The game starts really strong but is getting worth with each act

[Rudel]

So I finally made it through the campaign, newcomer to PoE and enjoyer of Soulslike games. I really loved the first act, it was the best ARPG I played by far. The second act as some great additions like the caravan, also I managed to grab better gear and felt really powerful. Bosses were not as great as in act 1, but still fun. They were a bit too easy for my Ranger, blasting through all in 2-3 tries. And no, I'm not a particularly good player. Average at best.

Then act 3 arrived:
- waves of uninteresting Mobs who get oneshotted all the time
- some attacks that oneshot me made by white Mobs combined with...
- ...huuuuge areas with no checkpoints that had nothing interesting in it but mobs, mobs and more mobs. Sure there were some rares but in those cases you had to backpaddle a bit to kill them. The rest was Orb + arrow and run by.
- in the whole of Act 3, I got one (1!) loot upgrade. All the other drops were garbage.
- there are no real upgrades in the passiv tree anymore, only +x% damage (yawn). Why are there no skills that alter your playstyle?
- my own new skills are WORSE than simply using Lightning Arrow / Orb from my tier 1 skills. Sure you throw in a mark or a salvo, but everything else is unnecessary because mobs and bosses die anyway. I have like 15 Orbs in my bank because I don't use them.
- the huge areas are generally uninteresting and without any unique things to happen. That glowing thing that damages you was the only cool addition I remember
-...oh and the trials. Those were great. At least some challenge and something I could remember them an hour later.

So overall, I think the 27 Euro were wisely spend. The game has a great 40+ hours of fun! But unfortunately it gets worse while playing and I don't see any incentive to start a new character and go through all this again. Maybe a new class will have a more unique playstyle, maybe they add more interesting things in acts 4-6, we will see.

But so far, in my opinion it's a good time to take a break after the campaign is done.

Just my 2 cents.

[Garahel]

Originally posted by miqz:

Originally posted by Garahel:

i had hope endgame was more expansive. I was lied to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And based on what exactly, the first game being exactly the same? the endgame being exactly as ggg said? you've only got one person to blame for that, and it's yourself.

based on their misleading marketing material. and the manufactured hype machine based on the new shill culture in video games.

[miqz]

Originally posted by Garahel:

Originally posted by miqz:

And based on what exactly, the first game being exactly the same? the endgame being exactly as ggg said? you've only got one person to blame for that, and it's yourself.

based on their misleading marketing material.

So exactly as i said, sucks to suck

[CountCapacollo]

Originally posted by Garahel:

Originally posted by miqz:

And based on what exactly, the first game being exactly the same? the endgame being exactly as ggg said? you've only got one person to blame for that, and it's yourself.

based on their misleading marketing material.

Exactly, they advertised the game would be like acts 1-3, not POE1 v2 at endgame.

It's literally what they marketed as.

[Garahel]

Originally posted by miqz:

Originally posted by Garahel:

based on their misleading marketing material.

So exactly as i said, sucks to suck

why are you mad? lmao.

[miqz]

Originally posted by Garahel:

Originally posted by miqz:

So exactly as i said, sucks to suck

why are you mad? lmao.

I'm not though, you're just mad over something that's entirely your own fault for being media illiterate and blaming ggg for it

[Garahel]

Originally posted by ybgbgl:

Originally posted by Garahel:

based on their misleading marketing material.

Exactly, they advertised the game would be like acts 1-3, not POE1 v2 at endgame.

It's literally what they marketed as.

they made the endgame sound like there was ALOT there. when there isn't. it's all just part of the atlas map. and they are very small simple game mechanics.

[Garahel]

Originally posted by miqz:

Originally posted by Garahel:

why are you mad? lmao.

I'm not though, you're just mad over something that's entirely your own fault for being media illiterate and blaming ggg for it

im not mad. im just disappoint. sorry it hurts your feelings.

[CountCapacollo]

Originally posted by miqz:

Originally posted by Garahel:

why are you mad? lmao.

I'm not though, you're just mad over something that's entirely your own fault for being media illiterate and blaming ggg for it

Are you saying it's his own fault to believe what a developer says when advertising their game?

I hope you have a good justification because that report button for trolling is-a-coming.

[Sideras]

No issues with Act 3 except for Utzaal.

Utzaal is completely overtuned, there is something wrong with that area. Hyper fast mobs that just rush you down supported by spastic casters spamming out ice orbs and casters shooting chaos projectiles.

It's just tedious.

[busyman]

My biggest annoyance with mobs is that they don't have any routines. They see you and they rush you. At least implement some idle wandering for animals, some tactical retreats for humanoids, some variation in attack patterns so that not every porcupine crab shoots at you at exactly the same moment.

They said they want to make the game slower, more tactical, but the end-game maps throw huge numbers of fast mobs in ritual and breach, just like in PoE1.

[Dentin]

Started falling asleep getting through the last three spots need take caravan to in act 2 twice the other night, now had a couple beers so cant blame the game.

Last night I literally zonked out for a good hour at the "wheel" while playing Act 3. Dozed right the ♥♥♥♥ out, havent done that since university days staying up way too late writing papers. Like, it's not a total slight on the game either, if was pissing me off no way have dozed off right but ya...Act 1 deff feels like most polished right now.

Act 2 is mostly good but theres some weird stuff like way instances dont change after certain plot points, quest logic in general and just janky stuff like go from this very well done Act 1 boss, moves are all nicely choreographed, feels meaningful and poignant, the dudes little poem is literally timing for his attacks, like legit borderline FROM software level of boss design to...skeleton throne man who sits still for most fight waving his arms around, spamming attacks that feel like theyre cascading together all at once cos doing too much damage to him(ie I'm like skipping phases but all tripping at once) spamming same three dialogue lines and doing ♥♥♥♥ like jankily tracking me with the one attack, which as had my movement speed up a fair bit, just looked whack af.
Giant hole skeleman you fight right before him too, like he'd do this janky ass thing when slams his head down and the model would just completely reset to direction he needed in order to hit me, despite what pose/direction was in, talking like fraction of a frame no animation inbetween.
The big titan dude too, like omfg what a lazy designed boss, literally just stand on his hand and like 90% his attacks will whiff, wow GGG like do that one while on vaca or something?, and then god its so janky how you get tossed around by enemies, cos like okay ya theyre bigger even the one tooltip while loading mentions it, but theres no animation or anything you just slide around lol and one time buddy pushed me off the edge of the arena, just janked around "on the ground" floating above one of the out reaching titans till snapped me back up. Like I'm glad it didnt glitch out the fight but wow lol That's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rough.

Just...so fing cheap looking lol And if I was a betting man, which I'm not but I'll humour you fine exiles, I'd say they havent done the quality passes on most of the those boss fights past act 1.

"So we have the act 2 boss mostly done"
"Define mostly done"
"well, the assets are all made, and the fight *works*, its just we havent really actually tested it or put more than 3 seconds thought into how the attacks should be balanced, how the fight should best be paced etc, I mean too when I say most the assets like we could probably use a good few more animations too"
"ship it"
"oh...okay"

Should done what BG3 did imo and just released Act 1 for now. I guess, something to play if youre really thirsty for it, but it is rough the further you get I agree 100%.

Why putting pin in it, only reason still haunting you fools even over the game is cause this STALKER 2 update is taking foreeeevvveeeeerrrrr...big update to A-life though, I'm excite.

[Panthaz89]

So essentially you created a glass cannon and are now mad at the results from it? You complain that you are oneshotting mobs and that they are oneshotting you....I wasn't oneshotting most mobs that early but I sure was tanky enough to take multiple hits from them and I was a caster....

[papolws]

maps and boss arenas design for diablo 4 > poe 2

[GetUrAssToMars]

Act 3 just needs its maps sizes redone. If they wouldn't make them so sprawling the experience wouldn't be so tedious. Theres alot of locational variety and some incredible visuals throughout. It just needs to be tightened up and I think it would be the best Act of the 3 so far.