I'm going to start this off with, I backed and played POE almost immediately after it's release. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy it that much.  I'm not going to go into all the details, but it ranged from the NPCs to how it was fairly linear and that I didn't really see that much reactivity differences between when I played as a Paladin (and beat the game) and when I tried playing as a Cipher (and only got up to the 2nd Chapter). 

 

So, my question is this.  For those people that HAVE played it at release and have since played it with 2.0, is it significantly enough improved that it might just change my mind?  Do you find the current iteration to be vastly superior to the release version?  Or, do you think that the differences probably wouldn't convince someone that it is much improved game?

 

So, poll, as well.

If you were very annoyed at bugs, it has substantially improved since then, though there are certainly a bunch of new bugs introduced in 2.0 that need fixing.

 

If you weren't, then despite the many small improvements, it is much the same game now as it was on release.

I think it has improved a lot, but I wouldn't call it a "practically different game".

 

I liked it back then, and I like it even more now.

 

The things you mention as your main gripes with the game are mostly unchanged (reactivity, story, NPCs.)

Ok, thanks for the feedback.  I'm going to let some more people put their input into the poll, to see the results after some more votes.  But, it looks like the consensus is that it has improved, but not drastically.

I didn't play it at release, and didn't know about the kickstarter effort, or I'd have put in a bunch of $$.... but I have played the game before the xpac (or is it dlc?  I never know....) and after, and while I enjoyed the "vanilla game", the game with the xpac is better in my view.

The only large change since release has been the addition of some minor AI for the player, and the expansion giving some fights to use all those cool skills at once you get max level. So, unless your complaints before were that the game had just a little bit too much micro, or that there wasn't enough combat heavy areas to flex your max level stuff at, I don't think you'll find the game any more enjoyable.

 

I had 5 friends I talked into Kickstarting game, and not a one actually played the game to completion at launch. None of their deal breaker issues have been (or really can be) resolved, so I don't try to get them to give the game another shot. They're sore at me enough as is on the subject, heh.

Edited September 19, 201510 yr by Teioh_White

The only large change since release has been the addition of some minor AI for the player, and the expansion giving some fights to use all those cool skills at once you get max level. So, if your complaints before were that the game had just a little bit too much micro, or that there wasn't enough combat heavy areas to flex your max level stuff at, I don't think you'll find the game any more enjoyable.

 

I had 5 friends I talked into Kickstarting game, and not a one actually played the game to completion at launch. None of their deal breaker issues have been (or really can be) resolved, so I don't try to get them to give the game another shot. They're sore at me enough as is on the subject, heh.

 

Well, I'm loving the game.  I'm very much looking forward to WM 2 AND PoE 2.

 

A family member put a lot of money into the kickstarter effort, but somehow "forgot" that I might be interested.  I don't routinely follow games anywhere since most of that stuff is on social media and I just don't DO that crap.  I have a friend who was also involved, and while he didn't know then that I would be interested, he certainly does now.  So in future I should have some idea what's on the plate out there.

 

I started out with the SSI Gold Box games (in 1985), and while I've certainly played mmos and other sorts of games since, PoE and similar games are very much more my style.

Edited September 19, 201510 yr by Oralaina

Your poll did not have a choice for what I think.

 

I liked the game at launch and think the changes since then have been mostly beneficial but it is not a fundamentally different game.

 

1.) Ciphers are much more challenging to play instead of easy mode.

 

2.) Rangers and their pets are now useful team members

 

3.) Paladin's abilities now mostly scale with level and are useful throughout the game.

 

 

Areas that still need to be addressed:

 

1.) If Tank & Spank was a problem, the solution applied was to diminish the Tank part, especially with Fighters with Defender, but the Spank part has been untouched. Tanking can still be achieved but at the expense of not being able to take more offensive builds. A Fighter with a shield can tank as well as a dual wield or two hander Fighter used to but has less damage output.

 

2.) Fighters in general don't really have much of a purpose. If you took the Fighter's abilities and spread them among the other melee classes and just got rid of the Fighter class it'd probably work out better. It'd make for more diverse build choices. Your Paladin could go for weapon specialization and mastery to be a more martial build instead of getting an exhortation.

 

3.) Power creep and quadratic, or at least exponential, spell casters. Each expansion will add more levels and the problem will just expand. How do you balance encounters when the possible party set ups can have vastly different power outputs? No easy answer here, hell many won't even see this as a problem