POE2 isn't "Hard." It's unfun.

PoE 2 is a total confirmation of what many of us have known but been in denial about for several years: GGG is in its anti-fun era. For whatever reason, they now resent the players and have turned their efforts to writing hate mail to them in the form of game content that is a ruthlessly brutal slog, totally devoid of satisfaction or any meaningful sense of progression.

Don't mind games being a bit challenging, but yeah this game is a bit of a letdown. There's gotta be a middle ground between poe1 and whatever this elden ring meets diablo demon baby this is. At least it's early and there's room for improvement, because the game looks beautiful and I really wanna like it. Here's a few ideas

1. At the start when dude gets ate by a zombie, make his corpse a clickable chest that gives us a full set of basic armor so we aren't being 1-2 shot by everything in a lv1 area. Once I got some armor game felt challenging but fun(for a little bit at least)

2. When I die and respawn, everything I've already killed shouldn't respawn too. Dying, then having to fight the same mobs only to die again is a really unfun game loop. Also, go back to the way bosses were in poe1 where their health bar doesn't refill when you die. Being able to slowly chip away at them was nice, that way they aren't insurmountable walls that keep us from progressing through the story at a reasonable pace

3. Flask charges should refill slowly on their own. Having to run back to town to drink from the well is just annoying

4. Item and gold needs to drop more frequently or vendor prices need to be reduced. 2 grand for a belt? Really? Probably not even real leather

Even if you left monster damage the same, just a few little changes would make the early game feel so much smoother and more fun to play. The games issues so far are minor things, but they all add up to be frustrating

Its quite hard. Anyone saying its not is full of shit. Thats not the problem for me. I like difficulty, but I also like....

A) A path to dealing with the difficulty

B) Rewarded for accomplishing difficult tasks.

As of now, the game scarcity doesnt really allow for either. At least during the leveling experience. From what Ive seen of the mapping experience, doesnt get much better.

On top of that, tbh Im not really into souls games so these really long, spongy bosses feel like a fucking chore to me. I feel like I need to go do some IRL stuff and come back every 10 minutes because there is ANOTHER boss fight which I will be sitting at for 30-1 hr figuring out. Its exhausting. There is always a balance, and they have missed it and flung the game as far off to the left or right as they could. There is a reason, most PoE players didnt get much out of Ruthless. I really dont understand their love for masochism.

PS5 Player....

IMO, and yes, I will get blasted by the try hards for this:

1) Gear drops are meh at best..Had to use every crafting item I found to get a mediocre build going....Nothing worth using dropped...Spend every ounce of gold buying from the overpriced vendor...

2)Dodge roll DOES NOT WORK, when mobs have extra large swipe boxes...Roll, smack, still got my ass punched/hammered/arrowed/ground pounded...

3)Bosses are way OVER TUNED...should not have to be level 10+ in the first sector to beat the Ice Witch(which fyi, dropped TRASH items), nor should I need to be Lv15+ to beat the Worm guy....And ever boss after...

4)Did I mention drop SUCK?!...

5)Why so much low level skill buying/upgrades...Console can't use them all...Not with "Targeting" being on a the thumbstick, can't use x,o,square,triangle, while dodge rolling and trying to re aim each roll since "auto targetting" blows...

6)What's with the mobs running at super speed in packs so large that you have to RETREAT the entire time to kill them all??...

7)Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a little challenge, but in it's current form, this game is TRASH and only narcissistic players/gamers/no lifers can do this at all...IT's way over tuned, takes to long to gear up, skills are so weak MY NORMAL shot was out powering them...

Lastly, IMO, I'm reading this at PoE1 thought process to make a build, D2(R) rip off of game style, along with the stupid narcissistic game play required from Dark Souls rolled into and evil stepchild...Nobody, JMO, in their right mind would/should keep playing this when it's this hard. Gaming is supposed to be relaxing, not a second JOB, nor is it supposed to make you throw controllers because 1 mess up get's all your hard work to that point ERASED and have to do it ALL again...

Please rethink what you're trying to make for a game GGG...

Dark Souls 2 SotFS is unironically one of my most favorite games of all time, and people TO THIS DAY still go off about how terrible of a game it is. I consider it a solid game with lots to love and comparably few flaws for its time, so I don't give a fuck what people are crying about over PoE 2. I have my own opinions, and they are mostly very positive. I have more hours in DS2 than in DS1 and DS3 combined, so I'm used to a little jank and am fine with it as long as the core game(play) is satisfying.

I hate to say this but they need to take some pointers from Daiblo 4. Loot drops need to be better especially on boss fights and they need to "sound" better too. The sound is very important. It needs to sound explosive especially when something cool drops. Nothing worse then beating an act boss and all that drops is 10 gold and a couple blue pieces of gear that has nothing to do with your class and hear it land like a little thud. The mob fights feel like a sluggish chore and the roll roll roll roll roll roll roll attack repeat boss fights get mundane after a while. I do like the tree and skills it's just everything else is wha-wha but it is early access so maybe they can fix it up.

I'm enjoying POE2, but the games too hard at times and the reward for defeating bosses is usually nothing. I mean you'll get a few blues and sometimes a yellow. POE1 always gave you drops when you needed them. I don't know how they did it, but they perfected the drop rate so that you get gear right around when you need it. That's not the case for POE2. I hope they fix this because it would make it more enjoyable and not super hard. I like difficulty, but this is too much.

I find everything about POE2 better.
Especially the map layouts in campaign. They were so bad in poe.

Remember, you will never get an experience like poe again because the starting conditions will never be the same.

It's kinda like losing your first dog and not being happy with a better dog b/c he's not what you remember loving.

Love you Nico Man

Personally I don't find it hard. "Unfun" is a good way to describe it, though. It's not that I'm blocked from progressing--far from it, it's just that progressing isn't fun when the gameplay itself isn't fun.

I'm not sure how much of this is the game being unfinished, though. It's surprising to me how many skills are missing. It's like... the core of an ARPG, and a weird decision to make for early access, to omit basics like most melee skills, SWORDS (the most basic fantasy archetype of a weapon), etc. You have a passive skill tree where 50% of the bonuses apply to items that don't exist in the game.

The game will probably get a lot better once all the skills are finished and added in. That being said... what doesn't surprise me is what doesn't "work" for me. My guess before release was that they leaned too far towards "innovating" gameplay, and that's basically what everyone is complaining about. Skill combos necessarily, by design, lead to less player agency as the developer designs a combo you're supposed to use and if you don't you are way less effective. This is what I call "Simon Says" game design. You do what the developer decided you should do or you are less efficient. It's anathema to how PoE 1 was designed.

I suppose in the end that's what it comes down to. PoE 2 is very different from PoE 1 at a basic design principle level. If you liked PoE 1, it stands to reason you may bounce off PoE 2. I definitely do, so far. I enjoy parts of it... but not as much as I'd enjoy it if it was more like PoE 1. It really has nothing to do with difficulty and adaptation, and everything to do with gameplay tastes. Just like preferring Bayonetta to Dark Souls has nothing to do with being "bad" at games.

A fair gripe, I suggest, is that they have put so much effort and time and money into developing a game that does not cater to the tastes of their previously existing audience. Yes, we still have PoE 1, but unless their development priorities drastically change, PoE 1 is just not going to get anywhere near the "new stuff" that PoE 2 gets. It's going to remain a backburner priority for the company, and people are going to wonder "what if" they had catered to their fans instead of trying to invent a new gameplay style.

It's not fun.