I don't think I can do this every 3 to 4 months., the campaign is just too long.

The issue why people don't want long campaign is that it is drastically different against end-game for which most of us love poe. In end-game it's mostly about getting dopamine by making thousands of monsters make pop sound. Campaign is about "go there, bring me that", it's booooriiiing. And yeah, in campaign you also can pop packs of mobs, but most of the time this is not about that.
Not to mention how ridiculously stupid campaign maps with dozens of dead ends you need to run in loneliness.

the campaign is still a struggle for me.

and it is mostly due to one thing the op said.

the inability to skip things.

due to the shit map design and back tracking, and endless huge packs of flying at you at 100 mph monsters, the campaign is a shit show. it is unenjoyable.

its a 20-30 hour slog for me, full of zero upgrades, hardly any currency, negative resistances, playing 1/3 or 1/2 a build...

its just bad. ovrerall. all around.

and i absolutely hate, that most builds i want to play, require me to level as ANOTHER FUCKING BUILD cuz its EVEN WORSE to level with the build i intend and want to play.

SO FUCKIGN STUPID.

I find the campaign good and fun and I dont get why some people operate under some kind of assumption that the game isnt fun until you get to maps. If you arent having fun leveling up during the campaign you're probably not going to have much fun in maps either.

First time was about 50 hours but I did it this time in under 20

Once I found and followed this a fair few of the zones are 5 minutes or less:

https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/guides/campaign-layout-act-1

e: ^^^ I find the backend of the campaign really enjoyable. I do not enjoy the PoE1 campaign at all, mainly due to feeling underpowered til level 70+, in PoE2 I usually start to feel the power around the halfway mark of act 3

Convincing the "Its just fine right now" crowd is never going to be productive so I wont even try. Obviously its not or GGG wouldnt have made the changes they did. I suspect the "Its just fine right now" cuddlebear crowd are going to be upset before the game comes out.

I have never argued for it to be a copy of POE1. I have argued for it to be an ARPG, not a souls like game. If you want to have a souls like game what are you doing in an AARPG? They are incompatible.

I have also never argued for a campaign skip but that is where we will end up if they persist with the tedious campaign.

I HAVE asked for the campaign to be snappier, instead of 50 packs to wade through maybe only 30? Instead of random generated maps with dead ends maybe some fixed format so when we are playing for the 30000th time we can go right through to the boss? Maybe I need to be able to build my resists? Right now I am still using a level 25 pair of boots because 30 levels on I cant craft anything better than the lucky roll I got. Maybe the mobs shouldn't be able to pursue you to where you MUST kill them all and if you die kill them all again. Sprint helps, but doesn't fix it.

When we get to release all these "It should be souls like in an AARPG because I enjoyed souls like" will be gone. That's ok, there are plenty of customers that like ARPGs and other souls like games for those that like souls like games. Combining them is just an impossible task.

"

Alzucard#2422 wrote:

"

Fae_Lyth#6750 wrote:

They don't like the campaign and say "the real game begins at maps".

Endgame is the point where the real agme begins. Its where people spend the most time. Trading, Theorycrafting, Pinnacles.
That is what drives people to the game. The endgame and the Build possibilities. Barely anyone would come back to play only the Campaign. Thats just how it is and what made Path of Exile famous. You dont have to like it, but thats the case.

This 100,000 times over. In the campaign you have a gimped build, gimped resists and people spend far more time in endgame than campaign. GGG has said this over and over again.

The campaign is NOT the game and just because you make it to endgame doesnt mean the game is done. You are thinking of a different kind of game. AA game like last of us that you play once maaybee twice. This game will release every four months or so with a new leaague and the campaign wont change. How many times are you comfy slogging out a 60 hour campaign as a casual? 2 times? 20? How about 50? No not 50? Then you wont be here in a year. You will be off playing something else. You will be playing the next story game.

ARPGs use the story to set up the end game. Hell I dont even think you need a campaign.

I think the problem is that there's an overload of secondary objectives, combined with most areas being too narrow and hard to navigate.

Too many times you have to kill some optional boss, then you have two connected maps for main quest + optional boss, then you have to find a random cave at the other side of the map, and then you kill everything and go back to the map to use something and unlock another area.

It feels like they are trying to make every zone feel like The Imperial Gardens from PoE 1.

Extra bosses for skill points and spirit is fine, they just should remove other stats from side-quests.

Another problem is the map layout. They are usually too big and feel like a maze. In PoE 1 it worked because you can teleport/dash through gaps and run more in a straight line. In PoE 2 you have to constantly run like a drunk, avoiding trees, logs, rocks, going around the map layout trying to find the objective.

They created all this combo idea for the combat, you can dodge, but most areas are too narrow and have collision every 2 meters.

Outdoor maps should just be more square and open, dungeons and indoors could be more complex. Make a middle-ground between Cemetery of The Eternals and D2 map layout for outdoor areas, and the progression through the campaign would feel much better.

"

myrkox#2932 wrote:

"

iHiems#0168 wrote:

I'm always divided in my opinion of this. On one hand, I understand the argument that some people give regarding it, but on the other hand I'm always afraid the game would turn into poe1 or worse, last epoch

Right now it's already fast enough that some people are done with the game in a week and there's nothing else to do. First because the crafting is way too overpowered and second because there's really no end game, no items to chase or drop

First, crafting isn’t really overpowered for a regular player. Streamers and racers will always find a way to take a week off, skip sleep, and grind the game 24/7 in a sabaton-like marathon.

But for people who can only play 1–2 hours per day, many won’t even reach endgame, let alone see a divine drop. For them, crafting and currency gains - even with consistent gameplay - would only start to feel impactful near the end of the league, assuming they’re still around by then. And even at that point, inflation will already have eaten away a lot of the value.

Streamers and racers aren’t the only group that makes up this game. Out of ~500k people who joined this league, maybe 100–1000 are streamers at best. Is that really a big enough fraction to justify major balance changes? I don’t think so. They’re just the most visible and vocal and loud ones, but not representative of the player base as a whole

So? The fact is that crafting is still overpowered and makes campaign already trivial. I don't think people here even tried it by reading some comments that I did. You can go completely SSF

If you can't reach the endgame or see a divine by playing 1-2 hours per day in 4 months, that's a you problem, sorry. That's 240 hours

"

Kraythax#2592 wrote:

When we get to release all these "It should be souls like in an AARPG because I enjoyed souls like" will be gone. That's ok, there are plenty of customers that like ARPGs and other souls like games for those that like souls like games. Combining them is just an impossible task.

You do realize that poe2 peak had more peak players in a single league than poe1 had in 79 years of existence, right? Maybe your opinion is the unpopular one since people clearly prefer one game style over another

This is just your opinion. The game being "souls like" is exactly what brings many people to the game, including me. And honestly right now it barely has any element of it, the whole campaign is way too easy

POE1 had a marketing budget of near 0. And still managed to strike fear in the hearts of Diablo devs on the POE2 release. This is despite Diablo having a marketing budget of millions. Those Diablo Devs aren't worried anymore. Current POE1 is an old game with old graphics that dont attract a lot of new players.

But now you get a bunch of yahoo's that beat dark souls and want to make EVERY game dark souls. This game is designed to be plaayed in leagues where you repeat the campaign dozens of times.

You are going to run the campaign 100 times? No? Then you are of no value to the company because they make money by getting you excited to play the next league and selling you cosmetic enhancements. You will play maybe 5 or 10 characters, that's it. Then you will be off to ruin the next game genre. You may make one or two purchases, not the thousands of dollars of purchases I have over the years.

If you think "Oh so all GGG should care about is money huh?" Then the answer is "Yes Komrade, GGG is a business. Their goal is to make money and without that money we don't have a game."

Act one, act four and the interludes are decent (apart from that desert interlude, that was too long).

Act two and three just go on and on and on and on. They could shorten a few zones in act two and three or cut some mobs out and you'd still have a solid campaign.

Still no idea what the actual plot/story is for the game tbh.