Story-wise, is it important to play 1 before 2? Should I?

[Arthur]

Title. I'm pretty interested in PoE 2, thinking of getting it during the early access, but I've only played like an hour or so of PoE1. Now I know that story isn't really the reason why most people play an ARPG like these ones, but still, I didn't want to jump into PoE2 with zero context.

So, is PoE2 an actual sequel in terms of narrative? Do I need to know about the first game's story? And if so, should I just watch some sort of recap or play it myself? How long is the campaign, if it even has one? Thanks.

[The CandyMew]

Originally posted by Arthur:

Title. I'm pretty interested in PoE 2, thinking of getting it during the early access, but I've only played like an hour or so of PoE1. Now I know that story isn't really the reason why most people play an ARPG like these ones, but still, I didn't want to jump into PoE2 with zero context.

So, is PoE2 an actual sequel in terms of narrative? Do I need to know about the first game's story? And if so, should I just watch some sort of recap or play it myself? How long is the campaign, if it even has one? Thanks.

poe1 story, basically your exiled into the cursed land of wraeclast, this land its cursed because of the beast (poe2 its focused on this creature revival), by act one you see the problems this creature influence causes, in act two you kill dominus, dominus was preparing to wage war against the beast while using the powers of it against it, when he dies he saids, that he stood between men at nightmare and if your going to take his place in order to prevent the beast from continuing, you kill malachai and prevent more chaos from spreading, you get terminator tp to oritath but find out slavary its wrong, so you set to kill the leader of it (the pope something ) however innocent ego cant accept that his possed follower got killed by a mortal so he manifest in physical form and dies, before he gets finished off by the exile sin jumps in and disperce his soul to prevent you from finishing him off, but because of sin weakeness state the other gods enter the mortal realm and start to open a wild party, so your set to fix your ♥♥♥♥ up, later you are told, hey god killer, this scientist opened a beacon to multiple worlds, and you know, when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back so the world of oriath its now open to the abyss and eldritch creatures want a part of it

[The CandyMew]

Originally posted by The CandyMew:

Originally posted by Arthur:

Title. I'm pretty interested in PoE 2, thinking of getting it during the early access, but I've only played like an hour or so of PoE1. Now I know that story isn't really the reason why most people play an ARPG like these ones, but still, I didn't want to jump into PoE2 with zero context.

So, is PoE2 an actual sequel in terms of narrative? Do I need to know about the first game's story? And if so, should I just watch some sort of recap or play it myself? How long is the campaign, if it even has one? Thanks.

poe1 story, basically your exiled into the cursed land of wraeclast, this land its cursed because of the beast (poe2 its focused on this creature revival), by act one you see the problems this creature influence causes, in act two you kill dominus, dominus was preparing to wage war against the beast while using the powers of it against it, when he dies he saids, that he stood between men at nightmare and if your going to take his place in order to prevent the beast from continuing, you kill malachai and prevent more chaos from spreading, you get terminator tp to oritath but find out slavary its wrong, so you set to kill the leader of it (the pope something ) however innocent ego cant accept that his possed follower got killed by a mortal so he manifest in physical form and dies, before he gets finished off by the exile sin jumps in and disperce his soul to prevent you from finishing him off, but because of sin weakeness state the other gods enter the mortal realm and start to open a wild party, so your set to fix your ♥♥♥♥ up, later you are told, hey god killer, this scientist opened a beacon to multiple worlds, and you know, when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back so the world of oriath its now open to the abyss and eldritch creatures want a part of it

the masters (aka the guys from each expansion and the pokemons you collect for your hideout each has their reason to be like they are: einhar, saw the weirdness and decided to prepare for the apocalypse by having strong beast to tame and eat/ niko wants to continue to explore his cave and ignore whats happening, same with alva), this is just my theory but skill gems are alive and are the memories of skilled people, hence when used with their prefered weapon the skill gem works, displaying the abilities the person/s used to have, its literally riding on borrowed power, this theory comes because if the exile its deprived of the skill gems they cant use any crazy powers (also could explain why or how they got captured for the poe2 intro) they are just regular humans with out their gear

[justtrykan]

Don't play 1 before 2. Play 1 after 2. Otherwise you won't finish 2

[Arthur]

Originally posted by justtrykan:

Don't play 1 before 2. Play 1 after 2. Otherwise you won't finish 2

Wdym? Why?

[Geo]

if you are newer to ARPG play 1, if you like a challenge play 2,
poe 1 screen clears galore, zoom to maps, zoom through maps, get to end game, game begins.

poe 2 slower paced, combo based gameplay, souls-like bosses, less screen nuking.
pick your poison, early access, pretty fun and nice graphics, runs pretty smooth also.

[Arthur]

Originally posted by Geo:

if you are newer to ARPG play 1, if you like a challenge play 2,
poe 1 screen clears galore, zoom to maps, zoom through maps, get to end game, game begins.

poe 2 slower paced, combo based gameplay, souls-like bosses, less screen nuking.
pick your poison, early access, pretty fun and nice graphics, runs pretty smooth also.

I'd say I'm a fan of ARPGs, played the entire Diablo series (minus Diablo 4's recent expansion, haven't bought it yet), the Torchlight games and also Grim Dawn (and some other barely known titles like Champions for the PS2).

But I really meant more about the story, I don't know much about PoE's universe/lore nor if playing 1 has an impact in playing 2, in terms of worldbuilding/narrative/lore.

[toasted]

nobody knows the answer to your question since the game just came out and its so hard I don't think anyone cleared the campaign yet fully that cares about lore anyway.
poe1 is free so u may as well play it, the early access vers of poe2 is missing half the story currently its only act 1-3 then endgame content so if lore is your thing its better to wait for the full release which will also be free

[davidb11]

Originally posted by justtrykan:

Don't play 1 before 2. Play 1 after 2. Otherwise you won't finish 2

THat's not how linear time works. :P
Seriously, 2 takes place like 40 years later.

[Gamejunky05]

just play 1 see whats changed when u play 2 lol. good luck.

[bsr321gg]

Originally posted by Arthur:

Title. I'm pretty interested in PoE 2, thinking of getting it during the early access, but I've only played like an hour or so of PoE1. Now I know that story isn't really the reason why most people play an ARPG like these ones, but still, I didn't want to jump into PoE2 with zero context.

So, is PoE2 an actual sequel in terms of narrative? Do I need to know about the first game's story? And if so, should I just watch some sort of recap or play it myself? How long is the campaign, if it even has one? Thanks.

Like someone else said
Poe1 for easy access. 2 for more difficult and(!!) early access (!!). So not as balanced. Both fun but I'd say 1 first get to know the mechanisms of Poe then when you're done,ahum it never ends but when YOU are done,go to 2.
Story I don't know about,it's non existent in my eyes and totally not of influence on the game.
And 1 is free. Also important.

[M3chaMike]

PoE 2 is still in early access. Even after full release, PoE 2 isn't going to have nearly the content that PoE 1 has until YEARS later. So I'd save your money, play PoE 1, and enjoy it. It's a pretty good game as is, even without spending a cent. And if you fall in love with it, it'll last you until well after PoE 2 releases.

[SkaldedDawg]

I thought the story was "you washed up on a beach and there are zombies and crap".

[Lord_Momentor]

Not much story correlation between the 2 games. Poe2 still missing few acts in Early access. You can start whatever tbh. I feel like Poe2 has better new player experience even though the game itself might be harder (campaign wise).

Poe2 has much slower gameplay compare to poe1 and it also has less features thus easier pick up. Poe2 looks much better and more satisfying to progress. While it stands I'd say Poe1 is a better arpg as the progression and all features are far less limiting thus a lot of optimisation can be done endgame.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Geo:

if you are newer to ARPG play 1, if you like a challenge play 2,
poe 1 screen clears galore, zoom to maps, zoom through maps, get to end game, game begins.

poe 2 slower paced, combo based gameplay, souls-like bosses, less screen nuking.
pick your poison, early access, pretty fun and nice graphics, runs pretty smooth also.

Lol poe 2 is better for newer arpg players they dumbed down all the systems from poe 1 like the passive skill tree the gem system, the crafting and economy etc... You guys ever try to play poe 1 without a guide?. In fact one of the premises of poe 2 is making it more accesible for new players.

But hey if you think because you need to press spacebar and roll in poe 2, the bosses have trillions of hp and the slower gameplay is harder then ok i guess.

[Bacon Overlord®]

Originally posted by Arthur:

Title. I'm pretty interested in PoE 2, thinking of getting it during the early access, but I've only played like an hour or so of PoE1. Now I know that story isn't really the reason why most people play an ARPG like these ones, but still, I didn't want to jump into PoE2 with zero context.

So, is PoE2 an actual sequel in terms of narrative? Do I need to know about the first game's story? And if so, should I just watch some sort of recap or play it myself? How long is the campaign, if it even has one? Thanks.

2 was meant to be a second story arc in the same game. It's not reliant on anything in this game.