My opinion of PoE.

To put it bluntly, I am a stranger to PoE who joined this forum out of spite from the Fiasco that is Diablo 3.
I walked in here out of the cold with very little knowledge regarding PoE and found myself very quickly with a Beta key.

So naturally, i downloaded the Beta and began game play with an open mind. I am resentful of Diablo 3 and being an aussie, would love to see GGG succeed.

The good.

The overall game world and mood of PoE. It starts simply with your character laying on a beach with nothing more than a rag forced to pick up bits of driftwood to defend yourself. The first "town" also portrays this poor desperate game world well too. The monsters you encounter at first continue the flavour.

Different system. The game dares to be different in some good ways. Socketable skills and potions for example.

The bad.

Graphics. The graphics to my eye "date" to around 2004. The game is a step up on the classic D2 but pales against titan quest of 2006. Graphics however are a minor thing compared to game play however, proven by the longegevity of D2 and star craft for example.

Skill map. It's overally complicated. I get the concept of any skill but I feel I need to attend a course at school to learn PoE's skill system.

Perspective. It's too high in that your looking down on your character at the wrong angle. I find the persepective angle of D2/Titan quest easier on the eye and easier to see what is going on.

Barter system. I get what GGG are trying to do here. But money is a corner stone of every form of society mankind dares dream up. I get that GGG wants to be different from other games out there, but this is one rule of these sorts of games that shouldn't be broken imho.

Bits of scrolls. So you trade for bits of this and that. 5 of these makes this, 20 of that makes another. These things aren't important so why do we need to micro manage them? It's the fallout of the barter system and proves why mankind embraces currency.

The ugly.

Online only game play. This is the main reason why I won't be playing PoE on release. D3 has shown to me why I won't be able to play PoE. I get 350-600ms on D3 and already players are being hacked and the chat channel is being spammed by people trying to sell some rare for 50 million gold.
The latency for myself is similar on PoE. The fact that I am likely to face similar grief of high pings, hacking and exploits from other players and one day, logging on and finding everything gone is the deal breaker for me.

I wish GGG well with PoE, I really do. But with an online game only it is clearly not for me. I could play the beta further and get a better opinion and see more of the game world. Truely, I'd like to. But I can't see the point in doing so with a game that I clearly cannot play.

Prior to the D3 fiasco, I would have embraced PoE a bit more eagerly. But there is an old saying that says once bitten, twice shy.
Unlike d3, downloading PoE is free to play. But it isn't about the money. It's about the time and commitment to achieve in the game. I have to have the internet connected so I can't play on my lap top off line of if I decide to ditch my landline and wired internet.

Thanks for the feedback, sounds like TL2 should be perfect for you!

Sounds to me like someone didn't play past level 10.

Support gems, overly complicated passive tree, barter system.... these are all good things to me.

"

Graphics. The graphics to my eye "date" to around 2004. The game is a step up on the classic D2 but pales against titan quest of 2006. Graphics however are a minor thing compared to game play however, proven by the longegevity of D2 and star craft for example.

I think the graphics look very up to date. The environment is very detailed. In my opinion the graphics in this game are even better than in arpgs that are coming out now. But maybe that has more to do with my sense of style?

To be sincere the passive tree right now stands as a bad overall feature. It just looks complicated, but after a small ammount of time playing the game you will be bored with it.

In the end I like it, but as game designer and for the market, I'd try to make it more userfriendly, wich isn't that hard.

The passive tree is the worst aspect of this game, in my mind.

It's complicated - but in all the wrong ways.

It doesn't allow for as deep customization as it should, but it requires many hours of mathematical calculation.

In the end, it takes some of the worst parts of an RPG - the min/maxing, the spreadsheet, the grind - and makes it the central pivot of the game.

In the end, it really isn't as complex as it looks, but it just feels so unnecessary.

The support gem for skill mods is better - but I find it annoying to remove them every time I upgrade a piece of equipment - and not having the right color socket for the mods sucks, then having to spend endless amounts of Chromatic Orbs and Orbs of Fusing just to get it right so I can play the build I want to........

In the end, the game is more spreadsheet, more grind, more pointless math, instead of actually getting in the game and killing stuff....

and does nothing innovative with it. It's still clicking on stuff until I get carpal tunnel syndrome.

The game is tedious.

"

Wittgenstein wrote:

Thanks for the feedback, sounds like TL2 should be perfect for you!

Your welcome. At this point I may well play further into the beta. I am enjoying the game play after all. The deal breaker for me is the online issue which isn't relevant atm.

I don't like the look of TL2. I personally like the gothic/dark nature of D1/D2/PoE. Perhaps Grim dawn is looking like the game for myself in the future.

"

auLansalot wrote:

Sounds to me like someone didn't play past level 10.

Support gems, overly complicated passive tree, barter system.... these are all good things to me.

No I haven't played past level 10. The whole point of play testing a Beta release is to bug test the game, but it is also a "try before you buy" for the customer. I very quickly realised that I won't be buying this game on it's release so why continue playing the game?

"

Guadagno wrote:

I think the graphics look very up to date. The environment is very detailed. In my opinion the graphics in this game are even better than in arpgs that are coming out now. But maybe that has more to do with my sense of style?

I differ in opinion on this. For me the graphics of the characters/monsters is good in PoE and it's the background/game world that is lacking. D3 imho is the opposite, great background/game word graphics and crappy
characters/monsters. Probably more a question of our different tastes perhaps?

"

Asmodeous666 wrote:

The whole point of play testing a Beta release is to bug test the game, but it is also a "try before you buy" for the customer. I very quickly realised that I won't be buying this game on it's release so why continue playing the game?

Have you read much on the game?

Just curious.

Also curious how one would go about "buying" a F2P product.

The game has always been online-only. Much like those other products that tanked horribly after launch. You know. Guild Wars/2, WoW, LoL, etc, etc...

Wait a second...... :/

I tried TQ for the first time 1 month ago and it has crappy graphics compared to PoE so I have no clue what you are talking about. You probably don't as well if you didn't play it for a long time.

As for rest of the OP post, that is personal opinion and nothing we can add to that.

Yesterday I played D3, but ping was 250+ so I quit and went to play PoE that has 60 ping for me. If after open beta PoE also has 250+ ping I will not be playing it either no matter how good the game is (just like I will not play D3 until they fix this shit).