My feedback for PoE2 having finished Acts 1-3. Loving the game overall.

Pros

- Production. The game is beautiful and feels like a Baldur’s Gate 3-level jump up for GGG in terms of production. I’m actually pretty shocked by how good the game looks in some of these areas, how great the music and voice acting is, and the animations for both the monsters and players are unrivaled I think. The amount of hit feedback you get in sound, monsters stagger when stunned, all have very telegraphed attack patterns. It’s actually wild how good this game looks.

- Combat. Talked about this with how good animations are, but the slower, combo-oriented gameplay is kind of a revelation I think. I was very on board with Blizzard launching D4 with the mandate to slow things down from D3, but I think since launch their audience has demanded getting away from that which is fine for that game, but PoE2 I think is that design fully realized.

- Difficulty. I think it’s pretty damn awesome that you have to be on your toes almost all the time. Monsters are lethal, but increasingly throughout the campaign so are you. I don’t think every zone is a total sweat fest nor would I want it to be, but there is actual real danger when dealing with mobs in PoE2 and that is refreshing.

- BOSSES. I don’t know what else there is to say other than if there’s anything PoE 2 does that is so laughably better than any other ARPG there’s been to date, it’s boss design. It’s just in a class of its own much like From Software has been with 3rd person ARPGs (of the non Diablo-like variety).

- Items. I think the item system is great and I am SO THANKFUL to be playing an ARPG in 2024 that does not spam my screen full of gear I don’t care about. Last Epoch did this well too and while I think there’s some tweaking to the item system they can do (more in Cons), it’s really nice how much you care about almost everything that drops….

- Crafting. because white and blue items in the base types of gear you need is almost always worth picking up and attempting to craft on. I’m constantly disenchanting gear for more orbs so I can roll staff and armor upgrades. Hitting a +3 cold skills staff early on and then taking it all the way to a godly 6-mod rare was an early game highlight and I’ve had several “holy shit” moments like that, whether it’s something sick a vendor was selling me or gambling for the unique chest piece I’m using currently.

- Environment and monster design. I was marveling at this on launch night and it continues to be the case. Environments are so rich with detail and lore and theme and the monsters match it perfectly. I don’t think this is something an ARPG has done as well since Diablo 2. And the variety is staggering when even in the dessert act which you think might be bland, they spruce it up in so many ways that it never gets boring.

- There’s a lot more I could say, honestly the core of the game is in such a good state for Early Access that by the time 1.0 hits, it’s just going to be a beast of a game.


Cons

- Map size. Probably my number one criticism. This could be partially because I feel the need to explore them fully because I don’t know what side rewards I might find, but the maps are probably about 25-40% too large. This isn’t a difficulty thing but more of a tedium one. They can take an hour easily to explore fully with how large they are. GGG has done a good job of hiding things to find in them, but I’m often ready to move on well before I’ve found the next area. This also has the side effect of feeling like they’ve padded the campaign a little and slowed leveling down.

- Instance reset. The map size is compounded by the fact that the entire zone resets on death, including any items that may have dropped. This feels like them going “lets be a Souls-like” in a literal sense and also wanting to punish a bit for death, but in reality with the zones being as big as they are, if you clear 90% of the zone and then decide to backtrack to the opposite corner to explore and then die, you are punished thoroughly for it. In a Souls game, I can fast travel around to the bonfires I found previously if this happens but in POE2, I have no choice but to fight through the zone again. This might feel better if map size was lowered.

- Item rewards. While I think the difficulty is great and the amount of loot that drops is perfect, I think we need a slightly better baseline of rarity. It feels weird to kill a really hard rare monster or open a rare chest and see one Orb of Transmutation and a Life Flask drop. In D2, you get good really gear from killing Act bosses the first time. Rare mobs and golden chests usually drop rare items (imagine that!). Some tuning is needed here I think and I doubt it would make the game much easier. So much of my gear is vendor bought or crafted already anyways. It would just provide a bit more dopamine and excitement when you encounter these things.

- Difficulty tuning. I think the difficulty is pretty close to pitch perfect 90% of the time, but there are some standout areas where suddenly the game gets crazy. There’s a sequence at the end of Act 2 leading to the Act boss that is a giant spike over what came before and there are no checkpoints so if you die, you start the whole zone over and it’s a linear gauntlet.

- Ascendancy trials. However, by FAR the biggest difficulty problem is the ascendency trials. I personally didn’t think Sekhemas (sp?) was too bad as ranged. I’ve heard mixed opinions on melee with some saying its impossible and others saying melee gets huge Honor bonuses based on their Armor and Evasion that compensates. None of that compares to Trial of Chaos in Act 3. The ultimatum mods you are forced to choose between are so brokenly overtuned (with things like “Monsters always crit” and yes that includes the boss) that I don’t see how anyone is beating that without being 10-20 levels over-leveled. After several attempts I just gave up. This seems to be everyone’s experience. Don’t expect to be able to complete the next set of trials in Act 3.

- Map icons. Now we’re in the nitpick territory here, but the map icons for the optional objectives need to be clearer about what you’ve completed and what you haven’t. I would put literal X’s through them rather than grey them out slightly. Also several seem to be bugged and don’t show complete even when they are. Given how large the zones are, I think they could be more clear about which ones give you a near-required permanent character upgrade and which ones just drop like a skill gem or something, but this just might be a thing they want people to learn by playing.

- Passive skill tree. It’s bigger than PoE1 but also feels.. less exciting? There’s a lot more conditional or niche nodes or nodes that require a tradeoff (like 30% increased spell damage but also 5% reduced cast speed). That’s probably a thing they’re going for trying to reign in player power and that’s fine, but combined with the large map zones and how much longer it takes to level in POE2 compared to POE1, it often means the next cluster of nodes you’re excited to take is many hours away.