We welcome First Impression posts! Please be nice to those posts.

I'll relay my friend's first impressions:

Moving with just clicking is annoying. Why not have WASD?

Everything is too dark. As soon as they got to the caves in act one, they uninstalled.

A new player with a range of comments so here goes:

1. Love the back story and intial set
2. It is a problem that as a starter I had to look for a user into guide to get going.
3. The opening charater types are good and cover an enticing possibility of creative builds and personnal themes.
4. I understand the simplicity of a single avatar per character type BUT from a personnal & asthetic point it would be great to have alternatives - given this is a free game I would entirely support these being micro transactions! This is also the feed from several friends who have looked at the game. Perhaps I'm (we are) odd character builds are concept based from things read, are doing etc - this jars with compulsory gender, vioce and image.
5. THE BIG BEEF - I will call it game interrupts and similar events. Desyncing and freezing, failing to initialise next segment of a map (aka those things generating Error Code 1450 & leading to "runtime errors"), "unexpected disconnects", timming out, crashhing on using portals or waypoints or exiting / entering a new Zone (to distinguise from "Maps" re end game etc). These are a complete curse! Yes this is a free game and going wide scale and complex is neccessary to derive the support the work. The above list (& prob a few I missed)make going more than 1 zone without a new waypoint "interesting" and doing 3 so @#$%^&*!* frustrating as to be ....
6. I come to the game via STEAM and as i'm in New Zealand have to go off shore to get to a server (this through just 1 real link) I am concerned that 1 or both of these is affecting my problems in point 5 above but can't effectively test this?
7. LOVE the Skill Tree! Wonderful, mind boggling inventive, empowering etc.
8. Love the intergration of the quests to the story line (so far - I am only a few 10s of hours into playing)
9. Find the tenor and thrust of the "builds" stuff in its almost manic deterinativeness worrying. To expand the almost over whelming impression is of narrow optimisation to succeed?
10. Clicking to move and attack takes getting use to but I can see why it's done given the importance of the "skill selection". Though so far for me it makes playing "tag" tricky if not marginal.
11. It would be nice to set the quick option skills up so that there where 2 sets that switched with / between one's 2 weapon sets.
12. The visuals are 1st rate and the options to label stuff in game work well with out adverse effects. So far making for good aids to tactics etc.
13. Me I'm an inverterate gatherer so the option to micro transaction some more character inventory (no not stash) would be delightfull.
14. This takes me back to 2. with so little lead information and clear limits on being able to re-engineer as understanding grows - restart grind may be a barrier to retaining people.

All this said (I'm afraid it is all too much) I love the game experience (when it's performing) and given I don't need to outlay $100NZ to play time to address rough edges is the least this endevour deserves!

Greetings GGG!

I want to congratulate you on making a unique style and very well engineered game. I have well enjoyed my first visits to Wraeclast. Your dark and edgy style is certainly one of the major features that sets you apart from other ARPGs. I want to preface by stating explicitly that the following is not a suggestion to change that.

What I would like is a way to shift the visual theme of areas like Piety's dungeon away from macerated/mutilated/deformed humans, to something less offensive to onlookers (say, family members walking around the house). An in-game setting that allowed me to display (thereby affecting no one who does not choose so) all "mutilated-human based mobs" as skeletons, say, would be perfect. Even the zombie-like mobs in act 1 would be great.

This thread's stated purpose is to gather first impressions in a safe setting. As I enjoy your game and this limits my ability to play, I thought it worthy of suggesting. It's not an option you would need to (imho) put much development time into either - use monster models already in use and have an in-game toggle that just re-directs the body-models for certain mob types. As I am volunteering to "gimp" the visuals (I know what I'd see isn't what you intended for the zone), having them not blend as well (or the like) is completely fine.

Thanks for reading.

My first impression is that this game is pretty addictive. I saw it on Steam ages ago, and finally downloaded it yesterday evening... 5 hours later I looked up and realised it's like 2 o'clock in the morning lol.

I've tried out several games with a fantasy setting, and this is the only one I've enjoyed at all. In fact I knew I was going to love it with minutes of starting my first ranger. It's the only game that seems to not be a vague clone of WOW, and I love it for that.

I really enjoy the way skills are built here - so many possibilities to experiment with. But what I really love is that your NPC quest givers have actual voices, and it's not just an endless wall of text. The only other online game I play is SWTOR and that has so much voice acting that it makes any game where nearly everything is text-based very dull to play. So the fact that yours has characters with personality that you can hear is awesome.

Just really glad to have found this game - I was beginning to despair that I would ever find a game with a fantasy setting that made me want to play for more than a couple of hours.

I have been player for about a month and up to act III merciless thanks to ZiggyD and his guides and tanky Bow Ranger LA build. I love the complexity of skill gems and passive skill tree and constantly switching gear and gem set ups between zones to compensate for being a pauper. I have just hit paypal to order a survivor supporter pack to show my appreciation for game. I still hopeless at races though as I just can't strategise around the desynch, back kiting is just to slow which is how I deal with it when it starts to happen in main game (at least when I not been cocky and lazy facetanking a horde with my life on hit LA lol).
The only other annoyance are the traders that don't keep trade to trade chat, by time you get to merciless the party build screen is 99% traders and is jumping all over place to point I don't even bother to party outside guild now.
Best Points
-Versatility of passive Skill tree and skill gem system. Limited only by your imagination.
-Great atmosphere, visually and musically.
-Permanent and temporary leagues, can keep a long term character and experiment and build new characters in brand new economy.
-Versatility of play type- can run a solo or party throughout entire storyline or jump back and forth. Is great not to be stuck in multiplayer or solo.
-Guilds allow you to pool resources and help each other without impacting on gameplay.
-Currency system, is great that the currency has useful properties and that the currency can be bought in vendors providing a cap on free market.
-Truly free to play with no advertising spam or pay to win.
-Great forums and advice available when starting out.
-Shared stash, those trial runs learning game and finding out tactics that suit your style not wasted and even characters in most races add to your currency stash as well as give you headstart on leveling gear when you start serious builds. Also means when you do need to farm you can use a crazy farm build character that you not need to try to get to endgame so not need to grind an area with overpowered character.

Thanks GGG for a great game and I hope to be playing for long time to come.

Hi all . I support this game when it was at closed beta state and i really love the art style , lore ,orbs , items , passive skill tree etc.. ( don`t care about desync)But after reading the forums i understood that SF is not possible and i quit. I`m here now after 1.5.y reading again SF its still not possible ,so i quit again .I will check again after 1.5.y BB.

Well, I have been playing Path of exile for a while now, and must say, I am impressed. One of the first games I have ever played was Diablo 2, and I loved it, (ignoring Diablo 3). After Getting Razer the razer software, I realized that Beta Access to a game, Path of Exile was available. I checked it out, and was immediately hooked. the gem system really caught my attention, and I made a move that I almost never do in games. I started with the Ranger. (Me being a Dual-Wielding Jack of all trades type Character.) I played it non-stop, and was happy with the design, graphics, and the overall flow of the game. When the Scion was announced, I work my butt off to get Her, because her class was more my style. The lore is awesome, interesting, and definitely well done, with immersible voice acting, combat, and a great community, (aside from all the people talking about inappropriate things on the chats, that prevent me from having it open) I am pleased that the Micro transactions are cosmetics, and not items that make the game Pay to win. Overall, I can say that It is a game that I will be playing, as long as I can, I will recommend it to everyone who is looking for something to do, and will be watching out for future developments. (if you guys create something else.)

Well hello there!

I have been playing PoE for two or three days now and even though I wanted to check up the forums earlier, I just couldn't stop playing! I am usually very picky with games and still am, but you just got me here. This game has a great story telling, knows how to create atmosphere, the items do what they are supposed to do, grinding doesn't get boring and actually I don't notice for how long I slay through the hords, it just doesn't get boring. The skill system is ingenius, the gem usage for active skills and support skills is great and, well, I enjoy every bit of it.

Of course there are a few bugs and glitches here and there, but they are not disturbing to my taste. I should try to write about downsides of the game, but there are none as far as I can tell from playing these few days. I didn't try events yet but it is on my shedule. Also I want to support you with money, just right now I am out of it. Maybe in a few days I can afford a little this and that, the big supporter packs are off my limits though which I regret.

It is perfectyou made a free to game play and it doesn't seem tobecome pay to win anytime. It's just the kind of game I am going to voluteeringly pair for over time.

And now I will read through your boards and news. Let's see what more I can learn here.

Keep up the good work!

I really love this game and it would be even more fun and easy to use if it would be possible to :

- Add a search field in the passive skill tree (in the game and not only on the PoE website) to search for some nodes more easily.

- Add a story panel to gather all stories/dialogues/quests texts and be able to read them back more easily.

I understand that this style of game is loved by many. The latest BARD's TALE iteration for example. I love the skill chart and, in general, much of this game. It is the first time I have been this involved in this style game and I only joined to play with a friend who likes this-style third person games. I have not played this style since the last BARD's TALE was released. I love XCOM UFO so it is not all third-person games.

My three issues are:
1. I am being attacked by creatures that are off screen. To quote The Sweet Shop skit from MONTY PYTHON, "Where's the fun in that". I would get far, far, far more enjoyment from this game if I could zoom out to see my opponents. The inability to do this is probably why I will end up quitting playing PoE, reluctantly. It will probably be my "deal breaker". Adding that ability would still allow those players who prefer stealth opponents to opt to NOT zoom out. I sure hope you can make this change and I see there is a small amount of zoom allowed already, which I hope is a good sign.

2. The next, merely irritating, issue is that I cannot make out where/who the opponents are in the low contrast background. It would be nice if they were always outlined/highlighted in red and the entire creature filled in with red when targeted. Sometimes I feel as if my character were blindfolded when trying to attack the bad guys. The difficulty identifying targets clearly is worse when they move around in a jam of individuals.
3. This is made worse by the game using the same action to shoot and to move. I find myself missing the enemy and instead moving right into the midst of them. These should be separate actions. Perhaps hitting the right-shift bar, for example.

All other issues I have with the game are relatively minor. If these three were "fixed" I think I might play this game for a long time, despite my misgivings before starting. Otherwise I think frustration will drive me away.

This said, I am impressed by the game and the creativity that has gone into it. Please fix these issues if you can.