Path of Exile 2 Daybreak of the Hunt — its first main replace because it launched in early entry final 12 months — has been a catastrophe. When gamers logged in final Friday to strive it out, they instantly realized the sport had turn into nearly comically tough. 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 sport appears like an enormous waste of time” and “Sport feels depressing”. In style streamers rage-quit the sport.
In response, developer Grinding Gear Video games issued a number of small patches to provide gamers a preventing probability. 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 put up 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 among the adjustments have already gone via, gamers are nonetheless struggling to search out the endurance to play the sport lengthy sufficient to succeed in its endgame dungeons.
“I can completely inform you that our aim 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,” sport director Jonathan Rogers stated in an interview with streamer Zizaran on Tuesday.
“There have been some blatant fuck-ups, talking bluntly,” sport director Mark Roberts added, particularly calling out the underpowered expertise that have been rapidly hotfixed. “We’re firing from the hip quite a bit right here and stuff like that we’re like, ‘Let’s simply get it in there, let’s strive it out, and see how individuals suppose and if it’s dangerous we’ll simply undo it.‘”
“I believe a working theme with PoE 2 generally is that the goal to hit is smaller [compared to PoE 1] as a result of if we wish the fight to be extra participating then meaning there’s a smaller goal; it places extra stress on the stability to be proper,” Rogers stated.
Rogers defined how he feels PoE 1 rewards gamers who’ve spent hundreds of hours mastering its methods and that PoE 2 was designed to keep away from that drawback — it’s simply actually arduous to get proper. On the identical time, the sport is supposed to have the sort of deliberate, dodge-roll-heavy fight you’d count on from a Soulslike. It’s speculated to be arduous.
Each builders say the staff is wanting into plenty of issues to alleviate, however they need to watch out about pushing it too far into the opposite route the place gamers begin flying via 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 sport that will likely be in the end enjoyable in the long run,” he stated.
