Some scattered thoughts on the game as someone who hasn't played PoE since covid.

For reference, I consider myself a semi casual player. I follow guides and I don't craft, but the end game is the main game for me and I spend a good amount of time there before I'm done with a League. Highest tier maps and bosses and all that. Anyway, some thoughts:

The amount of unique boss fights and monster types in this game is truly incredible. Diablo is the other arpg I play and PoE2 puts it to shame here.

Trading is a million times easier than what I remember from PoE1 and I love it. No more tedious whispers.

The campaign is mostly great. I find the cheerful archeologist a bit too annoying to be centered that much in the story, but that might just be my taste.

I do not miss the flask piano gameplay from 1. Good riddance.

Changing gem setups before boss fights feels fiddly and awkward. Is this really what they want optimal play to be like?

I love that they have left behind the map modifiers that would completely brick a map by neutralizing your main damage type. Seeing them pop up in the Expedition encounters really reminded me how much they used to annoy me.

The new Atlas feels a bit meandering and random, but I admit it looks cool and I think it has potential to be great.

The Vaal temple seems like it's going to be impossible to balance in a way that makes it rewarding without it being exploitable.

The environments look much better than in 1, but some settings feel very "asset-y". What I mean by this is instead of blending together to form a feature or environment, the individual graphic assets stand out as recognizable as themselves (for example Fern1, Fern2, Brokencart6). I guess this is always going to be an issue with randomly generated levels, but still. The foliage heavy levels are the worst for this.

The music is great. My favorite track is the volcanic island with the tiny tribesmen.

I hope they add League achievements sooner rather than later. That was always something I enjoyed in 1.

PoE's mysterious and not much explained lore was always very cool, but I like how they have fleshed out the world in this game. The unique vibes and references feel so refreshing compared to the usual fantasy stuff.

I do miss Delve! Surely it will be added?

I have no idea why Headhunter is cheap now, but it was my first time getting to play using it and it was super fun.

I told myself I was going to wait until the full release of the game, but I'm so glad I didn't and I think I even ended up playing more than any PoE1 league I ever played. I'll be back for the next update for sure.