It is an enjoyable Diablo-style ARPG; in terms of artstyle it is what Diablo 3 should have been. Also the gems in this game aren't simply stat boosters; they are your special abilities, which is rather interesting indeed.
goddamnit I just finished downloading it regularly
It is the Diablo 3 we've been waiting for. Maybe not as funny as the actual Diablo 3's ragdoll physics when you plow through shit, but it's an ARG with a gritty atmosphere that isn't compromising itself with a Pre-Teen audience type story
So it's a hack'n'slash RPG, like Diablo and Torchlight?
If this plays just as good as it sounds, I'm totally gonna download this.
[QUOTE=SouthParkMGT;42622042]So it's a hack'n'slash RPG, like Diablo and Torchlight?
If this plays just as good as it sounds, I'm totally gonna download this.[/QUOTE]
It's exactly that, but with the gritty atmosphere of Diablo 2, and a skill tree that really does let you do whatever the fuck you want
Also, all the micro-transactions are cosmetic. It's also got some great PvP events as well.
[QUOTE=TheTalon;42622054]It's exactly that, but with the gritty atmosphere of Diablo 2, and a skill tree that really does let you do whatever the fuck you want[/QUOTE]
That's it, I'm fucking getting this. I wanted something like that since D2. Torchlight was great, but I missed dark atmosphere.
EDIT: Really? Unavailable in Russia? Well, I hope it won't affect the game itself.
[QUOTE=Drunken Moose;42622059]Also, all the micro-transactions are cosmetic. It's also got some great PvP events as well.[/QUOTE]
Really?
Wow, I love when companies do micro-transactions like that.
Kinda like Valve's model with DOTA 2, I love it.
Also, for people who are interested in the skill tree of the game, it is the exact same for all classes.
However, each class starts out at different points in the tree. How does that work? Well, here it is.
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/EvLnItu.jpg[/thumb]
[QUOTE=Drunken Moose;42623480]Also, for people who are interested in the skill tree of the game, it is the exact same for all classes.
However, each class starts out at different points in the tree. How does that work? Well, here it is.
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/EvLnItu.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE]
Whoa. That reminds me of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X.
[QUOTE=Notanything;42624667]Whoa. That reminds me of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X.[/QUOTE]
I think also this look like too, to the materia from FF7
I never saw the gritty atmosphere people are talking about. The game always had a rather bland and lifeless feel to me. I mean, yeah, it had it's spooky dead bodies and pools of blood, but they way the graphics and atmosphere were, everything felt mundane like wandering through a boring country side.
[QUOTE=Mingebox;42627265]I never saw the gritty atmosphere people are talking about. The game always had a rather bland and lifeless feel to me. I mean, yeah, it had it's spooky dead bodies and pools of blood, but they way the graphics and atmosphere were, everything felt mundane like wandering through a boring country side.[/QUOTE]
I felt the same way.
Sure it's "gritty" in the way that everything is dirty and has murky colors, but the environments are all rather bland and sterile and most of the enemy designs seem uninspired.
I'm also confused why people keep bringing the huge skill tree up, considering it's all passives I never found it that impressive.
The skill gem/socket system is pretty cool though.
[QUOTE=amgoz1;42630553]I felt the same way.
Sure it's "gritty" in the way that everything is dirty and has murky colors, but the environments are all rather bland and sterile and most of the enemy designs seem uninspired.
I'm also confused why people keep bringing the huge skill tree up, considering it's all passives I never found that it impressive.
The skill gem/socket system is pretty cool though.[/QUOTE]
Being all passives is what's so cool about it. Instead of just saying "okay, you leveled up so now you get ten more health and mana and do a little more damage," you choose exactly what bonuses you get (out of a long list of possibilities), allowing you to specialize your character to a pretty extreme degree. It's boss.
In addition to the general stat boosting nodes, there are a bunch of "Keystone" nodes that can completely change your playstyle. For instance, there's a keystone that makes it so that none of your attacks and spells do direct damage, but which allows you to summon extra "Totems" that can cast spells or ranged attack abilities on your behalf. Or the blood magic keystone, that makes your abilities draw from your health pool instead of your mana pool.
Path's skill system is totally liberating. It's pretty darn cool.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42631259]Being all passives is what's so cool about it. Instead of just saying "okay, you leveled up so now you get ten more health and mana and do a little more damage," you choose exactly what bonuses you get (out of a long list of possibilities), allowing you to specialize your character to a pretty extreme degree. It's boss.
In addition to the general stat boosting nodes, there are a bunch of "Keystone" nodes that can completely change your playstyle. For instance, there's a keystone that makes it so that none of your attacks and spells do direct damage, but which allows you to summon extra "Totems" that can cast spells or ranged attack abilities on your behalf. Or the blood magic keystone, that makes your abilities draw from your health pool instead of your mana pool.
Path's skill system is totally liberating. It's pretty darn cool.[/QUOTE]
Not to mention that certain Keystones synergize really well with eachother, which in their turn open up a door to some special builds as well.
For example, Eldritch Battery converts all Energy Shield into mana, which gives you a really high mana pool. If you combine that with the Keystone Mind of Matter, which takes 30% of damage taken from your mana, you essentially have a big mana shield that regenerates really fast.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42631259]Being all passives is what's so cool about it. Instead of just saying "okay, you leveled up so now you get ten more health and mana and do a little more damage," you choose exactly what bonuses you get (out of a long list of possibilities), allowing you to specialize your character to a pretty extreme degree. It's boss.
In addition to the general stat boosting nodes, there are a bunch of "Keystone" nodes that can completely change your playstyle. For instance, there's a keystone that makes it so that none of your attacks and spells do direct damage, but which allows you to summon extra "Totems" that can cast spells or ranged attack abilities on your behalf. Or the blood magic keystone, that makes your abilities draw from your health pool instead of your mana pool.
Path's skill system is totally liberating. It's pretty darn cool.[/QUOTE]
I realize it is impressive from a design and mechanical perspective.
My disappointment stems from expecting it to be a skill tree in the traditional sense(i.e a huge amount of actual abilities), because that's what a skill tree usually means in the context of ARPG games.
There's a significant distinction between a skill tree and a passive skill tree which never seems to be mentioned when a picture of the PoE skill tree is brought up.
I way prefer the gem system for skills in every sense except one: you have to find the skills you want to use. Otherwise, being able to level your abilities independent of your character is a great idea!
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42632599]I way prefer the gem system for skills in every sense except one: you have to find the skills you want to use. Otherwise, being able to level your abilities independent of your character is a great idea![/QUOTE]
Not really, the conventional Skills a class would use (i.e. Ranger would use Rain of Arrows, Burning Arrow, Poison Arrow etc etc) are given away as Quest Rewards when you progress in the game. Every skill gem can drop, and there are a couple of drop-only gems. Mainly you'll get your Skill Gems through Quest Rewards, and if you want an unconventional Skill Gem for your class, you might have gotten it as a Quest Reward from another Character class you played before.
Oh yeah, it's not like it's a major pain in the butt to get any skills, and it actually works in a pretty cool way with the trading system. Path has, hands down, the best barter/trade system of any ARPG I've played. The currency items being crafting items is a bit brilliant, because it applies real, applicable, and dynamic value to your currency as opposed to making it just an arbitrary number. It just makes it so that getting any skills you might need that aren't rewarded by quests (especially support gems) means luck or trading.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42632946]Path has, hands down, the best barter/trade system of any ARPG I've played. The currency items being crafting items is a bit brilliant, because it applies real, applicable, and dynamic value to your currency as opposed to making it just an arbitrary number.[/QUOTE]
I like the fact that there's no real currency like Gold, that just has a set value, but it also creates insecurity for players when trading. A lot of people have no clue how to value their items and when they're selling stuff they start asking for offers.
The general trading process of PoE:
A: WTS Unique Sword
B: What's the price
A: Make an offer
B: Okay, 5 Chaos Orbs
A: lol what a lowball
That's the only thing that bothers me about this game, but it's not like the devs can do anything about it. I'd rather deal with this than have gold as a currency.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42632946]Oh yeah, it's not like it's a major pain in the butt to get any skills, and it actually works in a pretty cool way with the trading system. Path has, hands down, the best barter/trade system of any ARPG I've played. The currency items being crafting items is a bit brilliant, because it applies real, applicable, and dynamic value to your currency as opposed to making it just an arbitrary number. It just makes it so that getting any skills you might need that aren't rewarded by quests (especially support gems) means luck or trading.[/QUOTE]
What trade system? Either I missed it or there simply isn't one besides spamming your trade in the chat.
I played the beta. It was fun. The game however isn't starting for me, though, it stays at the loading thing at the beginning and does not change.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42632599]I way prefer the gem system for skills in every sense except one: you have to find the skills you want to use. Otherwise, being able to level your abilities independent of your character is a great idea![/QUOTE]
I don't have anything against either the gem or passive system, I just entered the game with the wrong expectations.
[QUOTE=Mingebox;42627265]I never saw the gritty atmosphere people are talking about. The game always had a rather bland and lifeless feel to me. I mean, yeah, it had it's spooky dead bodies and pools of blood, but they way the graphics and atmosphere were, everything felt mundane like wandering through a boring country side.[/QUOTE]
Agreed
I mean, it has a decent sense of atmosphere but the actual premise makes no sense to me and isn't interesting at all
D2 was nice because it not only was gritty and dark but the places you were involved with actually felt like real places and there being a reason why you would go there, on top of the fact that you had the omnipresent overarching evil through the whole game that you could tell you were getting closer and closer to as you progressed. Really felt like you had a sense of purpose to what you were doing, a real sense of progression and felt rather bad-ass being the dude taking out badder and more demonic demons as you went.
Meanwhile PoE doesn't really feel like it progresses at all, you just kind of decide to move inland to the forest area after the beach area, everything you do in each act feels like you just randomly doing stuff until you can progress, the monsters feel like they are there to just be monsters to fight a lot of the time, etc.
I mean D2 does a lot of this stuff too, but the way its all presented and arranged makes it really feel like it has weight and purpose to it in the context of an aRPG. Here it just felt like I was progressing for the sake of progressing, it didn't feel like I had any real reason to kill a bunch of monsters or visit the places I was visiting or do the quests I was doing. The whole "exile" story is interesting but also doesn't really resonate with me at all in the context of a diablo clone, and seems a little silly almost even if it isn't cliche like saving the world is.
[editline]25th October 2013[/editline]
Keep in mind I played this during beta about a year ago. No idea how different it is now
I briefly watched a friend's stream of Grim Dawn, and that seemed better in the atmosphere regard, thought I didn't get much of a look, and it looks pretty dated in the screenshots.
Path's atmosphere and effects leave a lot to be desired, but its gameplay mechanics are very neat. It's like having an awesome engine in an ugly car.
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