Eurogamer POE review, 7/10

I'd say 6 or 7/10 is fair, the game still has issues that prevent it from being a really great game.

No issues with the score; I can definitely see a lot of people finding this game in the 6-8/10 range... it has a lot of rough edges still.

However, the reviewer quite obviously only played Act 1 normal and then wrote the review. He did a really bad job... barely enough time to have made a first impressions article let alone a review.

Honestly, I expected a higher score from EG, but as long as you enjoy the game it doesn't matter.

"

tackle70 wrote:

No issues with the score; I can definitely see a lot of people finding this game in the 6-8/10 range... it has a lot of rough edges still.

However, the reviewer quite obviously only played Act 1 normal and then wrote the review. He did a really bad job... barely enough time to have made a first impressions article let alone a review.

Yep, what a terribly lazy review.

To be honest, I think 7/10 is generel a good rating. For me, 10/10 would meean the game is flawless, and 5/10 average. The problem is, that most people have a weird (or subjective) sense when it comes to */5, or */10 ratings.

"

B2BigAl wrote:

"

Cronk wrote:

"

Lolreviewer wrote:

I'm supposed to be a man who loves role-playing, someone with a great appreciation for world-building and storytelling and complexity of character, but I couldn't tell you a thing about the plot of Path of Exile, nor the names of any of the thousands of things I've killed in just this last week alone.

Lol, so true.

Yep, they need some cinematics in this game and better storytelling, because people are missing the storyline all together. I said as much in another thread a while back and all the GGG nuthuggers got their panties in a wad over it. You can't expect people to hunt down the storyline, you have to present it to them.

That said, I'd give PoE an 8. Its a great game, but ultimately hurt by its many glaring flaws.

This is a GAME. It's about GAMEPLAY. Cinematics are NOT gameplay. While they are cool and all that's not what you end up playing this game for. You should realize that not every game has to have a story, right?

"

Aelloon wrote:

This is a GAME. It's about GAMEPLAY. Cinematics are NOT gameplay. While they are cool and all that's not what you end up playing this game for. You should realize that not every game has to have a story, right?

So the citadel cinematic sequence from HL2 dragged the game down?

What's more, Path of Exile tries very hard to have not just a story but a fleshed-out world. The lore is extremely interesting, and there's quite a lot of it there. Acts two and three in particular have your character doing things which are incredibly influential to literally the entire world. This game definitely has a story, or at least is trying to. I'm not going to say that the devs should spend a lot of time working on cinematics, but I certainly think it wouldn't hurt in the slightest to have a few nice cutscenes, especially after certain boss fights - Vaal in particular.

On a side note...

"

Even screenfuls of enemies can be beaten back without much of a sweat and they don't boast enough special attacks or unusual powers to really keep you on your toes, often being variations on a theme. Bosses are better, and a welcome change of pace, but battlefield business can sometimes become a slog, your opponents failing to keep pace with your ever-improving character. The game only really bites back when you join parties with other players, inflating the number of monsters you'll have to tackle.

...Wat

I think 8/10 is more fair. 7/10 would represent the current state (maybe), but not take into account ongoing development, customer support etc, which is a constant grow factor for GGG.

I don't think you can review PoE like other games, because there is so much more to it. yes perhaps you get bored, but I rate PoE 10/10 for replay-ability. Take a 3 month leave and you can enjoy the game all over again with more content.

That is how you should review PoE. Tree is 10/10 compared to 2/10 of Diablo 3 or 4/10 of torchlight 2. The other two games can't hold a candle next to it. Graphics I would say Diablo 3 wins (also performance wise for myriad of machines), but in art style befitting an ARPG PoE once again leaves the other two in the dust.

Gameplay would be won by Diablo 3 followed by torchlight 2 and lost by PoE. The AI of your pets, desync, sometimes how areas are designed or certain zones have their monsters disturbed are a bit lacking in PoE. The skill system not taken into account because that is once again great, but I feel also that it hasn't achieved perfection yet (cast on ..., support gems have been a great step forward and I think more of these leaps can be made).

If you take all aspects into account PoE is by far the better game, but that comes with a personal touch and preferences. I would rate Diablo 3 a 3.0 and I gave it time and tried it out a few patches, but continuous failures and broken promises made it the game to never buy anything ever again from the Blizzard brand. In fact it has also become for me a reason to stay away from games by former WoW or Blizzard developers that advertise themselves as such.

Though the rating (7/10) is not far off, the rest of the review is horrid and the reviewer hardly got into the game. Some parts are just blatant lies and do not represent the current situation or PoE at all. If you need to make lay-offs it is a good piece to start. Luckily it is a review from a freelancer. If you know Paul from shut up and sit down, than this review hardly has the effort put in a simple card game of Solitair would receive from him. His tendency is to steer away from the more complex board games anyways, especially lately so I wonder what makes him think he was cut out to handle PoE. Luckily I hardly read review websites anyways, for me user reviews and perhaps the sentiment on meta-critic counts, but even than I like to make up my own mind.

What pisses me off and the reason why one shouldn't visit these trash websites is that the big titles always get good reviews while they utterly suck. That is the main difference here, GGG didn't pay to have an editor written article so a send in freelancer piece had to suffice.

There is no bigger difference between what users experienced of Diablo 3 (myself included) and what review websites scored the game. 1 or 2 days into release they got their score ready... this game takes a fair month to get a proper review and that is if you are into the genre.

I already regret the extra traffic this topic generates for this review website, who have playing a game as their job and can;t even do that well.

All that said I am enjoying release a lot and it will take some time before I will make big rants again on parts PoE should improve, only out of love ;)

"

Cronk wrote:

"

Lolreviewer wrote:

I'm supposed to be a man who loves role-playing, someone with a great appreciation for world-building and storytelling and complexity of character, but I couldn't tell you a thing about the plot of Path of Exile, nor the names of any of the thousands of things I've killed in just this last week alone.

Lol, so true.

Yea, I find it hard not to agree on that statement. The plot in PoE is terribly executed. They are on to something, but not there yet - far from.

The plot and story telling could be a lot better I agree, but to be fair recently all fantasy and ARPG games have been lacking in that department.

I also guess it is merit, you can go after the lore yourself, by having conversation with NPC, but at no point are these forced too much onto you (walk right past Piety in the chambers of sin or not even see her block off the canyon), this does allow players to play at their own pace.

The Library/ Archives are interesting and I liked Fairgraves, but what perhaps should happen before Fairgraves is some voice acting from the (slave) girl ghost/ body/ spirit if it still lingers. Let her be an enemy and right after: "I'm sorry for attacking you, but I can't let you take the Allflame back to that horrible man and now there is no way me for to stop you." "Angry/ sad scream."

This dresses things up more, builds around this figure. It would be cool to see fairgrave ghost crew on Docks now aswell. If they attack you they could shout some lines such as: You left us here! You coward get back! Giving the moment when he talks about his lost crew members a spin.

Give the blackguards a few lines. Clearly at the tower of God they were meant to guard the entrance from what is outside and what is inside the tower. Some left pieces of lore, like; "We can't hold the line much longer, will I ever see Oriath again...?" Snippets to dress-up the world definitely helps out.