Kinda sad what other people here are saying about POE 2

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iMirageX#4580 wrote:

To be blunt, not including new players, these POE 1 players who say POE 2 is bad, boring, dodge simulator and such are pampered by POE 1 so much. If you have attempted the uber in POE 1 just a few times, you'd immediately notice some semblance about how you approach a fight in POE 2. The only difference is that, we are slower in POE 2 and thus, we dodge more. If you haven't done any pinnacle boss in POE 1, then I think that's also a valid way to play a league so I am not gonna blame you for that. Bosses have too much hp? too hard? then why do other people can do it quite easily? Is the the difficulty of POE 2 really the problem or on other factor?

I know its your own opinion but saying the game is bad because you are having a hard time is kinda really unfair don't you think? One prominent POE stream said in the past, being bad at the game is a choice.

So I dont disagree I think POE2 is solid (if we exclude GGGs choices on "balancing") But thats a different discussion. As far as the gameplay its self is concern I think we have a solid foundation. The boss fights feel like boss fights or at the mimimum have such a fantastic vibe. Think of . I think alot of the hate is most of the players be it Veteran POE players or new to the franchies didnt play POE1 in the early days to understand this was a similar situation (harder back than as we now have over 10 years of knowledge to get to quicker build ideas now vs back than).

But POE/EVE kinda are a microcosm of whats "wrong" imo of gaming. If these kids dont pick it up and insta feel godly they quit or whine about "its to hard". Sure the game punishes players to an extreme for a bad build or bad play but thats what we signed up for this wasnt a mystery. Its like someone picked a Souls game and quit after 5 min its like what did you expect?

With all that said I think the game has a solid idea and foundation my only real gripe (which I am sure will get address at some point for QOL) Is the charms you dont know when they proc or how much charge they have which seems like a pretty dumb oversight.

Who cares what other players think, do you enjoy it.

I think a lot of players get hard stuck on a workflow/recipe for a game and don't really want to entertain something much different.

Is the game good? Does it show promise? I'd answer yes to both of these.

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lunaticwoda#2453 wrote:

Sure the game punishes players to an extreme for a bad build or bad play but that's what we signed up for this wasn't a mystery.

Could you show me where we signed up for this? Really can you point to any specific official GGG statements that eluded to this being the design direction of the game and that they intend to satisfy this specific niche of gameplay type, that you specifically enjoy? I don't mean the 'oh its going to be a different game!', that's a nothing burger statement. You say it like we are stupid for not expecting this, then clearly you have concrete, irrefutable evidence you can show us, right?!

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lunaticwoda#2453 wrote:

It's like someone picked a Souls game and quit after 5 min its like what did you expect?

What I expect, when I pick up a souls game is that I am rewarded for my skill expression and determination. I also expect that the game will be unforgiving, but fair. It delivers on those expectations because its made by people who understand and respect their audience, unlike GGG, who have seething contempt towards theirs. If you haven't grasped that they think of their streamers as the only players and the rest of you as background NPCs, you are blind.

I have never felt rewarded for my skill expression in PoE 1 or 2 and I've done most of the content in the game (like a core mechanic in a pinnacle boss fight is playing Simon Says, don't make me laugh guys). The thing that rewards you in PoE is sinking inordinate amounts of time into the game and playing it like a market simulator. What PoE tends to amount to is a slot machine and a spreadsheet simulator. Unsurprisingly when the loot is shit, it fundamentally fails at being one of those things. It fails at the other because the Devs do not value player time and will always keep tedium in the game as they have come to falsely equate it with difficulty. (They don't want trading to be easy you see, because you carry the original sin of the Blizzard auction house, fucking clowns. God forbid you get to play the game instead of sitting in your hideout or interrupting what you are doing every few minutes to fulfill a trade.)

What I also expect when I pick up a souls game is that it will tell me a quality story using its established themes and not shamelessly copy it from a competitor. Like GGG has done with the fucking Count Geonor fight which is just fighting Ludwig from Bloodborne in reverse while he hefts his fucking glowing, magic, great sword like Artorias. There is doing an homage and then there is shameless trash like this. Especially since the first ones have lore in PoE and instead of doing something unique with that lore, they just used it as an excuse to shoehorn aesthetic references to another gaming genre they are trying to ape.

When I play PoE 2, I do not feel like I am playing a souls like or a different game to PoE 1. What I feel like is that I am playing a reskin of PoE 1 with clunkier controls and somehow shittier loot, story and crafting. Graphics, no notes, art department is doing Innocences' work.

p.s. The fucking dodge roll, good grief where do I even start. Let's call it by its actual name in this game which is a cognitive tax. Specifically on your attention. PoE already has multiple sources of terrible decision fatigue that make it physically uncomfortable to play unless you actively use, usually third party developed resources to cut down on it, such as loot filters, build guides, item databases, skill tree planners, etc.. However, now you have been introduced to this horrid miscarrige of conceptual design. It was not good enough that before you had to make split second decisions about using movement skills in a game notorious for its horrid screen readability (fucking rainbow colored bullet hell and all the floor is lava) and its ROCK SOLID server stability in a live game environment. This meant your need to make split second decisions would only intersect with a threat from the semirandom attack patterns of enemies periodically. Now you need to make those decisions regularly, which means more of them, which means more fatigue and you have no way to mitigate this unlike the other things because the enemies locking onto you is a necessary part of forcing you to engage with it as frequently as they wanted. I mean, this is a sick joke. Its idiots trying to reinvent the wheel so they can claim it looks like a more popular wheel that a lot of people like.

The only complaints I've heard from friends who are die hard PoE1 players is that the movement is too slow, which I agree with.

The maps are also massive. That's great, but with the lack of movement abilities in the game it just makes everything feel like a slog.

There are some tuning and pacing issues, but it's Early Access so that's to be expected. The removal of things like Quicksilver Flask is clearly intentional and, in my opinion, it holds the game back.

There are builds that clear a screen faster than you can move to the next pack. I'm assuming these are going to stay to some degree as the entire point of an ARPG is power fantasy and power creep. If the movement is so slow that it holds you back from pushing a fine tuned build you've spent a considerable amount of time gearing; that's a design flaw.

On a more subjective note, the size of the maps combined with lack of movement speed is just "meh". The pacing is fine when everything's new and you're learning the combat. The pacing will not be fine when people get past the honeymoon phase and into the grinding phase, and that's the sustainable playerbase.

To my knowledge there's a specific flow, at least in every ARPG I've ever played:
Learn the enemies, learn your abilities.
Pick a build, gear the build, clear faster.
Push difficulty tiers until you hit a wall.
Reign back difficulty to farm for more power creep.
Push difficulty tiers until you hit a wall.

The last 2 of those in the loop are going to be a problem long term with the movement. When you're grinding for upgrades you want to be thoomin' so you can get back to pushing the difficulty you stalled at.

The game isn't bad overall, but it does need some big changes. My two biggest gripes are losing a map on one death and crafting not feeling really good. I am not getting enough currency at all.