Not impressed with the beta

I know beta is beta and what not general fanboyism blah blah. In the real world -- you know people who know a thing or two about game development IE how a payed for structure and free to play beta structure and development goes.

This game in combat and mechanics wise is as well as it's going to go currently until years when more polish is added. I figure GGG is pretty happy with the current mechanics (maybe not a few) but they're generally on the up side of things. They should be happy because they made a game. However, the game is way too basic. This is a game for 2011 and not 1996 (you know when the ever so uberly popular Diablo came out). The mechanics mirror Diablo 1 very well with slight improvements like piercing, AoE, and mobility. However, those are slight improvements. The general game play and feel of the game doesn't change. This brings me to my next point: monster mechanics.

Path of Exile shows very little in terms of monster mechanics or even fighting capability. I understand people love nostalgia and how traditionally harder difficulties resulted from monsters with pumped HP and damage but seriously, it's 2011; get with the times. The game plays very basic when it is literally hack and slash. The action is repetitive because, well, the skills aren't dynamic and neither are the monsters. (Professor) Oak just runs at you as a slightly bigger NPC with a slightly bigger stick with more HP and more damage. He doesn't do anything unique. I understand players are fine with that but from an objective perspective trying to identify quality it fails.

The graphics are nice. My only issue is with water. Water edges usually are cornered off so unnaturally. The water effect -- while nice -- is pretty archaic.
In laymen and Internet speak: copy pasta. However, besides that I like the look.

Story wise? Is there a story? There's tidbits on the website but nothing substantial. Something about some Merill chick and a piece of jewelry, becoming a slut, having thousands of kids, then living in a cave. Then (SPOILER SPOILER) I think she dies as the first act's boss.

Not touching that competitive skill tree; it's already golden....

The game lacks and modern charm except visually. This game just feels old. Diablo 2 is more current. Path of Exile feels more like Diablo 1: restricted in its movements. Why would I play Path of Exile when there are more appealing up to date MMOARPGs on or going on the market?



PS: I know the game is in beta so don't tell me it's in beta. I even know it's so early beta. However, I strongly believe due to past experiences with beta and f2p developers that it's not within their deadline or resources to revamp the system. Additions maybe but the core game play now will stay.

I was very disappointed with the game play myself. I've played with a friend's account and I was in nostalgia for the first 10mins of action because it brought back the memories of Diablo 1. But then I noticed that feeling slip away as I felt like I had to keep spamming the same skill over and over again. Multi shot multi shot multi shot.

I don't want to sound like a D3 fan boy. But in all honesty, I'd rather play a game where I can cast 3-4 spells/abilities because one spell/ability just won't cut it. Yes, PoE is still in Beta. But the D3 beta blows away the PoE Beta out of the water.

You do realize that Oak is a place-holder, right? As in, he's pretty much your average, run-of-the-mill unique mob.

What do you mean by the skills not being dynamic? Can you define what you mean by a dynamic skill? Possibly give an example of one from one of these more up to date ARPGs?

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I don't want to sound like a D3 fan boy. But in all honesty, I'd rather play a game where I can cast 3-4 spells/abilities because one spell/ability just won't cut it. Yes, PoE is still in Beta. But the D3 beta blows away the PoE Beta out of the water.

You don't seem to realize that this game is in an ACTUAL beta phase. Big gaming companies have been doing "beta" releases of games that are actually in "gold" phase as a marketing strategy for so long that people greatly underestimate the incompleteness of a game that's actually in beta.

Have you played the game yet? You don't have a "beta member" tag under your name.

Also I do agree with you that it would be nice if monsters had tactics involved, but only the bosses, when I play an ARPG I want to mow down through the trash and fight uniques and end stage bosses.

I would like it if bosses were difficult and had a randomized system, so people couldn't get the boss system down and cheese them. Take Titan Quest for example I loved how difficult typhon was the first time you met him and he really represented what an endgame boss should be.

The one thing that makes this game stand out atm from diablo 2, is that diablo 2 is flooded with hackers and botters, it isn't even worth playing online anymore.

WHO LET THE BLIZZARD EMPLOYEES IN THE FORUM?

Lol, I think the term is shills.

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Magni_Steelheart wrote:

You do realize that Oak is a place-holder, right? As in, he's pretty much your average, run-of-the-mill unique mob.

What do you mean by the skills not being dynamic? Can you define what you mean by a dynamic skill? Possibly give an example of one from one of these more up to date ARPGs?

Oak may be a place holder model but will his newer model anything refreshing and new to the fight?

Skills not being dynamic means combat depth. Is there a reason to use ice spear or that ice wave everyone uses? The time has passed from spamming frozen orb. The game's need depth and dynamic.

I guess an example would be the 2010 Blizzcon Monk demo. I found myself using certain skills at certain angles to keep monsters at bay and kill closer ones. It blended well together meaning I would use X to bring Y in close but use V whenever Z would get close so I could take down Y. That's dynamic, that's depth. Path of Exile lacks that except for spamming one skill and kiting.

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Sketchbag111 wrote:

I know beta is beta and what not general fanboyism blah blah

Cool story, but have you even played the game? You don't seem to know much about the act 1 boss, so I doubt it. You also don't have a beta tag. By the way, Act 2's main boss isn't even in the game yet.

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pyrex wrote:

I was very disappointed with the game play myself. I've played with a friend's account and I was in nostalgia for the first 10mins of action because it brought back the memories of Diablo 1. But then I noticed that feeling slip away as I felt like I had to keep spamming the same skill over and over again. Multi shot multi shot multi shot.

I don't want to sound like a D3 fan boy. But in all honesty, I'd rather play a game where I can cast 3-4 spells/abilities because one spell/ability just won't cut it. Yes, PoE is still in Beta. But the D3 beta blows away the PoE Beta out of the water.

Think back to the Diablo 2 days. How many skills did you have after 10 minutes of gameplay? I think a lot of people are comparing POE's starting gameplay to Diablo II's endgame gameplay. You don't start out with a ton of godly skills in Path of Exile, but you didn't in Diablo II either.

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Wisdom wrote:

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Sketchbag111 wrote:

I know beta is beta and what not general fanboyism blah blah

Cool story, but have you even played the game? You don't seem to know much about the act 1 boss, so I doubt it. You also don't have a beta tag. By the way, Act 2's main boss isn't even in the game yet.

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pyrex wrote:

I was very disappointed with the game play myself. I've played with a friend's account and I was in nostalgia for the first 10mins of action because it brought back the memories of Diablo 1. But then I noticed that feeling slip away as I felt like I had to keep spamming the same skill over and over again. Multi shot multi shot multi shot.

I don't want to sound like a D3 fan boy. But in all honesty, I'd rather play a game where I can cast 3-4 spells/abilities because one spell/ability just won't cut it. Yes, PoE is still in Beta. But the D3 beta blows away the PoE Beta out of the water.

Think back to the Diablo 2 days. How many skills did you have after 10 minutes of gameplay? I think a lot of people are comparing POE's starting gameplay to Diablo II's endgame gameplay. You don't start out with a ton of godly skills in Path of Exile, but you didn't in Diablo II either.

My friend's level 32 archer is still spamming multi shot......nough said.

GGG is appealing to a niché market, as such they have to stick to that niché.
Changing the gameplay too much would alienate a lot of their fanbase.

That aside, from a technical standpoint, MMO AI in general is very lax. As such its unrealistic to expect the difficulty levels to make the monsters a lot more tactical. This can be achieved, sure. However, in order to avoid quite a bit of strain on the server they'd likely have to place the majority of the AI client-side - which would be exploitable.

I do agree about the water (from what I've seen on streams) but I personally end up toning down water graphics in most games anyway as I just don't care that much about it.

As a non-beta member that's basically all I can address, obviously.