Last Epoch - Review @ RPS

HiddenX

The Elder Spy
Staff Member
Original Sin Donor
Original Sin 2 Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
20,175
Location
Germany
Rock Paper Shotgun has reviewed Last Epoch:

Last Epoch review: a vibrant time-travelling ARPG that makes percentage point stat increases fun

It's not a question of where, but when

Last Epoch is, as has been observed many times, a kind of middle-ground ARPG. You hold down a button to evaporate hordes of enemies from a top down isometric perspective, but, in a step further than Diablo 4, it has more in-depth, any-time crafting for entry level percentage perverts to eke out incremental slivers of health regen vs. damage. At the same time, it's less complex than Path Of Exile, which is where advanced percentage perverts go when they die. Last Epoch has been in early access for a while now, so there's a decent chance that you already know what you think of it now it's in 1.0. If you haven't yet dipped your toe in, then I can tell you it's very decent. It makes building an extremely overpowered mega-wizard very easy, and I liked it better than Diablo IV, I think.

Still, it's a very worthy buy, and I hope the devs keep it up with the post-game improvements. Mostly, I really like the high drama and high fantasy of Last Epoch. It's much less depressing to stare at for hours as you blast mercenaries and ice wolves into trembling ragdoll corpses that some of its contemporaries, and the the mid-complexity crafting and gear systems, along with the character building, makes it easy and, dare I say it, actually fun to engage with minor percentage increases. I never thought I'd see the day.
Thanks Couchpotato!



More information.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
20,175
Location
Germany
He thinks he likes it better than Diablo IV? LE is a vastly superior game unless glitzy cinematics and a slightly better narrative is your jam
 
Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
218
Only reason I love the game is that they allowed the option for offline play. That right there gets them my money, as Blizzard just doesn't care about offline anymore.

Having said that I don't enjoy reading the developer's didn't release a proper ending.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,541
Location
Spudlandia
I've only played for maybe an hour or so, but I enjoyed what I saw in that time. My only issue is I really prefer using my Xbox controller to play ARPG's now, and I'm finding it impossible to use just my controller. I'm having to switch to kb and mouse for a lot of the inventory management and such.
 
Joined
Nov 20, 2019
Messages
47
Having said that I don't enjoy reading the developer's didn't release a proper ending.
Yes, it's strange. From what I read, it ends at an unexpected point because the campaign is not finished yet. It should be completed in an upcoming update, whenever that is. Yet, it's sold as a finished game.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,492
Location
Good old Europe
Last Epoch has huge maps, diverse character buildouts, interesting levels, my interest keeps building the more I play it and I'm looking forward to playing higher level character-buildouts & level design. Grim Dawn, for me, has been extremely fun (almost 500 hrs), my interest doesn't wane, and I still playing it. Path of Exile was fun at first, but the levels and characters became flat, so I've never played it through twice.
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
46
For those who played Last Epoch, how is the performance (considering its made with Unity)?

I also would like to ask how it compares to Diablo II (in terms of build varities, skill trees, enemies, weapons, passives, environments .. etc.)? I enjoy Diablo II and would like to know how LE compares.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
2,818
Location
United Kingdom
He thinks he likes it better than Diablo IV? LE is a vastly superior game unless glitzy cinematics and a slightly better narrative is your jam
wow.. story worse than d4. ill pass. i needed a story much better. ez dodge. waste of time. clearly poe2 is the upper standard , masterpiece experience agnostic to story
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Messages
1,172
Location
Ro
Yeah, Last Epoch is insanely good.

As I said in another thread, not a game for people who just want a casual story mode, it's not that kind of game, and it's not advertised as such.

It's your typical dopamine shotgun where half the fun is coming up with a strong build, and the other half fish for the perfect drops to destroy everything that stands in front of you. It's already more successful than PoE ever was too, so if that's your jam, plenty of fun to be had here. For story mode players, there are other games, but this is not it.
 
Joined
Apr 26, 2023
Messages
1,249
Yeah, Last Epoch is insanely good.

As I said in another thread, not a game for people who just want a casual story mode, it's not that kind of game, and it's not advertised as such.

It's your typical dopamine shotgun where half the fun is coming up with a strong build, and the other half fish for the perfect drops to destroy everything that stands in front of you. It's already more successful than PoE ever was too, so if that's your jam, plenty of fun to be had here. For story mode players, there are other games, but this is not it.
I actually bought it this weekend and apart from a slow start I've really enjoyed it. Yeah the story is unusually boring for an ARPG, but the unlocking of systems, new skills and progression is very well done. Many times it is quite hard but fun to think about what to unlock or upgrade.

It's been a bit slow gameplay-wise thus far, but it has gotten better the more I've played (maybe 10h this weekend). It feels like a game that gets better and better.
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
1,990
Location
Sweden
For those who played Last Epoch, how is the performance (considering its made with Unity)?

I also would like to ask how it compares to Diablo II (in terms of build varities, skill trees, enemies, weapons, passives, environments .. etc.)? I enjoy Diablo II and would like to know how LE compares.

I've got an i7-6700k, Vega 64, playing at 2560x1440. High settings. It has thus far been stable at 60fps. The one downside is that, online at least, the transition between areas is a bit slow.

Only played about 10h thus far. Gameplay is closer to D2 than D4. There are 5 core classes with 3 subclasses each. 12 core + 8 sub class unique unlockable skills. My first character is the Magician (or whatever it is called) and the sorcerer subclass. Magician has some elemental attack spells, some defensive ones, and mana skills. Sorcerer is a direct damage focused subclass.

There seems to be a very large amount of ways to customize the play style of the classes. Much more than the Diablo games.

Usable skills are unlocked directly through level up, and by assigning enough points to the class or subclass mastery tree. The mastery trees buff the character or certain skills (like a buff to mana or cold damage). There are also skill upgrade trees, where one modifies and enhances a select few skills (5 when all slots are unlocked) by leveling them up. Like making lightning into ball lightning, chain lightning, cold damage instead, or giving damage over time.

The one thing I dislike is that I can only have five active skills, bound to QWER and the right mouse button. I understand the reasoning (restrictions force choices), but it is annoying since the leveling up of skills is quite slow. If I realize another skill would fit better it is likely a bit of a slog to grind it out.

I'm guessing this is more annoying when starting out, since experience (or reading/watching class guides) will make it clear what skills and skill upgrade paths go well together. If I end up enjoying this as much as Grim Dawn I will likely enjoy this part of the game a lot later.

Still, I've only played 10h, so it is hard to know how I will feel in a while.

When it comes to enemies and environments I've only scratched the surface so far. It's been good enough, with a high fantasy vibe in the starter area with variants of common monsters, post apoc fantasy vibe in two of the later ages with corrupted monsters and crumbling ruins. Pretty good thus far, though not remarkable. Quite a lot of rares, which I believe will get more interesting later in the game. For now they've been bigger, hit a little harder and had more hp.

The story has been pretty uninspiring and quests few and uninspiring as well. Most NPCs has no voice acting and it is of varying quality. The focus is on killing monsters and upgrading the character, and that has been fun.

Sound effects have been good, enemies sound good, and the music has been quite good and low key, which I like, since it doesn't get repetitive.

Items seem pretty standard ARPG thus far. The RNG for drops seem ok. No gameplay changing items thus far, so don't know if there are amazing uniques or sets yet. The ones I've gotten haven't suited my current class, though I save them in the stash for future characters.

The crafting/item upgrade system seems decent, but I've only tried it out a little bit.

There's a few bugs still, like maps resetting when teleporting with a waypoint or town portal. Annoying to have the town map be blank every time and the dungeon map as well when one gets back (and monsters respawn and drops have disappeared). This has lead me to almost always town portal back after a map transition, so that I don't have to be unsure where I've been before after selling loot or completing a quest.

All in all a fun game which might turn out to be great.

Just to give my preferences when it comes to Diablo likes: Grim Dawn > Diablo 1 > Diablo 2 > Torchlight 1 and 2 > D3. Only tried D4 beta and didn't enjoy it much, and for some reason I didn't much like Titan Quest. I liked the old Nox game, though that was ages ago.

The dungeon siege games were enjoyable, but don't know if if call the that related to Diablo. I also really liked Darksiders 1 and 2 . Didn't try the latest one yet.

My favorite "ARPG like" game is Hades. Granted it is a Roguelite action game with little active role customization, but the gameplay is just expertly crafted and such a smooth action experience and altogether great packaging.
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
1,990
Location
Sweden
@SveNitoR Thank you for your detailed reply to my questions, and LE sounds like a winner to me. I have bought it now, and its just the matter of finding time to play!

Thanks again
No problem. I had four patients who canceled their appointments today, so I had four hours of sudden "free" time and no urgent administrative work to do. :)
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
1,990
Location
Sweden
I really think ARPGs need to move away from the narrative/endgame structure and just have CONTENT. Not brainless content like D3 became but something more like, as an example, POE but instead of a 10 act campaign you have to go through you just start with maps at level 1 or maybe level 10 after like a tutorial phase. Then work narrative and systems into that structure. And find ways to make each character and each playthrough feel different. Another example might be something like the ancient Amiga game Captive and it's structure.
 
Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
218
Back
Top Bottom