Story mode is currently softlocked at the motorbike chase sequence (near the start of the game)... I'm afraid I will have to refund as I simply can't play 90% of the title...

I have to write a review for the steam awards,
It's a great game.
Nominated it for labour of love.
For me it should because unlike many live-service games that do add new content and such, the thing is in those games they add new content because they expect you to pay more i.e. buy new microtransactions they add to the game.

Here for NMS this logic doesn't apply.
They just keep adding ♥♥♥♥ and asking for nothing in return.

A game that will punish you heavily for not doing a meta build, and then nerfs meta builds all the while making respecs super expensive so you can't respec if you decide to try something new.

Case in point, started with witch, attempted to play with minions, turns out they were completely useless against bosses because they die super fast.
Also decided to go with the two chaos spells, whch basically require boss adds to be present to be able to spread contagion and oh what's that? the bosses don't have adds? well I guess it sucks to be me.

So I end up getting stuck in the story and having nowhere near enough DPS to outlast bosses.

I look up online and it turns out that pretty much the only viable minion build is "SRS", ie. a raging spirit build, which is, btw, not recommended by the game as something you should pick when you are a witch, and to unlock it you need a spirit skill gem, and I already used the one that the game gives away for free at the start of the game.

Guess I deserved to be punished for not first looking up meta builds before I started playing.

I feel like a lot of people excuse some unfriendly practices "because it's better than PoE1", but I don't really care if it's better or worse than a previous instalment, I don't want mechanics to be better, I want them to be good.

And in this day and age I'm not sure why we still need to punish players for experimenting with passive skill nodes, ESPECIALLY when the game is in early access AND the devs are pretty heavy handed with changes.

Is it wrong of me to expect respecs to be free when so many other games propose this same exact feature and seem to be doing perfectly fine?
Is it wrong of me to expect a standard build with skeletal minions/zombies to not absolutely suck at basically ALL boss encounters, thereby locking further progress, when this is the way the character was advertised?

And no, saying that "the build only gets good later on" is not an acceptable excuse when I can't reach anything past a boss.

After many frustrating encounters, I can safely say I regret purchasing this game.

I might play a bit more, because I feel I need to get my money's worth but this was a disappointing investment.

To all non-PoE1-fans out there (because let's face it if you're a PoE 1 fan you've already bought the game): I would heavily recommend you wait for the game to be properly balanced before you play, and by that time the game will probably be free anyway.

I'll allow comments for now, but if it devolves into a cesspit of "git gud lmao" I'll probably just turn them off.

I can't believe you have to pay 10 bucks or farm for 30 days to unlock other factions, which btw are cosmetic only... such a disappointment from what could otherwise have been a great little indie game.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this game.

A game whose reputation was tarnished when it released under the helm of DE and is now well on its way to redemption.
For the 17 euros this game currently asks for, this is an absolute steal.
It looks great, plays great, and features many great ideas and QoL features.
Honestly if you're looking for a co-op third person action looter to play with some friends, then you definitely can't go wrong with this.
I really hope Airship Syndicate keep on releasing content for this one after its 1.0 release and manage to retain player attention and trust for their next title.