This piece of feedback is in regards to the leadership, vision and development of Diablo 4 compared to POE2.
I finally had some time to check the POE2 reveal. This reveal made it abundantly clear that there is a MAJOR MAJOR difference in leadership and vision between the 2 studios. My stance on the matter can be summed up as follows: Blizz, you just took a massive massive L.
Path of Exile 2 feels like a game made “by gamers, for gamers.” GGG has always focused on creating a deep ARPG experience that caters to the hardcore community. The complexity of the game’s systems demonstrates their commitment to providing meaningful player choice. POE does suffer from a lot of bloat and is anything but casual friendly. What’s particularly exciting about PoE2 is that GGG is also taking steps to make the game more accessible for casual players without sacrificing the depth that fans love. A delicate balancing act but given the reveal stream it seems they can pull it off. Time will tell.
Some examples of this include:
Guided Progression: PoE2 introduces clearer systems to help players learn the game organically. Early-game progression is designed to teach the core mechanics step-by-step, ensuring that new players aren’t overwhelmed by the depth.
Recommended Skill Combinations: To ease players into the game’s complex skill system, PoE2 provides recommended skill setups, which act as a soft guide while still allowing for experimentation.
Crafting System Overhaul: Crafting in PoE2 starts in the early game with simpler mechanics and gradually introduces more advanced systems. This way, new players can build confidence and understanding before tackling the deeper intricacies of late-game crafting.
GGG has made it clear that they’re not just creating a sequel for hardcore veterans; they’re aiming for a broader appeal by focusing on accessibility without diluting the challenge or depth. It’s a tricky balance, but it feels like they’re on the right track.
Now, compare this to Diablo 4, which seems to fall into the “corporate product” category. While it’s clear that the developers worked hard to create a polished game, it feels like the overarching design choices were more about maximizing revenue than pushing the genre forward. Simplified systems, repetitive endgame content, and intrusive monetization (like battle passes and microtransactions) give the impression that Blizzard is more concerned about shareholder profits than player satisfaction.
The endgame is where this divide is especially obvious:
PoE2: Expanding on the Atlas system with new mechanics that reward mastery and experimentation while streamlining the experience and moving away from the bloat and clutter of POE1. There are seperate passive trees for each part of the endgame providing player choice for which systems to master while also allowing for a more casual experience. As you progress in, for example, Delerium you gain points to further build upon the mechanic, allowing you to go as deep as you want. It is fully up to your choice and how you as a player want to interact with the system.
Diablo 4: The endgame feels shallow, with repetitive dungeons and lackluster seasonal updates. It’s like they’re trying to keep players on a treadmill rather than creating systems that feel genuinely rewarding. The Pit is a great example as the only difference between pit levels after a certain point is just health scaling, creating damage sponges. There is no change in difficulty or mechanic. It’s just more health and that’s it.
What’s even more interesting is how the community has reacted:
PoE2: Players seem to trust GGG in delivering a great experience in POE2 thanks to the development cycle of POE1 and how tranformative that game has proven to be. There seems to be genuine excitement for the game because it feels like it’s being made for the fans. A love letter to the genre so to speak.
Diablo 4: While the campaign was initially praised, the lack of depth and creativity in the endgame has caused a lot of disappointment. It feels like a missed opportunity to honor the legacy of the franchise. The game has failed to deliver on interesting seasonal mechanics where each season was met with player dissatisfaction up to the point where Blizz had to make public apologies (season 1 nerf bat) or drastic changes in the seasonal mechanic (season 3). Only season 2 seemed to be the met on a positive note from the start. Season 5 Infernal Hordes was also well recieved but only after incorperating the feedback from the PTR. Without the PTR it seemed that S5 would launch broken as well. What has been a well recieved experience has been gutted in season 6. More soulspires anyone?
I’d love to hear what you all think:
Do you feel like PoE2’s approach to balancing depth with accessibility is the right move for the ARPG genre?
How do you feel about Diablo 4’s priorities in terms of monetization and design decisions?
If you’ve played both games (or are following their development), what stands out to you the most about how they differ?
What could Blizzard learn from GGG and POE2 to enhance Diablo 4?
DiV bosses (especially overworld bosses) are the most sad bosses ever seen in any computer game.
DIV is the first game where i know every single unique item and their stats personally because they are so less and my peanut size brain can remember. You can wake me up at night and i can yell the complete list.
why wont they learn? Best example is itemization. Do we have a single unique x-bow in the game? An item hunting game? A DIABLO game? (pained grunt)
Im pretty sure Pee ohh Eeh will have more than 1 iggs-bow from release on… or shields?..
But i still play DIV because i like to use helloooOOOooo/greetings emote when seing people and of course i still do lots of other things in the game which are fun:
petting animals in town
Using umbracrux dagger as a rogue to throw totems on cooldown on top of the loot of other players. Especially console warriors will have like 0 zero chances to pick up the loot.
You’re arguing on an optional paid storage expansion in an otherwise 100% free to play game where the entire game is playable without paying 1 single cent? You’re also arguing that this paid storage is predatory when that storage carries over to the sequel including every other MTX that you bought without any additional charge what so ever?
PoE EA packs (30 cheapest) come with currency (probably Full price, but just assuming).
So you are just buying coins with feauture to also play EA. On top of that, you will obtain all perks from PoE1. Than game will be F2P.
On the other hand Blizzard sold you Alpha version for 70bucks (nothing extra) and 1y later sold you EA for another 40 (some meaningless skins if you preordered).
So lol buddy Feel free to join Blizzard side in this battle if you want. But trying to defend Blizz with more friendly monetization, well jokes on you, you already lost.
Yes, optional paid for storage in a game where the entire premise is collect loot is predatory. Non-predatory monetization is cosmetic filled battle passes and straight up cosmetics.
You can be fine with it… but you can’t logically argue that it isn’t objectively intrusive in an ARPG.
And we’re talking PoE2 here… you can’t play it without spending a dime for 6 months to a year…
I will admit that MTX carrying over is something that more devs should do… but that’s just evidence PoE2 will be every bit as predatory… just on a larger scale as it tries to reach a more casual audience.
I consider upfront costs and monetization that doesn’t improve my gameplay experience in any way to be more friendly, yes… I can’t lose on that.
and you’re paying $30 for a beta with half the story… what about it?
Wait…are you saying that D4 isn’t alpha version anymore? I mean, they just totally changed the itemization and loot system all over again and it’s working even worse, looks pretty alpha to me tbf
80 dollars over 10yrs is all i paid,they can intrude all they want. What is it 65 dollars for a mount lol.I actually don’t mind supporting a company that tries to make a good product.
funny how you guys talk about how optional stash tabs are in an ARPG and try to clown on cosmetics… especially when you use examples like $65 of currency that come with a free horse.
and if you wanted to wait a year to play… you could have also played d4 for $30 and no storage space.
right, my opinion irrelevant… yours are all that matter. eat the whole bag.
I wish i could buy more stash space in D4 (Because that’s what you can buy in PoE pretty much, outside obvious cosmetics that add nothing to the game) instead of being forced with just what you get by default in D4 and remember PoE will be F2P (And PoE1 was still totally doable without spending a single dollar on it, if you don’t spend money you are NOT going to be less powerful than someone who spent hundreds)
I have been a totally F2P PoE player for like 5/6 years, made a ton of different chars bringing them to endgame, played all seasons, had way more fun than i ever had in D4 and you know what, i just got back to PoE1 last year and i actually got a supporter pack not because i needed it but because i felt GGG DESERVED my money, i literally gave them my money because i felt they deserved something back from me for their awesome work
On the other hand i’m still regretting buying D4 and its bs expansion
Feel free to join Blizzard side in this battle if you want. But trying to defend Blizz with more friendly monetization, well jokes on you, you already lost.
