My veredic

I have been playing Path of Exile as a casual player. Sometimes I miss a season, because I have too much games, but I always come back to this game.
This is my feedback and obviously controversial based on subjective opinion.

I like the wasd movement, it makes the game more arcade. Obviously, this limits the keys and the abilities that I can use, but as overall I didn't have any problem. Sometimes I miss to configure the shift key, but disables an important functionality that it is hard coded when you pick things in the inventory.

I like the new skill systems. It is much more flexible, more open for experimentation and you are not restricted to one single six linked strategy, like POE 1.

I don't know if I want a level 1 skill or what use with all the stack of skill gems. There are still rough edges, but as overall, I prefer this skill system.

I like that there is no spam of gear, like in POE 1. Getting exalt orbs easier, and cheap essences to build gear a part of the game from earlier on. Even it is not top end game gear. In POE 1 I usually don't care much on building gear, maybe the system is too complex. I still miss an orb that resets all.

I have contradictory opinions about wands with spells. It may look a great idea, but in practice it is difficult to keep the level. You may found a good wand of chaos bolt at level 12, but you may have troubles to find another one at level 14 or with useful stats. Maybe would be a good idea orbs to reset to keep smashing orbs until you find the right stats and orbs that rise the level of the items.

I like the campaign, the story, but it is too damn long to reach to the point where you can actually build your character. The idea that I would have to run the campaign again with a new character, drives me out. In POE 1, you can zoom the first chapters equipped with the right gear, and you have access all the skills relatively early, at chapter 6, when the real game starts.

I feel that maps require way much longer to finish. I am a casual player. I have a life and I only play a couple of hours each week. I am not willing to dedicate full time into one single game. Give me a blast, and I'll pay for it, but if you don't respect my time and dedication to your game, you drive me out, because there are others who pay me for doing monotonous and repetitive tasks.

I prefer a short blast that make me excited for the next season rather than a slow grinding that ware out my interest. I see how many hours I had in POE 2 (more than 150 hours) and it discourages me that I barely started tier 6 maps. Do I will start a new season? Hell no, I do even want to finish this one.

There is a contradictory design between the slow path in the campaign and the suicide hordes in the end game. I don't say that one game play is better than the other, but the game play is currently inconsistent. One is based on reaction, timing, knowing monster patters, and the other is kill before they have the chance to hit you.

If they wanted to ovoid the one click run, we have ended into a sequence of two, three clicks run: Curse, shoot, jump, ... curse, shoot, jump, ... repeat ...

After the superficial shell of varieties and strategies, at the end you are restricted to a couple of designs. those grow your dps exponentially. In all games, there are always combos that break the game, but the problem is it seems that this game is designed around these breaking game combos. Or you reach 1 million dps or you are not going very far. Enemies that regenerate life, challenges wehre you are expected to kill as many as you can in a time frame, enemies that one shot you, so why bother with defenses, hordes of enemies that overwhelm you and the only viable strategy is to kill as fast as possible...

The game needs to zoom out, by a lot. This was always a high demand, but for technical reasons it was not possible in POE 1. In POE 2 there is no excuse, but being lazy. This should have been top one priority. I am tired being shoot and enemies jumping over me from out of the edge of the screen, and I have to shoot back enemies out of the edge of the screen, without really see them.

This is an isometric game and the visual distance is always a difficult issue. There are hybrid approaches but we are talking different games. But right now this game is yelling ZOOM OUT.

There is a lack of visual clarity. I have problems to differentiate enemies from the background. Activating the health bar for me is mandatory or some times I I don't even notice the presence of enemies. Give enemies a sharp edge or a distinguishing color. Also sometimes there are elements of the scene that block the view.

Without looking to the mini map is sometimes hard to know were you can walk or there is an invisible wall.

There are too much visual effects. This is already a problem in POE 1. Hiden in ground effects and explosions there is that attack that you can not see coming that instantly kills you.

It is not just a problem of visual clarity, but also performance. I like good graphics but appreciate performance even more and have fluid control. At the start of the campaign it works very well, but at the end game when the screen is full of hundred of monsters burning and explosions, there are cpu spikes, stutters and moments where fps drops to the ground. Somewhat manageable, but very annoying.

Also at the end game, at the start of the each map there is a delay while textures are loaded and I am attacked by invisible enemies. It is not a game breaker, but it is very annoying.

There are moments where I clearly see the RAM as a wild horse creating and destroying instances for each single particle in a screen full of fireballs. Provide the option to tone visual effects down, by a lot. Don't give programmers a high end computers, because they will design the game for high end computers.

I see a lot of potential in this game and there are edges to be rounded and a lot of balancing issues. It starts with a good impression, but the pace is too slow. Retention should be by forcing players to an endless grinding, but offering side activities.