PoE 2 doesn't know what it wants to be.

PoE 2 feels like a game that doesn't know what it wants to be yet. Torn between skill based encounters in the style of acts or a PoE 1 map blasting successor it commits to neither fully, leaving systems and game feel competing against themselves instead of coming together as a whole.

Poe2 as a base combat system feels great. Twin stick gameplay isn't anything particularly new or special but when it works, it works. No need to reinvent the wheel just because you can. A rock solid foundation to work from it's smooth, looks great, and skills have strong impact and feedback. The game as introduced in acts (massive areas aside) is where the game is at its best. Exploring the new lore and state of the world, thinking of new build archetypes. When the power curve is matched bosses can feel interesting and engaging. Checkpoints allow bosses to be tough fights you want to learn and try again. Practicing spacing and movement instead of gear checking.

But most of this disappears slowly over the course of the game. Similar to PoE1, the game confuses difficulty for punishment with one and done map systems, penalties, and potentially massive time lengths between boss attempts. Difficult engaging encounters are diametrically opposed to heavily punishing anything but a 100% success rate. No more learning a fight as you progress it or thinking 'maybe one more try'. Just as in PoE1 the systems say only engage with a fight when it is trivialised, losing the most interesting thing about PoE2. Outside of bosses the late game experience feels ported over wholesale from PoE1. Based largely around killing swarming mobs, ideally before they get a chance to act lest a bad combination of mods on a map or rare remove you from existence.

PoE1's strength was a diversity of build options and strange interactions. A plethora of systems and levers to tweak. As it stands it's not there yet in PoE2. The combo skills are neat, but it's leaving builds uninspired and samey. There's low synergy beyond the already existing combos, travelling out of your area in the passive tree is a huge investment, conversion or things that change a skill scaling and identity are almost non-existent, stat requirements push out potential combinations. There aren't fun puzzles to solve or interactions to discover in the passive tree. It all feels flat and strongly locked down, like it's afraid we might fail if we try something new. I think this is shown well by the trigger changes. Rather than tune in over performing damage (which was also done), the concept itself was changed. Using a separate skill or element to propagate damage or automate charges was the kind of neat interaction that used to encourage strange builds. But now no longer functions on packs where most of the game takes place, homogenising builds towards pre-built build/spend skill groups.

The game is trying to differentiate itself from PoE1 which is a good thing. However systems that were removed or changed from PoE1 haven't been replaced leaving us with the very problems they were introduced to solve in the first place.
- Attributes can be selected on passives, but it's largely irrelevant. The requirements are so high compared to the halved values even picking all of one attribute doesn't cover it without gear. Which also has significantly lower values and drop rates.
- Crafting has been brought back to almost raw luck and the permanency of runes with the lack of artificer orbs (even with breaking down every socketed item you see) leaves early gearing totally at the mercy of RNG. Checking shops every level if you find yourself on the tail end of a bell curve is not interesting or engaging. Crafting bench may have been too strong in areas, but it served a purpose for which there is now no replacement. Removal of alts/scours doesn't make loot more interesting if all we're going to do is roll bases en masse as if we were scouring anyway.
- sockets moved into gems was supposed to encourage experimentation and free up gear progression. The gear progression part seems to be working quite well. I no longer feel tied to a 4/5L that just happens to have the right colours while leveling. Experimentation works well but falls off as soon as jewelers turn up since they're in short supply and lock to skills. We also lost the ability to mess with gem levels, which is important around mana costs and requirements.
- Legacy problems which have been transferred wholesale with no attempt to address them. Visual clarity in the late game is still horrendous, alongside a ton of hard to parse ground and on death effects. The rare mobs aren't using poe2's strengths. Not anymore notable or interesting to fight but the same collection of random effects stapled to hit points.

There's a really good base combat system in PoE2, a great foundation. There's so much potential for something great. But right now it's fighting with itself. Does it want to have difficult encounters you out skill, or be a loot farming blaster? Does it want complex and intricate building, or to be on rails? Does it want to feel like it starts off in Act 1-3, or like how it does in maps? Pulled in opposing directions it doesn't feel like a cohesive whole.

unrelated nitpicks: the well and running between vendors adds nothing. Having a loading screen for the map is weird and unhelpful.
Last bumped on Dec 16, 2024, 10:35:55 PM

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