Really good review, only thing I'd say you didn't fully cover was the customisable loot filter. Even inexperienced players can easily make their perfect loot filter in game in about 10 minutes
@@joshh390did you listen to anything he said in the video? He’s not sponsored, he has been before, but devs want him to call out aspects of the game that are bad.
@@c4ke_rs it was a core part of every arpg game for years and years, sure its obsolete if ur a 15 year old zoomer gamer just trying to go as fast as humanly possible no matter what, I guess we should remove levels cause its obsolete, remove talent points its obsolete, they did it back then so it has to be in the game..
@@millerl0l71 You missed the point there is enough surprise that a decent item dropped so there is no need to make a double surprise to reveal that it's just garbage.
I got burned out on PoE. I have tried several ARPG's and they were pretty meh. This game has me hooked. So much to do and the crafting is the best in the genre. Glad to see you playing it again.
@J R im on the other side. Grim dawn is far more complex, way more depth. Better mapping bc of it being hand designed. Better itemazation, better story, better farming and target farming and better endgame. Last epoch wins in crafting, graphics, bosses and animations tho.
For context, Ziz also rated PoE an 8/10, despite it being his most played game at the moment, so a 7 is actually pretty high praise from him. He considers 5 the average rather than 7 like most reviews do.
If this game is only 1 point behind poe on his scale then there is no reason to take any of his ratings seriously. It’s at least 3 points below poe in every way
@@shleemlington699 shrimp harder please, I'm not sure if you like PoE or not. His rating is his rating, you can use it as a tool to see what he values and how things stack up in a broad sense.
@@Rakobaron Exactly. and the rating should never overshadow the actual nuanced points raised in a review. A critic may give a game, say, a 6, but if something talked about in the review intrigues or resonates with you, it's still probably worth checking the game out, though perhaps you ought to go in with slightly lowered expectations.
Yeah I feel the same. I want to like poe, but I don't have the time to research a build and figure everything out. Making a build in last epoch is intuitive. So maybe your first build isn't min maxed, but it will at least function.
it was the removal of the so-called "filler" Harvest crafts that really drove the nail in for me. if The Vision™ is for me to gamble a weeks worth of currency for an item that will have maybe 4 good affixes at most, then screw it.
Bought it a few days ago. Absolutely worth the money. Engame feels rewarding, and character progression is so satisfying. Instead of just buying gear like in poe, you find and craft items instead, and you can really feel the upgrades.
I just bought it yesterday and played for like 6 hrs straight. Pretty good game, I'll be playing more tonight... hoping to check out endgame stuff soon. The crafting is pretty cool and the skill systems/passives
I haven't played LE in about 8 months and man am I glad I watched this vid. They have changed a ton from I can tell and all for the better. The crafting system looks even better than it was and I already really liked it. Definitely playing this when I get home tonight.
I bought and played the game recently, and being able to work on my build actively and freely even as I leveled felt so freeing and satisfying. I love it!
My biggest problem is the visuals. And I'm not talking about models or surroundings but I'm talking about colors and used colors pallet. Everything is so shiny, and sweet, and everything is so cute and colorful so I don't have a feeling that I will meet a monster behind the corner I will have to kill but rather some character from Sesame Street. But I like the progress system (more complicated than D4 but not so overcomplicated as in PoE) and let's hope that gear progress will be more linear as it was in Diablo 2 and not just a couple of rapid jumps as we have in Diablo 4. As for now, I'm waiting for the full release to see what the final product will look like.
Ya'll are a gem for the quality content you produce here and on Twitch. I loved this format, I'd love to see more of it if you ever feel like taking the time to do so. Informative as hell. Thanks for the coverage.
this game is definitely on the top of my wishlist, i don't wanna play it yet because i don't wanna spoil myself before the whole game is out properly but i'm very excited.
This game seems to take a lot of the best aspects of PoE, Diablo, Grim Dawn and others, and roll it all into one great package. Definitely want to give it a try when I get the chance.
I love it man, I hate how simple Diablo is but Poe is just a spreadsheet simulator at this point and I was a massive fan of Titan quest/grim Dawn so this is a dream come true for me
Dont listen to the "cheap roll" comment, ive been playing this game the last week now and it has been great fun. Genuinely such a great ARPG experience and no p2w or MTX at all, thank god
Год назад+6
I played it for a bit half a year ago while waiting for the next league. I was very surprised by how polished it felt for a game that's still very much a work in progress. They've done a very good job so far 🙂
Excellent review. I bought this game a long time ago and messed around a bit, but I wanted to wait until it was closer to it's release state. This feels like a great time to get back into the game. Thanks for the primer!
This is me and Baldur's Gate 3 right now. I messed around enough in EA to know that I will almost certainly enjoy it, but am now leaving it for when the game is complete so I can experience everything except the first half of Act 1 completely blind. Same thing with TemTem.
Currently playing it. Lvl 85 werebear. Pretty soid game, I would say. Still has a VERY long way to go if it wants to compete with somethign like PoE, which is probably it's closest competition, since D4 seems to serve a quite differant audiance. There are a lot of good ideas, but they are just 8 years to late with their game. Still worth it's money. Can recommend overall.
Big fan of the long form, in-depth reviews. More of these, please! And big fan of Last Epoch. First played it a few years ago and it was mid at best. But with the recent 0.9 patch, I think it's a solid contender for top 3 ARPGs right now.
Viable gear is much easier both to find and to craft than in PoE. I crafted a couple things around level 12-15 and due to good RNG was still using them at level 55.
I played it a log time ago and reinstalled after the D4 beta, man, the game evolved a lot. I still have some issues with readability and feel it's not as tight as I'd like (much better than most ARPGs around, but not in Diablo level), but the builds are really fun and while it doesn't pretend to be as open ended as other offers, when you can do is actually viable. Looking at you, Diablo 4 druid, this Werebear actually ROCKS.
Great job with the review Zizaran! Love seeing your thoughts and how you went in-depth on what you liked and disliked not only about the game itself, but also the team behind the game and how they manage it. Keep up the great work with your content :)
Great review! I wholeheartedly agree that Last Epoch is an amazing game with some of the best devs! Judd (CEO) can sometimes be found in global chat answering questions or just bs'ing about his favorite Final Fantasy games. The only thing I would add to this very well put together review (i may have missed it) is that this game has possibly the best, and most accessilbe, loot filter system i have ever seen. It's easy to build your own or just inport one off of a build website.
I ground out 1800 or so hours in PoE (including the first Gauntlet) and so far I have 130 in Last Epoch early access. I'm having a lot more fun. Crafting has depth but good gear is much easier to obtain. I have only a few hours in monolith because testing different builds has been great fun; most builds seem very viable to run for a long time. PoE was so limited in builds that could get anywhere and the need to find and use build guides to figure out these builds cut into playtime. LE skill tree has a lot going on but the class focus in both the base skills and their masteries is a great help. The lack of bloat in LE is a huge difference. I got tired of finding a PoE build that worked for me only to see it nerfed the next season. I don't need to spend real $$ on stash tabs! Ziz, your guides in PoE were a big help but I don't miss that game a bit. It's nice to once again be able to watch one of your videos on a game I'm playing.
Once you find your build, it's so much fun! The best thing is that you can find your playstyle really early too, with the added possibility of finding interesting playstyles with uniques down the line to try out!
I thought this was a very fair and balanced review. I'd like to note, since Ziz touched on Herald of the Scurry... It's actually a good item. This contrasts with certain other developers who have seemed rather rabidly afraid of letting their supporter items be any good, and I think it speaks well of the developers.
Played D4 last weekend and Last Epoch is the best playable early access as it beats all of the ones who claim you can play this now. No D4 was only for 3days done. BaldurG only to level 5. I am glad I bought LE.
The most impressive thing about Last Epoch to me is the way it addresses issues in the ARPG genre. I'm talking about problems that have existed since Diablo, and they're fixing them in ways nobody else ever has. For example, resistances. In everything from PoE to Grim Dawn, capping your resists at 75 is critical because going from 75 down to 70 represents a 20% increase in damage received. Because LE uses a different formula with a constant value subtracted from resists (post cap), going from 75 down to 70 only represents a 5% increase in received damage. You don't have to sacrifice every other stat to cap your resists, which is amazing. For example, hybrid minion builds. This never works in ARPGs, you need to focus either minion stats or personal stats to be effective. LE has so many sources of dual personal/minion bonuses that hybrid builds aren't just viable, they're really, really good. For example, crafting. This is typically just a slot machine, PoE being the worst offender but by no means the only one. LE gives you a ton of control and makes crafting endgame items really rewarding and enjoyable. This game was clearly made by people who love ARPGs and have a lot of creative, innovative ideas about how to approach the genre.
About campaigns in ARPGs... If I were to make an ARPG it would start with the player waking up in a weird place between dimensions/worlds/timelines. There are portals scattered around, and the only thing to do is explore some of the places they lead to, killing enemies as you go. Soon you learn methods to manipulate portals, so basically you're into the "mapping" part of the game really quickly. And then occasionally you will run into something that triggers a new development in the storyline and world building. Meet a new NPC (maybe they come back to your base of operations?), get some information from a chatty boss and so on... So the campaign basically gets scattered across the entire length of the character's lifespan, with the final boss being a real endgame objective. Then add ways to target farm campaign progress in case people want to challenge themselves. I think spreading the quests out like that takes away a lot of the frustration of "having to do the campaign" because you get chunks of just blasting the content you want in between.
I've gotten to the point where I know what glowing circles to dodge and what enemies to be extra careful around, so one shots aren't an issue for me (500 hours playtime). My buddy was telling me he seems to get one shot kind of frequently (50 hours playtime). Your mileage may vary.
My review from a previous iteration from BEFORE 0.8.5 on steam. In case you don't trust what Ziz is saying. An excellent ARPG, with the potential to take down some giants. In it's current beta state, I would evaluate it as 4th place for the genre, falling behind D2, POE, and Grim Dawn. Strengths: - Talent trees for each skill. The build customization is real and is awesome - Passive tree is huge and varies depending on mastery selection - Characters are well defined and have unique skills. I want to make multiple alts to experience everything. - Combat feels pretty good. Big attacks are telegraphed and there are some movement skills to speed up gameplay a bit. - Time travel concept is really cool and has the potential to be something really special for this genre - Feel. This one is very subjective but the feel of this game is right to me. Feels like D2 and POE had a baby. Weaknesses: - In it's current state the loot is uninspiring. Very cookie cutter other than the idols (think d2 charms), which are cool AF. - Lore. The concept is good and the story is OK , but it's no Grim Dawn. It's not even in the same league. - Graphics and Animation. They are acceptable and I enjoy the game as is, but it feels a little clunky. Overall, I would highly recommend Last Epoch. it's not perfect, but the blueprint is about as good as you're going to get. It's clear the developers are motivated to make a great game and listen to the community. If you consider yourself a fan of the genre, do yourself a favor and pick this up. You won't regret it. Posted August 16, 2020.
I’m loving the game so far. Started hammerdin since it’s the most well rounded it seems so far…. Meaning I can face tank and be a bit ok while being powerful. Working the other classes now. A nice little diversion while waiting on new shit in POE. Wasn’t too keen onD4 beta so I’ll wait for that till later. For now I’m having a blast in LE.
I played it a couple of times over the years, and honestly would have still been playing it if it had had multiplayer back then! Looks like it might be time to go back and have another looksee at it!
For Diablo 4 players: I just started playing after playing tons of Diablo 4 since launch. So far, I'd sum it up as nothing in particular about LE has blown me away, but everything feels pretty in depth and solid. The quality of life coming from Diablo 4 is so refreshing (map inlay, loot filters, stash space, build options, minions don't suck, etc.). IDK if it'll replace D4 for me personally, but I've been enjoying it a lot. Even pre-release, it already seems to have more replay value and variety and polish in many ways than D4 currently in season 2. Overall for $35 and for a beta state game, I would put LE right up there with Diablo 4. It shines in areas where D4 is lacking and it comes up short in some areas where D4 excels, but overall as a Diablo player, I'd put both LE (pre-release Jan. 2024) and Diablo 4 season 2 around 8/10. I really hope the LE devs keep up the good work going into and after launch, as the base game is very solid for enjoyers of diablo 2 like ARPGs.
Although POE is way more customizable, I like Last Epoch a lot because of the crafting system. Generally speaking I hate crafting in POE, except for Rog, who is my best friend. It's just so time consuming, which takes you away from your mass murder spree. Last Epoch doesn't have that problem -- if you find a good base, you can craft top tier gear in like 2 minutes (Ziz demonstrated it here) and you don't even have to go back to town.
Even more sad when we had great systems to try out in poe leagues. Fossils and harvest being the main ones for me. Then they are nerfed so much they can barely be called crafting at all. Even rog is basically just rng in the end.
Really enjoying the game only think I wish is we had a long term grindy non completely rng way to add LP to uniques. I know they don't want it possible for everyone running around in a set of lp 4 uniques. My idea was making it so shattering uniques has a low chance at giving an LP should and you could use some amount maybe based on the effective level of legnedary potential to add an LP to an item and if you want to add more LP it is double for each LP already on it. So sure you could craft an LP for item but that would takes 10s or 100s of thousands of uniques to afford that but adding just one after a few days of game play isn't completely un reasonable. Example I have farmed out 5 or 6 Aaron's wills not and haven't seen a single LP meaning I can't even take the 1 in 4 gamble for a +1 skeleton and after hitting 99 I just gave up and went and played something else but if I had a long term reliable way to work to it I'd be more willing to stay and grind. I'm now playing herald of the scurry (great unique) and I know I want plus wolfs on it at some point because when I'd be able to get a gap closer on my squirrels but at 90 potential that is an unrealistic dream to shot for which will burn me out at some point dealing with helm drop rng.
i like the idea of ''lp shards'', but the whole problem would be how to balance them and how can they be used (maybe a specific dungeon that allows you to increase the lp on a unique with X amount of shards once you kill the boss)
Interesting, Ziz. I am a little burned out on PoE. Was hyped for the Diablo IV Open Beta. Well, it quickly made me reconsider pre-ordering D4 and, instead, made me think "Hmmm, maybe I should try last Epoch." And there you are, giving me the info I need. Thank you. 😁🙏
personally, i think they need more diversity in the affix/suffix variety, it is a new game however, i dont expect PoE type crafting with how many different combinations of rolls on gear that can straight up allow builds just because of gear affix/suffixs alone, so i think they do need time to make more ideas then just every piece of gear i get have chance on hit to x and x amount of a stat :)
One thing not mentioned is you can only trade items to other players if that item dropped while you were both in a party playing together. Think of it as a raid item that drops in wow can only be traded to the ppl in that raid and no one else. So if you find a bunch of cool gear playing by yourself and your friend hops on you can not give them any of it. Also while playing together the item drops you see on the ground are unique to you and not shared with other party members, each person in the party sees totally different gear that drops.
last epoch is just a fun arpg to play. im looking forward to getting that perfect gear set with each class eventually. also i really liked what they did with the mage. super fun. and their time travel story line is well done. looking forward to how they expand on it.
Bought the game, oof, a year ago? Had six hours play time. Reinstalled it last week, I've got like 40 hours play time since. I loving it. What a breath of fresh air.
It's really nice and approachable. Well done, Eleventh Hour Games. I'm like 30h or so in and haven't encountered much more than just missing dialogue or maybe effects? 4K support would be nice, but not really a dealbreaker. It's everything I wanted PoE to become back when I got into it in like alpha or beta. Never really did grasp me for more than a few days a year, mostly cause of the currency item system and that to be able to play someone else's build, you'd have to get the items for it, and for that, you'd have to trade with players on some third party marketplace, which I never did or will ever do, since I never had the currency for them.
I played D3 for a bit, didn't enjoy how linear the builds felt. Like, if you didn't have a set piece for that skill, you will never viably use it. That ultimately had me drop the game because I felt like it wasn't fun using the same skills per class. The thing I liked about D3 is how easy it was to break into the endgame, with season rewards and people just happily running you thru a couple rifts, letting you skip the campaign entirely [minus a few necessary quests like the cube] I played PoE for a lot longer and enjoyed it, but there were a lot of glaring issues with it and it was hard to get friends to join because of it. Stash tabs needed to be purchased otherwise you'd be constantly over cluttered, waaaaay too many crafting materials, skill tree was complicated af and hard to reset without making a new character, campaign was long af and would be boring to redo it every season/class you wanted. Most gear is RNG, especially trying to get a 6-link reasonably. Lots of glaring issues, but I stayed to play anyway. It was hard for new players or even long time players to get creative with builds without following guides or spending hours understanding all the different aspects that make builds work. Last Epoch seems to be the best of both worlds, lots of space for a variety of builds and playstyles, without being overly complex where new players would be like "nah fk that". Bag space is so user-friendly, with the auto material transfer, sort options, stash tabs paid with gold, etc. Skill/passive resets are probably my favorite part of the game compared to PoE. I've experimented with so many different playstyles so far. PoE made it feel like you had to know what you are going to do from the beginning or itll be expensive as hell to reset, or you're better off starting a new character. Crafting seems like a huge perk in LE, since you have so much control over how your gear comes out. Tier 6 and 7 are great for min-maxers, as well, so the hunt continues for the best possible gear, although you could always have an easier time getting into the endgame. Can't wait to see more, since we're still Early Access! Biggest flaw of LE currently, [outside of Early Access things like bugs, typos, etc] is the challenge. I haven't reached the end monoliths yet, but everything has been your standard "avoid area of doom, spam skills to win" BUT I enjoy how relaxing it feels.
The crafting truly is excellent, but the way itemization and scaling works as a whole is really special. It's a lot more viable to have a build that's using both melee and magic. Or a summoner who also casts their own spells. For example I have a unique sword called Volcanus, deals melee fire and added spell fire damage. Mine is Legendary, and has Tier 6 attack speed. So what I do is use Cyclone and use every source of cast on melee hit, cast on ignite, cast while channeling, etc. to bathe the area in fire.
Campaign wise it's not most that will probably stand out from the others, but gameplay, mechanics, graphics, and especially enemy design and variety(still not finished the game campaign) really delivers a great punch to "A-RPG" genre.
Biggest PRO for me for LE: Can see the bosses and mobs where they are on screen. PoE they blend into the ground or floor. Biggest CON: Campaign, unlocking end game empowered monos + idol slots takes forever, and you have to do it all on alts again
I like many others was looking for something to scratch that itch after the d4 beta. I’ve heard about this game a lot and usually was spoken about in a positive light. I downloaded it two days ago and now I’m having a blast! Really cool progression systems that are understandable. The interactions between skills is really cool and there’s a lot of options with what skills you use. Tbh If blizzard would just steal all the systems in this game and used their infinite resources to have cutting edge graphics sound and feel it would be hands down the best aarpg ever. If your looking for a good aarpg to sink time into I’d recommend buying Last Epoch while at its discounted price. I already know it’s going to be a game I come back to.
Just came to check this out after their update from gamescon and the rune mage announcement. I didn’t even know about this game but it looks really interesting and I keep hearing great things about the devs.
The game itself is great IMO, but it took them YEARS of promising multiplayer to finally ship it out. The reason? They said they wanted to be sure it would be absolutely perfect when it released. Delay after delay, all in the name of the perfect multiplayer experience. What did we get? I gave the game a few days to clean up the server issues, as the first few days it was basically unplayable. After the connection/zoning issues finally were resolved, and I got to try it, I experienced the following in the 3 hours I played: Items disappearing, tooltips glitching to be permanently stuck on screen, movement abilities freezing me in place and being unable to act without teleporting to my party member, friend using runes to forge and them being taken from my inventory, friend changing zones and being zoned into a DIFFERENT party's instance with random players, loading into a town with no npcs, being unable to teleport to or from a zone which forced me to restart the game to fix it, unable to teleport to party member, warpath skill stuck even after releasing the button until I ran out of mana, stash being inaccessible, and immortal enemies. If the main draw of the game for you is playing it wirth friends, on't bother with this game until they fix it, needs another year or more. Extremely disappointing.
Few questions: 1) is there a way to try teh game? Haven't seen anything on their site. 2) how is skills balance? One of the most important weakness of these types of games. It's important because you have to know which are the best instead of trying and, in most games, a respect can be done in some specific places and cost something.
Thanks a ton for this review, Zizaran! I played the demo way back when and the game was littered with what seemed to me to be design mistakes, poor balance, slow combat and a dozen other things that said, "Don't buy this game". Your review showed me just how much had changed; all for the better, I might add. Bought it and now am really enjoying it. Only one negative thus far, and that is returning from town to an area you have cleared often finds the mobs respawned or even the entire instance reset. Had a death like this when my town portal was surrounded and the character died within a second of me having visuals. That's a showstopper for hardcore play and is something I'm surprised is in the game at all.
Last Epoch is at its core potentially the most solid and enjoyable arpg. The only wants I have are a little more graphical oomph to some of the skills(though i too prefer graphics as one of the last resource sinks for the company), and for a better system for tp/wp load in for hardcore, as each time you go to or return to a zone, you sort of need to make sure its a safe area.
Imho it's pretty great now. Just add mores stuff and seasons and then it's good to go. The trading system they are planning to implement sounds awesome.
I've tried the game during 2019 and now when the multiplayer beta arrived. I didn't play that much, though. Looking forward to enjoy the game once it hits version 1.0! :)
LE is another one of those modern "build simulator and do rifts" ARPGs where the build theorycrafting has been confused with engaging gameplay. It has the typical endgame rift system that will infinitely scale and brick your build unless you are really good at theorycrafting so 99% of players will just google someone elses build and follow it. It also has the crafting system where you have to be lucky twice: first to find the right base for a craft and second to not brick your craft. It is also one of those d3 type games where you have your generators and spenders with tons of cooldowns and you build a rotation whose sole purpose is to make sure you have constant uptime on your main attacks i.e. that movement skill on your bar isnt actually for movement, it is just another rotation skill that buffs your next attack or restores mana or w/e. But that seems to be par for the course nowadays, so most people will love it.
I don't really like the respeccing system for your skills because I like making multiple builds for my character and switch back and forth. Another thing is if a update happens and now they nerfed your build then you have to respec to level 10 skills and level it again so you can use a better and newer build. I feel like the respeccing system is holding me back from making multiple builds with level 20 skills. Everything else is fine.
At least devs listens it seems. I really enjoy LE and Ive played all notable ARPGs and this was a good surprise. Like hold up, this is... actually good... wtf...? xD
I like it more than POE......there, I said it. The ability to make my own builds and adjust what doesnt work so well is awesome. Also you can make your own builds that can actually do all the content unlike POE where you have no choice but to follow a guide if you havnt been playing for years. POE also has a false sense of the number of viable builds due to how many skill and support gems it has, but the truth is to do all the content in the game only a handful of builds actually exist. Good review Ziz.
It's a huge pro of this game, the ability to make your own builds without re-rolling and making a new char cause you're in deep shit after 20-30 hours of playing your character. And the crafting is arguably the best in this genre for me, deterministic, fun and easy to understand.
Very nice and interesting review. I really love what they are trying to do with most of the systems and I see this coming together as a great game but it has a lot of way to go at least for somebody like me and the way I like to play games like this. My main issue with the game stems from the fact that the endgame lacks the agency that I get in PoE. Some of the monolith objectives are annoying to do, some of the maps have horrific layouts that are too mazy and long. I like the crafting system and overall itemization but right now it's a bit lacking. Most characters build in the same way. You get to monoliths were you get access to the best bases in the game, you craft for hybrid health, %health and health were you can, you then solve your resistances, crit avoidance, add some armor/dodge/block finish it with some endurance, and that is kind of it. Apart from weapon slots which u craft for damage. The offensive boost you can get from min-maxing your gear is not crazy high imo. The above factors leave me in a state where I can't min-max for damage and speed and the endgame mapping system is not something I enjoy doing long term. So once my build is in a functional feels-good state I see no point to min-max and keep grinding corruption. I am like... cool build. Next one. And this is the complete opposite of how I play PoE where I usually min-max the hell out of a character as a happy byproduct of the gameplay loop with all of it's agency being so enjoyable that I inevitably amount the currency needed to do so. On top of that, the amount of power you can squeeze out of your character by crafting insane items makes it feel worth the time investment and annoyance associated with some of the crafting systems in place. I really hope this game gets there both in terms of a more customized and engaging gameplay loop and in terms of more impactful itemization that makes you really want to min-max for.
Played this the other night with a buddy. To us it felt like a mobile game ported to PC. I respect the dev team. But for any older gamers looking for that game to itch that Diablo scratch. Go buy Grim Dawn. Easily one of the best arpgs I’ve ever played. Strange mix between Diablo 2 and classic wow. If that makes sense. Class system is amazing. Itemization is amazing. The world is dangerous.(unless you’re using a build guide and with that I ask why you’re even playing the game in the first place.) You actually feel excited about a drop. Upgrades feel like upgrades. Not pointless lootsplosions to give you that split second dopamine drip. Hell of a game. Try it out.
I remember Wolcen had a bug where you could put more stats on unique items but it was removed and to my knowledge never revisited. So happy when Last Epoch added the LP system.
Good video. I bought the game years ago but hadn't really played because performance was rough. Now I came back and performance is good and so much has been added. The game is REALLY coming together and seems like once finished it will probably be the game for me , as I usually want something between Diablo and PoE. I love PoE but sometimes I just don't want to have to use my brain so much lol. Currently I feel there are still some unfinished things that bother me a little, so I will probably stop soon and save it for the full release, but the game is fantastic and totally playable as is. So much promise.
lookiing at that big map overlay reminde me that i totally dont need it in d4 and its archaic design. BUT at the same time if someone likes it there should be an option for it.
For me, its like PoE or Last Epoch if I'm looking for that type of an ARPG. I'll opt PoE for a robust end game that's more in-depth and for the trading fun and then D4 when I want to play something that visually looks amazing with fun combat that's not blow everything up on the screen.
@@Odyssey636 ye sure. I think low standards have people who say that Last Epoch or Wolcen or Poe combat fun. Grim dawn idk not bad maybe at max. Diablo 4 gameplay sweetie
@@Odyssey636 It actually feels like combat, so yeah, of course I think it's fun. That and visuals is what blizzard did best and I bet 90+% of the harshest critics of d4 would agree with that.
Really fair review imo. 7/10 is low imo, for me it's a 8/10 in terms of ARPGs (likely 9/10 at release). I'd even go so far as to say the gear is strictly superious to PoE's and I'm a PoE simp with tens of thousands of hours invested. All the gearing systems of crafting, exalted items, legendaries etc. work perfectly together. The main drawbacks currently are beta bugs, crap story (not a problem for me), and visuals.
found out about this game recently and it looks amazing for me as i also looove druids, especially shifters! Cant wait for it to full release!!! Also very nice sum of the game and explanation of all things!!
The crafting is fucking awesome. It's easy to understand, and SO many items are viable in some way so looting is fun all the time and that's a really good thing that not all games nail.
Played a shit ton of this game over the last 2 weeks with my mates..we stopped playing diablo 4 Beta, and went back to last epoch..it really is a fun game even with all the bugs.
Paladin - more of a support class - ngl I laughed Shit is one of the most tanky classes you can pick with one of the highest dps due to broken aura that frees so many gear slots that can boost your damage and one of the highest if not the highest amount of crit chance you can get, along with insane penetration
I've been watching LE for a long time (and you on PoE btw) and finally jumped in with my wife when 0.9 multiplayer released. So far I'm very impressed with the game and I think you described it perfectly as the sweet spot between the braindead simplicity of Diablo and the mindnumbing complexity of PoE. I hope the devs are working hard on this 0.9 release because my oh my it's buggy as hell. Not enough to get in the way of a complete game experience, but enough to be regularly annoying. Very glad to hear about your optimism for the dev team, I think this is the most encouraging thing I've heard about the game. Thanks for another great video, I'm subbing now (just like I did over in PoE).
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
First time we've done a fully in-depth game review this way. Let us know how we did!
Have you tried Last Epoch? Do you recommend it?
Let us know👇
Really good review, only thing I'd say you didn't fully cover was the customisable loot filter. Even inexperienced players can easily make their perfect loot filter in game in about 10 minutes
@@joshh390 🤡 No such thing as a truly unbiased opinion.
Crafting is so much better than in PoE.
@@lissyflur1907 Exactly. Ignore the clown. He has nothing better to do than find any positive opinion and shit on it like his opinion is somehow gold.
@@joshh390did you listen to anything he said in the video? He’s not sponsored, he has been before, but devs want him to call out aspects of the game that are bad.
One thing that wasn't mention was the loot filter. It is really easy to set up and because all items drop identified is extremely useful.
Yeah, the whole indentifying items is kinda obsolete. It seems like it's still in arpgs because.. they did it back then so it has to be in the game.
Missing this detail is enough to remake the video imo.
I'm surprised other dev teams aren't stealing LE's loot filter system wholesale.
@@c4ke_rs it was a core part of every arpg game for years and years, sure its obsolete if ur a 15 year old zoomer gamer just trying to go as fast as humanly possible no matter what, I guess we should remove levels cause its obsolete, remove talent points its obsolete, they did it back then so it has to be in the game..
@@millerl0l71 You missed the point there is enough surprise that a decent item dropped so there is no need to make a double surprise to reveal that it's just garbage.
I got burned out on PoE. I have tried several ARPG's and they were pretty meh. This game has me hooked. So much to do and the crafting is the best in the genre. Glad to see you playing it again.
have you played grim dawn? i just got done with that and am wondering how last epoch compares.
@@JR-kv6ez I personally like Last Epoch way better than Grim Dawn. Grim Dawn was really fun to play but it wasn't my kind of thing
@@MoistYoghurt Thanks! I think I will give it a try this weekend.
Grim dawn is super! Have hundreds of hours in GD. But Yes, Last Epoch is great, but I prefer Grim Dawn.
@J R im on the other side. Grim dawn is far more complex, way more depth. Better mapping bc of it being hand designed. Better itemazation, better story, better farming and target farming and better endgame. Last epoch wins in crafting, graphics, bosses and animations tho.
For context, Ziz also rated PoE an 8/10, despite it being his most played game at the moment, so a 7 is actually pretty high praise from him. He considers 5 the average rather than 7 like most reviews do.
If this game is only 1 point behind poe on his scale then there is no reason to take any of his ratings seriously. It’s at least 3 points below poe in every way
@@shleemlington699 shrimp harder please, I'm not sure if you like PoE or not. His rating is his rating, you can use it as a tool to see what he values and how things stack up in a broad sense.
Games shouldn't be given arbitrary scores to begin with. They're subjective.
@@esaedvik why? You can give a subjective rating. This is pretty much to be expected from any review.
@@Rakobaron Exactly. and the rating should never overshadow the actual nuanced points raised in a review. A critic may give a game, say, a 6, but if something talked about in the review intrigues or resonates with you, it's still probably worth checking the game out, though perhaps you ought to go in with slightly lowered expectations.
This game is awesome. Deserves way more attention and the devs are great. Been playing on and off since day one and it keeps getting better.
No it doesn’t it literally feels worse than a mobile game. Thank god for steam refund.
@@KrakkenXXX Did you complete the compaign?
@@KrakkenXXX biggest cope ever. You clearly didnt play the game.
Combat feels boring compared to other ARPGs
@@thevannmann true. After Last Epoch, Wolcen and Poe gameplay in Diablo 4 just feels like sweetie
As someone who just doesn’t have time to play Poe and it’s extreme complexities. Last epoch has been perfect. The game has a very bright future
This is the comment I want to hear to start playing. Thanks
Yeah I feel the same. I want to like poe, but I don't have the time to research a build and figure everything out. Making a build in last epoch is intuitive. So maybe your first build isn't min maxed, but it will at least function.
@@alfredwotanson7971 yeah making a “good” self builds is just really hard and time consuming
it was the removal of the so-called "filler" Harvest crafts that really drove the nail in for me. if The Vision™ is for me to gamble a weeks worth of currency for an item that will have maybe 4 good affixes at most, then screw it.
Bought it a few days ago. Absolutely worth the money. Engame feels rewarding, and character progression is so satisfying. Instead of just buying gear like in poe, you find and craft items instead, and you can really feel the upgrades.
Im tempted to grab it as POE just gives me a complete burnout, I never liked the RNG on top of RNG from PoE.
SAY IT WITH ME. F*CK FUSINGS!
that and i don't have to farm for a thousand hours to get what i want.
You're already at endgame after buying it a few days ago?
@@miguelestrada9259 same concern here too
@@zverb4009 You can literally reach D3 engame in a day and poe in under a week with no problems. I don't see a concern there.
The gearing system is probably my favorite thing about this game where as you said you're basically just forging your own uniques
It feels great
I love that legendaries are made, not dropped. They feel more legendary that way.
I just bought it yesterday and played for like 6 hrs straight. Pretty good game, I'll be playing more tonight... hoping to check out endgame stuff soon. The crafting is pretty cool and the skill systems/passives
I haven't played LE in about 8 months and man am I glad I watched this vid. They have changed a ton from I can tell and all for the better. The crafting system looks even better than it was and I already really liked it. Definitely playing this when I get home tonight.
I bought and played the game recently, and being able to work on my build actively and freely even as I leveled felt so freeing and satisfying. I love it!
wow, that's great to hear. coming from a potential future buyer haha
My biggest problem is the visuals. And I'm not talking about models or surroundings but I'm talking about colors and used colors pallet.
Everything is so shiny, and sweet, and everything is so cute and colorful so I don't have a feeling that I will meet a monster behind the corner I will have to kill but rather some character from Sesame Street. But I like the progress system (more complicated than D4 but not so overcomplicated as in PoE) and let's hope that gear progress will be more linear as it was in Diablo 2 and not just a couple of rapid jumps as we have in Diablo 4. As for now, I'm waiting for the full release to see what the final product will look like.
Ya'll are a gem for the quality content you produce here and on Twitch. I loved this format, I'd love to see more of it if you ever feel like taking the time to do so. Informative as hell. Thanks for the coverage.
this game is definitely on the top of my wishlist, i don't wanna play it yet because i don't wanna spoil myself before the whole game is out properly but i'm very excited.
This game seems to take a lot of the best aspects of PoE, Diablo, Grim Dawn and others, and roll it all into one great package. Definitely want to give it a try when I get the chance.
Yeah one cheap crappy roll
@@KrakkenXXX lmao diablo players
I love it man, I hate how simple Diablo is but Poe is just a spreadsheet simulator at this point and I was a massive fan of Titan quest/grim Dawn so this is a dream come true for me
Dont listen to the "cheap roll" comment, ive been playing this game the last week now and it has been great fun. Genuinely such a great ARPG experience and no p2w or MTX at all, thank god
I played it for a bit half a year ago while waiting for the next league. I was very surprised by how polished it felt for a game that's still very much a work in progress. They've done a very good job so far 🙂
Excellent review. I bought this game a long time ago and messed around a bit, but I wanted to wait until it was closer to it's release state. This feels like a great time to get back into the game. Thanks for the primer!
This is me and Baldur's Gate 3 right now. I messed around enough in EA to know that I will almost certainly enjoy it, but am now leaving it for when the game is complete so I can experience everything except the first half of Act 1 completely blind. Same thing with TemTem.
It’s one of my favorite ARPGs atm. I love that I can do my own build and don’t need a guide. The crafting is awesome.
Love the game. My only qualms at this point are the plastic character models, lighting a little, and I want more variable armor appearances.
Currently playing it. Lvl 85 werebear. Pretty soid game, I would say. Still has a VERY long way to go if it wants to compete with somethign like PoE, which is probably it's closest competition, since D4 seems to serve a quite differant audiance. There are a lot of good ideas, but they are just 8 years to late with their game. Still worth it's money. Can recommend overall.
Big fan of the long form, in-depth reviews. More of these, please!
And big fan of Last Epoch. First played it a few years ago and it was mid at best. But with the recent 0.9 patch, I think it's a solid contender for top 3 ARPGs right now.
I really like how blue and yellow items are still useful in this game thanks to shards and crafting on empty affix slots.
it makes every item plausible. A good Blacksmith Mechanic really makes or breaks a game.
Viable gear is much easier both to find and to craft than in PoE. I crafted a couple things around level 12-15 and due to good RNG was still using them at level 55.
I played it a log time ago and reinstalled after the D4 beta, man, the game evolved a lot. I still have some issues with readability and feel it's not as tight as I'd like (much better than most ARPGs around, but not in Diablo level), but the builds are really fun and while it doesn't pretend to be as open ended as other offers, when you can do is actually viable. Looking at you, Diablo 4 druid, this Werebear actually ROCKS.
My first playthrought was back on 2021 and after 2 more runs, including the 0.9 one, this game is a must play for ARPG lovers
Great job with the review Zizaran! Love seeing your thoughts and how you went in-depth on what you liked and disliked not only about the game itself, but also the team behind the game and how they manage it. Keep up the great work with your content :)
Great review! I wholeheartedly agree that Last Epoch is an amazing game with some of the best devs! Judd (CEO) can sometimes be found in global chat answering questions or just bs'ing about his favorite Final Fantasy games.
The only thing I would add to this very well put together review (i may have missed it) is that this game has possibly the best, and most accessilbe, loot filter system i have ever seen. It's easy to build your own or just inport one off of a build website.
Bought it yesterday and played aboot 18 hours on Rogue and Sentinal. I'm hooked. So much player agency.
Thanks for the head's up!
I ground out 1800 or so hours in PoE (including the first Gauntlet) and so far I have 130 in Last Epoch early access. I'm having a lot more fun. Crafting has depth but good gear is much easier to obtain. I have only a few hours in monolith because testing different builds has been great fun; most builds seem very viable to run for a long time. PoE was so limited in builds that could get anywhere and the need to find and use build guides to figure out these builds cut into playtime. LE skill tree has a lot going on but the class focus in both the base skills and their masteries is a great help. The lack of bloat in LE is a huge difference. I got tired of finding a PoE build that worked for me only to see it nerfed the next season. I don't need to spend real $$ on stash tabs! Ziz, your guides in PoE were a big help but I don't miss that game a bit. It's nice to once again be able to watch one of your videos on a game I'm playing.
Once you find your build, it's so much fun! The best thing is that you can find your playstyle really early too, with the added possibility of finding interesting playstyles with uniques down the line to try out!
I found my rip lich literally 3 hours ago. Ive played 60 now and i couldnt be happier, cant wait to test others
I thought this was a very fair and balanced review. I'd like to note, since Ziz touched on Herald of the Scurry... It's actually a good item. This contrasts with certain other developers who have seemed rather rabidly afraid of letting their supporter items be any good, and I think it speaks well of the developers.
Played D4 last weekend and Last Epoch is the best playable early access as it beats all of the ones who claim you can play this now. No D4 was only for 3days done. BaldurG only to level 5. I am glad I bought LE.
The most impressive thing about Last Epoch to me is the way it addresses issues in the ARPG genre. I'm talking about problems that have existed since Diablo, and they're fixing them in ways nobody else ever has.
For example, resistances. In everything from PoE to Grim Dawn, capping your resists at 75 is critical because going from 75 down to 70 represents a 20% increase in damage received. Because LE uses a different formula with a constant value subtracted from resists (post cap), going from 75 down to 70 only represents a 5% increase in received damage. You don't have to sacrifice every other stat to cap your resists, which is amazing.
For example, hybrid minion builds. This never works in ARPGs, you need to focus either minion stats or personal stats to be effective. LE has so many sources of dual personal/minion bonuses that hybrid builds aren't just viable, they're really, really good.
For example, crafting. This is typically just a slot machine, PoE being the worst offender but by no means the only one. LE gives you a ton of control and makes crafting endgame items really rewarding and enjoyable.
This game was clearly made by people who love ARPGs and have a lot of creative, innovative ideas about how to approach the genre.
About campaigns in ARPGs... If I were to make an ARPG it would start with the player waking up in a weird place between dimensions/worlds/timelines. There are portals scattered around, and the only thing to do is explore some of the places they lead to, killing enemies as you go. Soon you learn methods to manipulate portals, so basically you're into the "mapping" part of the game really quickly. And then occasionally you will run into something that triggers a new development in the storyline and world building. Meet a new NPC (maybe they come back to your base of operations?), get some information from a chatty boss and so on... So the campaign basically gets scattered across the entire length of the character's lifespan, with the final boss being a real endgame objective. Then add ways to target farm campaign progress in case people want to challenge themselves.
I think spreading the quests out like that takes away a lot of the frustration of "having to do the campaign" because you get chunks of just blasting the content you want in between.
How's the hardcore? Many oneshot mecchanic or is it viable on first playtrough for experienced arpg players?
I've gotten to the point where I know what glowing circles to dodge and what enemies to be extra careful around, so one shots aren't an issue for me (500 hours playtime). My buddy was telling me he seems to get one shot kind of frequently (50 hours playtime). Your mileage may vary.
My review from a previous iteration from BEFORE 0.8.5 on steam. In case you don't trust what Ziz is saying.
An excellent ARPG, with the potential to take down some giants. In it's current beta state, I would evaluate it as 4th place for the genre, falling behind D2, POE, and Grim Dawn.
Strengths:
- Talent trees for each skill. The build customization is real and is awesome
- Passive tree is huge and varies depending on mastery selection
- Characters are well defined and have unique skills. I want to make multiple alts to experience everything.
- Combat feels pretty good. Big attacks are telegraphed and there are some movement skills to speed up gameplay a bit.
- Time travel concept is really cool and has the potential to be something really special for this genre
- Feel. This one is very subjective but the feel of this game is right to me. Feels like D2 and POE had a baby.
Weaknesses:
- In it's current state the loot is uninspiring. Very cookie cutter other than the idols (think d2 charms), which are cool AF.
- Lore. The concept is good and the story is OK , but it's no Grim Dawn. It's not even in the same league.
- Graphics and Animation. They are acceptable and I enjoy the game as is, but it feels a little clunky.
Overall, I would highly recommend Last Epoch. it's not perfect, but the blueprint is about as good as you're going to get. It's clear the developers are motivated to make a great game and listen to the community. If you consider yourself a fan of the genre, do yourself a favor and pick this up. You won't regret it.
Posted August 16, 2020.
Great vid Ziz! I love that you started with the devs. They really are one of a kind.
Thanks for your continuing contributions to the LE community McFluffin!
I picked it up this week because D4 got me in the mood for ARPGs. Glad I did. Having a great time so far.
I’m loving the game so far. Started hammerdin since it’s the most well rounded it seems so far…. Meaning I can face tank and be a bit ok while being powerful. Working the other classes now. A nice little diversion while waiting on new shit in POE. Wasn’t too keen onD4 beta so I’ll wait for that till later. For now I’m having a blast in LE.
I played it a couple of times over the years, and honestly would have still been playing it if it had had multiplayer back then! Looks like it might be time to go back and have another looksee at it!
For Diablo 4 players:
I just started playing after playing tons of Diablo 4 since launch. So far, I'd sum it up as nothing in particular about LE has blown me away, but everything feels pretty in depth and solid. The quality of life coming from Diablo 4 is so refreshing (map inlay, loot filters, stash space, build options, minions don't suck, etc.).
IDK if it'll replace D4 for me personally, but I've been enjoying it a lot. Even pre-release, it already seems to have more replay value and variety and polish in many ways than D4 currently in season 2.
Overall for $35 and for a beta state game, I would put LE right up there with Diablo 4. It shines in areas where D4 is lacking and it comes up short in some areas where D4 excels, but overall as a Diablo player, I'd put both LE (pre-release Jan. 2024) and Diablo 4 season 2 around 8/10. I really hope the LE devs keep up the good work going into and after launch, as the base game is very solid for enjoyers of diablo 2 like ARPGs.
24:40 this overlap map makes it so hard to see what is going on, is that just your settings or is that default? Or some feature of the recording?
Settings. You can control the transparency and zoom of the overlay map, so that would just be what Ziz has set in his settings.
Although POE is way more customizable, I like Last Epoch a lot because of the crafting system. Generally speaking I hate crafting in POE, except for Rog, who is my best friend. It's just so time consuming, which takes you away from your mass murder spree. Last Epoch doesn't have that problem -- if you find a good base, you can craft top tier gear in like 2 minutes (Ziz demonstrated it here) and you don't even have to go back to town.
Even more sad when we had great systems to try out in poe leagues. Fossils and harvest being the main ones for me. Then they are nerfed so much they can barely be called crafting at all. Even rog is basically just rng in the end.
Really enjoying the game only think I wish is we had a long term grindy non completely rng way to add LP to uniques. I know they don't want it possible for everyone running around in a set of lp 4 uniques. My idea was making it so shattering uniques has a low chance at giving an LP should and you could use some amount maybe based on the effective level of legnedary potential to add an LP to an item and if you want to add more LP it is double for each LP already on it. So sure you could craft an LP for item but that would takes 10s or 100s of thousands of uniques to afford that but adding just one after a few days of game play isn't completely un reasonable.
Example I have farmed out 5 or 6 Aaron's wills not and haven't seen a single LP meaning I can't even take the 1 in 4 gamble for a +1 skeleton and after hitting 99 I just gave up and went and played something else but if I had a long term reliable way to work to it I'd be more willing to stay and grind. I'm now playing herald of the scurry (great unique) and I know I want plus wolfs on it at some point because when I'd be able to get a gap closer on my squirrels but at 90 potential that is an unrealistic dream to shot for which will burn me out at some point dealing with helm drop rng.
i like the idea of ''lp shards'', but the whole problem would be how to balance them and how can they be used (maybe a specific dungeon that allows you to increase the lp on a unique with X amount of shards once you kill the boss)
@@Comprandre they said they want to add more dungeon so that would be a good idea for a reward from one.
Complex yet brief review, great job Ziz!
Interesting, Ziz. I am a little burned out on PoE. Was hyped for the Diablo IV Open Beta. Well, it quickly made me reconsider pre-ordering D4 and, instead, made me think "Hmmm, maybe I should try last Epoch." And there you are, giving me the info I need. Thank you. 😁🙏
I’m actually having a lot of fun playing it. IMO every class is very fun to play, even early on.
personally, i think they need more diversity in the affix/suffix variety, it is a new game however, i dont expect PoE type crafting with how many different combinations of rolls on gear that can straight up allow builds just because of gear affix/suffixs alone, so i think they do need time to make more ideas then just every piece of gear i get have chance on hit to x and x amount of a stat :)
One thing not mentioned is you can only trade items to other players if that item dropped while you were both in a party playing together. Think of it as a raid item that drops in wow can only be traded to the ppl in that raid and no one else. So if you find a bunch of cool gear playing by yourself and your friend hops on you can not give them any of it. Also while playing together the item drops you see on the ground are unique to you and not shared with other party members, each person in the party sees totally different gear that drops.
last epoch is just a fun arpg to play. im looking forward to getting that perfect gear set with each class eventually.
also i really liked what they did with the mage. super fun.
and their time travel story line is well done. looking forward to how they expand on it.
Bought the game, oof, a year ago? Had six hours play time. Reinstalled it last week, I've got like 40 hours play time since. I loving it. What a breath of fresh air.
Brother what were you playing before this? Diablo immortal??
@@KrakkenXXX World of Warcraft mostly. Burnt out from the IO chase. blech
It's really nice and approachable. Well done, Eleventh Hour Games. I'm like 30h or so in and haven't encountered much more than just missing dialogue or maybe effects? 4K support would be nice, but not really a dealbreaker.
It's everything I wanted PoE to become back when I got into it in like alpha or beta. Never really did grasp me for more than a few days a year, mostly cause of the currency item system and that to be able to play someone else's build, you'd have to get the items for it, and for that, you'd have to trade with players on some third party marketplace, which I never did or will ever do, since I never had the currency for them.
I played D3 for a bit, didn't enjoy how linear the builds felt. Like, if you didn't have a set piece for that skill, you will never viably use it. That ultimately had me drop the game because I felt like it wasn't fun using the same skills per class. The thing I liked about D3 is how easy it was to break into the endgame, with season rewards and people just happily running you thru a couple rifts, letting you skip the campaign entirely [minus a few necessary quests like the cube]
I played PoE for a lot longer and enjoyed it, but there were a lot of glaring issues with it and it was hard to get friends to join because of it. Stash tabs needed to be purchased otherwise you'd be constantly over cluttered, waaaaay too many crafting materials, skill tree was complicated af and hard to reset without making a new character, campaign was long af and would be boring to redo it every season/class you wanted. Most gear is RNG, especially trying to get a 6-link reasonably. Lots of glaring issues, but I stayed to play anyway. It was hard for new players or even long time players to get creative with builds without following guides or spending hours understanding all the different aspects that make builds work.
Last Epoch seems to be the best of both worlds, lots of space for a variety of builds and playstyles, without being overly complex where new players would be like "nah fk that". Bag space is so user-friendly, with the auto material transfer, sort options, stash tabs paid with gold, etc. Skill/passive resets are probably my favorite part of the game compared to PoE. I've experimented with so many different playstyles so far. PoE made it feel like you had to know what you are going to do from the beginning or itll be expensive as hell to reset, or you're better off starting a new character. Crafting seems like a huge perk in LE, since you have so much control over how your gear comes out. Tier 6 and 7 are great for min-maxers, as well, so the hunt continues for the best possible gear, although you could always have an easier time getting into the endgame.
Can't wait to see more, since we're still Early Access! Biggest flaw of LE currently, [outside of Early Access things like bugs, typos, etc] is the challenge. I haven't reached the end monoliths yet, but everything has been your standard "avoid area of doom, spam skills to win" BUT I enjoy how relaxing it feels.
The crafting truly is excellent, but the way itemization and scaling works as a whole is really special. It's a lot more viable to have a build that's using both melee and magic. Or a summoner who also casts their own spells. For example I have a unique sword called Volcanus, deals melee fire and added spell fire damage. Mine is Legendary, and has Tier 6 attack speed. So what I do is use Cyclone and use every source of cast on melee hit, cast on ignite, cast while channeling, etc. to bathe the area in fire.
LOVING Last Epoch, the crafting and skill system is amazing!
I know I'm late but taking a break from the current poe season to try this and it's lots of fun. Glad to see you have a vid on this.
Campaign wise it's not most that will probably stand out from the others, but gameplay, mechanics, graphics, and especially enemy design and variety(still not finished the game campaign) really delivers a great punch to "A-RPG" genre.
Biggest PRO for me for LE: Can see the bosses and mobs where they are on screen. PoE they blend into the ground or floor.
Biggest CON: Campaign, unlocking end game empowered monos + idol slots takes forever, and you have to do it all on alts again
I like many others was looking for something to scratch that itch after the d4 beta. I’ve heard about this game a lot and usually was spoken about in a positive light.
I downloaded it two days ago and now I’m having a blast! Really cool progression systems that are understandable. The interactions between skills is really cool and there’s a lot of options with what skills you use.
Tbh If blizzard would just steal all the systems in this game and used their infinite resources to have cutting edge graphics sound and feel it would be hands down the best aarpg ever.
If your looking for a good aarpg to sink time into I’d recommend buying Last Epoch while at its discounted price. I already know it’s going to be a game I come back to.
Just came to check this out after their update from gamescon and the rune mage announcement. I didn’t even know about this game but it looks really interesting and I keep hearing great things about the devs.
The game itself is great IMO, but it took them YEARS of promising multiplayer to finally ship it out. The reason? They said they wanted to be sure it would be absolutely perfect when it released. Delay after delay, all in the name of the perfect multiplayer experience.
What did we get?
I gave the game a few days to clean up the server issues, as the first few days it was basically unplayable. After the connection/zoning issues finally were resolved, and I got to try it, I experienced the following in the 3 hours I played:
Items disappearing, tooltips glitching to be permanently stuck on screen, movement abilities freezing me in place and being unable to act without teleporting to my party member, friend using runes to forge and them being taken from my inventory, friend changing zones and being zoned into a DIFFERENT party's instance with random players, loading into a town with no npcs, being unable to teleport to or from a zone which forced me to restart the game to fix it, unable to teleport to party member, warpath skill stuck even after releasing the button until I ran out of mana, stash being inaccessible, and immortal enemies.
If the main draw of the game for you is playing it wirth friends, on't bother with this game until they fix it, needs another year or more. Extremely disappointing.
I love the section "The Devs and their attitude". I'm going to pick it up now. Thank you for this review!
Few questions:
1) is there a way to try teh game? Haven't seen anything on their site.
2) how is skills balance? One of the most important weakness of these types of games. It's important because you have to know which are the best instead of trying and, in most games, a respect can be done in some specific places and cost something.
Thanks a ton for this review, Zizaran! I played the demo way back when and the game was littered with what seemed to me to be design mistakes, poor balance, slow combat and a dozen other things that said, "Don't buy this game". Your review showed me just how much had changed; all for the better, I might add. Bought it and now am really enjoying it.
Only one negative thus far, and that is returning from town to an area you have cleared often finds the mobs respawned or even the entire instance reset. Had a death like this when my town portal was surrounded and the character died within a second of me having visuals. That's a showstopper for hardcore play and is something I'm surprised is in the game at all.
An absolute solid game in all aspects, especially for a beta. Incredible how a small team starting from nothing have come this far
That's pretty much how Blizzard North started 🙂
@@pythonxz Well hope they're just as successful :)
I got your helmet on my beastmaster, which i absolutely love lol. Even in early access LE is amazing, and I am having so much fun.
Last Epoch is at its core potentially the most solid and enjoyable arpg. The only wants I have are a little more graphical oomph to some of the skills(though i too prefer graphics as one of the last resource sinks for the company), and for a better system for tp/wp load in for hardcore, as each time you go to or return to a zone, you sort of need to make sure its a safe area.
Thank you for creating one the most fun uniques in game
This game seems so nice. Has alot of potential
Imho it's pretty great now. Just add mores stuff and seasons and then it's good to go. The trading system they are planning to implement sounds awesome.
I've tried the game during 2019 and now when the multiplayer beta arrived.
I didn't play that much, though.
Looking forward to enjoy the game once it hits version 1.0! :)
Thanks for the recommendation Ziz! Looks like a cool game.
“If diablo is too simple and poe is too complicated this is rhe game for you”, was what sold me. And im glad i hit purchase now. Thanks ziz
LE is another one of those modern "build simulator and do rifts" ARPGs where the build theorycrafting has been confused with engaging gameplay.
It has the typical endgame rift system that will infinitely scale and brick your build unless you are really good at theorycrafting so 99% of players will just google someone elses build and follow it.
It also has the crafting system where you have to be lucky twice: first to find the right base for a craft and second to not brick your craft.
It is also one of those d3 type games where you have your generators and spenders with tons of cooldowns and you build a rotation whose sole purpose is to make sure you have constant uptime on your main attacks i.e. that movement skill on your bar isnt actually for movement, it is just another rotation skill that buffs your next attack or restores mana or w/e.
But that seems to be par for the course nowadays, so most people will love it.
I don't really like the respeccing system for your skills because I like making multiple builds for my character and switch back and forth. Another thing is if a update happens and now they nerfed your build then you have to respec to level 10 skills and level it again so you can use a better and newer build. I feel like the respeccing system is holding me back from making multiple builds with level 20 skills. Everything else is fine.
At least devs listens it seems. I really enjoy LE and Ive played all notable ARPGs and this was a good surprise. Like hold up, this is... actually good... wtf...? xD
I like it more than POE......there, I said it. The ability to make my own builds and adjust what doesnt work so well is awesome. Also you can make your own builds that can actually do all the content unlike POE where you have no choice but to follow a guide if you havnt been playing for years. POE also has a false sense of the number of viable builds due to how many skill and support gems it has, but the truth is to do all the content in the game only a handful of builds actually exist. Good review Ziz.
It's a huge pro of this game, the ability to make your own builds without re-rolling and making a new char cause you're in deep shit after 20-30 hours of playing your character. And the crafting is arguably the best in this genre for me, deterministic, fun and easy to understand.
Very nice and interesting review. I really love what they are trying to do with most of the systems and I see this coming together as a great game but it has a lot of way to go at least for somebody like me and the way I like to play games like this.
My main issue with the game stems from the fact that the endgame lacks the agency that I get in PoE. Some of the monolith objectives are annoying to do, some of the maps have horrific layouts that are too mazy and long.
I like the crafting system and overall itemization but right now it's a bit lacking. Most characters build in the same way. You get to monoliths were you get access to the best bases in the game, you craft for hybrid health, %health and health were you can, you then solve your resistances, crit avoidance, add some armor/dodge/block finish it with some endurance, and that is kind of it. Apart from weapon slots which u craft for damage. The offensive boost you can get from min-maxing your gear is not crazy high imo.
The above factors leave me in a state where I can't min-max for damage and speed and the endgame mapping system is not something I enjoy doing long term. So once my build is in a functional feels-good state I see no point to min-max and keep grinding corruption. I am like... cool build. Next one.
And this is the complete opposite of how I play PoE where I usually min-max the hell out of a character as a happy byproduct of the gameplay loop with all of it's agency being so enjoyable that I inevitably amount the currency needed to do so. On top of that, the amount of power you can squeeze out of your character by crafting insane items makes it feel worth the time investment and annoyance associated with some of the crafting systems in place.
I really hope this game gets there both in terms of a more customized and engaging gameplay loop and in terms of more impactful itemization that makes you really want to min-max for.
Yes i brought this game when it first came out on steam, in May 2019 for 10 or $15 ..Nice game just replayed it again fully enjoyed ...
Played this the other night with a buddy. To us it felt like a mobile game ported to PC. I respect the dev team. But for any older gamers looking for that game to itch that Diablo scratch. Go buy Grim Dawn. Easily one of the best arpgs I’ve ever played. Strange mix between Diablo 2 and classic wow. If that makes sense. Class system is amazing. Itemization is amazing. The world is dangerous.(unless you’re using a build guide and with that I ask why you’re even playing the game in the first place.) You actually feel excited about a drop. Upgrades feel like upgrades. Not pointless lootsplosions to give you that split second dopamine drip. Hell of a game. Try it out.
If only the game had proper feedback from hitting and killing enemies. Each ability feels like a wet noodle
I remember Wolcen had a bug where you could put more stats on unique items but it was removed and to my knowledge never revisited. So happy when Last Epoch added the LP system.
Good video.
I bought the game years ago but hadn't really played because performance was rough.
Now I came back and performance is good and so much has been added.
The game is REALLY coming together and seems like once finished it will probably be the game for me , as I usually want something between Diablo and PoE.
I love PoE but sometimes I just don't want to have to use my brain so much lol.
Currently I feel there are still some unfinished things that bother me a little, so I will probably stop soon and save it for the full release, but the game is fantastic and totally playable as is.
So much promise.
lookiing at that big map overlay reminde me that i totally dont need it in d4 and its archaic design. BUT at the same time if someone likes it there should be an option for it.
Well damn, this looks cool. I'll buy it when it's on sale.
Had no idea you created the squirrel helmet, dropped it recently and think i may go with a squirrel build next haha
You really should've mentioned the loot filter!
I really should have :(
For me, its like PoE or Last Epoch if I'm looking for that type of an ARPG. I'll opt PoE for a robust end game that's more in-depth and for the trading fun and then D4 when I want to play something that visually looks amazing with fun combat that's not blow everything up on the screen.
Man yall call diablos combat fun. The low standards yall have
@@Odyssey636 ye sure. I think low standards have people who say that Last Epoch or Wolcen or Poe combat fun. Grim dawn idk not bad maybe at max. Diablo 4 gameplay sweetie
@@Odyssey636 It actually feels like combat, so yeah, of course I think it's fun. That and visuals is what blizzard did best and I bet 90+% of the harshest critics of d4 would agree with that.
Really fair review imo. 7/10 is low imo, for me it's a 8/10 in terms of ARPGs (likely 9/10 at release). I'd even go so far as to say the gear is strictly superious to PoE's and I'm a PoE simp with tens of thousands of hours invested. All the gearing systems of crafting, exalted items, legendaries etc. work perfectly together.
The main drawbacks currently are beta bugs, crap story (not a problem for me), and visuals.
Anytime someone says "Please, tell us when the game is dogshit" you gotta just appreciate that
It's shaping up very well ; main issues for me are controls/AI for minions and buggy controller support. All very fixable, though.
After feeling disappointed with Diablo's beta test, this game was exactly what I needed. It instantly feels fun to play.
found out about this game recently and it looks amazing for me as i also looove druids, especially shifters!
Cant wait for it to full release!!!
Also very nice sum of the game and explanation of all things!!
Please excuse my ignorance about the game, but for how long has this game been playable? I thought it was on beta for some reason.
One of the best ARPG games out there.
The crafting is fucking awesome. It's easy to understand, and SO many items are viable in some way so looting is fun all the time and that's a really good thing that not all games nail.
Played a shit ton of this game over the last 2 weeks with my mates..we stopped playing diablo 4 Beta, and went back to last epoch..it really is a fun game even with all the bugs.
Daamn, I had no idea about all those endgame systems, this looks really awesome. Thanks for the video, Ziz! :)
does purchase of early access include all subsequent patches / releases / go live?
Paladin - more of a support class - ngl I laughed
Shit is one of the most tanky classes you can pick with one of the highest dps due to broken aura that frees so many gear slots that can boost your damage and one of the highest if not the highest amount of crit chance you can get, along with insane penetration
I love the game, but I personally have a hard time sticking with it as the graphics and animations still have a lot to be wanted. It feels clunky.
I agree and game feel is important. Diablo is still king in this regard.
This game is so cool man and since it's only early access it has so much potential, the devs seems to be doing a great job so far
I've been watching LE for a long time (and you on PoE btw) and finally jumped in with my wife when 0.9 multiplayer released. So far I'm very impressed with the game and I think you described it perfectly as the sweet spot between the braindead simplicity of Diablo and the mindnumbing complexity of PoE. I hope the devs are working hard on this 0.9 release because my oh my it's buggy as hell. Not enough to get in the way of a complete game experience, but enough to be regularly annoying. Very glad to hear about your optimism for the dev team, I think this is the most encouraging thing I've heard about the game. Thanks for another great video, I'm subbing now (just like I did over in PoE).