It’s really just another Unity asset flip, really nothing special, but I think the TCG theme is more compelling to me, compared to other games like this. Also, you can open card packs, which is really neat. Eventually, you can have employees doing basically everything for you, so you’ll just be in charge of ordering new stock and opening packs to sell individual cards.
Because it’s just another Unity game, there’s just a ton of mods already, even though the game is still in Early Access. Either QoL mods, Cheat mods, replace cards with whatever real TCG you want, whatever.
I played for around 50h shortly after launch and pretty much did everything the game had at that time, although I used mods near the end, which did speed up things somewhat. There have been some updates since then, but nothing really that made me go back to the game yet.
The game has a demo/free prologue, so you can check it out before you buy, but I don’t know how much stuff you can do in it.
Currently preparing for a Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous playthrough, but I might play something else before then.
I’m definitely not gonna make my own builds, nor am I interested in that, with the hundreds of feats and spells in the game, many of which are just traps and no real way to learn. So I’m going through a bunch of different guides, a lot of which are outdated, and am currently creating a spreadsheet for me to reference, so I don’t have to sift through different videos and websites, every time I level up or do some other stuff (like the Crusade mode). I did the same for my BG3 Honor Mode playthroughs, and it makes everything so much more convenient.
Not playing yet, but I’m preparing for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I’m not gonna make my own builds, since I have basically no idea about PF or which of the thousands of feats, spells, whatever are good. There’s not a lot of info about this out there, or it’s outdated, so I’m compiling stuff in a spreadsheet, so I have easy access to everything.
Bought Titan Quest 2 in Early Access and played through the current content (Prologue + Act 1) with two characters.
While the game is fun, the current masteries (classes) are kinda boring (except Storm). For some reason, only the Storm mastery gets different basic abilities (low cost, spammable attacks), and everyone else is stuck with the dinky basic weapon attack. I also wasn’t too hot on the active abilities for the Rogue and Warfare mastery, so I basically just ran around with two passives and the default attack otherwise (which you can upgrade) on my Bowman. My first character, a Frost caster (Storm+Earth mastery) was a lot more fun, with better abilities.
I wouldn’t recommend at its current non-sale price, but it’s a good foundation, as long as the devs can keep updating the game with more stuff.
I played on default Nightmare and then some custom turbo mode (150% game speed with lower damage taken and dealt, and a bit more).
As the OP said, after a few levels you can get upgrades that destroys shielded enemies quickly and for some reason the game starts spawning mostly superheated ones anyway, so you can just instantly blow those groups up.
I had a totally different experience. In my first playthrough I just switched weapons, when I felt like it (and for level challenges), because there’s just no reason otherwise. And the second playthrough was with only the SSG in the first half and Impaler in the second, and they just shredded everything.
I see that there has been a misunderstanding on my part. I agree with your last three points, but for some of the others, things you deem fine or good currently, I’d say they are rather mediocre (like your first point).
And in the end it basically all comes down to the combat, I think the most important part of these types of games, which you think isn’t engaging enough (it’s not, but that doesn’t bother me). I think if you did change it, and “fix” points two and three at the same time, you’d lose too much of what makes these types of grindy, rng loot games work in my opinion.
Which is why I think you’re wrong with saying
but not what most people want when they go to play a video game including in the ARPG genre
I think the mindless grinding, not having to pay attention, is exactly what most people want with this type of game. Of course, that isn’t to say everyone wants that and that there isn’t a market for something else.
However, I’d personally probably rather recommend the Niohs, the Khazans, the Wo Longs, the Remnants, the whatever of the world to those people (or try SSFHC or something, I dunno).
Most of them have barely innovated on Diablo 2’s core moment to moment loop and it’s something that seemingly everyone is aware of but no studio has yet to be able to fix.
That’s what I’m saying, because for many people there is nothing to fix, because they feel it’s not broken. That’s why basically all the isometric ARPGs still go back to the D2 formula and maybe add some QoL changes.
Also, your examples and expectations feel extremely unrealistic and mostly not what ARPGs are known for, and frankly some are even incompatible with the genre in my opinion.
From your comments here, it seems like kinds of isometric ARPGs aren’t for you. Last Epoch, PoE, TQ2, all don’t have good enough combat, so what are you looking for?
If you still want the loot and grind aspect, maybe a shooter is more up your alley, like Borderlands or Destiny. Or maybe something like the Team Ninja third-person action games, like Nioh, Stranger of Paradise, Wo Long (and games like that).
There are a few games/genres like this for me. Like the Anno games, whenever I play one, I just turn it down to the lowest difficulty, and just build and expand. I kinda treat it like an idle/incremental game. That’s also why I normally don’t play any of the survival city builders, like Banished or stuff like that, it’s just not what I’m looking for.
I’m usually a normal-difficulty gamer and usually don’t turn down the difficulty from there. However, as the article says, If I started on a higher difficulty, I’m more open to go back down to the default.