The Core Problem with PoE 2

[NeloCoDreH]

Path of Exile 2 risks becoming a failure, and the main reason is its endgame. Even after fully building your character, it just doesn’t feel satisfying—your hero still feels slow and underwhelming. On top of that, being forced to play through the campaign twice makes the experience even worse. Many players don’t even make it past the first act, and only a handful ever reach the endgame. Now imagine starting a new season with this system—most people just won’t bother.

I built a warrior who can one-shot bosses. Sure, there will always be "experts" saying, "Well, don’t make a build that one-shots everything—problem solved!" But let’s be real: the essence of any ARPG is creating the fastest and most efficient build possible. One-shotting enemies and bosses is the ultimate goal in games like this. Players spend hundreds of hours farming divine orbs and Mirrors of Kalandra for this exact purpose. If the game becomes boring after reaching that goal, the issue lies with the game, not the player.

The spell and gem system is outright terrible. There’s also zero balance in difficulty. This leaves the gameplay in a weird state—it’s either way too easy or absurdly difficult, and neither feels rewarding.

Yes, the visuals are stunning—no one can deny that. But the maps are way too stretched out. Why am I running through massive empty spaces instead of engaging in meaningful combat? It feels like the developers artificially padded the game length just to boast, "Our campaign takes dozens of hours to complete!" In reality, 70% of your time is spent running through oversized areas, while only 30% is spent fighting bosses. This is a terrible formula that makes the game feel sluggish and repetitive.

Another strange issue is the overwhelming number of positive reviews. For a game with so many obvious flaws, the high ratings feel suspicious. It’s almost as if they’re being artificially boosted because the criticisms far outweigh the praise. If nothing changes, PoE 2 could turn into a ghost town within weeks. Confidence in the project is dwindling because it’s clear the game needs an almost complete overhaul to survive.

At its core, PoE 2 feels like an unfinished product. Yes, the visuals are amazing, but they’re just a shiny wrapper hiding a mountain of problems. Developers are quick to nerf overpowered spells, but they ignore the bigger, more fundamental issues. If they’re not willing to address these flaws, they’d honestly be better off releasing PoE 1 on a new engine. We were expecting a masterpiece, but what we got is a divisive project that leaves players more frustrated than entertained. It’s bad. Really bad. There’s simply nothing to enjoy here—Path of Exile 2 is completely unfun.

[OsirisThaGod]

Originally posted by Luckiernut:

Originally posted by Chiryuu:

I really doubt you even played Diablo 4, but okay.

I completed the campaign with sorcerer and trying to play through expansion with the witch monk, ill slowly will complete the expansion at some point but I can't play long session without getting bored.

That's because D4 is, in fact, boring.

[RodHull]

This is about 30 to 40% of the final game we will get at release. Imagine writing a 'review' of that.

[Chiryuu]

Originally posted by OsirisThaGod:

Originally posted by Luckiernut:

I completed the campaign with sorcerer and trying to play through expansion with the witch monk, ill slowly will complete the expansion at some point but I can't play long session without getting bored.

That's because D4 is, in fact, boring.

Depends how you approach it and what you like.
I actually enjoyed Diablo 4.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by Chiryuu:

Originally posted by OsirisThaGod:

That's because D4 is, in fact, boring.

Depends how you approach it and what you like.
I actually enjoyed Diablo 4.

D4 is fine, its gaming beige. I can have fun with it in short bursts.

This is more complex, its not for everyone.

[°Ger|Zicco°]

Just:

BETA BETA BETA BETA

[Rammstein]

Well OP... you wrote this EARLY ACCESS GAME, "feels like an unfinished game"...
This says everything. You got no idea what you are talking about... This is one of the dumbest statements i have heard on Steam, and i heard a lot of dumb statements... lol

Btw. this EA game feels more finished than 99% of all 1.0 releases this year.
But yeah, since its not your cup of tea, nobody forces you to stay.

[Subset6]

"Another strange issue is the overwhelming number of positive reviews. For a game with so many obvious flaws, the high ratings feel suspicious. It’s almost as if they’re being artificially boosted because the criticisms far outweigh the praise"

Lawl, tin foil hat time... accept it.. games awesome as is.

[Dubbs09]

Originally posted by MadEagle:

At its core, PoE 2 feels like an unfinished product.

imagine ur playing beta test ... :D >.< O.o

So many of these whiny threads seem to completely miss the whole thing being EARLY ACCESS lol, its so silly.

Missing like half of everything, including acts and weapons/classes and OP is crying about the endgame.

Yea, it might feel like an unfinished product because we're at least 6 months away from it being one lol.

[Dubbs09]

The early access game in Beta feels unfinished

[Nefser]

Core problem is people's expectations that this is the release version, release difficulty set, game being playable with 'casual' attention/gameplay, loot drops like PoE (ignoring GGG SAID it was going to be far les).

[ministrog]

Originally posted by Nefser:

Core problem is people's expectations that this is the release version, release difficulty set, game being playable with 'casual' attention/gameplay, loot drops like PoE (ignoring GGG SAID it was going to be far les).

actually mention the loot being "SO ABUNDANT, please use it to craft during campaign"

tbf, there's a need for more testing to see if that's true overall. RNG can give some players stupid ammounts of currency or just god tier rares.

[von Peso]

Originally posted by NeloCoDreH:

Yes, the visuals are stunning—no one can deny that.

Am I the only one who finds the blockiness of the map's design incredibly jarring? Running through a map made up of square puzzle-like segments is VERY noticeable.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by von Peso:

Originally posted by NeloCoDreH:

Yes, the visuals are stunning—no one can deny that.

Am I the only one who finds the blockiness of the map's design incredibly jarring? Running through a map made up of square puzzle-like segments is VERY noticeable.

Compared to Last Epoch and D4s generic corridors of boredom it feels like a breath of fresh air tbh

[Weruat]

Originally posted by von Peso:

Originally posted by NeloCoDreH:

Yes, the visuals are stunning—no one can deny that.

Am I the only one who finds the blockiness of the map's design incredibly jarring? Running through a map made up of square puzzle-like segments is VERY noticeable.

THat's kinda how Random Generation works. Most games do it by chunks or tiles. PoE's no different. I'd say the generation never felt too blocky to me personally as they did a good job at making the tiles pretty varied across the game.

[Ice Jester]

Damn it's sad to see the state of the discussion forum of games on Steam. They are all contaminated by trolls like you