Recent reviews by Ixzine

I'm in my happy place.

This game kicks ass. I know this for reasons... HAVE FUN! C:

There's more to this game than meets the eye! How much? I don't know yet...

The game is cute, cool, and gay and you can kiss your crewmates.

The art is beautiful, characters and writing are great, sound design is siiiiick.

TL;DR: PoE2 good. Different from PoE1, in ways I think most GAMERS will find fun.

CONCEIT - I love this game so far. One of the best Early Access launch weeks I've ever experienced. There's already SO much content in the game, but more importantly, so many compelling challenges. Boss fights are tough, trials are tough. You might be surprised by what kills you in PoE2... But, OH BOY, do you have fun tools to deal with those challenges. And with their new checkpointing system, you can generally just try again, immediately, organically.

CORE GAMEPLAY - Organic fun is the name of the game here. PoE2 FLOWS well. Part of that is the new control scheme options, allowing you to play WASD + Mouse, backpedaling while firing a Crossbow like it's a machinegun or shotgun or sniper rifle. Or, you can play on the twinstick gamepad of your choice, and comfortably dodge roll around chaining together explosive BIG HAMMER combos all day like you've got access to 6 Elden Ring weapon arts. The controller support is, in fact, world class. Navigating several of the menus just feels better on controller.

CRAFTING BUILDS - Part of it, also, is how intuitive the game is this time around. The passive skill tree is sleekly organized to funnel you toward cool nodes immediately: Instead of needing to grab mandatory Max Life nodes, you are offered plenty of delicious opportunities to get more Armor/Energy Shield/Evasion, crowd control (Heavy Stun, Freeze, Electrocution!), block chance, or generally effects that let you pick your fights and punish windows more cleanly and of course deal more damage. You also ALWAYS pick which active skills (and Support Gems for them) you want as you level. You can COMFORTABLY "play as your class" and still feel creative and rewarded for your decisions, in the same way you can in Diablo 2.

CO-OP - Furthermore it's got real genuine fun-ass CO-OP. You don't have to worry as much about being left in the dust like is so often the case in Diablo-likes. There are real design considerations for playing with someone a similar level to you and actually comprehending what they're doing, AND being able to wombo combo with them, or do Tank + Support + DPS crap. There is even same screen local Co-op!!; remember Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance or D&D Heroes? :) And, of course, joining a Guild (with a Guild Stash) will smooth out the experience like nothing else.

CAVEAT - Especially since the game is in Early Access (and is something of a beta), be careful about following build guides for niche weird imbalanced or broken interactions, as they may be fixed (and therefore nerfed) heavyhandedly. In PoE2, I think the vast majority of players will find FAR MORE SUCCESS by just fully engaging with the game with only minimal outside research. Make well-balanced builds of your own as you figure out all of Path of Exile 2's systems at your own pace, and learn the nuances of the combat, and you WILL be a badass immune to balance/hotfix patches~

It'll be F2P eventually, but as it stands, it still strikes me as providing an assload of fun for $30 (THANK YOU TO MY DEAR FRIEND WHO GOT ME A KEY~ <3).

Love to look at big... damage numbers... <3

G to meow / bark
alt + G to purr / whine
ctrl + G to hiss / growl

K to kiss your friends on the mouth

Overwhelmingly Positive (99%) deserved.

Now that I've completed the game, I'll elaborate:

Like its predecessor (Severed Steel), Echo Point Nova is pure fun. The focus is on movement, and how said movement ties into both exploration and combat. The enemy designs are interesting, sometimes funny as hell, and fun to learn and destroy.

To that end, there's almost no dialogue or plot. Even if you're not a speedrunner, you feel yourself drawn with momentum into finding more upgrades, gaining more knowledge and skill within the game, becoming faster and more frenetic with every passing hour.

A completionist playthrough of this is a hearty meal, especially if you're goofing around with a friend or 3 in online co-op, and the developers have already included custom map support and are already planning on post-launch content updates.

It's just pure fun, just like Severed Steel!

So far so very good!

My favorite thing about Arco is how blisteringly fast its combat is compared to most TBS/tactics games or JRPGs. I get the impression the developers respect my time, not only in that the game progresses quickly, BUT ALSO because it's so fast, Arco can ratchet up the challenge for free (and it does so). Failing a mission in FFT or Battle for Wesnoth can be exhausting or frustrating. But ARCO expects you to die like Dark Souls and Hollow Knight expect you to die. Fights are short and brutal, and you can retry them instantly without condescension.

If that sounds scary, well, it also seems the greatest difficulties in this game are optional, self-imposed. You're given ample opportunity to prepare yourself for mandatory story fights, via the RPG mechanics in the game.

Also the music and sound design help you settle into into Arco's rhythmic and moody combat. It's very satisfying.

1. Holy smokes.
2. Jeez Louise.
3. What in tarnation?

edit: IT UPDATED. Now it's even more peak, and even more baffling!

Game seems sick as hell.