Hello devs, and thanks for a great game.
I have had a blast these last few weeks playing through the campaign. In the spirit of being a beta, below are my first impressions. I will talk mostly of feelings and atmosphere, not detailed mechanics or suggestions (because most of these are already dicussed by more experienced players).
Context: I have played only he campaign so far, haven’t started endgame stuff. 2-3 characters to lvl 30-ish to get the hang of it, then 1 in HC who died at lvl 57 (my one and only death), now back to lvl 51 in SC to push to endgame (deathless so far).
I am ancient enough to have played Diablo 1 at launch, and pretty much all other ARPGs since then. In recent years mostly PoE and Grim Dawn, almost always on HC.
What I like:
- Skills system. The skills specialisation trees are a great concept. Opens up so many possibilities for builds, while still easy enough to understand and use efficently without guide.
- Passives system. While each tree is not very big, I really like that even after choosing a mastery you can access half the tree of the others. Again, gives a lot of building options.
- Story. I know, not capital in an action RPG, but yours is probably the best of your direct competitors. Can’t wait for the next chapter and see what happens. Is divine era Yulia the same as imperial era Yulia? What happened to her? Is Grael the Immortal Emperor? What is the void and how did it appear? Gripping!
- Crafting. Very easy to use, takes a while and some luck to get the perfect item but just enough to not be discouraging. Good balance.
- Stash. It is so easy to customise and arrange our tabs the way we want! Brilliant.
- Loot filter. I haven’t really played with it yet, but it seems great and easy enough to use while being extremely detailed.
- Game guide and tooltips. Great job on these. Some of the clearest I have seen in any game.
What I would like to see added (I understand it is a work in progress and you have other priorities. This is a long term plan!)
- Lore. As I said, I enjoy the storyline. Would be great to find some books or a few interactive chats with NPCs that would tell me more about the world’s history. Ideally, recorded in a log book somewhere so I can come back to them. Easy to implement, but time consuming, I appreciate that.
- Character customisation. OK, most ARPGs don’t have any. But why not beat the competition and be the first ones to have some? Simply being able to choose male or female would be nice. 2-3 races with little stat perks would be paradise.
- Player housing. You probably thought about that one. Huge work, but also a huge plus to any game.
- Trading. No comment, everybody is talking about it already.
- Quests rewards. Seems to be only xp and money. And idol slots, which is a very good idea, but watered down as you still get some of these quests after you have unlocked everything. Only one quest in ruined era gives an item (even better, a choice between two rewards). More like this would be great, both the reward and the choice between two quest givers.
What I don’t like so much:
- Graphics. They are a bit underwhelming. In general, lack of details and diversity. But they get better as the campaign advances (most recent additions), so I have great hopes for the future. Also, the atmosphere and style feel VERY influenced by PoE, I think you need to find your own style.
- Difficulty (maybe?). The campaign feels really easy, including the bosses. Perhaps I should try masochist mode, or perhaps I have played too much hardcore in other games and I pile up too much defenses, but I don’t even get close to dying in the first 50 levels at least. Never.
- Crafting shards. Material list in the forge is a bit hard to navigate, I am never sure of what I have and what I need. I think I would like them to stay in my stash and be easier to visualise. Maybe another, separate stash only accessible through the forge, but that I would be able to organise the way I like?
Right, that’s all for today, will probably write more after I experiment the monolith.
Houlala