I'm on the fence about whether to review this so soon, or to finish the game when some of my biggest issues are things that happen early on that focus on the power users who have this genre so ingrained in their blood that the casual experience is kind of lacking. Despite only ten hours, and only scraping the tip of the iceberg in this "Path of Exile meets Chrono Trigger" time traveling expedition I think I have to caution this isn't for everyone. While the online servers are 50/50, you do not need to play online so people who hate interaction in any form are going to fit just fine with this ARPG experience.

Story: The story is interesting, but nothing special. Events shape the world, you get these shards of the epoch... you drift to the end of the world and build an epoch to go back in time and change the course of history. I mean you hit M and see your map in 4 periods of time... I figured all this out in 5m, I don't need to have the game tell you any of this. "I never looked at my map..." How do you even play ARPG's?

Gameplay: If you haven't played an ARPG since Diablo 2, Last Epoch is essentially a compilation of the last 20 years of developments in ARPGs. 5 classes, each class has 1 of 3 specializations. You get the great, and you get the bad. You can respec easily except your chosen elite specialization and you can focus on particular skills to complement a build. You can find items with basic stats, and then you can craft additional stats or take a chance to remove affixes by shattering an item to put onto something you already own. This is pretty much a simpler Path of Exile item/skill system. No gems or funky bloat here, just "what you see is what you get" You can focus on up to 5 skills to boost their effectiveness, sometimes with tradeoffs and some are just improvements. All is good, except the maps (even in offline mode) seem to love respawning so if you go "My inventory is full, I need to sell" in the wrong spot, enjoy reclearing an entire map to get where you really wanted to be.

Sound and Graphics: Game looks good on my 1650 Super and 3600. I get a steady 100FPS except the first skill usages of a session seem to have an initial spike. Characters change armor as you get new equipment, but those of you wanting "create a character" will not get that here. Music is great, but even boosted to 100% is still on the quiet side of default settings. I want to buy the soundtrack, but I can't even hear it in game so I'm not going to buy it... sorry.

TLDR: So I think if you haven't played an ARPG in 20 years, this is a good window into what you missed. IF you hate ARPG's, skip this game. IF you want a simplified Path of Exile, buy this game. I'm not going to comment on online servers outside of the fact this is week one of the game, and when you underestimate demand you get issues that will be worked out... so the fact the entire game can be played OFFLINE (and most of you will probably not be playing with friends anyways, you love spreadsheets and bigger numbers means bigger better damage.) means that the game can be reviewed as is. The game is complex, but nothing makes you scratch your head... except Negative mana... what the heck is negative mana? The game guide has nothing about negative mana... so I give this game negative mana out of a good time? I mean 7.2/10, its not a bad game... but it caters to one audience really well and misses a chance to cater to a casual audience.

I'm on the fence about whether to review this so soon, or to finish the game when some of my biggest issues are things that happen early on that focus on the power users who have this genre so ingrained in their blood that the casual experience is kind of lacking. Despite only ten hours, and only scraping the tip of the iceberg in this "Path of Exile meets Chrono Trigger" time traveling expedition I think I have to caution this isn't for everyone. While the online servers are 50/50, you do not need to play online so people who hate interaction in any form are going to fit just fine with this ARPG experience. Story: The story is interesting, but nothing special. Events shape the world, you get these shards of the epoch... you drift to the end of the world and build an epoch to go back in time and change the course of history. I mean you hit M and see your map in 4 periods of time... I figured all this out in 5m, I don't need to have the game tell you any of this. "I never looked at my map..." How do you even play ARPG's? Gameplay: If you haven't played an ARPG since Diablo 2, Last Epoch is essentially a compilation of the last 20 years of developments in ARPGs. 5 classes, each class has 1 of 3 specializations. You get the great, and you get the bad. You can respec easily except your chosen elite specialization and you can focus on particular skills to complement a build. You can find items with basic stats, and then you can craft additional stats or take a chance to remove affixes by shattering an item to put onto something you already own. This is pretty much a simpler Path of Exile item/skill system. No gems or funky bloat here, just "what you see is what you get" You can focus on up to 5 skills to boost their effectiveness, sometimes with tradeoffs and some are just improvements. All is good, except the maps (even in offline mode) seem to love respawning so if you go "My inventory is full, I need to sell" in the wrong spot, enjoy reclearing an entire map to get where you really wanted to be. Sound and Graphics: Game looks good on my 1650 Super and 3600. I get a steady 100FPS except the first skill usages of a session seem to have an initial spike. Characters change armor as you get new equipment, but those of you wanting "create a character" will not get that here. Music is great, but even boosted to 100% is still on the quiet side of default settings. I want to buy the soundtrack, but I can't even hear it in game so I'm not going to buy it... sorry. TLDR: So I think if you haven't played an ARPG in 20 years, this is a good window into what you missed. IF you hate ARPG's, skip this game. IF you want a simplified Path of Exile, buy this game. I'm not going to comment on online servers outside of the fact this is week one of the game, and when you underestimate demand you get issues that will be worked out... so the fact the entire game can be played OFFLINE (and most of you will probably not be playing with friends anyways, you love spreadsheets and bigger numbers means bigger better damage.) means that the game can be reviewed as is. The game is complex, but nothing makes you scratch your head... except Negative mana... what the heck is negative mana? The game guide has nothing about negative mana... so I give this game negative mana out of a good time? I mean 7.2/10, its not a bad game... but it caters to one audience really well and misses a chance to cater to a casual audience.