D2 doesn’t have campaign skip, but it’s not a slog
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I understand people ask for campaign skip because they see it in D4. But nobody asks for it in D2, and that game was loved beyond belief.
Why the difference? I think the biggest factors are: 1. Campaign is actually highly entertaining content 2. You only need to do the campaign if you’re racing the ladder 3. If you’re not racing the ladder, people can easily rush you through the game in half an hour 4. Most campaign content is in optional quests. PoE2 has point 1 covered, but 2-4 are not covered. It’s a slog because no matter how you want to play, you’re forced to do nearly everything. Some points: - In every mode: almost every quest is mandatory. - In multiplayer, you need to be in the area for absolutely everything. Peak example: If you’re in town when your friend gives the key to Lachlan you have to do it yourself in a new instance. - You can’t use town portals/warp to friends if they are in a zone you haven’t explicitly gotten to in your questline. Honestly I think a skip campaign button would be a terrible feature, but fixing the above points would be both reasonably simple and long term added value for replayability. Last bumped on Sep 26, 2025, 4:48:52 PM
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The difference is D2 doesn't have an endgame. The campaign is the game. So you were never looking forward to anything after the campaign was done.
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D2 isn't in early access. It's a solved game. It's not a slog because everyone knows the optimal paths of play and you can play it with guides.
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" In D2 the Hell difficulty is kind of endgame content. Also in D2R they added terror zones which is more or less endgame content as well, and gives random areas to farm after the hell difficulty. What i like about D2 is that hell difficulty is not more monster, more effects, more numbers, but it gives new mechanics to solve for players (e.g. immunities) and actually hell is the least speedy difficulty in D2 due to monster power significant increase but not monster numbers. Going through hell in D2 is challenging, but gives satisfaction by the progressing. Last time i played maul-bear hc there, its like ruthless in poe since phys melee in d2 is like "hardmode". |
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" While your point is valid for a portion of the player base, for myself I can’t say in either game I’m interested in a mapping endgame. I’m comparing the two purely on the feel of the campaign. I’ve played Project Diablo 2 which added PoE-like mapping, and instead of that I just make another character and play the campaign. Because I love doing the campaign. In PoE2 I don’t have that same feeling. Yes, I do love making new characters and trying different skills and gear (just like in D2) but I just feel completely exhausted halfway through act 2. It’s simply a slog, regardless of endgame. |
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" Yes, I’m giving this feedback now such that they can adjust it before the 1.0 release, I believe that’s the whole point of this forum section 🙂 Regarding “optimal pathing if a solved game”, I was replaying D2 with literally dozens of different characters before I ever knew about optimal pathing or guides. In fact, I’d say the knowledge of optimal pathing has made the experience worse, because now there’s some level of FOMO if you don’t play the optimal way. That’s a separate topic, as both games now exist within this paradigm. So far, I’ve been playing the PoE2 campaign without using any guides. I’ve made 10 different characters since 0.1 and everytime I recognize more quests & locations that feel like they shouldn’t be on the required path, but be optional instead. Eg Lachlan. That just feels completely unrelated to the critical path to Geonor. In D2, if the Countess was necessary, act 1 would feel more like a slog than it does currently, because it now has unnecessary stuff on the required path. |
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diablo 2 has nothing but campaign also a huge amount of players do consider it a slog otherwise they wouldnt just do boosts and baalruns
The only reason i consider poe2 campaign a slog is because the bosses are too easy |
