I love a good MMO ARPG game. The last time I had real fun with it was with Marvel Heroes. But after MH died, it left a large void in my ARPG heart. I tried Path of Exile but never really got into it; its character and skills progression are all over the place.
Then I found Last Epoch. I thought it’s just another wanna-be MMO ARPG title that tries to dress up as a Diablo III game. But the more I play it, the more I got fascinated. As it turns out, it’s just the MMO I needed to fill up the void left behind by Marvel Heroes.
Character customization is deep. As you level up, you earn talent points, which can be distributed to enhance all your archetype’s abilities. There are 15 Master Classes and 110 Skill Trees to choose from. Trying to find out what you want to become is really fun!
The type of playstyle that suits you depends on how you allocate points in its “power” system. You are also given Passive Skills, elemental Shards, and a series of Crafting mechanics that you will need to enlist to work towards achieving that “Master” class goal.
The gears and weapons may seem basic at first; but once you have learned to apply the purpose of different affixes and suffixes that a shard tries to amplify, you would be able to forge your ideal items, which turn into weapons of mass destruction!
Crafting weapons or gears can be tricky though. There is a chance to break them if they are too imbalanced. It would’ve been nice to pick up one of those rare unique items, since they pack higher rolls and better values. If only those things were that easy to find.
When it comes to actual gameplay, Last Epoch is quite immersive, especially at higher levels! Both enemy AI’s and your allied minions do their job well of being pro-active, as well as able to detect attackers and engage them accordingly.
The graphics, though forgivable, needs better optimization. Frame rates are choppy and it crashes a lot with the Unity engine. The battlefield looks dated and characters are so 2015. Last Epoch could really use some more graphical rebuffing and visual fidelity.
My main gripe isn’t about the visuals but rather the de-specializing of active skills. It’s frustrating to learn that the points I worked so hard to earn get wiped out when I try to switch for a different playstyle. Thankfully, the skill effects are done well; they deliver great subversion for the powers of alchemy.
All I can say is that Last Epoch is still a diamond in the rough. It has great potential! But certain mechanics are limiting its progress to become a full-pledged MMO product. The de-specialization of skills is counter-intuitive. The loot system reeks RNG and the presentation is a step behind when compared to today’s standard.
The gameplay is what matter to me the most! And Last Epoch has shown me how easy it is to pick-up and how fun it is to build different playstyles. It seems that the developer continues to make adjustments to the game based on community feedback. If they continue to work with gamers, I don’t see any reason why Last Epoch shouldn’t be one the best MMO ARPG out there!
