I’m sure most of this has been covered in other posts so I hope changes get included in 1.0
Please note I really enjoyed the game and have already started a second play-through. I haven’t played much endgame and like all games I am sure given enough time I would learn things better…this feedback is based on a new player picking up the game and having a first run through. I want this game to be great and grow a huge player base so I’m basing this feedback around the moments in my first play-through that were edging me towards not liking the game…but I’m sticking with it as I understand I am playing an early release copy.
In no specific order of importance:
Letterbox/widescreen doesn’t work if windowed.
I like to set the window to a manual widescreen ratio so I can have an area for build guides etc readable below the game window on the same monitor, it also lets me see more of the screen area, I do this in all ARPGs. In last epoch this doesn’t scale the inventory mouse over ‘hit box’ so I cant select anything to the right of the inventory and have to go back to full-screen just to interact with items.
Please fix window scaling for popup windows in game.
Am I dead?
My golem lets out a huge death groan, then animates collapsing to the floor, I know its dead. When I die, I spend seconds thinking ‘why cant I move? am I dead?’, no sound, my health pool is still draining even though nothing I do will change that, and then when it gets to 0 I get a popup saying I died. So the game knows I’m dead long before I do. It just feels like playing a lagged game waiting to find out if I am dead or not.
Please add an immediate on death animation and sound, or like a louder heartbeat and screen fade to tell me I’m about to be toast.
Quest tracking.
I cant track quests, and they are not named the same as the region they are in, they are also not listed in the same order on the front screen as they are in the map screen. So in the overlay or corner map I have all these indicators but no ability to tell which one is which other than a slightly different colour for side-quest vs main quest. If you are close to a door that icon goes away, so you have to backtrack from the door to find is it a main quest or side quest.
Please add quest tracking, allow ‘sort by region’ on both screens, don’t disappear the icon close to the door.
Region changing.
with nothing happening during an area transition I sometimes wonder if im lagged out, I try and move and then when the new area loads I accidentally walk back to the old area. Sometimes it felt like I didn’t have to click on a transition area to trigger it, sometime it did.
Make the player disappear on clicking a portal or area transition, tone down the white glow on transition areas when you’ve loaded into a new area or at least start the player a bit more away from the door.
I have no clue about any of the eras or regions.
I’m a lore/voice skipper, that combined with all maps being similar, I have no clue about the order of the campaign. I only know the ‘acts’ from reading a play-through guide. I can tell you all about the acts and regions in POE and Ive only played that campaign twice, same for grim dawn and diablo games, the last epoch campaign was enjoyable but the map makes no sense to me at all it just seems like it needs something clearer to tell me that I’m now in a different era or act of the campaign like a timeline or something, I don’t know what the answer to this is, it just felt weird.
The game is floaty.
I’m going to guess this is a footstep or environment sound issue, but it just feels like Im smoothly floating through the maps at a consistent speed and not touching the floor.
Where do I go for things?
It didn’t seem obvious to me during the campaign in which region I would find a crafting anvil. Same for picking a town or camp that would contain ‘all the things’
Friendliest Necro ever.
In the loading/character select screen my necro is smiling at me through my current armor, it practically looks like dora the explorers face, its the least necro looking necro Ive ever seen.
Maybe its too easy.
Yes my class/build may need a balance but early game I got a few minion specific items then never changed them until just before the final campaign boss. To me it felt like all my power came from skills an nothing from my items, I am sure in endgame that will be much different, but it lessened that dopamine feeling of finding a good item(s) during first play-though.
It could do with a harder softcore mode. If I have to play through the campaign each time without a powerlevel then I think it could do with better challenges.
No open areas.
the maps seemed the same as they all felt like linear corridors. That combined with having enemies spawn or land in front of you too often just made me think ‘why do I have to walk through all these areas then? just have me play tower defense or a single room gauntlet’. It was much more enjoyable walking into a densely populated area and trying to mow them down or barge my way through. Maybe this related to my ‘too easy’ comment but it would be nice to have some wide open populated areas or more mazey areas.
All in all I really enjoy the game and I am looking forward to playing it on launch day (I think its at 6am on a workday for me being in NZ). I agree with the many comments of others that the crafting process is a really well done idea. I really like the skill trees and I am excited about trying other classes.
If I’m luck then these issues will already have been resolved in the 1.0 build, or I will eventually learn a different play-style to adjust to it all, like I said above, this isn’t about me being right or wrong, I’m not looking for feedback, it is just thoughts I had on my first time that I hope other new players don’t have to experience.