First Impressions / Suggestions

So, after getting my hands dirty with 2 or so hours of the beta, I’m definitely impressed by what I’ve seen so far. I like the feel of the environments and that (gasp!) monsters can actually be dangerous, even early on, instead of just walking loot pinatas. The slowed-down feel of the game is actually somewhat refreshing after playing lots of Path of Exile and Diablo 3 in the past, and sort of reminds me of the glory days of Diablo 1 when death was around every corner.

That being said, I started making a list of things in my mind as I went along that I felt like could be improved - I figure that a lot of this is probably somewhere on the to-do list, but I thought I’d call it out anyway.

Unique Callouts - This is rather minor, but I feel like unique items dropping could have a bit more “oomph” behind the on-screen callout to let you know that one dropped. The sound was a giveaway, but the visuals were less so.

Map Regen - Maps resetting on every zone transition is a little annoying, but I’ll wait to see how that is handled later. Maybe some kind of delay or zone away limit, such as resetting once you’re 3 zones away or the like.

Screens Closing - Things like shop screens staying open no matter how far away you are was a little jarring, and I had to remind myself that I needed to manually close them.

Enemy Boss Highlighting - I think that enemy bosses and special monsters should have a bit more attention drawn to them, whether by colored auras, nameplates, etc. As it stood, I sometimes didn’t realize initially that there was a champion or unique monster about until it hit harder than the other mobs around it.

Other Minor Nitpicks - Interacting with NPCs feels a little odd, in a sense that the menu options feel like they don’t always take on the first click; that could just be me, though. I would also like to see a clock in the upper-left or right, just so I can remind myself of the time when in full-screen mode. When using the Tab overlay minimap, having it reset every time you transition areas, leave screens, or press Esc is annoying - I’d love to have it stay until and unless I pressed Tab again to revert it.

Now, for the things I liked about my initial impressions.

Skill Trees - This was the biggest thing for me. I love mechanics and skill effects, and (as a Mage) I always felt like the spells carried the proper amount of weight behind them, making you feel powerful and like every spell has a purpose rather than just simply spamming one skill over and over. Alternating between Snap Freeze/Glacier/Elemental Nova quickly became a nice routine that kept me on my toes instead of just going on autopilot and right-clicking everything to death.

Crafting - The crafting system looks interesting, and though I haven’t delved too deeply into it yet with being only level 14, I’m very intrigued at the idea of being able to properly craft good items with little to no RNG beyond finding the pieces you want.

Music - Whoever is doing your music, they need to keep it up. I typically turn the music off in ARPGs mostly so I can focus on the sounds in-game for attention’s sake, but I love every bit of the music that I’ve heard so far. It definitely makes the areas pop and fits well into the overall theme of the game.

That’s all I can think of offhand - I’m sure there’ll be more later, and I’ll continue adding to this thread as I come up with them.

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