Path of Exile 1/2 and the death of the campaign
file.png
md5: d522d9c8... 🔍
I love PoE1 and like 2 but I've noticed that it has caused a pretty shitty trend in the ARPG market:
The death of the campaign.
Basically everyone now views ARPG campaigns as boring slogs where all that matters is how short it is. PoE 1/2 players would, genuinely, prefer if the campaign were nothing but a series of tiny straight lines that lead to a small arena with monsters and then repeat that until it ends. They find any mechanics, story, bosses with phases, or areas larger than a small circle to be annoying and tedious. All of the work put into it is viewed as pointless and everything should be put into making more maps. I get it. PoE is a live service game. I have like 4k hours in it. I won't pretend that I love the campaign that much anymore, but the problem is that it has lead to this same attitude effecting EVERY OTHER ARPG.
Good examples are things Diablo IV, Last Epoch, and Titan Quest 2.
DIV lets you skip the campaign entirely. This leads to getting to the "end game" instantly where you sit in hell tides until you leech enough XP to go to the next world tier to repeat this.
Last Epoch has a barebones campaign that the devs have admitted is not a focus, and on a second character you can skip, genuinely, like 60-70% of it
Titan Quest 2 is new and in early access. People are already asking about the end game and saying they hope the campaign isn't long.
Meanwhile Titan Quest 1 was all about the campaign. It was long and kinda slow, but had cool set pieces, bosses, locations, and ideas. Diablo 2 was literally built around the campaign. Grim Dawn is the same. Just feels like there should be room for ARPGs that you play for the campaign/story and maybe have some optional content at the end vs EVERY ARPG now being a live service loot piñata game.
The death of the campaign.
Basically everyone now views ARPG campaigns as boring slogs where all that matters is how short it is. PoE 1/2 players would, genuinely, prefer if the campaign were nothing but a series of tiny straight lines that lead to a small arena with monsters and then repeat that until it ends. They find any mechanics, story, bosses with phases, or areas larger than a small circle to be annoying and tedious. All of the work put into it is viewed as pointless and everything should be put into making more maps. I get it. PoE is a live service game. I have like 4k hours in it. I won't pretend that I love the campaign that much anymore, but the problem is that it has lead to this same attitude effecting EVERY OTHER ARPG.
Good examples are things Diablo IV, Last Epoch, and Titan Quest 2.
DIV lets you skip the campaign entirely. This leads to getting to the "end game" instantly where you sit in hell tides until you leech enough XP to go to the next world tier to repeat this.
Last Epoch has a barebones campaign that the devs have admitted is not a focus, and on a second character you can skip, genuinely, like 60-70% of it
Titan Quest 2 is new and in early access. People are already asking about the end game and saying they hope the campaign isn't long.
Meanwhile Titan Quest 1 was all about the campaign. It was long and kinda slow, but had cool set pieces, bosses, locations, and ideas. Diablo 2 was literally built around the campaign. Grim Dawn is the same. Just feels like there should be room for ARPGs that you play for the campaign/story and maybe have some optional content at the end vs EVERY ARPG now being a live service loot piñata game.
