PoE2 first impressions (campaign to early maps) from 13-year PoE1 player

TL;DR format:
- new tile sets and the overall atmosphere/aesthetics of the game world are fantastic, a massive improvement over PoE1
- campaign boss fights were solid and fun but a bit too easy, or at least from an experienced PoE1 player perspective
- PoE2 is likely to suffer from strong competition with PoE1
- PoE1 players likely to be reluctant to switch and may even resent PoE2 for "taking away resources from PoE1"


Longer format:
My first play-through was done over the course of two days in Standard SSF, playing slow so that I could explore all the new content and engage with the story. Played the classic Essence Drain / Contagion build to early maps (using a skill tree and gem setup from a guide since I'm not yet familiar with the PoE2 skill tree and ascendancies).

The game felt very much like PoE1 did way back in the day. More gritty, slower paced, not just a race to maps. The game world felt much more grounded and believable. I actually read pretty much every line of NPC dialog because the story and world felt interesting. It's not like in PoE1 where you're just an MTX Christmas tree running around at mach 5 annihilating everything in your path.

The game environment didn't feel like a bunch of auto-generated tilesets mashed together by an algorithm. It felt like an actual living and breathing world. Things flow nicely rather than feeling like you're jumping from one set piece to another. I like all the little details such as repeatedly seeing "The Beast" in the background as you slowly work your way down that mansion, building up the anticipation to the fight. Seeing it grab some poor guy and cutting him in half by squeezing him through the metal bars (and then eating him). Or that one boss ominously hammering away at a wall in the far distance, with the sound gradually becoming louder as you approach (that boss fight was great). Or the sounds of those Atziri worshipers doing their speeches in the distance. Those Vaal tile sets look absolutely gorgeous by the way.

I was going to talk more about gameplay stuff but such things are going to get changed a lot over the years so I just focused on the overall impressions (and nobody reads these long posts anyway). I've seen enough to know that the foundation is solid.

That pretty much lines up on my impression so far, im not a vet on POE 1 but ive played off n on since 2014. I never got into poe 1 because i didnt understand it but thanks to poe 2 I have more of an understanding of the foundation of the series and will play poe 1 because of poe 2.

I look forward to your impression of the end game on poe 2.

Yep, quite same feelings from new poe2 player, who never likes poe1 one click power fantasy. Poe2 feels like more complex and sophisticated arpg and acts finally feels as enjoying and interesting single player story/game.