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

One of the best times to casually SSF because of how much content there to cherry pick to advance your character; but the actual Synthesis league is so dull I just stopped going into memory portals at all.

About game optimisation:
This is not my first impression, but the second one. May be it is rude, but while the idea of the game and its plot is awesome, the technical side is a piece of unoptimized dogshit. I dunno, how and why do you, guys, do that... may be it is some sort of competition: "how to manage players to suffer harder", but the fact is simple: the game performs bad.

I posted a message about it like 2 years ago and got replies like "hey, you need to upgrade your computer!" But i dont! It works well and can run any game without problems. Except this one. Yes, i dont have SSD. But look: people, who have it, got problems with Intervention events. Thats just an extreme situation, when even SSD cant help. The league will ends in 2 month and then we get even harder errors, because you just too proud to agree with those, who see the problem.

Emagine, you went to a doctor:
- Doctor, my leg hurts!
- Hmm. Strange... i have the similar leg and it not hurts...

The same bullshit answer we got, when you told us, that game works well.

Give us more graphical options! Why in hell the lowest one for textures is "Medium"?! Why i cant disable this stupid shaders and shadows and your "beautiful realistic water" which i dont wanna observe at all?! All that shitty wingmans, at last! Jesus... give me an option "Disable all MTXes", i m even ready to buy it! Holy shit, you use 3D engine in 2D game (there is really no situation where 3D is nessessary)! I m typing by one hand while holding the other on my face...

And why i need to restart my computer after 2-3 hours of playing? It looks like memory leak, you know...

I really dont hope, that you, guys, will fix anything. I know, that it is easier for you to create few new wings and hats to sell em to schoolboys, instead of doing things that must be done... But if you have some conscience... just a little... you will put more effort in the optimisation process.

About the league and gameplay in general:
Syntesis is a little boring. You running maps, than bam: you need to forget the maps and run memories. Then return... than again... I dunno who get the idea that 10 memories in queue is good, but i cant say that this man is smart (trying not to be rude here). Also the situations, when you go to a map, run a memory, return to a map, found Zana, go there, run another memory at that map... I ll be brief: matryoshka - style is bad. Never do mechanics like this again!

In the Nexus we got another problems. Decaying memories (except Distants) just irritating. 3 charges maximum is annoying too. Why there is no modifiers which can refresh the memories? Also: we need to run to Distant memories from the very start. Compare it with the Delve where we just teleport to point we need. Is it too hard to do the same here?

The reward system... You got good rewards at high levels. I guess. I m still on t10s just because i v tried not to skip anything. The rewards at this levels not worth anything.

New implicits? Interesting, but A LOT of garbage or implicits that duplicate existing ones. While there are some OP implicits like +gem level bows or 1k ES vaal regalias. Now we need to spend much more time because, you know... power creep.

Also mentioned... may be it is just me, but looks like the regular drop became lower. For example, every league i got like 5 ex from random drops. In the Betrayal i got only 1 of them. And only 2 this league (it is not over yet, but i never played more than 5-6 weeks per 1 league). May be you make that to compensate additional sources of income, but at the end the economics got worse. Those, who cant make currency, became more poor. Those, who can - more rich. It is not good at all.

Also... absolutely idiotic lab trial appearence rates. My first league was Legacy, and i got all 6 trials by myself pretty easy. This league i got 4 trials and then spent A WEEK trying TO BUY last two on 820 channel. I can understand the idea that 6-link is not for everyone, but when you cant get to Uber-lab... it sounds a little retarded, you know...

I know, that you say that PoE is hardcore game. But please, try to understand the difference between "hardcore" and "uncomfortable".

At a high-level, I love about everything other than the trading system.

We shouldn't be forced to leave the game to buy something and definitely shouldn't have to interrupt our maps to sell something. A basic in-game system is highly needed and could easily be worked into the storyline and drive transactions.

An extremely innovative game that puts the AAA corporate sellouts to shame.

S/F

It's the first time I can say i've got to the very end game and have gained a bit of insight - though, i suppose nothing others have not already addressed.

Having played other long running so-called f2p games it is sad that I find it in the same state as so many others; the state, I mean, is that of mess. There are layers on top of layers of systems that must have ceased to work a while ago. The cherry on the trash pile is this thing called Synthesis, like many others I can't muster the strength to bother with it.

When there are so many elements to it's gameplay, it is desirable that we'd be able to engage them at our own pace and discretion. My main problem is that you can't. One player's IGN put it quite eloquently: "Letmechoosethecontent". Oh boy, I wish we could!

* * *

I think that for us - those whom are not overly meta or superbly equipped - the game can be hard (if you can't keep higher level maps coming, you often degrade into far too easy segments). I think that this puts the game at odds with itself. It is fine to play hard games, but hard games are only enjoyable when they're functioning well. The polish is not there. Performance is bad and unpredictable; it's almost like the fps is RNG as well. There is a need for tightening the screws on polish, but, in the end, it is a GAAS game with a constant demand for more content (and no so much for more quality).


Additionally it seens beholden to unpractical ideas contained in it's manifesto; trade needs to be better. You can't have the economy to be working in ad hoc fashion through bots (praise be these brave lads running this crap).

***

Finally what grind my gears about this game - that I enjoy, despite my complaints - are:

- Screen Fov, UI elements and other clutter in the screen. Just take a look at the screen during a Lava Lake or Kitava fight. The Boss is never on screen, and often blocked by assorted buffs. I think every element relevant to a fight should be conveyed on a a single screen.
- One Shotting. Because leeching is so prevalant in gameplay, HP pools do not convey a resource, but rather a bizarre proxy for the risk of dying at any given moment. Life Bars in POE are rather like cables, under duress they snap in an instant, they never really unravel. Oh and too often you have no clue what killed you.
- Absurd prices for MTX.

Just wanted to post some impressions about the league, I had returned to the game after a couple leagues break.

First on Synthesis league content. The mechanics of interaction with memories done well, I could not see all the content, but what I saw was entertaining and fun. Cant say the same for a craft part. I saw some streamers are looking at some Taiwan site for a results of synthesizing things, requirements etc. If that is mandatory I don't think it is a good way to interact with a game. For me it was just gathering tier 1/2 rolls on fractured items for sell and self craft with guaranteed mod that is not erased with scoring orb, ignoring all incomprehensible stuff. Anyways, the only good thing I could imagine I can get from that is buying 1 million exalts fractured VaalRegalias with locked energy shield roll to synthesize one with implicted +shield. So I do not bother. This craft system was useless for me as a casual player to be short.

On other content. At first I was glad to discover that there are a lot of "old" league content still available, including some good ones I missed. But then was disappointed because I could not interact with them to the extent I wanted. I did not make it deeper than 78-79 mob level in Delve with two 90+ lvl characters, even tho I liked it a lot and clung to every opportunity to gather fuel and explore more. On the other hand, the Betrayal league content (which I hated and did not understand from the beginning) oneshotted my 95 character on a regular map, even tho he was strong enough for endgame content like Elder and Shaper. Wish I could ignore it completely and get those veil craft recipes the other way. I remember a past league with "leaguestones" which we could use with the map device to control the content we wish to interact with. Missing that much.

Seeing that you made it from third party site to official trading page is good, still don't understand why it cant be build in the client itself. The MTX equipment is much easier to use nowadays then I remember from old times, but still missing the preview feature to see how certain things will look on your character combined with other stuff.

Synthesis is the worst league ever. It's just AWFUL, this decaying shit is so annoying that i just want to break things... As you can already see the league is dead, people are not playing, no one is trading. I can't sell anything for days... I hope that the whole Synthesis mechanics will be forgotten, deleted and removed form POE.It's needlessly complicated crafting system that it's just too annoying. Onslaught boots ??? No ES cap is stupid ? Who will play life build ???

And don't let me start with Syndicate encounters ! Every day i'm dying from lag because of it ! Every day I have unexpected disconnects because of this !

Betrayal league was working smoothly what happened ?

New player here and after 150 hours or so heres my thoughts, 10% EXP loss is the single worst game mechanic I've ever come across in all my days of gaming. Surprising eh? 10% of current total would be excessive yet you went even more insane and enacted 10% of total required per level. I'm not sure who is originally to blame for this idea but I can't imagine why people have been putting up with this for so long. I only just stumbled on this game by accident on the PS4 store a month or so ago and I suffered my way to lvl 84. Well I enjoyed the first 65 levels and 10 acts I must say, but little did I know I was in for the most vile experience for progression ever developed. The fact that a key core of your game mechanic is overwhelming the player with masses of enemies that your engine cannot even come close to handling should have been a big enough red flag for you to re examine the EXP loss but from what I've seen your team seems to be hell bent on pushing away any new players that aren't willing to become insane hardcore players willing to dedicate their lives to a poorly designed game. Well you got 7 bucks from me by locking trading by a pay wall so your not too stupid I guess. Enjoy the 7 bucks you won't be getting a cent more.

I posted on a different thread, but it was suggested that I post here (as my post is mainly a first impression).

After the boredom that Diablo has become, PoE is refreshing. Note: my comments below are reserved for the PS4 release. Being a new player allows me to comment on the things that immediately jump out at me – hopefully this is of some use.

Hardware:

1. The game hasn’t really ported well to PS4. There’s a massive scale-down of graphics (from the scant few clips I’ve watched of the PC version) and a rather large zoom-in (to the point where map identity gets a bit lost) to try accommodate the lesser hardware. It hasn’t worked. There’s massive screen tearing all the time and some complete graphic lock-ups that feel like the shaper is visiting every map you’re on. Some of the maps are actually just unplayable on PS4. Completely. There’s one where you have to jump on stepping stones to these spires (excuse my ignorance)… it’s completely impossible to play – every jump locks the framerate up. This is probably being worked on, but after the smoothness of Diablo, this is awkwardly terrible. Also, being killed because of lockup lag is not great. Being killed by rubber-banding (which happens ALL the time while dashing) is not great.

2. The game crashes once every hour or so. I’ve never gone a 5-hour stretch without this happening. I’ve noticed that it’s usually as you get an offer in the auction house, but it happens pretty much ubiquitously. Also happens as spells level up… perhaps it’s something to do with the way banners are posted on-screen. Regardless, this is a very frustrating experience… You party up with a few people and within a few minutes it’s pretty much guaranteed that someone will crash out.

Social:
1. The first huge issue I had with the game was pretty much immediately. There’s no list of my friends currently playing that I can simply click on. How can such an important feature be missing? I understand that you have to run this through the PS4 backend (like Diablo had to) but not having a list of current players in-game is really terrible. I can’t think of another game that doesn’t have this. This takes me into my next point.

2. Before getting a hideout, you’re stuck in town to access your chest, buy gems etc. It’s truly infuriating trying to click on the portal when 10 people are standing on it. Don’t even try access your chest… all you end up doing is trading with people – which you’d never do because they’re complete strangers. The actual use of clicking on people would be to team up – but, mystifyingly, you can’t do that! I’d say the best thing would be to completely remove clicking on people.

3. That said, it’s also very odd that you cannot view someone’s character sheet. This would be so useful for new players, for experienced players, hell, for everyone. Surely this is possible, and I’ve just missed how to do it… At least, that’s what I’m hoping.

Mechanics:
1. The auction house is a nightmare on PS4. Without being able to set meaningful filters, you’re left trolling through hundreds of pages of really crap gear trying to find something useful. I understand that prices will be all over the place as the largely new player-base comes to grip with the system, but even then it will be incredibly hard to find what you want. Noobs will always post junk, but a robust filtering method will fix all this.

2. I never thought I’d say this, but there’s just too much loot. If you apply a loot filter, it means you only want certain things. Why then does the undesirable loot still drop? If you hold down L3 you can see the entire screen is covered in names. No one is going to pick any of that up – so why even render it? As far as I can see, PoE is RIGHT on the edge of what PS4 can handle – so it’s probably important to minimize chokepoints for the display engine (there’s always lockup during a loot drop). Also, similar to the problem in town, picking up some loot by having to joystick around is very irritating. There have been occasions where it’s just impossible to pick something up – after trying for a few minutes. An example is when loot drops in the mine behind the mining machine. The game will always prioritise the machine over the loot… I realise it’s hard to go from mouse to joystick. But currently, the system is really unpleasant to play with.

3. If you’ve bought extra tabs – and I always like to support games that are free-to-play by giving something back – the gear you place in your chest should automatically go to the right tab. Newly discovered cards should go to the card tab without me having to tab there first. I spent the money, so make it easier for me surely? Some people might want to keep things separately, but you’ve already built this in by being able to manually move loot with triangle. This won't work for all gear, but for some it should be a no-brainer.

As I’ve stated at the beginning of this post, I’m a noob to this game. So this is a noob’s impression. But as an experienced gamer I find that certain absolutely necessary features are completely lacking. This post comes across as a rant, largely because I’m being critical. There’s plenty to gush about with this game. Plenty! It’s also possible, that being a noob I’m wrong about some of the things I’ve posted and that there ARE ways to do some of these things. If so, I’d appreciate being corrected. This is a game that’s so close to being better than Diablo in the ways that matter, but is strangely hamstrung by some important omissions. I’m writing this post because I’m cheering for this game – I really want to see it reach its potential as the top aRPG out there. All comments appreciated.

So here is my feedback on the game.
I'm on my 2nd "proper" league, and have clocked up 350+ hours now which feels like a lot to me, but it's probably chicken feed to others.

First things first.

The game is confusing as hell

I don't mind reading a few guides, or watching the odd video, but the game is Complex without offering Depth. I can't fathom any tactics to the game other than hit and move; it's an aRPG. I don't mind swatting up on min-maxing, but reading up just to play the game? It needs a better guide. Really. Even now, at 350 hours, I've still no clue how to do most of the game crafting. Should I read more? Or should your game just lead me in to it? You know the saying, if you can't explain something to a six year old kid, you're doing it wrong.

It's specific, not diverse

Community builds appear to centre around key 6-link gear and very specific combinations of items in order to hit high dps - which seems really to be all that can be "maximised". Sure you can cap out resistances, and get more energy shield, but moar damage seems most obtainable.

Also, most gear that drops is just downright junk, even the "uniques". I've seen hundreds of uniques this league, not one has been worth using. At level 90/91 I'm not interested in a piece of levelling gear with 4 abilities. Compress the gear tables so that less crap drops. Which brings me to:

RNG Drops are tight as a badgers behind

In 350 hours of play I've had 3 exalts drop, no 6-link, and no gear that I'd use in end game. The best I have are some single-abyssal slot Tombstone gloves that I got on a shared run.

REALLY. This is a fact. I've had NOTHING drop that I've been able to use.

This has been the best league for me as an exalt dropped around level 60 which meant I could grab some armour early on, but in 3 (2.5) leagues I've had to rely on being sugar-daddied by a friend who plays 4x as much as me.

In fact: 6-links are pretty essential and yet they only link with 1500 fusings? Really? And that is AFTER you get a RNG drop for the armour piece itself.

Sure you could say unlucky, and it really is random. Or say "play more". But 350 hours in a game is ample. If I need more time to get to mid-end game then really I'd prefer to pay real cash for an end game pass thanks. Or, it's just not meant for me, which might be closer to the truth.

Repeat mapping | meh

For me, the main game adventure is better than mapping. It's diverse; mixed challenges, scenarios, variation. I love delve. I don't mind bestiary.

Hammering a map repeatedly? I get where this may have come from in the games development, but it's just weird that this is the main 'content' and "pro" players get there in hours. Maps aren't enjoyable for me: blasting through then suddenly dying because...

The screen range isn't big enough.

To be hit by things off screen is crud. Or under the 3d canopy. Or even just a movement skill taking you right in to the face of a load of enemies. I need to be able to zoom out further.

Insta-deaths

Hardcore players might creep around, but if I'm tearing through a map like there's no tomorrow I'm just playing casual. Dying instantly to ++ chaos ophidian turret or to porcupines "just because"? Bloody porcupines!

It's a disjointed experience. And it compresses choices to things like CWDT+IC combinations. I bet there are a hundred gems that are just never used because
protecting against spike damage is always the best tactic. I'm only at level 10 maps (lev 90), nowhere near the end, it's not fun to tiptoe around.

On porcupines: my pet hate. Nothing should be more dangerous when killed than alive. A hard area should be consistently hard, not spiky-damage "gotcha!". Dying is easier to a random pack of porcupines than bosses. You "whirling-blades" in, then you hit "fire" - and you're dead.

Likewise, there's something off with the aiming/camera. Aiming is just a bit off with directed skills.

And lag, when it happens, is horrible. Go CSHD.

Death becomes you

Lastly; 10% penalty for death is nothing when it's 20 minutes. When it gets to 2 hours or more, then the game needs to be sharper. Many a time I've clicked near a wall and auto-wandered in to a death pit.

L2P for sure, but I'm playing for fun to progress, and wasting 2 hours does not motivate me to get gud, quite the opposite.

Trading

OMG. Trading is done offline through a website that you can really only access with premium stash tabs? Fine. I've paid.

Do you know what fun is? Tapping up 20 contacts for a map because no one replies.

Other side of this equation? You're in a map within a map, and it's a "unique" / one shot map, then someone sends you a whisper saying they'd like to buy one of your items. What do you do? Reply to them and risk dying? Ignore them? Throw your map away to sell them something? It's horribly clunky. If I put something for sale for a price, just transact it for me. The whole "best-offer" thing - auction it. Whatever.

Full circle back to confusing as hell.

Damage log. I just died. Why? WTH was that huge spike I just took? I'm assuming physical, but was it chaos? Did I get frozen out for too long? How do I know? If I don't know why my build failed me, how am I expected to learn?


In summary
I've enjoyed my time. I realise leagues aren't for me. I realise I'm not pro, semi pro, or even above average. But I'm at the stage with this amount on the clock where I can't face watching my XP go down faster than it goes up. And it's a shame: because I'm never going to see that end game content / shaper / etc. simply because ^ crappy mechanics ^.

Thanks though :)

Dear GGG,

I don't usually write feedbacks (I see no point in it usually), but let me give you some. As someone who played Blizzard's Diablo2 for nearly decate (both single player and battle.net), I was neatly suprised by this game and when I 1st started it I was like all nostalgia "this is my diablo2 succsessor". I have it now on PS4, so I will adress a PS4 version. PC players can call me console peasant, I don't care. I have my comfort from couch now and not some back-killing "gamer" seat :).

1st I would like to start with controls. I am satisified with the controlls but one thing, that irks me to no end, and that is the priority which control chooses target. I don't even know how many fragmented memories I failed to stabilize, because controller rather choose monster as target rather than memory stabilizier. Same goes for other important things like chests, quest items, shrines etc. on PC it's easy to click on shrine with mouse. On console - not so much. I even went as far as to remove skill from my X button cuz instead of stabilizing memory, my character instead chooses to swing his big-a** sword into air instead. If there is method to set priorities to cursor let me know. I don't go to options often :).

regarding stability my PoE on PS4 tend to crash from time to time on PS4 pro. No apparent reason, it happens anytime, mostly during fight (which is mostly chaotic with a lot of creeps to slay). I'm pretty sure I am not the only one so I believe you know about this issue.

Regarding internet connections, quite often I experience lags. ofc they were before, are and were and during my diablo2 times, which is one of reasons I don't play HC (one lag and you dead, you know it), however, still bearable bar from time-to-time disconnection, but since game keeps your progress it's not such a big deal.

Now onto gameplay:
I will adress the current league - synthesis. I find it mostly OK apart from one thing and that is the objective of this league - creating good items by using the machine is nearly, if not impossible. in order for item to be good you need good rolls on everything - you need specific items to merge (if you use 1 you don't want and 33% chance kicks in, you are out of luck RIP), then it needs to have good modifiers, and preferably 3 of them. I am level 83 atm and to be honest - I have yet to see single fragmented item with 3 modifiers, much less item I need WITH modifiers I need/want. It's much cheaper and better options just to find it rare without these modifier. It's simply too much of a hassle especially since their drop rate is quite low to begin with. I managed to drop 3 exhalted orbs by now and I didn't manage to find single for example dragonskin gloves with 3 modifiers - much less 3 of them AND with modifiers I want. And if they drop, I would most likely try to sell them anyway comming how rare they are.

regarding other mechanics there isn't much to say since I can't. There are so many of them that they are infighting on each map "if and which one will spawn" that I was practicaly unable to make any progress with them at all. I want to advance the "veiled" mechanics but I don't get opportunities to do so at all. meanwhile, Cavas is getting on my nerves, trying to sound like Decard Cain.

what infuriates me on the game the most is probably the end-game content locked behind RNG wall with the maps. I'v read. I'v studied and yet I can't advance past T5 maps. When by som miracle I get T5 map, I get either no map or lousy T1/T2 map. Desptie turning it magic/rare with item and using chisels. Either I'm doing something wrong, got simply bad luck or my brain is now failing me now at 30yr/ol. I believe that endgame should not be locked out like this. superbosses? I'm fine with that. You can make the maps for superbosses hard to drop AF. That's IMO how it should be. Make the chances better in higher tier locations (which are also harder), but please, for God's love, don't lock out people out of end-game locations with some stupid mechanics like RNG. RNG is the reason why like 95% players quit Maplestory2 and now is a dead game despite being 1/2 year old. When I managed to get finaly some T5 maps only to get no map to drop at all in that location forcing me to start all over I can only compare it to "weapon breaking upon enchanting try in korean MMOs". There are myriads of ways to make progress hard and not implement RNG. For exampla after clearing map 10 times allow it to be purchasd from shop or smth, or make some progress bar which guarantess a map after you fill it up or...I don't know, you are the devs, not me. I'm just giving a feedback.

With the shop I'm satisfied - for now - since I barely got any items to sell and can't afford anything to buy :). But if I were to rely on some 3rd party sites - like in case of diablo2 it was diablo2.jsp (for forum gold) - I can say it's OK for PC. As for PS4 - not so much. internet browser in PS4 sucks hard. Typing without keyboard is nearly impossible and you have my word that even if you would implement chat into PS4 version barely any1 would use it since typing takes way too long (i'm writing this from my work PC). as for market some better filter would be advisable. "highligted items" does no count as filter in my book, still it forces me to go by dozens of pages and I don't even know If I will find the item (like unique with specific name) that I am looking for (looking at you, crimson dream!). What I mean to say, that on PS4 there is no way to actively contact the seller/buyer. Bargaining/haggling is impossible. buyout is impossible. filter sucks hard, but at least we CAN trade and have at least some form of trade - unlike diablo2 where 3rd party site was madnatory if you wanted to trade.

As for difficulty I find it OK-ayish. Don't know hard the endgame is, but even in diablo2 endgame some bosses/mobs could spawn in a way that they would totally kill you and you don't even how (looking at you bugged souls). sometimes I don't even know how I died in PoE despite having full like. But this is part of a game. Also one of reasons I don't play HC. Not saying that I am satisfied that my close-range type warrior gets over 1/2 of HP taken out in single blow/spell but it simple seems I don't have enough life :) (dunno if 4500 is enough)

these are my 2 cents. in clonclusion, PS4 version can(or needs?) some tweaking (maybe at least keyboard support for typing) and I hope that some other league comes soon, because this one is plain useless in my opinion and hinders from progressing former mechanics that are in my eyes much better and more rewarding than synthesis.

Humble me out.