor mechanic? Or the crazy RNG chaos trial.. No thanks, not for me.

I have no doubt that if it was offline and I didnt have to pause every so often to wait for the lag to stop id prob be enjoying it more. I didnt need to do that in campaign because enemies werent near as threatening. Plus campagin didnt lag that much, rather I found that activating things like breach or rituals CAUSED the lag spikes, and sometimes id just immediately die because of it if i didnt pause.

But even aside from that my ultimate criticism would be that I find they did a poor job with guiding a player through the atlas. None of the mechanics are really explained at all and going from having checkpoints to not being allowed a single death so fast is an odd decision to implement 40-50 hours into a game.

Ill come back to Poe 2, probably when its fully released and the difficulty ramp in endgame is more smooth. If anything I know the other 3 acts and classes will be fantastic to experience. Endgame may just never be my thing in this game..I just really dont enjoy the concept of it, not even because of the punishing deaths. Personally I'd rather a D2 approach where the campaign areas are still viable and you can grind them in 2-5 minute sessions. Add some terror zone equivalent and maybe have a unique map drop equal to Pul or Um rune droprates, thatd be more up my alley, but again thats just me.

Ultimately, if I only end up enjoying the games campaign then im okay with that. I dont expect GGG to change the endgame dramatically to appease me or like minded people when alot of established players enjoy what they've done with it.

+1 man, nice review and i agree with most if not all of them. I also liked the campaign but the excitement, i guess you could call it that, fell off hard going through the maps, level 88 89, i think is where i finished off.

The trials, I agree wholeheartedly. I got my 3rd trial done on my sorc and really didnt want to bother with it after that on any of my other characters.

Again, nice write up.

+1, well stated. Thanks for taking time to write this all down.

Agree with the Atlas and I've found it frustrating that the map nodes don't all connect and have found myself chasing a way around to reach a citadel that is literally 3 maps away, be not connected for over 20+... That's really sucked all the joy out of it for me. Still grinding and with 250 hrs, I've legitimately only been able to reach 1 citadel because of a crazy atlas map connection issue.

Thank you both! I found that issue with the nodes as well actually, totally agree. Not sure what level I ended off at, 81 on sorc and high 70s on warrior maybe?. somethin like that. I gave away my currency and what items I deemed half decent, then deleted both my characters so I'll be more encouraged to play something else in the mean time.. it's addicting lol.

Id rather not continue playing and potentially quit on bad terms with the game. Im excited to see what they do to improve it over the next 6 months. I certainly want to play the druid, templar and huntress and so I want to stay excited so i'm able to jump back in and do that!