Last Epoch (2024)

ARPG looters are probably my favorite video game genre these days. Primarily POE, but I also like Grim Dawn quite a lot, and I have over 100 hours in Last Epoch now dating back years ago as I've been following the development of the game since almost the beginning with high hopes. As the game has officially released with version 1.0 now, I feel like I can finally give it a fair review.

Some of you may immediately see my 100 hours and think that's not a whole lot for an ARPG like this, and I agree. But from my rating you can probably tell that the reason is because I mostly think it's just decently good. It's certainly not bad, but it's also not a game I often seek out to play because frankly I just enjoy other games in the genre more. But I still think the game has a lot of promise and does some things very well, and I'd like to highlight them. And I do expect at least some of my criticisms will be addressed further along development. They are a small studio so significant changes understandably take time.

Let's start with the good. This game is extremely beginner friendly for the genre. In fact, it wouldn't be hard to argue they made this game specifically with the criticisms many people have of POE in mind. The skill trees are a fine take on building your character, and they make it very easy to figure out how you are intended to build certain skills and how you should play the game. The in game loot filter system is incredible. The crafting is very straight forward and allows players a ton of agency over their items in a genre traditionally dominated by RNG. And perhaps most importantly, the combat is pretty fun.

Now some of my criticisms. Funnily, some of these directly contradict the good things I mentioned, and there's a reason for that. Most of the reasons this game isn't for me is because I think it is extremely accessible for a casual audience, but it simply lacks the depth I personally want from an ARPG at the moment. The skill system is good for giving players a clear direction, that is true. But it also makes every character feel preplanned by the devs with very little room for creativity from the players. The crafting is probably the most simple and powerful in the genre, but I feel as though it is too powerful to the point of giving players their nearly perfect items relatively early which kind of kills the desire to farm more loot. And the lack of substantial endgame systems at the moment makes that problem even worse, as I basically finish my character relatively early in the endgame loop and then I have no further motivation to keep playing the character as they are complete and there are no real endgame bosses or systems to keep it interesting for very long.

Overall, I think the game has a very solid foundation and I can't wait to see where it ends up in a few years. It is absolutely worth trying already if you're a fan of the genre. It just leans a little too far in the beginner friendly direction at the expense of depth in my opinion for it to keep my attention for more than maybe a dozen hours or two at a time once every half year or so. But if that''s all you want from the game, even more reason to try it.

7/10