POE2 is becoming POE1

Since we are waiting for 0.5 to drop I have been reflecting on POE2 since launch and contemplating on what the premise was for POE2 vs what we got now. After watching the early gameplay trailer of the monk in act 3 https://youtu.be/y8OL9qqnhDo?si=vuensCbUxVUsPDgp I think it's save to assume that the core gameplay has completely changed.

What was showcased and promised was slower gameplay, more readable combat, more unforgiving gameplay as even simple mobs could pose a threat making you have to strategise and play somewhat more carefully.
But what we have now is single button room explosion clearing gameplay and that's not only for late game builds but also true for campaign builds somewhat. The gameplay has been sped up by a lot and i'm not talking about the sprint mechanic (that mechanic is actually good and needed). But just talking about the scaling of the gameplay itself.

Gameplay has scaled up so much that it's almost the same as POE1 with the only difference there being a graphical upgrade with some slightly different gameplay mechanics.

I feel like GGG has listened too much to the small audience of hardcore POE1 players who kept complaining about how slow the gameplay was and how little loot there was. So they scaled up the gameplay to "save face", but now the gameplay is so scaled up that i'm afraid the game might just become POE1 now.

GGG should stick to their original game philosophy for POE2 and that is by making this POE more "hardcore" as in, more difficult, unforgiving, slower, methodical, readable and there for requiring more strategy and skill. Now they can still do that, but when 1.0 launches or after it would be too late as people would've already gotten accustomed to the "new" gameplay.

From 0.1 to now I think the only thing POE2 was really lacking in, was content (but this is a given as it was 0.1 of EA), a sprint button and better crafting mechanics.
It's kinda crazy that crafting in the campaign is actually kinda useless and a waste of currency, even though this is normal in POE1?
Right now the only difficulty in the game is the ability to get gear without bad affixes and rares that have annoying or crazy affixes, as well as ground effects. But enemies themselves aren't really that engaging anymore as they were in 0.1

The problem with sticking to the first idea of a slow paced gameplay is that the majority of players dont want to play that style of game.
The thing that makes POE 1 work so well is that every 4 months you get new skills and new ways to make them the biggest and badest yet. People want big explosions they want to kill large amount of mobs very quickly in the most inhumane way possible with lots of blood. With POE 2 they wanted to make things slower, less screen clearing and more one to one killing but it hasnt worked because that isnt what people want.
At the end of the day you can have a vision for a game but if that vision isnt making the money somethings have to change, so yes POE 2 is becomming POE 1 with much better graphics.

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Zoddo#7578 wrote:

I feel like GGG has listened too much to the small audience of hardcore POE1 players

What make you think it's a small audience tough? As i understood poe1 community carryed poe2 over multiple years financialy. They were waiting for this game like no one else.

What i've seen is the majority was (is still, sometimes) complaining that the game is too hard more than the other way around. 0.2 was massively criticised. (i got the game when it was "mostly negative" reviews on steam at that time, most reviews were that the game is too hard and loot too rare)

Just watch this forum with the amount of post of people complaining "this or that" is too hard.

GGG will have to find them middle ground i believe at some point between what players want and what they want. Not an easy task.

PoE1 is a hack and slash genre of old D2 style of combat. Yes, the community is divided and most likely thinks it's to unbalanced as i do. First, there are the casual players who just want to have fun in the smallest time frame as possible, second there is the GRINDING players who want's a hardcore experience and likes the bigger time frame.

PoE2 needs to slow down and offer a more strategic combat system that is in the Action RPG genre. Action games doesn't mean ARCADE style of gameplay, or mashing buttons to get combos, that is not what i think this must become.

I find myself want to play a game that has a speed balanced, if i move slow, the mobs needs to move slow or maybe little faster then me. Also the projectile speed or range skills needs to address this.

U all need to really think, what is good and what kind of gameplay do you wish. Getting to lvl 85+ to be a "GOD" and with the power of one button clear the map, spamming the same thing all over or maybe a more meaningful, tactic based combat.

Exiles from my POV are not gods, but champions who most likely changed history.

Well, it's becoming better (excluding the temple nonsense) than it was, so who cares what it becomes as long as becomes better.

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BlastYa#4875 wrote:

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Zoddo#7578 wrote:

I feel like GGG has listened too much to the small audience of hardcore POE1 players

What make you think it's a small audience tough? As i understood poe1 community carryed poe2 over multiple years financialy. They were waiting for this game like no one else.

What i've seen is the majority was (is still, sometimes) complaining that the game is too hard more than the other way around. 0.2 was massively criticised. (i got the game when it was "mostly negative" reviews on steam at that time, most reviews were that the game is too hard and loot too rare)

Just watch this forum with the amount of post of people complaining "this or that" is too hard.

GGG will have to find them middle ground i believe at some point between what players want and what they want. Not an easy task.

cope

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sephrinx#7591 wrote:

Well, it's becoming better (excluding the temple nonsense) than it was, so who cares what it becomes as long as becomes better.

"who cares what it becomes"
>proceeds to give an example of what it should become

how can you type only 1 sentence and yet don't see the contradiction in what you type out?

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i1332v#2731 wrote:

PoE2 needs to slow down and offer a more strategic combat system that is in the Action RPG genre. Action games doesn't mean ARCADE style of gameplay, or mashing buttons to get combos, that is not what i think this must become.

The strategy should come from a risk/reward thought process and a preplanning process that gets adjusted as you play through the maps.

For example; right now healing is no problem, just spamm pots that regen or get ES. This should be fixed by limiting healing pots but also balancing out ES. Another factor is that mobs don't deal any real damage, unless they are rare with some BS mod or are fast damage dealers like some abyss mobs.
If they want to make POE2 more difficult they should adress those points.

The overal speed of the combat is fine but the scalability and mob difficulty is just too fast/small. As in you get to a point really quickly where you reject over 90% of all the loot and blast away all the mobs. No mob is ever a challenge, not even rares unless they got some BS mods as mentioned before. They are just "bullet sponges".

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Zoddo#7578 wrote:

The strategy should come from a risk/reward thought process and a preplanning process that gets adjusted as you play through the maps.

You cannot apply any strategy in this game. When you reach endgame all the gameplay being driven by genuinely retarted design: oneshot or be oneshotted.
It's even worse when you play melee.

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Zoddo#7578 wrote:

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i1332v#2731 wrote:

PoE2 needs to slow down and offer a more strategic combat system that is in the Action RPG genre. Action games doesn't mean ARCADE style of gameplay, or mashing buttons to get combos, that is not what i think this must become.

The strategy should come from a risk/reward thought process and a preplanning process that gets adjusted as you play through the maps.

For example; right now healing is no problem, just spamm pots that regen or get ES. This should be fixed by limiting healing pots but also balancing out ES. Another factor is that mobs don't deal any real damage, unless they are rare with some BS mod or are fast damage dealers like some abyss mobs.
If they want to make POE2 more difficult they should adress those points.

The overal speed of the combat is fine but the scalability and mob difficulty is just too fast/small. As in you get to a point really quickly where you reject over 90% of all the loot and blast away all the mobs. No mob is ever a challenge, not even rares unless they got some BS mods as mentioned before. They are just "bullet sponges".

Indeed, the pace of some skills are there for a slower gameplay but the mobs, besides some bosses, are made for hack and slash gameplay. It really looks somehow clunky when your character needs to change the phase. I am not referring at the healing process, somehow it's ok, although it can be addressed at a later time.