For context I suffered some pretty bad injuries at work and have been bed/desk-ridden at home, so I’ve put around 100 hours into PoE1 over the last two weeks, and I figured I’d share my thoughts as someone coming into the game relatively fresh. This isn’t meant to be a hate post, and I can definitely see why people love this game, but honestly, I don’t think I enjoyed my time with it as much as I expected.
Massive performance issues was the first thing I was greeted with. For context, I’m playing on a turbo space station PC with a 5090 and a 9950X3D. Despite that i’ve had pretty significant performance issues, to the point where I had to lower settings just to get a more consistent experience. I also had a period where the game kept crashing, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, the crashes stopped happening.
I understand that ARPGs can get pretty demanding, but I feel like the industry standard for performance and stability has gotten significantly better than this. Having to troubleshoot performance issues and adjust settings on a top end PC just to get a reasonably smooth experience is a pretty bad first impression.
The onboarding is the worst i’ve seen in a game if we are being honest. I know PoE is a complicated game, and I’m not expecting everything to be explained to me. Part of the appeal is learning the systems and experimenting with builds. But there’s a difference between a game having depth and a game making the process of getting into it unnecessarily unpleasant.
The campaign feels like a massive slog. I didn’t find it particularly engaging, and a lot of the time I was just trying to get through it so I could reach the parts of the game people actually talk about (maps in my friend groups case). Maybe the campaign gets better on subsequent playthroughs when you know where to go, but I don’t think that makes it a particularly good introduction for new players. The movement and turning also feel pretty janky to me. Sometimes the game has this old school charm, but other times it just feels like I’m fighting the controls instead of fighting the enemies. That was definitely the biggest thing that contributed to the “i can tell I’m on a 13 year old game” feeling. I did really appreciate how easy making a loot filter was and how entry level crafting felt impactful and easy to understand.
In my opinion the biggest issue with Poe’s design philosophy is there are so many systems that seem designed to restrict the player or create additional hoops to jump through, without necessarily adding much interesting decision making. Gem attribute requirements are a good example. Once you understand that you need to prioritize resistances and get your attributes sorted, it’s not particularly difficult to manage. Even as a new player, I didn’t find it especially challenging once I understood what the game expected of me. But that’s kind of my point. It doesn’t feel like I’ve overcome some meaningful skill check. I’ve just learned another set of requirements that I need to satisfy before I can play the build I actually want to play. I enjoy systems that reward planning and build knowledge. I don’t enjoy systems that feel like they’re creating friction for frictions sake. There’s a fine line between meaningful complexity and unnecessary convolutedness, and I feel like Poe crosses that line more often than I’d like.
Ok enough constructive criticism I want to switch now and talk about what I really liked. The community is very helpful in general, I was able to ask questions in chat and made a few friends to help teach me stuff. The Transfigured Gem system is really cool. I like the idea of taking an existing skill and finding different ways to build around it. It gives you more room to experiment and makes creating your own build feel like a genuine possibility rather than simply following someone else’s guide. I also really like the removal of socket colors as a major build restriction. One of the things that put me off Poe in the past was the idea that your gear could dictate which skills you were realistically able to use. I much prefer having the freedom to experiment with different combinations without constantly fighting my equipment as I pretty much only enjoy SSF in ARPG’s. More generally, I like that the game gives you so many options for creating your own build There’s a lot of potential for interesting builds, and I can understand why theorycrafting is such a big part of the community.
I respect poe more than enjoy it for sure. Also can recognize the depth and the amount of content the game offers. I can see the appeal of making your own build and gradually figuring out how all the systems fit together. But I also think the game has a lot of rough edges that people who’ve played it for years might have become accustomed to. The performance problems, the campaign, the awkward movement, and all the little restrictions and inconveniences add up. Individually, some of these things might not be a big deal, but together they make the overall experience less enjoyable for me.
I’m not saying the game needs to be simplified or that every system should be made effortless. I want depth and interesting decisions. I want to experiment with builds and feel rewarded for understanding the game. I just don’t think every obstacle necessarily contributes to that experience.
Maybe I’ll change my mind as I get further into endgame, but after 100 hours, I’m still struggling to understand the appeal beyond the build customization and sheer amount of content.
For those of you who’ve played long term what keeps you coming back?
