The more I play this game the more I despise it's abhorrent design. I have close to 250 hours, three characters (two of which are far into endgame) and it feels like everything in this game is built specifically for me to not have fun. From one portals per maps to horribly designed boss mechanics and the god awful several decade year old trading system that for some reason hasn't been overhauled, it's like the developers are begging me to go back to Diablo 4. I get that it's early access, but a lot of these "design choices" were clearly made early into development since so much revolves around them. I think the developers want to make a more extensive Path of Exile 1 Ruthless and I don't think there is a playerbase for this. If they continue down this route the game will be dead within a few years.

The endgame specifically is the worst part of this game, and dare I say might actually be worse than Diablo 4's endgame on release. It lacks cohesiveness, it lacks polish, it lacks player agency and choice and it lacks so many other things. I could go on and on about how awful the endgame is but I'll keep it short and limit it to one major issue: forcing players to run expensive and overpowered builds because you are punishing them with this almost child-like, stupid "one life" system. Forcing players to spend several HUNDREDS of hours to get to an endgame boss only for you to die in one second is not cool. It is not "quirky" and it certainly isn't fun in any way, shape or form. This forces players to pivot away from okay builds to insane one shot builds just so they can get the pinnacle loot. It's almost as if this was solved in Path of Exile 1..

If you are a new player I implore you to wait until the game is actually out before you buy in. It might be fun for a bit and it's certainly addicting but with the direction design is heading in this game I cannot recommend this to anyone who isn't super hardcore, loves to run OP, excessive builds and wants to be kicked down by the developers every time they try to get back up.

The more I play this game the more I despise it's abhorrent design. I have close to 250 hours, three characters (two of which are far into endgame) and it feels like everything in this game is built specifically for me to not have fun. From one portals per maps to horribly designed boss mechanics and the god awful several decade year old trading system that for some reason hasn't been overhauled, it's like the developers are begging me to go back to Diablo 4. I get that it's early access, but a lot of these "design choices" were clearly made early into development since so much revolves around them. I think the developers want to make a more extensive Path of Exile 1 Ruthless and I don't think there is a playerbase for this. If they continue down this route the game will be dead within a few years. The endgame specifically is the worst part of this game, and dare I say might actually be worse than Diablo 4's endgame on release. It lacks cohesiveness, it lacks polish, it lacks player agency and choice and it lacks so many other things. I could go on and on about how awful the endgame is but I'll keep it short and limit it to one major issue: forcing players to run expensive and overpowered builds because you are punishing them with this almost child-like, stupid "one life" system. Forcing players to spend several HUNDREDS of hours to get to an endgame boss only for you to die in one second is not cool. It is not "quirky" and it certainly isn't fun in any way, shape or form. This forces players to pivot away from okay builds to insane one shot builds just so they can get the pinnacle loot. It's almost as if this was solved in Path of Exile 1.. If you are a new player I implore you to wait until the game is actually out before you buy in. It might be fun for a bit and it's certainly addicting but with the direction design is heading in this game I cannot recommend this to anyone who isn't super hardcore, loves to run OP, excessive builds and wants to be kicked down by the developers every time they try to get back up.