Introduction
Today we are diving into an early access game, Last Epoch! Are you ready to choose your class and travel through time to fight what this game has to offer you for the time being? As of now, meaning, patch 0.8 that I am reviewing, there are several time periods that you will explore! At the end of the story, your character will be around level 50! There is already some endgame content, for example, doing monolith runs! I want to review this game again when it has been fully released!
What did I think before playing Last Epoch?
Last Epoch tries to capture that same magic as other action role playing games, where you will take down hordes of monsters with your skills! I did not know exactly what I could expect from this game, however, what drew me to this game was that there would be time travel! I was wondering how the time travel would work and if the progression would be good! For more information, I went to the Steam page!
The Steam page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899770/Last_Epoch/
The game promises a lot on the Steam page, lots of loot for example! There would also be over 15 classes, of course this would be couple of classes that could be further classified when reaching a certain point in the story! I was wondering how the time travel would work, but it seems you might off course be the last hope for this doomed world!
Rating
I rate Last Epoch with a 6.9 before playing.
I am always in the mood for cutting down hordes of enemies with powerful skills!
Story
There are four eras if you exclude the end of time, all the eras have different enemies and threats. You will need to stop them all to make sure the inevitable does not happen, the void that comes to consume everyone! Travel through time to stop the void from ever arriving and corrupting everyone! As of now, the story ends with the divine gods battling it out in the divine era, when this game fully releases, I will review the story again!
Rating
I rate the unfinished story of Last Epoch with a 6.7
I am very keen to see how this story continues, however the gameplay could use some big improvements, I will tell you why in the next section of this review!
Gameplay
You start your journey off course by selecting your class, each class can get a mastery once you have progressed enough in the story. For example, the sentinel can become a void knight to use dark attacks! Or maybe you would rather be a paladin that can heal when in trouble! Whatever way you choose, your gameplay is going to change!
Whatever job and class you are going to choose, you are going to gain new skills as you level up! Each skill cannot just be randomly used, you will need to select them, this will grant your skill a skill tree! However, as this is an early access version of the game, not all skills have a skill tree yet.
If you are using a stance to gain more benefits, you cannot use all your skill slots since the quick bar is not big enough. You will also have potions, but only for health. The balancing is going to need a lot of tweaking! I was able to use one of the earliest skill to completely annihilate the whole game! I used my warpath skill to spin my way to victory while leeching health!
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Last Epoch with a 5.1
There still needs to be a lot of features that need to be added, items still need to be balanced, as well as skills! However, the game can still be very fun as you travel around through time!
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics are quite great for an early access game, but it might still need some work! The different eras are fun to explore as one moment you are fighting against the all consuming void, then suddenly you step into a rift, and you will be fighting dinosaurs in pre-historic times! I hope more eras will eventually be added!
Sound
The sound effects were not per se bad, but it got quite monotone after a while, the same goes for the soundtrack. I believe the developers still have some work to do before the final release, maybe the new version 0.8.5 will add new soundtracks!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Last Epoch with a 6.2
While it still needs a lot of work, it promises to be great once it is finally done!
What did I think after playing Last Epoch?
There were some issues with getting new items, as most items from the shop are worthless. Some of the items that you find in the beginning of the game, are still viable when reach the end of the current game, which is quite odd! The level rating for items feels completely messed up! But your skills will level up which will increase your power, that is, if you do not want to respec your skills!
If you make a mistake, you will need to respec your skills, however, you will lose your levels and need to start grinding those same levels again! This is quite mean for new players, whom can make mistakes with a new game! The idols that you find can help you make your build! The gambler can be very helpful to get new items, however most of the time they are lower level!
Rating
I rate Last Epoch with a 2.7 after playing.
There are still some horrible things that need to be addressed, The level rating for items, the skills that can be re-specced need to be addressed and a lot more!
What are my personal thoughts about Last Epoch?
While it started out good, once I got farther into the game, I became immortal with almost the first gear that boosts health leeching for my tank character. While boosting low damage per second, I was able to spin my way to victory in every boss while facetanking them! This is not a good balance for a game! I only died once because I was interested in what would happen, but except for getting warped back to the beginning of the map, nothing else happened!
Rating
My personal Rating of Last Epoch is a 7.2
While I had a lot of fun, the game was poorly balanced, it still needs some major fixes before the final release!
Last Words
Pros
- Try out multiple jobs that all have different classes!
- Try out many skills and train up their skill tree!
- Play through multiple eras where you face different enemies!
- There are a lot of different enemies to fight!
- You have a lot of passive skills to choose from!
Cons
- You can beat the game with almost the first gear that you find
- Re-speccing your skills will punish you
- Not enough inventory space
- Able to create a tank that cannot die with infinite mana
- The gambler is worthless, as getting items for your level is nigh impossible
- Most of the idols are not for your build.
- There are a lot of bugs and graphical errors
- The hotbar is not enough for all your skills
- You can beat the game by using one skill, maybe pepper it up with a second
- Loot disappears if you go back to town to sell items
- Enemies respawn when you go back to town making it quite useless to go back
- A lot of the bosses favor a single class, mostly a tank
- There are no attributes to gain upon leveling up
I think the final version still needs some work before getting released! There are just too many problems!
Final Rating
5.5
Let me know what you think of Last Epoch in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
Silentrets
It looks like Diablo 2
BTom
Thank you for the review. This looks like the sort of game I would enjoy. But after reading this, it is clear that it is still far from a finished product. I'll wait until it is complete. 🙂
supersven
It might take a while!
Antikythera
Given it is up against Elden Ring I wish the developers all the luck in the world. Their game isn't that bad but it does need a fair amount of work to polish the actions further. That constant spinning to attack would grate before long if you are playing it for any length of time. Apart from that it looks well rendered and thought out. I don't typically go in for this type of game but have been tempted to look into them after seeing Elden Ring on the Lenovo Legion Streams recently.
Wonder
Thank you for your review. It sounds like this game needs quite a bit more polishing, which is understandable considering it is still being developed. I am curious to know about your views on the Early Access system as a whole; do you think it provides developers with more and greater feedback for their game and that it can be beneficial for players as well?
supersven
It really depends on the developer. I agree with getting feedback from players before release, not milking them for money with an early access game!
However, I would rather have a finished product, but I can see the benefit of Early Access now and then but in this era, you get over flooded with early access!
long shade
Good review! I think i would enjoy as this game even with all its flaws.
supersven
Just keep spinning!
DonCarlos
The isometric ARPG genre is among my favorites. Have been really anticipating this game. I rarely play early access games though.
supersven
I try to review them, and then check back when it is fully released to see the difference!
Jaromir Krzyszczak
I will watch it closely and wait for the full release! definitely, this game has potential!
supersven
I hope it will be epicly epochly when it fully releases!
Riddler
Waiting for Grim Dawn 2
supersven
That should be much better!
Beltrán
looks like a cool ARPG, will try it out one day (after clearing my backlog lol)
supersven
How big is your backlog, lol?
SilentKnight
Thanks for the time to make this review. I'll skip it since its an unpolished game.
supersven
It needs a lot of work!
Javier del Ríos
Lots of negatives on this one, I think I´ll pass.
supersven
It was spinning the whole game!
fano23
Looks like a good ARPG
Mateusz
I mean, there's a potential here but it requires a lot of work.
supersven
A lot of work!
Poetic Katana
Thanks for the warning. I usually enjoy isometric hack'n'slash ARPGs but this one looks far from finished. I'll take another look when it's out of EA.
supersven
It feels like version 0.5 instead of 0.8!
jon doe
to keep on eye on for sure
supersven
Just wait till it is finished, lol
krutarthxo
I used to be hyped about the game but microtransactions ruined it for me.. also feels like a gambling sim so I'll avoid
Thanks for the honest review sven!
supersven
Are there microtransactions now? I played the 0.8 version and I did not see them, or I completely forgot to open that menu, lol.
I believe there was a recent huge update along with a transfer to another owner, Tencent? Furthermore, I could be wrong, but that would hamper the game even more!