Poe 2's Negative Reviews on Steam Are About to Exceed 30%

I have really only played Poe 1, and very few other games in the last 10 years due to working 60 hours a week, family, etc. I did enjoy ruthless alternate playstyle in poe 1 for what it is, not to say its better than the other league variants. The feel of poe 1 is great, I enjoy it. Poe 2, feels soulless. I am not against less drops, or working harder but there are little things in Poe 2 that just seem cheap/hollow.

Let me say a positive thing first, A+ for boss mechanics. Good job. graphics,... GREAT job.

Concerning negatives for me:
In no particular order:
Uncut skill gems become meaningless very early, just highlighted superfluous drops. More useless than a wisdom scroll, which you no longer need because of whole inventory auto identify. The mechanic that supports can only be used once for all your gems feels limiting. That detracts from build styles. The skill tree is very more limiting and underempowering. Building creative builds that someone may not have thought of by experimenting on your own was a huge attraction for me in Poe 1. Less things to do, less things to try. The defensive layer of Life is to me, clearly a bad choice if you are playing hc or any build that you want to be tanky over damage. So many choices are just pitfalls. I get currency being rarer adds to a decrease in power creep but it detracts from crafting, but its another layer of activities to do that is removed. The trade is to create a feel of working hard for something good, at the expense of taking away another thing to play around with. Limited drops are not a deterrent by itself for me, I enjoy the feeling of spending more time to earn something good, but when so much is already taken, it just has a desolate feel left over. The shiny graphics do not compensate for the lack of progression and overall less things to spend your time on . Add in a large portion of the players you used to be able to talk to are now finding new roots in other games, the game feels as if it spiriling toward a death. All companies work to make money, I get wanting that quick profit. Money is important to keep staff and the lights on. The focus shifting on some flashy parts and undervaluing other things creates an imbalance. Most people play a game to escape real life. Who wants to struggle in a game MORE than real life for almost no reward? It would be a great idea if they just put poe 2 on the shelf, swallow some pride, and focus on what has been tried and true to rebuild before asystole. It may be time to move on and take a glance in a year to see if things have worked out instead of riding the struggle bus with the company. This makes me seriously sad, I took poe as a given, something that would always be there after a hard days work, and would for the most part always do things right. Everything dies, it was nice to have as a go to for over a decade.

I enjoy the role playing aspect of the genre. I like starting out and building a character over time, finding items I like and crafting them as I go. Improving items little by little as I go is a major part of the enjoyment. I like exploring areas and maps.

I don't find POE2 a very enjoyable game. The graphics are great, the boss fight are a major improvement but the base game, monsters and loot just seem uninteresting. I like the idea of fighting being more deliberate but the game doesn't seem to play like that. For example, the Act where your running around on the wagons; monsters leap off screen and land on top of you. Seems like the monsters chance to hit and damage are all pre-calculated prior to the monster even being visible to the player. I don't see where the "deliberate" play style is.

I appreciate that many felt POE1's Harvest league was OP. But I really enjoyed doping a Harvest and then improving a ring from say 19% of a resist type to 20%. It was enjoyable to incrementally update my character. POE2 feels like a moba game. The game seems very dumbed down compared to POE1.

The number one thing I find annoying with POE1 is the repeat of the Acts. And its something they have continued with in POE2. I know GGG have said those acts will come later but it seems they are spending the majority of their development resources doing things other than finishing the game. It feels very much like someone has decided near enough is good enough.

I have never much been interested in the people behind the game, I just play the game. I spent over a decade playing Eve online everyday day and other than knowing that CCP is in Iceland I cannot tell you anything about the people behind the game. But at the moment I see Johnathan appearing on various YT channels defending POE2. And each time I listen to his ideas the less I think POE2 is a game I would spend much time playing.

My experience with essentially the abandonment of POE1 development and with what POE2 looks and plays like I have found it easy to do other pursuits and I feel better for it.