[Feedback] Feel of the game after 600h

I played three leagues in PoE. The first league, when the game launched, was amazing. I enjoyed the campaign; it was difficult and challenging. The story was interesting. It was a very refreshing change, as I'd moved on from Diablo 4 in terms of game mechanics (the campaign there is also fantastic). I was looking for a game that was a bit more challenging, and I found it. I'm 41 years old, I've been playing games since I was a child, and I love aRPGs.

The road to the endgame
After three leagues, each with an expanded campaign, so there was always something new. Now I can't play through another one; it's boring. I can't imagine creating two characters during a league—it's impossible. I wondered why. My personal conclusions are as follows:
1. Doing this just to access the endgame is a waste of time, which I don't have much of. For me, completing the campaign takes several days—it's too long.
2. PoE 2 doesn't have an open world, so during the campaign I'm forced to perform the exact same actions in the same order – it's simply boring. I can't take a break to do something interesting, something I enjoy – it's a game. I play for fun.
3. The game is demanding, and progress is slow, especially when I try to play the way I love – with my own build, without looking at others, especially YouTubers (I have a strong opinion of them, about the negative influence they have on modern gaming).

To summarize this chapter – the campaign is seriously blocking my path to the endgame. I passed in this league. I can't imagine going through this again.

Combat Experience
I'll go back to the beginning. When I started playing PoE 2, I felt fantastic – especially the combat and the developers' promise that it would always be like this. When I reached the endgame, unfortunately, the game turned into a two- or three-button mashing fest, with virtually no interaction with enemies. Well, it wasn't what I expected. In this league, I tried playing a melee character for the first time – a druid. At first, it was enjoyable, but as I progressed, combat became increasingly unpleasant. Enemies constantly interrupt attacks and push the character, moving around the map is incredibly difficult, with constant blocking, through boxes, trees, and flowers. The gameplay ceases to be dynamic and enjoyable – I'm constantly fighting windmills. Enemies are too fast and there are too many of them for combos to make sense. I tried playing a werewolf, a druid, and an amazon. I was more nervous than I was enjoying the combat. When Diablo 4 released Spiritborn, it was a completely different experience. Playing that character was fantastic – fluid, and I especially enjoyed the defensive skills that required good timing. I really miss that from PoE 2 – strong defensive skills. To summarize this chapter, combat isn't enjoyable – I feel like I'm constantly trying to beat the game itself, not the enemies. Boss fights are the best part of the game. The bosses are fantastic, each fight is different – ​​although I despise the one-shot mechanic. I've never played an aRPG with bosses like that before.

Items and Crafting
I'd never played PoE before, and I have to admit, the items were a shock. I don't know about other players, but I've never played a game with a worse item system. After a few hours of end-game play, the items dropped lost all meaning – I wondered why I was even playing this game. I'd never played an RPG where items dropped from monsters were so worthless, and it annoyed me more than it excited me. Unique items are cool and have interesting effects. As for the rest of the items, I simply don't understand the concept of crafting. Firstly, there's very little information in the game itself regarding crafting. Secondly, crafting is a bit of a nightmare – not only do you need a huge number of 15,000 different items, but using them is a real gamble. I watched a lot of tutorials to understand this. After a few days, I decided I didn't have time for it and wouldn't bother with it. Especially since I had a very limited supply of crafting items. And here's where I come to the market. I understand that the developers decided to reflect the real world in the game, but for me personally, PoE 2 is a game, not a job. I already have a job. This is a strange mechanic for me because, on the one hand, I don't want to deal with the item exchange because I'm forced to buy from other players who somehow control the prices. I don't have time to join this game for items on the exchange, and on the other hand, I have to use the item exchange because crafting is unbearable.
From my perspective, the item exchange is interesting in theory, although I'll never be able to participate due to lack of time.

Endgame
I won't write about the Atlas map here, as that's expected to change soon, but I will mention one thing. Progressing through waystones is a nightmare. I don't know if you realize it, but showing a player, or anyone else, a wall of modifier text is like a slap in the face. It's like watching a PowerPoint presentation with only text. Does anyone read this? Too much information at once. This also applies to the Atlas skill tree. Too much information at once. I could also criticize the skill tree – too much information at once – you could hide half the nodes and have smooth progression. Secondly, I never made it to the eng-game bosses, despite putting 600 hours into the game – strange. I wondered why.

In my opinion, progressing through the game through a sea of ​​modifiers is not interesting, but rather the opposite - frustrating.

Character Identity and Skills
I don't know, maybe it's just PoE 2, but I missed a bit of character identity – the game is more focused on skills than characters themselves. This is probably a huge plus for many. But it just doesn't sit well with me. It's hard to put into words how I feel about it; I created thematic characters – an Amazon with a spear, a Lich with minions, and chaos. Seeing a wizard throw a lightning spear isn't my cup of tea. I loved playing with skills; I could spend hours thinking about them – but here's a big "no." Such play requires precise information provided by the interface. I understand the game is in development, but I was very frustrated by the lack of information, the glitches in skill functionality, and the damn ambiguity about what works with what. The game is a super interesting puzzle, it just needs more clarity.

It's also interesting that I often found myself spending more time calculating and fiddling with the skill tree – it was quite exciting. I recommend turning off YouTube and playing on your own.

User Interface
I don't know how to put it into words, but the UI is a real pain in the ass. Aesthetically, it looks more like Visual Studio or some CAD creation than an epic game. I can't browse skills without a gem. The size of items is a relic of the past, gentlemen. I don't understand why you insist on it. I have to return to town every 10 items – the game is supposed to be fun, it's not work. You insist on this as if the crown will fall off your head to make the game more enjoyable for players. The UI looks much better when I play with a gamepad – it looks great. There's a huge amount of room for improvement, especially when crafting. The number of clicks I have to make is enormous.

It's a choice: do you force players to spend time in the game doing things that are unpleasant, or do you encourage players to spend time in the game enjoying your product? Which would you rather do, publisher?

Skins
Why do the skins in this game look so bad? Again, this is my personal opinion – please take Diablo 4 as an example. For me, a character's appearance is incredibly important because I'm bonding with them and want them to look good – it might sound silly, but it matters a lot to me. I'd rather spend money on my character looking badass, like a world destroyer, than like an autistic wizard with a cross eye and mustard on his beard. Personally, for me, that's a huge downside to this game – the character's appearance. I understand that this is very subjective.

This is my personal feedback.

Interesting note about the combat. I have basically the opposite opinion regarding the contrast between D4 and PoE2. To me D4 is a bit clunky feeling and that the fluidity of PoE2's combat is unmatched by any other ARPG on the market.

I agree that the game does not do a great job at communicating itself and it's mechanics/systems to the player though, which I think contributes to the disparity of opinions regarding these systems - including combat.

Five people who know and understand an exclusive 20% of whatever's going on are going to end up with 5 different opinions on the same thing and every single one of them could be correct in their assessments, while they'd be arguing amongst each other lol.

Current campaign straight sucks and we talked about it a lot lately.
Due to lack of proper defenses, overtuned mobs in the endgame just onetwo tap you easily with 1000 light stuns per second. It creates a toxic mindset of "onetap them before they onetap you" thats why something that doesnt melt bosses in less than 10 seconds, is not viable. Dangerous to play
You can play Ice Strike Stormweaver or give Witch a crossbow yeah. Having weapons not being tied certain classes and only gated by the attributes is the huge W of this game. You can build anything you want. I just wish the passive skill tree was not a complete garbage.
Itemization part and 15000 currencies this is all came from POE1. Outdated casino simulator. POE1 is already cooked in that regard and POE2 is only getting worse with each new patches that contributes more bloat to the game.
User interface yes, it needs some work but at the same time its a part of the game's identity in my opinion.

Combat is a bit awkward for me, especially when I play on a gamepad—which I've been doing lately for comfort—my back hurts :D

I'm especially referring to skills that jump to the enemy. Often, the character doesn't jump to the enemy, getting stuck somewhere between monsters. The maps also annoy me a bit, especially when there are a lot of obstacles on the ground—with all due respect, but a flower or a crate shouldn't be able to stop a guy who's supposed to save the world :D

Personally, dodging is also strange for me. Characters slow down, and turning while running is too slow for me. When the game's pace picks up in the endgame, dodging reduces the dynamics of combat, and when my character runs, I feel like a cripple about to run into something and fall.