PoE 2 Beginner Feedback after Campaign Playthrough and few Hours Endgame

The maps in PoE2 are beautifully designed and incredibly atmospheric. It’s clear a lot of thought went into creating environments that feel alive and immersive, making exploration a visual treat. The bosses are spectacular and offer some of the most exciting moments in the game. They’re challenging, engaging, encounters feel epic and memorable.
The skill system is another highlight, with skills interacting in clever ways that make experimenting with builds genuinely fun and rewarding.
Ascendancies are also a great addition and seem really enjoyable to play. I particularly appreciated the ascendancy trial maps for their shorter, more engaging format, which kept them concise yet satisfying.

The biggest downside, however, is the map size. During the campaign, I often found myself spending 30+ minutes on a single map just to find the exit. This was frustrating and felt more like a chore than a fun challenge. When I reached the endgame around level 60, I was excited to dive in, hoping for a shift in pacing. Unfortunately, the map sizes remained massive. Running a 15–20 minute map where one mistake could wipe out all progress was more punishing than enjoyable. Penalties for dying are fine, but losing that much time and effort made the experience feel like a drag.
If the maps were shorter, similar to the ascendancy trial maps that take about 5 minutes, it would vastly improve the pacing and keep the gameplay dynamic.
For the campaign this could be fixed for example by reducing map size, giving hints after %kills of mobs/time passed, clearing fog of war more aggressively ( I can't count the number of times I ran through a map, only to find the exit right next to my chosen path, just inches away from where i looked)


For Endgame I see no other way that reducing map size to improve the experience. A nice to have would also be to show a progress bar to indicate how far along the player is on the "kill x % of dungeon mobs"-objective

PoE2 has an amazing foundation with its atmospheric design, bosses, and skill system. It’s clear there’s potential for this game to be an all-time great, but the oversized maps seriously hinder the overall experience. Shortening the maps would go a long way toward making the game feel more rewarding and less of a grind.