Personal impressions about the game and questions (long text)

[Sparlexna]

I will begin with my personal impressions so far (in the demo vers)
First of all let me begin by saying WOW I am so glad I found this ABSOLUTE GEM of a game in this perfect time. I don't usually write reviews or start discussions in forums but this game blew my mind.

I have ABSURD amount of time spent playing ARPGS (Path of Exile main) and some few on rogue-likes. After watching the video from a youtuber I watch from time to time covering the game I was interested but entered with little expectations. Oh boy I was not expecting this much fun and depth and replayability from the game. Hell I mean not even the game but the demo version.

Speaking of the demo version I must say this was by far the best (or probably 2nd best) demos I have ever played. A LOT of content available even in demo alone. So kudos there.
Despite the performance issues I have experienced in some zones especially, the game runs smoothly and experienced very few minor bugs so far but they were so minor I didn't even mind them.
I love the fact that even in the demo there is a loot filter, It's year 2025 and some of the biggest arpgs in the market made by thousands of people and millions of dollars still don't have loot filters so very nice to see there's already one (even though its a little too simple but I am sure it will get improved over time once the major problems/content etc is done)

As long as the price point is somewhat reasonable (I have read the other posts so I know it will be "comparable to the other similar indie games") I will definitely buy this game on release. (I even looked up if there was a way to contact the devs and beg for a review copy key cause I can't wait 3 more days )

I do however have some worries about the full version and the scope of the "real endgame" progression of the game but I'm sure post release patches and content releases will prove me wrong in those aspects. (So many projects like this one just become nearly-abandoned post release and it feels bad)

I know the community is very small and the game could be a bit niche even in the arpg or roguelike communities but devs if you are reading this please don't give up on this game it has so much potential. I truly believe this can evolve into the next genre defining game with enough time, and love. Especially if along the way we can get coop or hell even trading of some sort.

A few things I want to ask (or would love to see) on the full release:
1. Performance: Will there be a performance increase or optimization on release? or are there any plans to make the "low fps maps" become less demanding? Some maps game runs super smooth like butter but in some I get lower than 30 fps sometimes.
2. I do not know how many tiers the talent tree goes since demo only shows up to t2 but I really hope there are some high tiers that you can keep scaling and scaling and scaling for insane replayability.
3. Bigger type ships (you know the ones with bigger modules that you reduce, but actually the size of ship that can fit those without reducing size) and/or at least different types of base starting ships, (for example one with big shield but very little life, or one without a primary weapon but incredible energy/energy regen that uses 2ndary as main dps, or a fleet carrier summoner type of ship that uses a LOT of drones etc)
4. Letting us keep a single item (on very later tiers of talents or something) from the previous run on the start of next run. (This would incentivize going for longer runs and hunting for that incredible item you always want to keep with you)
5. Permanent split/jump or similar upgrades that would create interesting and fun interactions with certain weapons. (like the scattershot power but a permanent passive) (+ the scattershot making it do +5 projectiles or etc) I have found out about the twinbolt mod but I have never found it in-game so it must be very rare.
6. The shotgun (forgot the name) weapon is very underwhelming, the upside of doing aoe dmg does not make up for the lack of range (which is very important for this game) and the dps itself should be way higher compared to other weapons for people to be able to use those weapon types. In almost none of the runs I had using it I felt like it was a viable choice. I was forced to change it to a much worse laser weapon.
7. Rerolling the scan bonus of an item (rescanning) I don't know if this is opened or enabled later on in full vers or if its not even in the game but I feel like there should be some sort of credit sink and letting people re-scan the same gear to change the scan bonus should be a way to do it. (Also scan times should be much shorter, 5 minutes'ish should be the average)
8. Global AOE modifiers. For the nova or the shotgun weapon etc or any other aoe involved things, they all felt underwhelming. I wish we had a way to scale their aoe without needing to roll a "rare mod" on that item specifically.

I'm sorry about the huge wall of text but I even tried to make it short, thats how much I liked the game and how much I am excited about it. I love that Courtney is replying to almost everyone and devs are actively working and communicating with the playerbase. I feel like I have found gold.

As I finally realized I can't even stop typing I will force myself to end my wall of text here.

[Sparlexna]

Oh and I forgot to write:
9. I really really wish the random-quests you get after reaching the end of the demo (or further in full release I think) needs to be at least double its current options. I'm talking about the number of randomly generated quests available at one time. Rewards are a bit underwhelming but it is still fun to do different kinds. To have a less-repetetive endgame experience I think more variety and more options could be the way to go. I haven't encountered any quest above rare either. I'm hoping there are epic or legendary tier quests in full vers in higher difficulty/quest progression.
9.5. (related to random quests as well) There should almost always be a marker that shows the objective direction regardless of your distance from it. Also the "find an xxx item" missions are very random and underwhelming, without rarity stacking I found it impossible to complete the missions with epic gear requirement for completion. It felt impossible even with the rarity stacking. A bit more refinement would be amazing for the real endgame enjoyers who spend hundreds of hours playing the same content over and over.

[Palandus]

Comments:

1) It is an absolute gem. You rarely find them during Next Fests. Usually I have to play 20-something demos to find games like this.

2) I never could get into Path of Exile, as I wasn't huge into Diablo 2. Sure I played the piss out of it in the year 2001-2003, but my favorite Diablo is either 1 (atmosphere) or Diablo 3 (pacing). Diablo 4 is kinda meh. But other ARPGs I played are Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege, Grim Dawn, SPAZ and Starcom games.

3) I get performance issues too... usually on the "planet" themed levels, where the polygon count exceeds what my GPU can handle.

4) Titan Quest I believe pioneered the Loot Filter system, and as Grim Dawn is inspired by it, it also has a Loot Filter. Otherwise, you are right, its rarely in games.

5) I believe there is a system in place for allowing you to keep one item from the previous run... or it gives you a super high quality item to start with.

6) Twinbolt is quite fun. Had a weapon that granted it and a perk, and so was firing 4 projectiles each time, when normally the weapon fired one. It is however ridiculously rare.

7) Agreed on the shotgun/flak cannon weapon. Its usually best to stay as far out of range as possible.

8) Rewards are often underwhelming, but you do rarely get an Epic or Legendary as a quest reward. Think its like 5% of the time.

9) For epic gear requirements, you are using the difficulty slider right? As this increases xp and drop rates significantly.

[Belberith]

Publicado originalmente por Sparlexna:

Also the "find an xxx item" missions are very random and underwhelming, without rarity stacking I found it impossible to complete the missions with epic gear requirement for completion. It felt impossible even with the rarity stacking.

The wording on this could definitely use improvement. The way this mission actually works is almost exactly like the "find a specific enemy" mission, and this enemy is guaranteed to drop the mission's item. The drop bypasses loot filter settings, etc, as well.

[courtney]

Publicado originalmente por Sparlexna:

I will begin with my personal impressions so far (in the demo vers)
First of all let me begin by saying WOW I am so glad I found this ABSOLUTE GEM of a game in this perfect time. I don't usually write reviews or start discussions in forums but this game blew my mind.

<snip: incredibly encouraging feedback as well as fantastic suggestions for improving the game further>

As I finally realized I can't even stop typing I will force myself to end my wall of text here. :resmile:

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to type up your detailed thoughts as well as for the outpouring of positivity towards my project. I am taking note of everything and agree with it all.

I'm crunching currently so I can't respond directly to everything, but I wanted to mention that the full version does have a way of preserving an item across breaks, and that I dramatically buffed the Scattergun and played many hours with it with good success. It's kind of like using spectral swords wizard in D3, there are a lot of defensives required but it is really fun and workable now. The full version also includes a larger array of defensive options.

Otherwise, thank you again and I look forward to more of your suggestions in the future!

[courtney]

Publicado originalmente por Palandus:

Comments:

1) It is an absolute gem. You rarely find them during Next Fests. Usually I have to play 20-something demos to find games like this.

<snip other responses/etc>

Thank you very much Palandus, it has been awesome to get your feedback on the demo so far and I look forward to more after the game ships!

[Palandus]

Yep yep. You are welcome. See you at launch tomorrow!