Campaign Duration Feedback – Way Too Long

Hey GGG Team,

Long-time player here, and I need to drop some real talk about PoE 2's campaign. It is way too long. Full stop.

The current 20–25+ hours for a casual player to get through the story is a massive buzzkill. Think about it: someone who can only play for 1-2 hours a day is stuck in the campaign for two to four weeks per character before they even touch the actual endgame. That's almost a month of just slogging through the intro!

That kind of mandatory grind just doesn't respect our time. The campaign should be a fun, fast-paced on-ramp to the endgame, not a huge chore you have to repeat every league.

You guys need to fix this ASAP. I'd push for one of these two things:

-Chop it down: Get the total campaign time down to a maximum of 10-15 hours, even for the first run.

-Give us a streamline version: After we beat it once, we desperately need a way to have it streamlined or a way to speed-run the campaign on all future characters.

People are hyped for PoE 2, but they are going to burn out on that 20+ hour wall before they even see the good stuff. Please, please, please streamline this experience.

"

raz_raziel#5939 wrote:

Hey GGG Team,

Long-time player here, and I need to drop some real talk about PoE 2's campaign. It is way too long. Full stop.

The current 20–25+ hours for a casual player to get through the story is a massive buzzkill. Think about it: someone who can only play for 1-2 hours a day is stuck in the campaign for two to four weeks per character before they even touch the actual endgame. That's almost a month of just slogging through the intro!

That kind of mandatory grind just doesn't respect our time. The campaign should be a fun, fast-paced on-ramp to the endgame, not a huge chore you have to repeat every league.

You guys need to fix this ASAP. I'd push for one of these two things:

-Chop it down: Get the total campaign time down to a maximum of 10-15 hours, even for the first run.

-Give us a streamline version: After we beat it once, we desperately need a way to have it streamlined or a way to speed-run the campaign on all future characters.

People are hyped for PoE 2, but they are going to burn out on that 20+ hour wall before they even see the good stuff. Please, please, please streamline this experience.

Casual gamer checking in. Guy with a family and a job. Maybe get 1-2 hours a day to play Most of us casuals don't rush to endgame. We see the game starting at level 1 not level 80. For most of us the campaign is actually stunningly beautiful and its fun to explore the maps looking for new content.

I can agree that some of the maps can be downsized a bit. I find the speed and flow of Act 1 to be the best. Act 2 is getting easier and faster as I play more leagues. Act 3 can be cut down by like 20% maybe?

"

raz_raziel#5939 wrote:

Hey GGG Team,

Long-time player here, and I need to drop some real talk about PoE 2's campaign. It is way too long. Full stop.

The current 20–25+ hours for a casual player to get through the story is a massive buzzkill. Think about it: someone who can only play for 1-2 hours a day is stuck in the campaign for two to four weeks per character before they even touch the actual endgame. That's almost a month of just slogging through the intro!

That kind of mandatory grind just doesn't respect our time. The campaign should be a fun, fast-paced on-ramp to the endgame, not a huge chore you have to repeat every league.

You guys need to fix this ASAP. I'd push for one of these two things:

-Chop it down: Get the total campaign time down to a maximum of 10-15 hours, even for the first run.

-Give us a streamline version: After we beat it once, we desperately need a way to have it streamlined or a way to speed-run the campaign on all future characters.

People are hyped for PoE 2, but they are going to burn out on that 20+ hour wall before they even see the good stuff. Please, please, please streamline this experience.

there's nothing wrong with players stuck in the campaign for two to four weeks per character.

if a person has more time to play, then the person has more time to play.

if a person has less time to play, then the person has less time to play.

if a person wants to play fast to speed-run the campaign, then that's the player's wish.

if a person wants to play slow to stay longer in the campaign, then that's also the player's wish.

nothing wrong with the length of the campaign. no need a streamline version.

You are 100% correct, no lifers are missing the points you made here.

90% of players won't even see the seasonal content because they will have stopped playing due to the duration of campaign they have to get through.

It's even more punishing if it's not your 1st play through, cause you're doing it all again! Just to touch the new content.

I have 0 desire to play the new season because I have to redo the whole campaign for a 4th time, I'm not even a casual gamer with this game, it's just too annoying to do AGAIN.

They need to add account wide skips, shortcuts, speed boosts, seasonal mechanics that really push you through it fast so you hit the new content fresh and ready to grind.

I'm low-key pissed about this because I really love the game, but I can't keep redoing this same campaign the way it currently is.

-Account wide achievable shortcuts like portals, gates, doorways, etc. that you need a special account wide key you get from end game bosses and progress
-Speed buffs baked into the maps to allow you to scout for the next areas, resis buffs, etc. faster. Snowballing speed could make this game feel so fun.

This alone would fix this game so much, add value to carries for noobs, make completing content feel rewarding, carry over rewards and morale going into new seasons, keep new players and bring vet players back.

Hope @Jonathan sees this.

I live for the resets in poe1 pd2 last epoch ect... Poe2 on the other hand one time was enough. I have started every league. I have only gotten to maps once. I am not a casual gamer by any means. I just can't make myself play the acts moving at a snails pace. I also hate playing meta builds so that also do not help. I also refuse to play trade :) out of 21 friends that all started when the EA started I am the only one that still attempts to play poe 2.