Regarding your comment on Diablo 4… Is that really the case? I played Diablo 2, skipped 3 and then played Diablo 4 a few weeks back during the free weekend on Steam. I’m admittedly a casual player, but I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t love it, though I like it. It was familiar with clear improvements, and I was able to jump right into the game and had an enjoyable experience (I’m aware others could have a different experience especially end game). Gameplay was smooth, UI was simple to navigate while chilling on the couch with a controller, story was interesting, fights were satisfying, and the choices I made for skill progression and weapons all made for a decent experience in the 6-7 hours I played till the level 20 cap. I don’t care about character customization with cosmetics, and have never/will never spend money on mtx especially in a game with this hefty price tag. With all that in mind, the trial was enough to make me consider buying it on sale, and am now considering it again.

But I’m frugal, and have heard from sources online and friends that Path of Exile is Diablo but much better, so I tried it. I gave it 2 hours, and I was personally lost. Not sure if it was the UI which felt clunky and unfamiliar, or the story that didn’t draw me in, or the fact that it felt almost expected to read through wikis to be able to get a decent build, but after two hours I didn’t have fun and uninstalled it. Is it worth it to try again and see if it will scratch the arpg itch?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Path of exile is a love letter to diablo 2. It also has materia from ff7 and the sphere grid from ff10 turned up to 11.

It is also deep as fuck, and thus easy to get lost in. There's tons of side projects in the game (mining, heists, hunting, just to name three I remember). The skill grid is huge. The in game economy is complicated.The core game is huge and then there's a huge end game about exploring maps that has its own skill grid. It's like a decade of content.

You can play it casually. Just go and click on monsters , pick good sounding stuff on level up, and have fun.

You can also look up a guide for your build. You'll probably do better, but then you're following a guide.

If you want a game that has a lot of depth, it's fantastic. If you want something shallow but fun, it can still work but it's possible you'll hit parts where your character is built poorly and struggles.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That’s cool, yeah I can see that it can be as deep as you want it to be.

I gave it a shot again last night, and enjoyed it more. Watched a short beginner video that clarified some of the clunkiness I felt with the UI, and my controller worked this time. It crashed 7 times in 2 hours, which is 7 times more than Diablo 4, but it’s a free game so not complaining. Each time the UI would stop responding for 4-5 seconds while the game kept going, then it would show a frozen start of the GGG intro, then crash to desktop. Last time I played it didn’t do that. Meh.

I do find the economy very complicated, and am finding it a little hard to identify the worthwhile loot so that I’m not going to Nessa to sell a few random pieces every 5 mins.

I do also find the fights somewhat repetitive, but that could just be my uneducated witch/necro build. Minions do the tank duties, while I sit back with chain lighting, lobbing fireballs at everything moving. Pretty satisfying, though I feel it could get tired soon. I think I only used a health potion 4x and mana 3x while playing last night, getting up to level 10, doing the main and side quests up to “The Way Forward”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

That's weird that it crashed so often for you. I don't think it's crashed 7 times in the 300 hours I've played. Did you do the usual "update your drivers and os" stuff?

You can get a loot filter that will make it more obvious what items to pick up. https://www.pathofexile.com/item-filter/ladder/follower . Some items sell for more valuable currency (like an item with all 3 color sockets linked together, or one with six sockets, etc).

The game does pick up as you go farther. You get more sockets on your equipment so you can add more support gems and skills. The beginning is pretty easy, though.

There are also other potions you can slot in for like more speed, resistances, and such.

There's a lot of depth. More than I really know in detail.

Now I'm thinking of downloading it again :thinking:

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I loved diablo 2 and 3 but 4 was very meh for me. Path of exile was very confusing to me so I dropped it. You should give grim dawn a chance. It's so good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh nice, grim dawn looks neat, and very inexpensive for the base game. I’ll check it out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Game often goes on sale along with the dlc. If you decide to give it a chance, check out grimtools for fun builds, calculators, and many more tools. The game is actively being developed after so long, and it's just so fun to play. It's what diablo 4 should have been.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks for the tip, much appreciated. I picked it up while it’s on sale, and will check it out in the coming weeks!