We welcome First Impression posts! Please be nice to those posts.

Can't get enough of the game. I'm playing it constantly :)
But the game crashes a lot

I have only played this game for about 1 week and I am stuck. I love this game and it is beautiful.

This game has its bugs, flaws and problems. But hey, it is only a beta. We all know that there will be problems, hills and mountains to climb and all nighters to fix a nasty bug.
But this is a game that attracts thousands and hopefully will attract millions of users.

You put you sweat, your blood and your soul into this game.
You have my biggest admiration towards your dedication for this game.

You have created a game that keeps that not only keeps my interest and enthusiasm for this game going, level after level after level, map after after. But hopefully a whole generation.

Thank you for your hard work!

First of all, thank you for this game. I love the dark fantasy setting, it's atmosphere, the original ideas (e.g. the absence of gold, the gem system, etc.). This game has a soul. I was absorbed in it from the first minutes of Act I. Of course it's need some polishing, some balancing, but it's fantastic for open beta.

(The story part is long, and I have listed the good-bad points shortly in the end of this post to make it easy to read and understand. So if you want to go tl;dr to that part, feel free and go to the bottom. And please excuse me if there is any mistake about the use of language. English is not my native language.)



Well, where to start?

After the indescribable disappointment in May 2012, this was something I never expected to arrive so soon. Playing D2 since the time it came out along with its mods, it was a big experience for me like all other gamers here. Despite its narrow content and story, it was still addictive. We all knew it had insufficiencies in various ways, but never got bored to play. And that cursed time have come, the May 2012.

Diablo 3 has crashed like a meteor upon the world of gamers. I, who played D2 for 13 whole years, got bored as **** in 5 days. It was a total disappointment, but I was expecting that while the new content spoilers or trailers were coming. I saw there is a big, evergrowing and irreversible cancer beneath those colorful graphics and dynamic-looking gameplay. I always said "D3 will be a fatal mistake for Blizzard". Unfortunately, I was proven right. Wish I was not right.

1 month ago, a close friend of mine, a devoted gamer like most of us here, told me about this game. Said "take a look at this, looks like quite interesting and you are likely to like this game since you were a huge fan of Action-RPGs and hack'n'slashes". I've taken a quick, superficial look at the site, videos, systems and thought "Dude, this game looks so much like D3." The new and unique systems, events, and as the most notable one, the tremendous passive skill tree were actually undeniably succesful. Though it scared me at start, i've seen that actually it was quite easy and effective to manage the skill tree once the player has comprehended the basic structure and logic of it. But still, i was not motivated enough to start playing Path of Exile. Until I was craving for a new and worthy game to spend time on.

1 week ago, I decided to give it a try. Even if I was not going to like PoE, at least I would know why. Started with a Marauder, like i did in all other games. Brute force is the easiest start mostly, so i wanted to see the inner content as fast as i can. At start, it was cool. Nothing disturbing, smoothly advancing gameplay, relatively wider content. I was thinking "well, it's actually quite sweet for a f2p game which is in open beta". Knowing the game was gonna get better, kept on playing.

Then, something started to happen. Which has not happened since years.

As the story went on, I was getting that old, lively taste of growing powerful and following a story. I felt I was starting to like this game more with every passing minute. After many years, it was the first time that I was saying "one more quest, one more wp, one more run and i'm gonna go get some sleep" and delaying in until i see the sunrise. It was "the" feeling i was missing in all these years and Path of Exile unexpectedly succeeded in having this potential. I was already pretty sure it was gonna be a good game already, but i was not expecting that much to be honest. It is a wonderful job you have done and are still doing here. Paying 60€ and getting bored in 5 days at one side, and f2p with quite promising gameplay with the old-school a-rpg feeling at the other. I am shocked, surprised, delighted and probably addicted again. Don't take this "addiction" word as negative, it is the only thing a life-long gamer wants.

Now, my story is going on with these open beta moments and despite i hate starting such games too late (since there was a closed beta which allowed the players to learn most of the stuff and get used to the mechanics before anyone else and i have started after the first two weeks of open beta release), i saw it was ridiculously easy to learn the basics and all-around free and wide to do whatever you want.




To make it shorter and easier to understand, i am going to list the good-bad points i have seen so far. I probably won't remember all of them at once, but it will contain the most notable ones for sure.

Let's start with the good ones.

-Wide array of content
-Original systems like skill gems, various support possibilities, a passive skill tree like a galaxy map which you can run on as how you like to.
-Events and races to keep the gameplay interesting
-There is no gold, money etc. currency in-game which makes trading much more active and alive.
-A story good enough.
-Classes are not limited to anything, going experimental is totally possible.
-Chat, party and loot system is nicely done in terms of basic structure.
-Not very easy to level and boost the characters, which forces the players to spend effort like the all others.
-Potion and crafting systems are especially brilliant.
-Instance system is also great, I loved its mechanics.



Now, the important part. Stuff that disturbs.

-First of all, the skill/spell animations are being a big problem in party games. 2-3 rangers or witches can easily blind all the players in the middle of the fight (did someone say Lightning Arrow?), also can drop the fps down quicky with along lagging the players meanwhile. Especially Poison Arrow weirdly does that without much sparkly animation as far as I have experienced. Melee skills are not being a problem in this way.
-Random disconnect and crash issues, which can be tolerated since it is still open beta. But d/c'ing just when Piety is about to go down is really not enjoyable. (half an hour ago, unfortunately)
-Various balance issues, which also can be tolerated due to being in open beta phase. Some bosses directly one-shot even the tanky characters. I had it in Vaal, and Piety was weirdly easy for example.
-Loot system should be balanced a bit, timers are actually quite short and in boss fights it becomes a big problem when you see over9000 items on the ground while the name of the item appears in a place which has nothing to do with the real location of item itself. A filter would be PERFECT. I seriously want it more than anything in this game. I'm not an anti-ninja type, but it's not that good to allow so easy ninja activity because it turns into a carnage of loot race (With 200ms latency, I have leaped from the other side of the battleground to grab a loot just as the timer ends and actually managed to get it, which obviously shows that more greedy players are absolutely motivated to ninja all the loot more than to play the game). Especially when a valuable item drops ten meters ahead of you while you are firing arrows or spells like mad and you know you can't take even a single step forward due to the possible instakill. XP penalty is serious and tanky characters are more allowed to get all the loot around.
-As I have said above, a better optimization can be required for such a fast-paced and old-school type game. I have a MSI GE60 0ND laptop, and even with this beast I'm having some problems even without shadows and anisotropic stuff.
-Lastly, it would be good to show the single attack/cast damages in total along with dps.




So, these are the most notable ones I can remember now. It's 4AM here, so I am slightly sleepy and may not remember all the things. Since I'm not a PvP'er, I did not say a single word about it. Let's leave it to the PvP'ers, they will certainly have something much more accurate to say than anything i could say about it.

In conclusion, I sincerely thank you for such an awesome game. I hope -and am almost sure- you will keep up this great job, it is something that many old-school gamers wanted to see. Your approach to the community is also very good, this will carry you to the top doubtlessly.

Unfair death

Alright I reach lvl 24 & die again, but this time it was not my fault. Other times I died, I was stupid, this time I was very smart.

I was standing behind a wall, there was a doorway, I see there are suspiciously many monsters, so I summon skeletons as cannon fodder, I stand behind skeletons & use Ice spear, once, then run behind the wall, cus skeletons die & I decide to summon more before kiting the doorway.

Now suddenly I see something hitting me, very fast. Like 2 seconds & 4 hits & I die & none was around. My ES was gone in 2 hits. Hp also in 2 hits.

If none was around how the hell did I die?

Any way, I see this game cool & all, but if it kills you in this kind of manner I refuse to play it.

Game deleted.
Have a nice day.

The guy over me obviously doesn't know Beta means there will be bugs.

As a first impression:

2 Chars lvl 40 cruel Act 1 is the furthest I've been yet.

Very good game, nice complexity and characters. Even if it's in Beta it has been entertaining me more than 60+$ AAA games, which is very cool. I play with 3 friends, and there is a slight lag issue (we live in the same town, so no overseas internet lag), and this is the only bug I could think of.

Targetting sometimes does not highlight the mob, which can be annoying at times, but again, this is beta.

Thanks for the great game.

I've not been playing long, nor seen all the story yet, but first impressions...

I'm Impressed, really impressed, I haven't yet hit any real bugs, I had a slight graphics glitch with my driver setting the mip-maps to too low a quality and that affecting the UI layer making everything very blurry... that's not really a bug... but that's as close to a bug as I have encountered so far.

I love the complexity of the passive skill tree and the potential for interactions with your chosen gem/gear load out.

I haven't been as hooked into a game this quickly for a very long time, I think the systems for customisation have true elegance, simple to get a surface understanding but a lot of real depth and complexity, seems like loads of room for going your own way about each class.

I'll be recommending this to all my friends that play computer games.

Thank you very much for a great game, and keep up the good work.

Thanks for reading,
Mathonwy

Seams is missing the tutorial tip to X for swich weapons

Quest and all is fun gem skills combo etc, but after normal all become more of the same, now new quest for harder difficulties nor new acts...i really looked forward to something new for next difficulty but seams all the same kinda booring gets after ended normal

Only been playing for a few hours.

So far, I find the game very engaging, addictive and beautiful.

My main complaint is the lack of tutorials in regards to short-keys and windows. I have been getting of my advice (i.e. how to identify an item, or how to open the Quest window) from the global channel.

Despite these small things, I am enjoying this game thoroughly! Can't wait to get home and get back online.

Hey there !

Ill play Poe now for 4 Days,and im now on Cruel with my Dual Marauder.

My First Impression? Great job !
I really like the Game,since my start ill play it like a Junkie in these days,and theres no End in Sight for now ;D

You do all right what other Hackn Slays doing wrong in this Times.
After the first Hours ill show it a few Friends of mine,and now were a Group of 6 People.

Ill play other Actual Hackn Slays,( Got in one of them over 700 Hours Playtime)
And i think if the good work keeps on,Poe could be my new Favorite.

The only thing i dont like is the look of a Few Armors,with a Marauder ill wish i could get a few more ,,Barbarian Looking'' Armors,with some Helmets and Armors the Marauder looks more like a Paladin or Something.

And there are some Physical things that makes the game a little bit ,,stucky'' to play,but i think you fix this until Release....ill trust you after what ive seen in game until right now.

But the Art and the World you createt is Great !
Even the Skill system and the Gem Based Main skills are an Great idea.

Some of the Things i really like:

- No Auction House,good Old Player to Player trading
- Good Rarity of Items
- Even white Armors are very Important and not just Crap
- Good Loot Balance
- Not only stupid Item Hunt,you have to make thougts about every new item you want to wear
- Every level up gives you that ,,woah'' feeling and you have to make thoughts about
skilling,the Gems,how it works together etc
- Great and Athmospheric Dungeon and World Design,some very Epic Maps
- The Dungeons and Outworld Maps are very varied and dont getting lame,even if you Farm a Map
- The Gem and Passive Skill system
- Every Enemy or Difficulty can be a Challenge for your Charachter


And thats such a few Points,but for me the Important Things of such a Game.

Kepp on the Good Work !

And sry for my Bad English ;)