Last Epoch? Opinions?

[Achilles97]

I've been reading up / watching reviews on Last Epoch and it seems pretty interesting. It is still in Early Access but there seems to be a lot of content and people are enjoying the game.

I massively enjoyed D1, D2, D3, and Titan Quest. Last year I played Path of Exile through the Acts but it got too deep for me to progress any further into end-game.

Anyone have any experiences with Last Epoch? I am considering it for casual play (maybe an hour per day) and I wonder if the game is polished enough currently to keep me interested until it goes gold.

 

[paperfist]

No input from me, but that's a pretty game and I like how it includes time travel. It reminds me of that book by Michael Crichton, Time Line.

 

[Achilles97]

Well I might pick it up this coming weekend. I'll post back my impressions. Everything I see about it looks pretty good. I was tempted by Wolcen but the latest update got delayed and New World's closed beta reviews are mixed...

 

[Borealis7]

I Shall Not Be Tempted To Stray From The Path Of Exile!

 

[Aikouka]

I've been playing the game a bit, but I'm not sure if I'm really the best person to comment on it as I've never been someone that got into the nitty-gritty of in-depth systems like you might find in some ARPGs. There is one interesting aspect that I've noticed about the game, which I think just relates to what draws me into a game... story. Last Epoch does have a story, but I've noticed that it doesn't draw me in as much as Diablo or even Wolcen did. I think the problem is that the story in Last Epoch is mostly just told via dialog boxes where the two aforementioned games have cutscenes and such.

As for what I have played, it's a fun ARPG with an interesting change in leveling mechanics. In Last Epoch, you have a base class (e.g. Acolyte) and masteries (Necromancer, Lich, or Warlock), and both of those provide trees for passive upgrades. Of course, you also gain abilities at specific intervals based upon the number of points placed into a tree. The one thing that likely sets the game apart a bit is that your skills also have talent trees. Now, to be clear, not every skill has a tree, but rather, you have to specialize in an ability to have it level and gain points. You unlock specialization slots at certain levels. One interesting aspect is that the game makes it very clear what bonuses will affect which abilities. On the tooltip, it will flat out list which modifiers affect the ability, and next to each ability in the menu, it will display an icon as to which type of damage it is.

Right now, I'm playing an Acolyte with a plan to head into a Necromancer mastery. I'm using... I think it's called Blood Talons (takes health to deal physical damage) along with minions (skeletons + golem).

 

[Achilles97]

Thank you for the info.

How is the loot and gearing in Last Epoch? It is mostly found or crafted? I liked the loot system in Diablo where there were a lot of uniques that made me feel like I was on a treasure hunt for those sweet drops. I didn't like the loot/gearing in Path of Exile so much as it felt more like I played to farm materials and resources for crafting.

You mention Wolcen - I have been eying it but never played. The Arise update finally came out and I am curious if the game is in a good state now.

Thanks again.

 

[Aikouka]

How is the loot and gearing in Last Epoch? It is mostly found or crafted? I liked the loot system in Diablo where there were a lot of uniques that made me feel like I was on a treasure hunt for those sweet drops. I didn't like the loot/gearing in Path of Exile so much as it felt more like I played to farm materials and resources for crafting.

I haven't gotten far enough to know how end-game gearing goes compared to something like Diablo, but I believe (from what I've heard in videos) that the developer will include set items, but they will not be like Diablo's sets. That meaning that they don't want to end up where sets are mostly required due to their huge shifts in power. But I'm only about level 21 right now, so I'm still mostly finding your typical blues and yellows. There is a good bit of variation though, which does heavily tie into the damage type thing that I noted earlier. For example, I found an item in my last session that gave a large +% to physical damage. All of my abilities with the exception of one are physical damage, so I gained a good boost from that item. (The other is Necrotic damage.)

You mention Wolcen - I have been eying it but never played. The Arise update finally came out and I am curious if the game is in a good state now.

I haven't played Wolcen in a while. I got to the end of the story, which awkwardly ended rather abruptly. If I recall, one more act is in the plans, but I believe it was pushed back in favor of smoothing out the balancing and end-game play. One aspect that kind of stood out to me is that the game could feel a bit punishing if your build wasn't very good. There was one boss near the middle of the game that would end up beating me during his final phase until I completely switched to a net build. Wolcen has no classes, so things are very open... and opened up to poor implementations!

Oh, and they had to reset all of our characters due to large game changes made in the previous huge patch, so I haven't played due to losing all of my progression. Haven't felt like going through the story again.

 

[Achilles97]

Thank you so much for the insight. It sounds like Last Epoch is something I would enjoy and I would feel good getting in as an early supporter. I'm going to hold off on Wolcen.

Thanks again

 

[Aikouka]

Thank you so much for the insight. It sounds like Last Epoch is something I would enjoy and I would feel good getting in as an early supporter. I'm going to hold off on Wolcen.

Thanks again

Just don't forget that you have two hours from start-up to be able to refund it if it doesn't seem worthwhile to you. Although, writing that... I recalled a few details that might be worth noting...

• The game does have an online mode, which you have to choose on a per-character basis, but there is no online co-op right now. You do have chat.
• The game does require a login. This might be something that you can do ahead of time to reduce the hit on your two hour window.
  • I don't know if the login is required if you have offline characters. I'm pretty sure it was the first thing that popped up when I loaded the game.
  • I don 't have to enter a password or anything on startup as it automatically logs into the account.

Also note that Wolcen is currently on sale right now for cheaper than Last Epoch.