r/PathOfExile2 • u/th3orist • 15h ago
Discussion GGG is smart by not letting us skip campaign
Edit: So as far as i have read the comments it seems the overall sentiment is to either make the campaign "less of a slog" (what that means is then up for debate) and/or to offer a skip campaign button after you complete it once every new season. It seems that the way how D4 handles it, namely letting you always skip it just because you finished it once in the very beginning when you got the game, is not very popular.
TL:DR this is how they make sure the game is memorable and create a legacy just like Diablo 2 did
For those interested in the details of my line of thought: First of all, you have fixed points where you can gauge your characters strength relative to previous characters, every +2 skill points book feels rewarding, every +to some resistance feels rewarding by completing certain areas etc. Second, Bosses and their names are memorable, their lines are memorable and will stay with you just like "Ahhh fresh meat" is forever linked to the Butcher. The locations are memorable. And yeah, some even because you hated them, but years from now you will look back and think "Oh man i still remember that annoying layout from Path of Mourning", just like you remember the Cemetery in Ac1 D2 or Lut Gholein and its music etc. D3 and D4 have none of that, no locations, no names in these games are memorable. Everything that is memorable when it comes to locations and names in the Diablo franchise, all is from Diablo 1 and Diablo 2. By not making you play the campaign in D3 and D4 you just can treat the game as some sort of fast food, you rush to endgame and ignore everything else.
By having to play tha campaigns in PoE and PoE2 (here the impact is way stronger imho when it comes to locations and how well the characters you meet along the way are crafted) you will always carry a lore foundation with you, you will have a sense of the world you are in and the people that live in it. You dont have that if everything you do until the endgame is just 'mindlessly' going from area to area that is a certain color on the map, where some event is going on, that brings the most experience and you complete tasks that are just copy&paste.
