My feedback

Hello all, and thanks to the devs for this GREAT game, even if is only an early access. Forgive me for my english, this is not my main language.

Background: i am an old player, i have been playing for 40 years now, and i have always loved RPGs (done all of bethesdata, bards tale games, etc), MMOs (everquest for years in a good guild, for those who do not know, this was an hardcore game ;) ). I have played poe 1 several leagues, and i consider it one of the very best games i have ever played, my favourite one being elden ring which i finished several times.
In addition, i have always played poe 1 without trade, going as far as i could on my own.

so, here is my feedback at this stage (note: i love the game overall)

Graphics: They are great, i love them, i have very very few crashes on a nividia 3080 laptop. The zones are great, the bosses are great. I had some visual glitches, especially on the fight against Zalmarath.

Sounds: Fantastic. I had once a bug where the sound would completely disappear. I had to reboot.

Gameplay: I regret the complexity of poe 1 (i mean that i loved it), where i could really do anything i wanted. However, i know that comparing a game with 10 or 11 years of dev, and an early access is unfair. On the build area, poe 2 is too simple.

Risk vs Reward: my main concern for the game is not the difficulty. I love difficulty. I have always loved it, even though the speed at which i use my controller is not as good as it was 40 years ago, so i might enter the git gud category of players now. My concern is what made Everquest or elden ring games which i will never forget, the concept of risk vs reward. I feel the game is really too unrewarding. When i kill messmer in elden ring after 322 tries, i know i get a REALLY cool weapon. The lack of great rewards was not an issue in poe 1 because the fights were really easy. Here, some bosses are pretty nasty, and getting nearly nothing at the end of the fight is an issue. I tried to play coop with my son (and he is a very gifted player, unlike me) and he would quit the game saying: i do not kill that sh** for this blue crap, i quit the game. To summarize my feeling at this stage of the early access, the ratio between difficulty of some bosses vs the reward they provide does not work at this stage, but i guess this is the game of balancing. Maybe the game is just not for me, but i fear that this (at this stage) issue might loose you (no idea how to say that but you guys will get my point) a lot of players who expect to get something cool after having been destroyed by a boss. Maybe more orbs, or even useless legendary items ;)


Ascendency: at this stage, i have to admit that i LOVED the trials in poe 1, the mazes were great. The trials in poe 2 are not as fun. As we say:Tastes and colors can't be argued over.

Regards,

Full price games hand loot out like it's christmas.

PoE has a different gameplay loop that fits some people's idea of what is valuable more than others

If you don't play trade, it is a frustrating experience of slow progression, but SSF is not the default experience, it's a "challenge league"

At the moment, there is not enough endgame to support SSF properly, introducing new players into an environment you need to really, really know the game systems to succeed in isn't going to end well

Maybe try again when there are a few more league mechanics and ways to get endgame loot without trading

I think a lot of the problem with PoE2 is that other games, while handing out loot left right and centre, aren't interesting enough to keep people playing, and everyone's jumping into PoE2 with their own idea of what makes a game good and complaining when it doesn't match up to whatever this image is

For those people, early access was the wrong time to enter as patience seems to be in short supply these days.

If you're talking about campaign loot, it's entirely possible and preferred to finish campaign without trading, but not for someone who just wants the next piece of gear progression be handed to them as a guaranteed reward, gear needs to be looked at and assessed

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Strangehill#1736 wrote:

I think a lot of the problem with PoE2 is that other games, while handing out loot left right and centre, aren't interesting enough to keep people playing, and everyone's jumping into PoE2 with their own idea of what makes a game good and complaining when it doesn't match up to whatever this image is

I have to agree with you, and i can see where your finger is pointing ;) I think the adjustement in the campaign of poe 2 has to be very slight (or small, not sure of the word) for the reward to be ok.