While the game is somewhat fundamentally different to the main game in terms of progress, I guess many of the disappointed reviewers played the game unnecessarily wrong. I found it really entertaining and fun. The answer is: RESET, there are buttons for that. Somebody died? Who cares, RESET. Finished a quest? Don't like the current run layout? No more neuromods around? Your only shotgun just broke? Just RESET. I've never even made it into L4 corruption by being slow, no need to beat that or, mostly, continue the same sim with new avatar. Just look for neuromods (and use them!), blueprints and get some sim points (beat enemies, escape, collect valuables ...), so you restart even stronger, and buy some better equipment. The fun point is: You will find a way to ignore everything tedious. Hindered by a gate? Pff, if *SPOILER*. Door is broken? Well, *SPOILER*. Not finding the item? Tram station offline? You should have discovered that *SPOILER*. And even if the game gets new challenges over time, you'll be starting to play the game, not the other way round. Some tasks really may require some planning since sometimes there is a little dependency between the skills of your avatars, but that's by no means difficult. And there even is a little story and some more background to the main game. Anyway, as in some Souls games, you may face to do things over and over again, but pay attention to the map, the hotspots, the randomness, the skill trees and cash-out every run as good as possible without hestitating to RESET. The final quest may even turn out to be the easiest run if you've done well so far. Definitely worth the buy, as much as the main game.
I'm really into these old D&D games: BG, IWD, PS:T, and of course a lot of other ones outside of that. I was really looking for something modernizing D&D, allowing focus on story, characters, music, quests. PoE does a somewhat good job in ... not these parts: Good looking maps, complex and interesting char classes, a familiar fighting system salted with real-time things you may know from Dragon Age. UI is clean and sane, visual effects are good, lots of stuff that was probably designed to make me happy. Unfortunately, area chaning times really stick out badly, no matter how small the maps are that you are switching. But then ... Plot? You, John Doe, notice that you can read souls. Quests? Well, the ordinary RPG stuff. Interesting world or setting? Fairly exchangable, little context. Interesting people? Absolutely not, nothing at all. Tension, turning points, events? Remember the moment you spot a lot of people hanging on a tree, that's probably the peak of memory of this game. Music? It's Ok but nothing to remember. The game feels like a big checklist of nice features and good assets & maps that at some point asked for something intresting to happen there. If you know Unreal 2, you probably get idea. If you are like me, and play an RPG to wait for something remotely exciting to happen any when and then, like a memorable fight, a chatty (N)PC that wants to bond with you, looking at a nice intro video, discovering a new piece of epic music or a dramatic cut-scene or dialogue, or discovering a long-awaited skill or weapon for progress, then better don't play PoE. If you like to fill your time with some fantasy fighting and exploration, well yes, this may be worth a try.
