Path of Exile 2 Daybreak of the Hunt — its first main replace because it launched in early entry final yr — has been a catastrophe. When gamers logged in final Friday to attempt it out, they instantly realized the sport had grow to be nearly comically troublesome. Killing weak monsters within the opening hours of the marketing campaign took ages, and the brand new Huntress class felt limp. Reddit exploded with posts titled issues like “This recreation looks like an enormous waste of time” and “Recreation feels depressing”. Fashionable streamers rage-quit the sport.
In response, developer Grinding Gear Video games issued a number of small patches to present gamers a preventing likelihood. Monsters misplaced a few of their life, and a few underperforming expertise, like skeletal minions, have been beefed up. However many gamers nonetheless don’t suppose it’s sufficient to repair the sensation that the sport is unrewarding.
Grinding Gear Video games put up a publish addressing the broader considerations with patch and what it plans on altering within the coming weeks, most notably the sluggish pacing of its marketing campaign, which you’re required to replay each time a brand new season drops. Whereas a number of the modifications have already gone by means of, gamers are nonetheless struggling to search out the persistence to play the sport lengthy sufficient to succeed in its endgame dungeons.
“I can completely let you know that our objective right here was to nerf the issues that have been trivializing the endgame earlier than you’ve even managed to get your objects and stuff like that,” recreation director Jonathan Rogers mentioned in an interview with streamer Zizaran on Tuesday.
“There have been some blatant fuck-ups, talking bluntly,” recreation director Mark Roberts added, particularly calling out the underpowered expertise that have been shortly hotfixed. “We’re firing from the hip rather a lot right here and stuff like that we’re like, ‘Let’s simply get it in there, let’s attempt it out, and see how individuals suppose and if it’s unhealthy we’ll simply undo it.‘”
“I feel a operating theme with PoE 2 normally is that the goal to hit is smaller [compared to PoE 1] as a result of if we wish the fight to be extra partaking then meaning there’s a smaller goal; it places extra stress on the steadiness to be proper,” Rogers mentioned.
Rogers defined how he feels PoE 1 rewards gamers who’ve spent 1000’s of hours mastering its techniques and that PoE 2 was designed to keep away from that drawback — it’s simply actually exhausting to get proper. On the identical time, the sport is supposed to have the type of deliberate, dodge-roll-heavy fight you’d anticipate from a Soulslike. It’s alleged to be exhausting.
Each builders say the group is trying into numerous issues to alleviate, however they need to watch out about pushing it too far into the opposite path the place gamers begin flying by means of dungeons in just some hours.
“If we get to the purpose the place participant by no means has to face a single problem ever then I don’t suppose that’s going to be a recreation that can be finally enjoyable in the long run,” he mentioned.
