Hot5pur
Member
The comparison to dark souls is quite shallow. People see "difficult game" and "dark fantasy" and immediately it's souls-like. That's not the core what a souls like is.As someone who has never played a game like this what really stands out to me is-
Game feel/look. The combat looks so satisfying and chunky.
Combat Depth/Complexity. The way you seem to be able to fluidly combine powers is incredible. Reminds me almost of an old school hack and slash like DMC and ninja gaiden.
This made me check out Diablo 4 and frankly it looks night and day.
Time to insult Dark souls!
For all the talk about Dark souls influencing this well Dark souls wishes it had this level of complexity.
Firstly Darks souls essentially boils down to sticking with one weapon and spamming r1 and dodge rolling.
Secondly there's really only 2 classes in Souls melee and mage. Melee I just described and Mage is an absolute ball ache to change spells mid battle that in the end you just spam the most powerful one. All the classes in this look really diverse and this is only half of them?!
Honestly FromSoftware better watch out and start taking notes!
I'm gonna make a predication now that this game will do too Diablo 4 what Fortnite did to PUBG!
My only worry is that I might get overwhelmed with mechanics and systems early.
To be a souls-like a game actually needs a souls system (ha!) where you accumulate currency from killing enemies that you can then spend on leveling, crafting, etc. There also needs to be a constant threat of losing said currency and needing to go back to collect it. Souls also needs very committed attacks, where if you press R1 or R2 you're basically locked into that animation. The combat is extremely meticulous and timing is critical. Souls also needs a bonfire system, where you claw your way from checkpoint to checkpoint and enemies respawn every time you choose to rest and replenish. The game gives you limited resources to get between checkpoints which creates a sense of tension. Lastly, the stamina bar is a critical gameplay element and applies to almost all your actions in combat.
POE2 is not a souls like, but it does have some elements that remind people of it, namely dark fantasy, high difficulty, and in the case of classes that can use a shield you can also active block and have a stamina meter. From the fextralife review it seems the maps are very big with no checkpoints, so having things respawn will be a bit of a pain without "bonfires". Bosses needing to be taken down in one go is just videogames 101 (quite frankly I hated that you can cheese bosses in POE).
Personally I'd love if they made POE2 more soulsy but I think it would get in the way of all the skill systems. POE2 is still an ARPG at its core that tries to be more like a 3rd person action game. If people want an actual isometric souls-like there is Achilles Untold and No lies for the Wicked.