Started on Path of Exile 2

Did I make a mistake? The jury is still out on that but I am leaning towards thinking that yes, I did make a mistake paying $30 for a game that isn't finished yet, crashes more than never, and will be free-to-play at some point in the future.

I am a bit of a moron for not realizing that this is a Beta release. I should have known seeing as how I already knew that POE1 was exactly that. It isn't massively evident in the "now release" that this is where the game is headed, but you can kind of see signs that the devs will be working on more and more ways to get real world money out of you in the future, finished release.

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I originally decided to buy this because some close friends and I were having a good time with Chaosbane but at a certain point in endgame material it all just seems like a real slog with nothing really to do other than run the same levels over and over again in the hopes that a really good item will drop. This is the endgoal of all games of this type, including POE2, but I was hopeful that there would be a tremendous amount of actual story content in POE2 and on that front I will give them high marks. The story is definitely there and it is far more compelling than Chaosbane.

I was kind of moved to purchase the game because of the trailer, which is very nicely made.

To any fan of "Diablo-style" games that looks pretty damn awesome, right? Well that is what lured me in and let's just say that my actual gaming experience hasn't exactly been that fantastic. I am not going to fully blame the game or anything because I have only put about 6 hours into the game thus far but it really isn't pulling me in the way I had hoped. Perhaps this is because of the game that I just played and how fast-paced it was and how dominant my toon was. I opted for a ranger class because I enjoy staying at range and have had good experiences in the past with this type of character just generally speaking in nearly every game that I have ever played that had one.

It's been slow moving getting to a point where I feel comfortable in combat at all. I realize there are things to learn but I find it quite frustrating to be running through the woods one-shotting most of the enemies and then all of a sudden I am faced with something that I am back-peddaling away from for ages because my strikes don't seem to be doing a whole hell of a lot to it.

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I'm currently in the Cemetary of the Eternals, which isn't very far from the very start of the game. I can mostly not fear getting killed in all non boss situations but this has a lot to do with my usual tactic of using a ranger in the first place.

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I haven't really played enough of the game to have a full opinion but at least at this point, I don't think that paying $30 for something that is going to be free once they are done making it is a good idea at this point in time. I'm actually alarmed at myself that I spent the $30 because I am normally very frugal with my game purchases since I normally restrict myself to PS-Plus catalog games rather than ever purchasing anything. It was a combination of wanting to continue playing online with my brother and the very nicely made trailer above that talked me into it, so to speak.

Here are some things to consider if you, like me, feel the need to get involved in this game early

1. The game isn't finished, hence the "beta" that at least in my situation you are not made aware of until after you have bought and downloaded it. A little dirty on their part but hell, I should have at least looked something up on line before buying. I allowed my enthusiasm to get the best of me

2. It is Diablo. It is an extremely easy to identify, can't believe there aren't lawsuits filed against them, direct copy of Diablo.

3. If you are accustomed to the relative speed of other games similar to this one, POE2 is going to get on your nerves right from the start. You move extremely slow and this sluggish movement isn't just going to affect your ability in combat, it makes simply walking the various maps a pain in the ass as well. You get movement upgrades as you level up, I've seen them in the skill tree, but in the meantime it just feels damn sluggish

4. The loot drops are trash for the most part and your inventory is extremely limited. I can't say for sure but I would be willing to bet that some sort of inventory expansion might just be available for purchase with real world money. I read somewhere that you really shouldn't bother with EVER picking up drops that are not specifically for your character unless they are yellow or orange, indicating that they are quite rare. This has only happened to me one time in 6 hours. The rest of the time my inventory is just filled to the brim with garbage.

5. There are a lot of connectivity issues even with the quite limited number of people that are playing. While I have only been totally booted a single time, I know people on less wonderful internet connections that get kicked on a regular basis. The game will start to "stutter-step" frequently when it starts to become clear that they are having issues on their end. Of course they will blame it on you like they always do and other times a blanket message pops up stating that the servers are "down for maintenance." In my case, I was unwilling to believe the server was actually intentionally taken down and figured it was just a lazy error reporting to the user and tried to log back in right away and was successful. WTF?

6. This game will be free for everyone to play in months or a year or something so honestly, do you really want to pay money for early access? Had I realized that is what this game is at the time of purchase, I wouldn't have paid for it.

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I am kind of kicking myself for buying this and haven't even attempted to log in to play with my family member who was kind of the deciding factor on whether or not I was going to get it in the first place. It has the look of something that could be great in the future, but only in a kind of semi "pay to win" sort of way. I am not a fan of games like that so I think I have made a terrible error in game purchasing.

You might like it, I don't know what to think really, but with it not being yet a finished game and the fact that the price tag for playing will be $0 at some point in the not-so-distant future, I think I would recommend that people just wait a bit longer on this one.