From POE2 to POE1: Thoughts

Hello Exiles! I just finished last voidstone, vault pass, and consider the league done. I come from loving POE2 and wanting to give POE1 a try (After not getting in years ago).

I did so, loved (almost) every minute, and wanted to share some thoughts. This is a mix of rambling and an opinion piece, be warned.

Thoughts on early campaign

First impressions

I played with controller because without WASD I refuse to play this type of games, I'm not build for it, tried and don't like it at all. Controller support is good! Except no menuing with the mouse, that I just had to get used to.

The game is much more attractive and cool looking than I thought! But the feeling of hitting things is weird. It lacks "oompf", as if it was basic attacks from WoW instead of an action RPG.

However I play PoE for the build making, the cool interactions, and it delivers. Gem system tied to gear is weird at first, and having to sacrifice stats for sockets is also iffy. Upgrades to my gear would not be usable due to sockets. Interestingly, its not like it matters that much, as the skill tree has so much more power than in POE2, that gear stats become meh. I appreciate that in the sequel gems are not tied to gear, and gear is meaningful since level 1.

Gems, skills, supports. There are so many! And coming with the knowledge of POE2 it wasn't overwhelming. I started a contagion build but ended up with a soulrend chaos DoT one.

The passive tree is not difficult at all to "just do something that works". Maybe because I like making a build, and have done so in PoE2, but it just makes sense. You go for damage of the type you do while pathing some defensive nodes here and there. There is time to optimize it in the lategame anyways.

The ugly and the bad

POE2 is "almost a soulslike" compared to POE1, and I get that, but why are so many bosses so boring for the first acts? Brutus is "big guy that punches", Merveil has one (1) cool attack to dodge around, and I couldn't say what most bosses do from act 1 to 3. That is, if "rare but bigger with an orange name" is a boss. PoE2 has more interesting bosses in the first 3 zones (Cold witch-Big worm-Rust king-CrowBell) than PoE1 has in 3 acts.

And it's not like the gameplay of this game prohibits cool bosses. Lategame is full of them. Maybe because it's older content but, honestly the first acts are just boring, and easy, really easy. It was more interesting to think about my build and read new gems than fighting bosses was. Maybe the final one from act 3 starts to be cool.

Mid-Late campaign

Now here is where the "everything on the screen explodes" gameplay loop starts to happen. It is immediately obvious and it gets me on board. I prefer the concentration that PoE2 requires to the "brain semi-off, things explode" of this entry, but it is nevertheless a good feeling.

Gear starts to be meaningful as more tools to fix sockets or buy items become available, combinations of gems and supports, interesting uniques, and MUCH cooler bosses.

The last 3 acts contain much cooler campaing bosses, with one or two interesting attacks or mechanics each. It shows that it was made years later with a different inspiration.

The lore however had me lost. I have watched now hours of lore videos to understand, but the storytelling during the game itself does not make me want to engage. In PoE2 I know why I am going places, here, not so much.

Early lategame

First maps are cool, as your build power is now tested. Soulrend chaos DoT is not a particularly OP build, so the level of challenge always felt adequate. Upgrades thanks to getting a bit of currency to buy the next thing were meaningful.

The atlas passive tree is not to difficult to path once I chose to go legion and breach early on. It is so much better than "atlas tree" in PoE2. But it also has 10+ years of content to do, makes sense.

The maps from tier 5-12 felt a bit boring if I am being honest. This is due to map bosses being mostly boring repeat of rares with the names of uniques. Interesting things in the middle were invitations for maven-exarch-eater of worlds (infinite hunger and black star). Starting to see cool pinnacle bosses.

Still, this new atlas (I know its new in 3.28 but didn't experience the old one) is such a better endgame than PoE2, that I can't wait to find the revamped endgame for the sequel.

Mid to late endgame (No, I did not do ubers)

Last tiers of maps, and pinnacle bosses. Interestingly enough I did memories of the atlas quests first, and fought those pinnacle bosses. These quests and bosses were SUPER cool! The fights were engaging, epic, interesting things to do in each fight. From conqueror's map bosses to exarch or eater of worlds. This was my favourite part of playing PoE1 by far (Aside from build-making and doing research for it).

As a sidenote: My movement had always been automatization-withering step. I dodge by moving and running. And most bosses allow for that.
However some just don't. And I had to adapt by using flame dash. Sirus for the "Die die die" beam, some of maven attacks, nightmare bosses of expedition as examples.
Once I got used to the blink skill for bosses that clearly needed it, honestly all bosses are really cool. Not perfect, but cool. Very enganging, not too difficult not too easy (Except Sirus I hate Sirus, I love him but hate him).

But honestly, so many cool bosses only doable at tiers 15+! Conqueror's, elder and shaper guardians (The minotaur made me say bad words). Part of me wishes some of this feeling and encounters were done in tiers 5-12 of maps but, having so much pinnacle content at pinnacle strength is something only a 10+ game with 10+ years of content could have.

The fact that I could access so many older bosses that are technically fought "in the past" is weird though. If I wasn't a fan of watching lore videos, I would not know who this elder and shaper and conquerors and Sirus and red headed woman are. And also what the heck is a cortex and why does the husk without memories of Venarius (Told you I watch lore) summon the same boss 3 times.
It's like pinnacle content is a rock concert of best hits of the decade. One that lack cohesion or context but more than makes for it with energy and coolness.

Closing thoughts

I don't like PoE1 more than the sequel, even with the sequel being early access. It is just less for my palate, sometimes too grindy without engagement for combat, early bosses reminiscent of MMO gearchecks and Diablo 2 like enemies rather than ARPGs. But it is a beautiful sign of time passing in a certain way. Just think of the difference between merveil and count geonor as act 1 bosses. PoE1 takes until act 3-4 to have a cool boss, and until late-lategame to have really engaging ones.

However this game crawled, walked, run and flew in the span of a decade so the sequel could be what it is and what it is becoming. I now see so much of PoE1 in PoE2.

I also now understand why PoE1 needed a sequel if it wanted to upgrade some systems. Too many things are old cogs in an amalgamation of a machine that just works. Stripping it down and remaking it from scratch, in a modern, homemade engine no less, was a necessary step to make Path of Exile "be more" than the sum of its somewhat outdated parts.

It must have been scary to have two amazing games and keep working on both. In 9/10 universes, it just does not work. And I am so, so happy to be in the one that does.

I'm just waiting for poe2 to be out of early access and give it a shot. I hope it doesn't have the same issues of poe1 like being killed offscreen. Monsters shouldn't be able to see you/attack you if you are not seeing them.