I played through the game, i enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised by some things. So i thought i’d leave some feedback in hopes of improving the game. I wrote a lot of these points down while playing with this thread in mind. I’ll also leave feedback on what i think is good.
The lack of range-counters:
When playing Marksman i could approach every enemy in the game the same way. I feel like the game lacks enemies that force me to approach a mob differently. Especially early on every enemy feels exactly the same. I didn’t feel the same way when playing Lich. My recommendation would be to add some rushdown mobs and add some long-range damage things without travel time. I wouldn’t mind if there were some assassins either that would teleport behind you.
Puncture:
I just want to say you’ve done a great job here at adressing one of most annoying mechanics in any ARPG, which is damage over time. Nothing is more boring than having to wait for enemies to bleed out. Applying all the bleed stacks instantly at the 3rd hit is such a clever mechanic. It’s really telling that the developers actually play and know the frustrations of ARPGs.
The flame lions:
Going back to how you approach enemies, i really love this enemy. The tri-flame thingy feels unique. Please add more enemies like it.
Harvest skill:
Harvest looks wierd to use when you hold a melee staff. You’re backhanding a staff, while casting a staff special effect in the front. Just… wierd.
Acolyte/Lich:
I just wanted to say you’ve done a great job with this class. It feels so refreshing and unique. It is one of the most engaging builds i’ve played in an ARPG for a long time. I used Marrow Shards, Blood Rip, Death Seal, Transformation, Transplant for reference. No regen no leech.
Zone lengths:
I felt that some zones in the campaign were too long. My friends made comments about the same thing. Most notably the Temple of Eterra. This area is really stretching it with it’s length.
The catacombs is also stretching it, because it feels so vast without anything meaningful between start to end. Not to mention that dead end, that place needs something like a mini-boss or at least some rewards for exploration.
Enviromental animations:
I really love the enviromental animations, like the raising of the bridge, the large stone golem rumbling in the background and the cube floor animations. I want more of those between act 3-5 since this is when the campaign is at it’s most boring. I think they bring a lot of flavor to the campaign. Which could spice up some areas that lack “highlights” like Temple of Eterra.
Lich Form:
This one is probably in the plans, but acolyte having the same voice in Lich form is a bit eh… Probably low on the priority with the time/budget and all though.
Length of campaign:
I’ve seen some people complain about the length of the campaign on repeated playthroughs. I’ve only played it 2 times, though i didn’t particulary mind the length at all. Again, just cut down the length of some zones and have more highlights throughout.
In my opinion i would rather have side-missions be optional, so that idols are unlocked in the endgame and have rewards like good rares/uniques that make the campaign easier than if you were to rush through.
Lagon voice:
I feel like his voice isn’t filtered out enough. It sounds like a human putting on a monster act. He could really use some extra layers of voice filters to make him sound “monstery”.
Helping the last imperial:
This is just a small immersion thingy. When you complete his quest he says you need to stay back and before he explodes, but he doesn’t deal deals any damage and collision is turned off instantly allowing you to rush through. Please punish these dirty speedrunners so that you must heed his words
Mini-objectives:
I like the small details like having the wandering watchers patrol and that you need to find them. Small stuff like that adds a lot to the game, instead of just having static actors placed throughout the map for you to plow down (i’m looking at you poe).
Character introductions:
I love semi-animated image slideshows when well executed and i think this game hits the nail. The rogue intro in particular is great because it hints that the negasa woman may be interfering with time travel.
Animations feel stiff:
This is a common thing throughout the game From the character select where the primalist jumps forward to rogue throwing acid cocktail. The animations often feel stiff because they lack weight. Like when you punch something in real life your fist lingers at the point of impact before you pull back. You don’t just linearly interpolate from A B C. Which is what’s happening.
Eye strain:
Here comes my biggest gripe with the game. Last Epoch is really straining on the eyes to play. Because sometimes the actors blend too much in with the background or the background has too much details. Which makes it really difficult to focus on a particular object. I actually had to take breaks from playing the game because it became too much.
Some of the absolute worst zones are:
-Ancient era, with green grass and greenish dinosaurs. I really struggled to “read” with my eyes what was happening.
-Temple of Lagon, the tile floor has too much contrast, making it very detailed looking. So it feels like the whole screen is just details details details. Please blend out the hard black edges on the tile texture.
-Desert tiles and imperial zone, skeletons blend too much in with the grey/brown color.
Now things could be better on a high resolution monitor, but i feel like visual clarity is something to strive for anyway. I find this to be a problem in PoE too, but to a lesser extent. I’ve only had this problem with these two games.
Temple of Lagon:
Pillars make no noise when they fall (Immersion breaking).
Suggestions:
-Hold to drag chest tabs in different order. I had to clean an entire tab just to make my first tab the “dump” tab.
-An option to put a blank split in the loot filter. So i can split categories for better readability. I have 13~ rules.
-Under lootfilter, under affixes, add sub-condition like this example “how many of affixes match is more than or equal to 2”.
-If you hold over an inventory slot all items matching that slot are highlighted.
Bugs:
The game seems relatively bug free for an early access title which is good. I did encounter some though:
-The music track kept stuttering at times, when everything else ran fine. Loading into a new zone or restarting the game helps. I almost refunded the game because i thought something was wrong with it. Happend to me 5-6 times roughly speaking.
-You can have main menu open in loading screen.
-The floating tentacle imperials can explode instantly without showing the aoe death animation. I got killed this way.
-Marrow Shard missiles dissapear near the telepad when fighting Otraek Survivor in Ruined Coast.
-While running and lich form expired i stood in a default t-pose for 2-3 seconds.
I haven’t played that much endgame content yet, but i doubt i’ll be updating the thread for endgame content. I love this game so i hope this helps.