Paying for the privilege of being in Early Access is fine, no one's forcing you to help them rough out the edges. I'd prefer it if the price was a little cheaper, but $40 isn't too bad. Might pick it up since my friends want to play it together and there's a lot of content already.

I for one am glad there's some serious challenge to the gameplay. A lot of people that are complaining have literally said they want to one hit kill everything on the screen as they run through dungeons, and that just completely misses the fun of slowly getting more and more powerful. Not to mention that's what the lower difficulties are for.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 8, 2024, 10:02:
I hate to say it, but I'm somewhat glad this game is having problems in early access. The idea of them selling early access/beta testing/whatever for $30 is really aggravating me, when they knew it was a buggy mess and/or the servers weren't ready. Especially for a free to play game.

I'd say they got greedy, but they got greedy a long time ago with their cosmetic prices and character storage design.

I'm sure PoE2 will be pretty awesome eventually, but I'll wait until the real release. Also hoping they follow through on their promise of storage tabs etc. carrying over, but I'm sure there will be 20 new tabs to buy anyway.

RE Storage Tabs -- they have carried over (I have all my premiums in POE2); the skins from POE1 have not yet but should in the full release.

I'm in the middle when it comes to support packs for early access for a "F2P" game; I barely play any F2P games in the first place. You're probably aware that for every dollar of any support pack you choose, you get the equal amount in MTX currency "for free". So for just getting the $30 access key, you're account is credited $30 in MTX which can afford a person a number of stash tabs, $100 support back = $100 in MTX (1000 coins or whatever they are). I think the $30 can net you the premium tab bundle (get 6 premium tabs for the price of 5) with a few coins left over. As for the "greed" comments about their model, it's a model that existed for F2P games well before POE and will exist well after. I am not saying it's right or wrong, but in my opinion it is the expectation for a F2P live service game.

Then you could argue, correctly, that the game basically forces anyone that ends up playing the game long term to purchase stash tabs etc. Despite what some might say, you do need them if you're going to play end-game in any way seriously, and even more especially so if you're playing more than one char. I do not think they added any new kind of tab for this game, but I haven't checked.

There are a LOT of passionate POE players, if they want to drop $30 or more to get access, beta the game and provide feedback for the rest of us all the power to them.

JohnnyRotten wrote on Dec 8, 2024, 10:20:
Skills feel like they fire at the end of a timer

Because there is a cast time on skills.....just like in POE. +CastSpeed items/augments improve this. It's not as fast as POE, but they've been pretty clear that they were slowing the game a bit.

You on the other hand, get to slowly (and I mean wading through molasses slowly) kite enemies, dodging every two seconds

Yeah, the movespeed changes from POE are the hardest to adapt to. I'm really hoping that they allow for +RunSpeed items during one of the early balance passes.

Boss battles are 5 minute dodge slogs against bosses with health bars so long that it takes three monitors to display it.

Hyperbole much? Did you not use Dashes for survivabilty in POE?

If you win, you might get a gold piece and a set of non-magical boots for your trouble. Maybe.

Yeah, the loot tables need some serious tuning. There were a couple of boss fights where I received decent loot, but a buddy got whites, a blue, and a few gold.....very disappointing.

Never a sense of being in the least bit powerful as you progress.

I can see this as a comparison to POE1 when you're following an uber-OP build guide where evertyhing just melts as you run full tilt through a dungeon.......but otherwise it's a misleading statement. You progress and get more powerful as you go.... Unless you're not upgrading your skills, gear, and trying new skills as they unlock?

Every boss fight is in the how-unfair-can-we-make-it model. Playing feels like a job you're slogging through hoping it gets better. For me, it didn't.

I have mixed feelings about the bossses....some of them have win/loss mechanics....some of them feel bulletspongy...and I have a personal dislike for multi-stage full health bosses. I'm assuming that there are plenty of balance passes to come since half the weapon skills have not been incorporated into the game.

TL;DNR: POE2 - A "slow as molasses" dodge and kiting simulator that wants to be dark souls.

Keep hearing people make this comparison as some kind of damning judgement.....but it always seems to come from people that either don't play 'soulslike' games or have some horribly simplified view of them. POE2 is slower and more tactical compared to its predecessor....but it does not aspire to being truly soulslike.

And regarding the insane skill tree web....it's like POE. And if you're playing a fairly straightforward class, the progression is limited to a 25% pie wedge of the tree....so it's fairly straightforward what you *should* be doing. I have a horribly unoptimized build because I'm just testing the waters and am progressing at a decent overall pace. Once all the OP guides start coming out, the game will progress significantly faster for those that are howling at the clear times. Personally, it seems like a good thing that perople aren't hitting "MAPS IN 8 HOURS".

If you believed the paid shills (aka "influencers") that this would be the one ARPG to rule them all, weeellll... No. Nevertheless, IMO (!) the early access version is better than the launch version of Diablo 4.
While I did not have a single crash, I did read that others had problems - some even huge problems - to run the game stable or at all. I guess that GGG will have to work a lot on stability so that it runs better on different hardware configurations.
The gameplay itself is good IMO. It is a bit more difficult than Diablo 4 but far from the souls-like difficulty. I have played for 3 hrs now and defeated a few bosses - none of them were really hard. BUT you have to understand that you need to fight actively - clicking only will not work. You need to evade attacks (which was never difficult)! If you just stand in one place, spamming left/right mouse buttons and the 1 and 2 keys, the fights will be much more difficult for you. Again - this is NOT at souls-like difficulty level. Of the 5 bosses, I killed 3 of them in the first fights, the other 2 in a 2nd attempt.

The biggest problem I have with the game is the same I have with the first PoE game - the skill forest (it is not a tree, it is the damned Amazon rain forest made of skill trees). I guess that as long as you stick to the main game, it is not too important which skills you take. But for the endgame, you most likely will have to read build guides and stick to those (which I won't). It also needs skill balancing IMO because some skill seem to be totally overpowered. I read a conversation in-game by two hardcore PoE1 gamers that laughed their asses off about freezing even top boss monsters so often that they were helpless cannon fodder.

So, it is okay and is definitely worth my 30 stones but it is not the hyped uber-ARPG that the paid shills predicted.

This comment was edited on Dec 8, 2024, 12:26.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 8, 2024, 10:02:
I'd say they got greedy, but they got greedy a long time ago with their cosmetic prices and character storage design.

I don't think this is fair. Why is it that earning a living wage for all their employees is "greedy".
Look at how many studios are continuing to get shut down.
Is POE doing so well that they are immune? I don't think so.

Jim wrote on Dec 8, 2024, 09:04:
So the question is, is this fun to play? Is it based on the original? What has changed?
I tried playing the first one and while pretty awesome, the amount of different systems was overwhelming.

IMHO, if you wanted an ARPG and not dark souls lite, this is not the game for you. This thing is a tedious slog, where all of the bad guys have the powers, speed, and fun abilities. You on the other hand, get to slowly (and I mean wading through molasses slowly) kite enemies, dodging every two seconds, and trying to occasionally get shots in the one or two abilities you have. Skills feel like they fire at the end of a timer (buildup then fire; not fire first then a recharge), which means everything is on a delay. Dodge (wait for that), hit the attack (wait for that to fire off), repeat. Meanwhile the baddies are just blazing away non-stop. You are slow, slow, slow. Kiting backwards in every fight against everything seems to be the general tactic as it removes the dodge timer from the equation.

Boss battles are 5 minute dodge slogs against bosses with health bars so long that it takes three monitors to display it. If you dodge the wrong way once, you get to be dead and have the privilege of starting the fight over from scratch. If you win, you might get a gold piece and a set of non-magical boots for your trouble. Maybe.

Tedious, slow, not rewarding in drops, skills, or progression. Never a sense of being in the least bit powerful as you progress. Every boss fight is in the how-unfair-can-we-make-it model. Playing feels like a job you're slogging through hoping it gets better. For me, it didn't.

TL;DNR: POE2 - A "slow as molasses" dodge and kiting simulator that wants to be dark souls.

Grabbing my popcorn while waiting for the "git gud" posts to start rolling in.

I hate to say it, but I'm somewhat glad this game is having problems in early access. The idea of them selling early access/beta testing/whatever for $30 is really aggravating me, when they knew it was a buggy mess and/or the servers weren't ready. Especially for a free to play game.

I'd say they got greedy, but they got greedy a long time ago with their cosmetic prices and character storage design.

I'm sure PoE2 will be pretty awesome eventually, but I'll wait until the real release. Also hoping they follow through on their promise of storage tabs etc. carrying over, but I'm sure there will be 20 new tabs to buy anyway.

So the question is, is this fun to play? Is it based on the original? What has changed?
I tried playing the first one and while pretty awesome, the amount of different systems was overwhelming.

Zirthimon wrote on Dec 7, 2024, 16:43:
The review system is broken and offers no value. It's basically a voice for trolls. There might be 10% that are useful, the rest are a mockery. The game is fine and doesn't deserve a bad review.

You mean if you actually go through and read the negative reviews on how the dev's fucked up proper early access?

runnerct32 wrote on Dec 7, 2024, 16:28:

Rhialto wrote on Dec 7, 2024, 15:42:
You've looked at wrong place for rating, currently very negative. See here.

Just people complaining about early access not loading. I would like to see reviews on the game itself.

Reminds me of people who leave 1 star reviews for a product on a site like Amazon, because the produce shipped late or arrived broken. That's not the fault of the manufacturer...

The review system is broken and offers no value. It's basically a voice for trolls. There might be 10% that are useful, the rest are a mockery. The game is fine and doesn't deserve a bad review.

Rhialto wrote on Dec 7, 2024, 15:42:
You've looked at wrong place for rating, currently very negative. See here.

Just people complaining about early access not loading. I would like to see reviews on the game itself.

You've looked at wrong place for rating, currently very negative. See here.