wolfenslime
Bio
I like games
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5/5 - Must play. Something about this game is so good that you should experience it at least once.
4/5 - Very good. The game has a lot going for it, but some aspects let it down. Still recommended if it looks interesting.
3/5 - Good enough. These aren't for everyone, and while most people can still find enjoyment here, you should probably play something else first. Mid.
2/5 - Skippable. These games aren't horrible, but there are enough things poorly executed/done better in other games that you would be better off playing those.
1/5 - Bad. I don't play games that I would consider bad, but for something to get a 1 from me would mean that there is literally nothing redeemable about the game in any capacity.
I like games
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5/5 - Must play. Something about this game is so good that you should experience it at least once.
4/5 - Very good. The game has a lot going for it, but some aspects let it down. Still recommended if it looks interesting.
3/5 - Good enough. These aren't for everyone, and while most people can still find enjoyment here, you should probably play something else first. Mid.
2/5 - Skippable. These games aren't horrible, but there are enough things poorly executed/done better in other games that you would be better off playing those.
1/5 - Bad. I don't play games that I would consider bad, but for something to get a 1 from me would mean that there is literally nothing redeemable about the game in any capacity.
Badges
N00b
Played 100+ games
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
176
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
220
Games Backloggd
Recently Reviewed See More
When I originally reviewed POE, I created a few characters, but was constantly overwhelmed by the amount of complexity I thought was required to enjoy the game. There are an abundance of systems, all of which complement each other and build off one another despite seeming completely unrelated at first glance. There is the infamous passive tree which immediately gives most new players anxiety when opening it for the first time. I do not consider myself an ARPG master; I enjoy the gameplay of this genre more than the character building aspect of it; i.e. I prefer slaying thousands of monsters rather than calculating how to increase my DPS by 2% to trigger an effect of a unique item to completely change my entire playstyle. This means there was always a friction to my enjoyment of POE because I knew that to have fun, I would need to also have a build guide open in the background while I played, which ultimately led to me not playing at all.
However, in 2023, after playing Diablo 4 and beating its campaign, I lost the desire to continue playing that game, mainly due to its lack of complexity. The endgame at the time was essentially running back and forth between Helltides, an open world event where you slay demons and Nightmare Dungeons, effectively similar to white maps with a magic rarity in POE. I quickly lost interest in this, as there wasn't meat on the bone to keep me satisfied, and I gave POE another chance (like many others did post-release of D4).
I ended up creating a Cold Damage Over Time Elementalist, and finally beat the campaign. Something about this character had finally clicked for me, and I was able to enjoy POE. I had fun following a build guide which handled the character building for me while I got to blast through the campaign. I ended up playing up until yellow maps before I took a break from the game (at this point, a lot of the requirements for the build became much more difficult and I needed a lot more currency) but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the game. I learned that I was a Delve Enjoyer and wanted to build a character that would have more success in that league mechanic, so a couple months later, I ended up creating a Righteous Fire Inquisitor and beat the campaign a second time, though this was right before the end of the league and the latest patch at time of writing (Affliction) would completely change how Righteous Fire worked and I did not have the desire to rebuild the character. That said, I had gone from not making it half-way through the campaign to beating the campaign twice in the span of a few months!
The biggest issue I have with PoE is that it is balanced around trading, which is something I do not personally want to engage in. While it is simple, I personally prefer to earn everything on my own, and doing so in PoE can make progressing in certain builds anywhere from a minor inconvenience to impossible. For example, the build guide I followed for my Cold DOT elementalist required a unique item called Mark of Submission. For 85% of my playtime with the build, I did not have this item. Not having this item meant that I had to work around not having it for a bit, but overall it did not cause any meaningful harm. While I could have just scoured the forums and traded for it, I did not want to go through the hassle of messaging player after player hoping someone is online and trading the item I need. I'm sure there was a way to find it or obtain it but that was not clear to me as a new player. Even still, trading cheapens the experience of getting items for me, since the goal then becomes to get currency to buy items rather than engaging with the game to get those items. I.e. say you need an item for your build that only drops from a certain league mechanic that you hate. You could just trade for it and get back to the stuff that you enjoy rather than be forced to play a mechanic that you dislike. It makes sense, and I think it works well, and perhaps one day I'll get into trading but for now, its the antithesis to the type of gameplay goals that I enjoy. There are things in the game to mitigate a lot of this stuff like Div Cards but I would still argue that PoE is balanced around trading, and these things are alternatives for players like me who do not wish to trade. I don't mind grinding, as the core gameplay of PoE is so fun that grinding a certain boss/map/etc to target farm uniques would not be a deterrent to me. There could even be farmable items to boost the drop rates of uniques, but that would require much more thought than this review is meant to supply. I don't mind trading, but the time required to meaningfully progress your character without is a bit too massive to me.
I say all of that, to say this: Path Of Exile is an incredible ARPG. It has 10 years of content poured into it, along with a booming community to help you learn everything. It is also a game that only requires you to plan one step at a time, and trying to learn everything at once will immediately ruin your fun with the game. I have come to be a Path Of Exile fan, and I will continue to play the game for years to come.
However, in 2023, after playing Diablo 4 and beating its campaign, I lost the desire to continue playing that game, mainly due to its lack of complexity. The endgame at the time was essentially running back and forth between Helltides, an open world event where you slay demons and Nightmare Dungeons, effectively similar to white maps with a magic rarity in POE. I quickly lost interest in this, as there wasn't meat on the bone to keep me satisfied, and I gave POE another chance (like many others did post-release of D4).
I ended up creating a Cold Damage Over Time Elementalist, and finally beat the campaign. Something about this character had finally clicked for me, and I was able to enjoy POE. I had fun following a build guide which handled the character building for me while I got to blast through the campaign. I ended up playing up until yellow maps before I took a break from the game (at this point, a lot of the requirements for the build became much more difficult and I needed a lot more currency) but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the game. I learned that I was a Delve Enjoyer and wanted to build a character that would have more success in that league mechanic, so a couple months later, I ended up creating a Righteous Fire Inquisitor and beat the campaign a second time, though this was right before the end of the league and the latest patch at time of writing (Affliction) would completely change how Righteous Fire worked and I did not have the desire to rebuild the character. That said, I had gone from not making it half-way through the campaign to beating the campaign twice in the span of a few months!
The biggest issue I have with PoE is that it is balanced around trading, which is something I do not personally want to engage in. While it is simple, I personally prefer to earn everything on my own, and doing so in PoE can make progressing in certain builds anywhere from a minor inconvenience to impossible. For example, the build guide I followed for my Cold DOT elementalist required a unique item called Mark of Submission. For 85% of my playtime with the build, I did not have this item. Not having this item meant that I had to work around not having it for a bit, but overall it did not cause any meaningful harm. While I could have just scoured the forums and traded for it, I did not want to go through the hassle of messaging player after player hoping someone is online and trading the item I need. I'm sure there was a way to find it or obtain it but that was not clear to me as a new player. Even still, trading cheapens the experience of getting items for me, since the goal then becomes to get currency to buy items rather than engaging with the game to get those items. I.e. say you need an item for your build that only drops from a certain league mechanic that you hate. You could just trade for it and get back to the stuff that you enjoy rather than be forced to play a mechanic that you dislike. It makes sense, and I think it works well, and perhaps one day I'll get into trading but for now, its the antithesis to the type of gameplay goals that I enjoy. There are things in the game to mitigate a lot of this stuff like Div Cards but I would still argue that PoE is balanced around trading, and these things are alternatives for players like me who do not wish to trade. I don't mind grinding, as the core gameplay of PoE is so fun that grinding a certain boss/map/etc to target farm uniques would not be a deterrent to me. There could even be farmable items to boost the drop rates of uniques, but that would require much more thought than this review is meant to supply. I don't mind trading, but the time required to meaningfully progress your character without is a bit too massive to me.
I say all of that, to say this: Path Of Exile is an incredible ARPG. It has 10 years of content poured into it, along with a booming community to help you learn everything. It is also a game that only requires you to plan one step at a time, and trying to learn everything at once will immediately ruin your fun with the game. I have come to be a Path Of Exile fan, and I will continue to play the game for years to come.
This review contains spoilers
Interesting concept. Time only moves when you move, so it's very unique, however, I do not think the game has enough depth to keep you engaged past the initial playthrough. I recommend trying it if you like shooters or even puzzle games.
I wasn't a huge fan of the story. A lot of times, the story felt at odds with the gameplay to me. For example, a decent portion through the game, it requires that you exit the game in order to continue progressing. For me, at this point the game wasn't engaging enough to entice me to come back, and I actually stopped playing and did not come back for a couple months. I only came back because I was making a sweep of my backlog and wanted to see it to its conclusion. Perhaps that was the point, and it was quite an artistic choice, but I didn't really care for it.
After the story, there are many challenges that you can complete, such as speedruns or using a katana-only. These seem cool at first, but again, there were not enough mechanics to keep me engaged, and after beating the main campaign, and a few of these challenges, I was done with Superhot.
I wasn't a huge fan of the story. A lot of times, the story felt at odds with the gameplay to me. For example, a decent portion through the game, it requires that you exit the game in order to continue progressing. For me, at this point the game wasn't engaging enough to entice me to come back, and I actually stopped playing and did not come back for a couple months. I only came back because I was making a sweep of my backlog and wanted to see it to its conclusion. Perhaps that was the point, and it was quite an artistic choice, but I didn't really care for it.
After the story, there are many challenges that you can complete, such as speedruns or using a katana-only. These seem cool at first, but again, there were not enough mechanics to keep me engaged, and after beating the main campaign, and a few of these challenges, I was done with Superhot.
An incredible ARPG with an equally incredible amount of content that allows you to build any character you'd like. With that freedom comes the requirement of a video game equivalent of a master's degree in understanding systems upon systems on top of systems. This is a hardcore ARPG fan's game. You will either need to spend hundreds of hours learning what makes a character build 'viable' or consult a build guide from someone who already has.
It is free though. If you like ARPGs, and do not wish to pay for them, then PoE could genuinely be the only game you ever play because the sheer amount of content and things to understand are near endless. However, if you just want to play an ARPG that doesn't have such a steep learning curve, then I would recommend avoiding this one.
It is free though. If you like ARPGs, and do not wish to pay for them, then PoE could genuinely be the only game you ever play because the sheer amount of content and things to understand are near endless. However, if you just want to play an ARPG that doesn't have such a steep learning curve, then I would recommend avoiding this one.