Looks interesting, but I gotta be honest: when I click on the Steam page and the first thing I see is a cash shop to buy “Epoch Points” for this early access game? That’s an instant turn-off for me. I’m sure it’s not as predatory as what Blizzard did with D4’s monetization, but I don’t want it in my games, period.
Part of buying the game and early support long ago, was that it came with some currency for the eventual cosmetic shop.
I played on and off for a long time without there being a shop. It was always a planned long term monetary support method for the game, and optional, but it was never their first priority. They only recently added the currency and shop to the game around the time they finally released multiplayer, with the 1.0 release being planned by end of year.
I personally cut them some slack, as the ‘early access game’ is almost to final release before they even added the shop, not something they were milking for a 1.0 release that may never come.
On the D4 hand… I tried the open beta… it was fine, but didn’t seem worth the cost. I decided at release to wait for it to go on sale for my $30-40 price point. Did see it on sale for $55 recently, but with all the knowledge I have of their monetization, battle-pass, fomo, and recent news… I don’t know if I’d buy it even if it hit $30. Anyone I know that has played it, has regretted the purchase.
What’s predatory about Diablo 4’s monetization? Seems pretty standard skins and cosmetics stuff. And the battle pass.
But it’s not like you get better gear or anything, right?
Time limited rewards on battle passes are pretty predatory. They’re designed to keep you playing when you otherwise wouldn’t want to.
Jokes on them. That stuff turns me off. I’ve been playing one iteration or another of Diablo for over 25 years. I mean I take long breaks but I always come back. But Diablo 4, as well as it’s made, isn’t Diablo. I don’t want other people in my games unless they are IRL friends, and while I enjoy seasonal powers because I enjoy the gameplay, I don’t care about the rewards. And I’m just not a big fan of stacking tiny little 1-2% buffs and calling that advancement. When I drop a skill point I want to feel it without breaking out statistical analysis.
I played the hell out of it up until the season and then for about a month into the season. And I think I’m already done with it. Rather play BG3, or replay Jedi, or finish Horizon Forbidden West assuming I still remember how to play. D4 was a good story and the production values are top notch, but it doesn’t have the replayability joy of earlier games.
I don’t think I have interacted with another person on D4 except for a IRL friend I played with for a little while. I’m back to playing D3 and some PoE.
Slaps that FOMO part of people’s brains.
Oh yeah, I see. I guess I’m too used to that stuff that it didn’t struck me as that egregious compared to any other game.
It certainly has been for me. Picked it up a couple of weeks into Diablo 4’s first season launch, after remembering that I had heard some folks on Lemmy talking about it during D4’s open-beta.
Zero regrets on picking it up, feels like I’m actually having fun along the way whereas in Diablo 4 I kept wondering where the fun was at (and that said “fun” was always just a few paragon points away so I could unlock a node that would end up being inconsequential).
I’ve primarily played mage (and it actually feels like a mage unlike D4’s so called sorcerer class…) so while I can’t personally speak on the other classes, a friend of mine has done a lot of experimenting with the other classes and they have nothing to say but good things about the various classes.
It is worth noting that Last Epoch is still technically in beta, and does have some bugs every now and then. But they are targeting their 1.0 release before the end of this year. I’m not normally one who picks up early access games, this one certainly is a nice exception though.
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I only really agree with the endgame being lackluster and that’s something that will certainly improve with time as they add more mechanics that get incorporated into Monoliths. The core gear and skill systems are good, which is something that can make or break an ARPG, so saying the developers are unskilled seems a little harsh.
Until it is more fleshed out though I would definitely recommend Grim Dawn over it, which is a game with a lot of content and polish, as well as modding if it’s not enough. I would recommend PoE, but it’s complex enough that it might be better to wait the 1+ year until PoE2 and try that, maybe also learning PoE if it maintains a large playerbase and good support, they claimed they will continue to release just as many expansions for it.
This is an extremely harsh assessment. But I respect your opinion.
Can you name a few? I’m looking for one that scratches the mage itch of hitting a bunch of mobs with chain lightning without the expectation of online participation, or item refinement.
Try ghostlore
I played LE for only about a day based on this post, but yeah, I think I’m with you.
A lot of little things are annoying:
- Every time you leave an area it resets, even if you use a portal?!?
- No fast switch between bow and melee weapon
- You cannot compare a ring in inventory against the ring on your right finger (only left)
- No feedback that you just clicked on a TP or new area, like nothing happens for a few seconds and then you are transported
- …
Yeah, overall it’s fine. It’s definitely enjoyable enough but there’s definitely a lot of work to be done and it worries me when they say they’ll not release the last 3 subclasses until full release when patches are not very stable and entire subclasses with zero testing is… not gonna end up good.
Looks like a nice ARPG, but it seems to integrate an “always online” bullshit requirement, can someone who actually has it confirm or rectify ?
Play offline feature is in
Thanks !
Funny thing: on your screenshot, it looks like the Play Offline button is greyed out. But it’s just a visual thing and you can totally click on it, right ?
Yes, I’m pretty sure its just because if you hit enter on that screen, it assumes and selects the Play Online button.
Play Online is actually a relatively newish feature as far as I understand. Multiplayer only came around earlier this year, before then your save was only offline.
Actually both buttons take you to the same character selection screen, just with either the Online or Offline character list preselected ;)
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Have you played Grim Dawn?
Grim Dawn has one major issue IMO: it overuses passives and semi-passive abilities. When I play an action RPG, I want to actively push different buttons to do different things instead of optimizing my primary attack to do a bit of everything.
How about Titan Quest?
I just tried LE for the first time and there are a lot of similarities to GD. Cannot talk to the passives yet, obviously :)
Indeed I have, why ?
Just cause it’s a Diablo type game I enjoy that does not need online :)
